Collaborative writing refers to the writing in collaboration rather than individually, which aims to improve social aspects of a learner dealing with encouraging and motivating writing activities. It was a difficult task in previous times but with the emergence of the technology in educational settings, it has become a motivating task for the language learners. In this session, the most popular computer mediated communication tools for collaborative writing, blogs and wikis, will be introduced and some activities with word processors will be carried out. Discussions and exchanging of points of view will be provided by WiZiQ sessions in this comprehensive course.
Objectives
At the end of this session, participants will be able to;
- use word processors effectively in writing classes;
- create a course blog and use this tool in writing activities;
- create wiki pages and organize wikis according to the objectives of their courses; collect links and create a hot list using del.icio.us;
- use CALL tools effectively in writing classes.
Briefly, this session aimed at illustrating possible ways of fostering cooperation and collaboration in writing classes at various EFL settings.
Target audience
All teachers of English, EFL instructors, academicians and researchers interested in EFL writing processes are welcome.
Weekly content
Week 1
In the first week, participants will introduce themselves conveying their research areas and primary interests, and they will talk about their main expectations from this comprehensive session. In this week, a WiZiQ session will be held for the participants for the purpose of sharing expectations about the session. In addition to this, participants will be asked to talk about the writing activities they use in their classes.
Week 2
The course will focus on word processors and their roles in today's writing environments and a few functions of these tools will be introduced in the second week. In this week, how to use word processors in language classes will be introduced. It will be shown that Word Processors are more than an electronic typewriter and they can be used effectively in classroom settings. Participants will be asked to complete some tasks using word processors and design activities.
Week 3
In the third week, participants will learn about blogging processes with a focus on practical tips concerning their various functions in writing classes. WiZiQ session will be held for this week and the use of blogs in language classes will be discussed in detail. Since the moderators are using blogs in their classes, they will share some strengths and weaknesses of the blogs. At the end of the week, participants will be asked to create a blog account and write at least three entries until the end of the week. Moreover, participants will comment on other participants' blogs, and some successful applications will be shared.
Week 4
In the fourth week, which is about wikis, wikis will be introduced by the moderators and different ideas about collaborative projects with wikis will be discussed. In this session, a WiZiQ session will be held and the use of wikis in classroom setting will be illustrated. There are many activities that can be organized using wikis and these will be shown and there will be hands-on activities during the synchronous session on WiZiQ environment. At the end of the week, participants will all have a wiki page and they will try to create an original activity for writing classes.
Week 5
Participants will be informed about some useful websites highly recommended while teaching writing in the fifth week. Furthermore, participants will ask to collect the websites which can be useful for writing classes. These websites will be organized using del.icio.us and all participants will have a long list of websites related to the writing activity. These will be published on del.icio.us page and through this task participants will see how to use del.icio.us with their students.
Week 6
In the final week, there will be an evaluation part and participants will state in what extent their expectations for this session have been realized. There will be a synchronous session on WiZiQ environment and participants will express their feelings and suggestions about the session.
Moderators
Kenan Barut
I am Kenan, an EFL instructor and a Phd student from Turkey. My main interest areas are online collaborative writing - which will be our main topic in our session -, online communities and CMC. I am also working as an educational manager at an ELT company and dealing with EFL / ESL course books and multimedia tools.
I have been a member of WEBHEADS and following its quality organizations for a long time. It will be my first experience to be an EVO moderator, but I am sure that I can coordinate this event with my dear partner Sedat and with the help of our kind mentor Leticia. I have also participated in several international conferences regarding this topic as a presenter.
Sedat Akayoglu
I graduated from Department of English Language and Literature Hacettepe University in 2002 and worked as an English teacher for two years. Then I started working as a research assistant at the Department of English Language Teaching Abant Izzet Baysal University in 2004. At present I am a research assistant and a PhD candidate at the Department of English Language Teaching Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. My main interest topics are Computer Assisted Language Learning, Computer Mediated Communication, Discourse Analysis and Ethnography of Communication. URL: http://www.ibu.edu.tr/akademik/sakayoglu . Yahoo ID = sakayoglu, Skype ID = sakayoglu, Second Life = Sedat Usher
Communication tools to be used
Yahoo Groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/collaborativewriting09
Blogger: http://collaborativewriting09.blogspot.com/
Wordpress: http://collaborativewriting09.wordpress.com/
PBWiki: http://collaborativewriting09.pbwiki.com/
Del.icio.us: http://delicious.com/collaborativewriting09
