1. COLLABORATIVE ONLINE WRITING
Presented by Anne Weaver, All Hallows’ School

2. http://readingpower.wordpress.com

3. Digital Divide

4. GROUPWORK FOR ASSESSMENT
PLUS MINUS
INTERESTING

5. Group work, under proper
conditions, encourages peer learning
and peer support and many studies
validate the efficacy of peer learning.
Under less than ideal conditions, group
work can become the vehicle for
acrimony, conflict and freeloading.
James, R., McInnis, C., & Devlin, M. (2002, September).
Assessing Group Work. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from
Assessing Learning in Australian universities:
http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/docs/Group
.pdf

6. Context 1. Australian Curriculum (ACARA 2012) strongly promotes goals relating to online and group
collaboration throughout its General Capabilities.
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Overview/General-capabilities-in-the-Australian-
Curriculum
For example:
Literacy Capability
"working harmoniously with others; being open to ideas…returning to tasks to improve and enhance their
work."
Communicating with ICT
"participating in group and class discussions using a range of oral interaction skills to share ideas, explore
topics and express opinions." Students should use ICT to: "share, exchange and collaborate to enhance
learning by sharing information in digital forms, exchanging information through digital
communication, and collaborating and collectively contributing to a digital product."
Critical and creative thinking
"By sharing thinking, visualisation and innovation, and by giving and receiving effective feedback, students
learn to value the diversity of learning and communication styles."
Personal and Social capabilities
"On a social level, it helps students to ‗form and maintain healthy relationships‘ and prepares them ‗for their
potential life roles as family, community and workforce embers.‘ Social awareness is seen as "identifying the
strengths of team members and defining and accepting individual and group roles and
responsibilities."
Social management is where students are: "managing and positively influencing the emotions and
moods of others. It includes learning how to cooperate, negotiate and communicate effectively with
others, work in teams, make decisions, resolve conflict and resist inappropriate social pressure...

7. INQUIRY
 shared wiki
 students from 4 schools
working in groups of one
student from each
school collaborate on
shared scenario, to
writing 4 individual
stories from their
character‘s perspective
 Parents invited to an
initial dinner and a final
awards evening
 Inquiry used
feedback, observation
and student writing to
assess outcomes

8. INQUIRY QUESTIONS
This investigation explores whether peer collaboration can
improve student creative writing, the pedagogical
implications and the value of using online collaborative
tools such as a wiki.
 How can collaborative writing be implemented with
students to improve creative writing?
 Should collaborative writing be implemented with students
to improve creative writing?
 How can online tools be used to improve creative writing?
 How can group work/collaboration be used effectively in
classrooms to improve student creative writing?

9. Context 2. 50 Shades of
Grey by E.L. James
The trilogy was based on Twilight and published
episodically on fan-fiction websites. It originally
featured characters named after Stephenie
Meyer's characters in Twilight, Edward
Cullen and Bella Swan
Fifty Shades of Grey has sold over 40 million copies
James published the book with The Writer‘s Coffee Shop in Australia, a
―book-loving community‖ that is a social sharing site as well as a
distributor; ...she morphed her version of Bella and Edward for print
publication
Stephenie Meyer is unlikely to sue: "I haven't read it. I mean, that's really
not my genre, not my thing," she said with a laugh. "I've heard about it; I
haven't really gotten into it that much. Good on her — she's doing well.
That's great!―
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1685954/fifty-shades-of-grey-stephenie-meyer.jhtml
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifty_Shades_of_Greyhttp://blogs.indiewire.com/womenandhollywood/guest-post-
a-feminist-defense-of-50-shades-of-grey

10. Teen Writer Lands Six-figure Deal for Vampire Story
by Linda Morris
In Sep 19, 2012 Abigail Gibbs, 18, signed a
six-figure publishing deal with HarperCollins
for The Dark Heroine: Dinner With a
Vampire, which, like Fifty Shades of Grey, was
first published as a riff on Stephenie Meyer's
Twilight series
The first 20 chapters of Dinner with a Vampire:
Did I Mention I was a Vegetarian? attracted 17
million reads before Gibbs was discovered by
a literary agent who advised her to hold off
publishing the story's ending online
With an existing fan base waiting to see what
happens next and the potential for word-of-
mouth social media recommendations, Harper
Collins expects the vampire thriller to find an
immediate audience
http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/books/teen-writer-lands-sixfigure-deal-for--vampire-story-20120919-
265qc.html#ixzz285tgOM5I

11. Cellphone Novels
At the end of 2010, one of the 2 best sellers in Japan was an 142-page
hardback book about a high-school romance that was originally typed on a
mobile phone. It began as a series of installments uploaded to an internet site
and sent as texts to the phones of thousands of subscribers
It sold more than 420,000 copies in the first 2 months that it was converted
Anne Weaver, All Hallows' School
into a hardcopy book
Five of the ten best selling novels in Japan in 2007 were keitai shousetsu or
cellphone novels
Popular in Japan, South Korea, China and South Africa
Mayumi Sato turned Rin‘s episodic melodrama into a bestselling book:
―It might seem strange that young readers are going out and buying the book
after they‘ve already read the story on their mobile. Often it‘s because they
email suggestions and criticisms to the author on the novel website as the
story is unfolding, so they feel like they‘ve contributed to the final product, and
they want a hardcopy keepsake of it‖
Source: http://www.smh.com.au/news/mobiles–handhelds/in-japan-cellular-storytelling-is-all-the-
rage/2007/12/03/1196530522543.html Retrieved 27 March 2012

12. Collectively, The
Mortal Instruments Mortal Instruments
series of books
have spent 28
weeks on the New
York Times Best
Sellers List
http://screenrant.c
om/mortal-
instruments-
movie-next-
twilight-robf-
32936/
http://screenrant.com/mortal-instruments-movie-next-twilight-robf-32936/

13. NEW WAYS OF ATTRACTING AUDIENCES FOR
WRITING
.
She took the novels she had written
over the previous nine years, all of
which had been rejected by umpteen
book agents and publishing
Anne Weaver, All Hallows' School
houses, and self - published on
Amazon and other digital ebook sites.
She sold the ebooks for 99 cents each.‖
Over 2011, she sold an average of
9,000 books a day
Source http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-02-
Unlike traditional book deals, Hocking 28/tech/29960359_1_kindle-store-book-sales-publishing
Retrieved 27 Mar 2012
keeps 70 percent of revenue earned
from her books (Amazon keeps the Source:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/19/magazine/amanda-
other 30 percent) hocking-storyseller.html?pagewanted=all
http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/12/amanda-
hocking-self-publishing Retrieved 27 March 2012
She has since signed a book deal with
a traditional print publisher

14. “YOU AND I GREW UP WITH THE NOTION OF THE LITTLE GIRL [BOY] CURLED UP IN HER CHAIR
READING, OR THE WRITER IN HER GARRET, RIGHT?”… “BUT WHAT WE’VE DISCOVERED IS
THAT WHEN YOU MOVE THE FUNCTION OF READING AND WRITING ONLINE, THE SOCIAL ASPECT
COMES FORWARD.”
HTTP://SPOTLIGHT.MACFOUND.ORG/FEATURED-STORIES/ENTRY/THE-FUTURE-OF-READING-AND-WRITING-IS-
COLLABORATIVE/?UTM_SOURCE=FEEDBURNER&UTM_MEDIUM=FEED&UTM_CAMPAIGN=FEED:%20MACFOUND/IQAL%20SPOTLIGHT%20ON%20DIGITAL%20MEDIA%20AND%20LEARNING
Anne Weaver, All Hallows' School

15. RESEARCH
 "[T]he data I amassed mirrored what my students had been
telling me for years: . . . their work in groups, their
collaboration, was the most important and helpful part of their
school experience. Briefly, the data I found all support the
following claims: Collaboration aids in problem finding as well
as problem solving, learning abstractions, in transfer and
assimilation; it fosters interdisciplinary thinking, leads not only
to sharper, more critical thinking (students must
explain, defend, adapt), but to a deeper understanding of
others. Collaboration leads to higher achievement, in general.
. . promotes excellence. Hannah Arendt states: 'For
excellence, the presence of others is always required.'
Collaboration engages the whole student and encourages
active learning; it combines reading, talking, writing, thinking; it
provides practice in both synthetic and analytic skills."
(Nordquist, R. n.d.).
 Peer editing
It ‗s complex...

16. HOW?
Spring Hill Young Writers 2012
http://animoto.com/play/UZpPHJnW1aCqD0Q
bGotHCA?utm_source=pbworks.com&utm_me
dium=player&utm_campaign=player 3
mins.40s

17. THE PROGRAM
 Welcome function –
Wednesday evening
 Writing day #1 –
Thursday
 Writing day #2 – Friday
[end Term 1]
 School Holidays – time to
write, collaborate and
edit
 Presentation evening –
Thursday around week 2
of Term 2

18. Anne Weaver, All Hallows' School
EDITING

20. WHAT?

24. WHAT WORKS WELL
 Individual final story product, though based on
group collaboration.
 Use of wiki, especially with spellcheck and
comment function.
 Compulsory shared scenario.
 Author and story writing skills

25. Challenges
 Group work
 Collaboration
 Writing
The difficult parts were the
best learning.
The secret is instructional
design based on more than
observation and past
experience:
 Feedback
 Resources e.g. scaffolds
 Repeating and improving
learning experiences
 Research

26. Q2 - WHAT DID YOU GAIN FROM THE OPPORTUNITY TO
WORK WITH OTHER PEOPLE YOUR AGE WHO ARE ALSO
INTERESTED IN WRITING CREATIVELY?

27. 2011 Q3 - WHAT WAS THE MOST DIFFICULT OF
CHALLENGING ASPECT OF THE WORKSHOP?

28. 2011 Q5 - HOW HAS YOUR WRITING CHANGED SINCE
ATTENDING THE WORKSHOP?

33. FURTHER RESEARCH AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE
Moderation - time
Contract/ webquest
style, but that allows
for geographical
dispersion – step by
step expectations
Problem of common
dates for 4 schools
More support for cooperative learning – i.e. more structure, scaffold and
roles, may produce higher results.. Dotson, J. M. (2001). e.g. Number
and type of comments- allocate pairs for revision, negotiation skills.
More school based activities to support workshop before and after
eg. Book for each school may work more easily, group skills, editing

34. Nature of the story is important –
give students more opportunity to
connect to their own interests.
Review plot cards. E.g. Parrot story.
Create more similarity in plot
options e.g. Same event, such as
plane crash, theft, quest, discovery
of artefact, or abduction, but
different settings or time period.
Alternatively, give students more
input as a prequel to the task in
suggesting storylines.
Rish, R. (2011) Smithson, M. (2008)
Use tool like moodle or surveymonkey that has statistical analysis tool and
prepare more questionnaires to assist reflection of different stages.
Needs to be less teacher time required for editing and book preparation.
Groupwork skills must be taught e.g. listening exercises, conflict resolution.
Panitz, T. (n.d.). Teaching Good Communication Skills In The Classroom (n.d.) Robinson, D.(2003) Communication and Relationships
(n.d) Creating Successful Teams (2003) CTE LESSON PLANS (2011) Scott, E. (2012)

35. Improve student editing skills e.g. peer roles for revision. Also, accept
what is produced, rather than a perfect final product – but maybe
online publication only then. More teacher modelling of non-story
components e.g. checklists and of editing using student work.
Dotson, J. M. (2001).
Clarify individual and
group
expectations, e.g.
originality issue.
More activities to
encourage student
self –
reflection, including
on their writing and
collaboration.
Nordquist, R. (n.d.).
Graham, G.
(2012, April 11).

36. INQUIRY QUESTIONS
 How can collaborative writing be implemented with
students to improve creative writing? Task needs to require
collaboration, Shared scenario, but individual story
 Should collaborative writing be implemented with students
to improve creative writing? Engaging, critical thinking
evident, group skills
 How can online tools be used to improve creative writing?
Wiki
 How can group work/collaboration be used effectively in
classrooms to improve student creative writing? Learning
Design

38.  http://www.scribd.com/bgslibrary
 http://www.brisbanegrammar.com/blogs/li
brary/?p=1149
 http://www.scribd.com/doc/59525554/Spri
ng-Hill-Young-Writers-Best-Line-Awards
 http://www.scribd.com/collections/3219474/
Spring-Hill-Young-Writers

39. References
ACARA (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority). (2012, January). General Capabilites in the Australian
Curriculum. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Overview/General-
capabilities-in-the-Australian-Curriculum
Chin, B. (2000) The Role Of Grammar In Improving Student's. Retrieved September 26, 2012 from
http://www.uwplatt.edu/~ciesield/graminwriting.htm
CTE LESSON PLANS (2011) Assertion and Conflict Resolution. Retrieved September 26, 2012 from
http://www.uen.org/Lessonplan/preview.cgi?LPid=28910 Quiz and other resources to improve student communication and group
skills, and identify communication style.
Davies, W. (2009, March 20). Groupwork as a form of assessment: common problemsand recommended solutions. Retrieved
October 28, 2012, from
http://www.academia.edu/448870/Groupwork_as_a_Form_of_Assessment_Common_Problems_and_Recommended_Solutions
Dennen, V. (n.d) Designing Peer Feedback Opportunities into Online Learning Experiences by Vanessa Paz, Retrieved
September 26, 2012 from http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference/Resource_library/proceedings/03_02.pdf
Dotson, J. M. (2001). Cooperative Learning Structures Can Increase Student Achievement. Retrieved April 16, 2012, from Kagan
Online Magazine, Winter: http://www.kaganonline.com/free_articles/research_and_rationale/increase_achievement.php
Dudley-Marling, C. & Paugh, P. C. (2009). A Classroom Teacher‘s Guide to StrugglingWriters. Portsmouth, NJ: Heinemann.
Ewing, T(2010) Discussion Boards and Boys‘ Writing. Retrieved September 26, 2012 from
http://www.theibsc.org/uploaded/IBSC/Action_Reseach/IBSC_Boys&Writing_V1.pdf
Fletcher, R. (2006). Boy Writers: Reclaiming their voices. Portland, ME: Stenhouse Publishers.
Gedera, D. S. P. (2011). Integration of weblogs in developing language skills of ESL learners. International Journal of Technology
in Teaching and Learning, 7 (2), 124-135. Retrieved September 26, 2012 from,
http://waikato.academia.edu/DilaniPahalaGedera/Papers/1491023/Integration_of_Weblogs_in_Developing_Language_Skills_of_
ESL_Learners
Graham, G. (2012, April 11). Why I No Longer Use Groups in the Classroom: Retrieved April 16, 2012, from
http://www.edweek.org/tm/articles/2012/04/11/fp_graham.html?tkn=WLPFdTuga2reCM2G5KEtyYE80mq6o8PCPcxo&cmp=ENL-
TU-NEWS1
Edwards-Groves, C. ( 2012 ). Interactive Creative Technologies: Changing learning practices and pedagogies in the writing
classroom. Journal of Language, Vol 35 Issue 1 , 99-113. NEWS1 Retrieved September 26, 2012 from
http://www.alea.edu.au/documents/item/348.
Frey, N., & Fisher, D. (2010, September). Making Group Work Productive. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from Giving Students
Meaningful Work: http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/sept10/vol68/num01/Making-Group-Work-
Productive.aspx
Hume, A. (2009). Promoting higher levels of reflective writing in student journals. Higher Education Research
& Development, 28(3), 247–260.

40. References continued
James, A. (2007). Teaching the Male Brain: How boys think, feel and learn in school. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.
James, R., McInnis, C., & Devlin, M. (2002, September). Assessing Group Work. Retrieved October 28, 2012, from Assessing
Learning in Australian universities: http://www.cshe.unimelb.edu.au/assessinglearning/docs/Group.pdf
Kessler, G. (2009) Student Initiated Attention to Form in Wiki Based Collaborative Writing. Retrieved September 26, 2012 from
http://llt.msu.edu/vol13num1/kessler.pdf
Laird, T. & Kuh, G.. (2005). Student experiences with information technology and their relationship to other aspects
of student engagement. Research in Higher Education, 46(2), 211-233. doi: 10.1007/s 11162-004–1600-y
Li, Xuanxi; Chu, Samuel Kai Wah; Ki, Wing Wah; Woo, Matsuko: Using a Wiki-Based Collaborative Process Writing Pedagogy to
Facilitate Collaborative Writing among Chinese Primary School Students : Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, v28 n1
p159-181 2012 Retrieved September 26, 2012 from http://www.ascilite.org.au/ajet/ajet28/li.pdf
Panitz, T. (nd). Collaborative Versus Cooperative Learning – A Comparison. Retrieved April 16, 2012, from TEDs
Articles:http://home.capecod.net/~tpanitz/tedsarticles/coopdefinition.htm
Prince George's County Schools (n.d.) A Guide to Cooperative Learning Retrieved September 26, 2012 from
http://www.pgcps.pg.k12.md.us/~elc/learning1.html Contains role examples and other cooperative learning strategies.
Rish, R. (2011) Engaging Adolescents‘ Interests, Literacy Practices, and Identities: Digital Collaborative Writing of Fantasy Fiction
in a High School English Elective Class. Retrieved September 26, 2012 from
http://kennesaw.academia.edu/RyanRish/Books/975932/Engaging_adolescents_interests_literacy_practices_and_identities_Digita
l_collaborative_writing_of_fantasy_fiction_in_a_high_school_English_elective_class
Sabornie, E.J. & deBettencourt, L.U. (2004). Teaching Students with Mild and High-Incidence Disabilities at the
Secondary Level, Second Edition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education.
Smithson, M. (2008) Academic Effects of Writing Workshop Retrieved September 26, 2012 from
http://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/110/ Teaching Good Communication Skills In The Classroom (n.d.) Retrieved
September 26, 2012 from http://www.essortment.com/teaching-good-communication-skills-classroom-36140.html Site has
activities for improving communication skills.
Snelling, C., & Karanicolas, S. (2008). Why Wikis Work: assessing group work in an online environment. Retrieved October 28,
2012, from http://www.ojs.unisa.edu.au/index.php/atna/article/view/298/276
Woo, M., Chu, S., Ho, A., and Li, X., (2011) Using a Wiki to Scaffold Primary-School Students‘ Collaborative Writing. Retrieved
September 26, 2012 from http://www.ifets.info/journals/14_1/5.pdf
Writing Process: Go Google Visible thinking techniques Retrieved September 26, 2012 from
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N4VVCDo23PrlHHVRrB3j_GtpgkcpdV89H2kK_YiS55g/edit and
http://geekcamp.c2e.org/camp-sessions/writing-process-and-reflection-go-google

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