The discussion of Google Docs has been really interesting to me because I spent almost all of my first year at ISU teaching ISUComm foundation courses, in which I used Google Docs almost exclusively for both in and out of class activities. During that time, it never occurred to me to consult the literature on this topic even though a colleague in my cohort published her master’s thesis about this!

I have never used this technology with L2 learners, but I am looking forward to that chance. For me, the beauty of Google Docs is the record-keeping ability it holds. I appreciated sort of getting inside the processes of my students’ work — both when they worked individually and in groups. It seems to me that many students want to hide their writing/thinking process from their instructor either out of fear or embarrassment or some other self-conscious emotion. If a student is using a word processing platform that gives the instructor access to the process of that student’s composition, that opens up a whole new world of approaching instruction. If we see, for example, that a student is spending a whole week just on the introduction to a short essay, or that the student is refusing to move forward before correcting every single grammar/spelling error, then we can intervene and guide that student to a more efficient method by assuring them that they can move on without it being perfect … we can comfort them in the process so that they know mistakes are not only acceptable and expected but necessary for growth.

4 thoughts on “Google Docs & Writing PROCESS Instruction”

  1. I never used Google Docs before in my teaching and learning activities. Reading your blog post gives me an idea and inspiration how to use this for my teaching, learning and research 🙂

    1. I can’t believe I had never used it until I came here! I think my former students would’ve really benefitted from the affordances of this kind of program.

  2. Kim, you are the first person who introduced google docs to me! I really appreciate it. I absolutely love the record-keeping ability as well. Also, I agree that many students get embarrassed when instructors involve their thinking process. However, like you said, google docs could dramatically reduce students’ time on developing their ideas and make progress in their writing.

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