Educational Uses of Etherpads in Foreign Language Teaching (Individual Entry #4)
The ability to teamwork and learn collaboratively can be seen as the “non plus ultra” of modern education and constitutes a requested core skill for everyone in today’s job market. Although the traditional implementation of group working stays unchallenged at the top for many teachers of foreign language, not least because it fosters oral and communication skills, the wave of new media has introduced an innovative alternative to the traditional conception of group work: not location-bound open source online editors which allow collaborative working on documents in real-time, called “Etherpads”. On the example of yourpart.eu I will show you the general operating mode of etherpads, how to handle them, weigh potential pros and cons, and provide some ideas of how to use yourpart inside and outside the classroom.
Note: Yourpart is not Etherpad, which is well known, although it is based on Etherpads open source code which they released.
1. What exactly is Yourpart and how does it work?
Just click on the link to access this pad and be part of the conversation: http://yourpart.eu/p/New_Media_in_FLT
Yourpart.eu is an online document collaboration tool which works in real time. It has an interesting functionality that allows users to work on the same document at the same time.
To start you need to open yourpart.eu. You can either click on the button “create new pad” to create a pad with a random URL or you can click on the button below which says “create” to create a pad, like I did, with a specific name you can type in. After this you will be directed to yourpart main page. Now you can start working on your online document.
The principle is the same for all different kinds of etherpads but sometimes access is a little bit different. For Etherpad.org you need to install the software and with Piratenpad.de you need to log in via E-Mail to have full access to the pad you want to work on. Just try other pads and find the one you feel comfortable with; my favourite one is youpart. Want to find out why? Have a look at the chart below.
* Yourpart has no automatic error correction which can be seen as an advantage as well as a disadvantage. Nevertheless, I think it is an advantage because it fosters students writing skills since other writing tools, like Microsoft Word, automatically correct the students’ spelling mistakes. When students rely on this, they might not focus on a correct language and orthography anymore because they know that the system automatically corrects mistakes.
Result: For me the most striking argument to prefer Yourpart to other etherpads is its high user-friendliness. You do not have to download anything or log in via your E-Mail address; you can just start working directly. The pad is easy to access by typing in the link and, nonetheless, save.
2. Didactic Considerations
Due to its interactive interface and its intuitive usage, Yourpart’s operation mode is self-explanatory and students can directly start working which makes collaborative working easier than ever. Also, students are familiar with chat functions and other word processing programmes which are already part of the students’ world outside of school.
Furthermore, interactive etherpads should not be a substitute for traditional and talkative group meetings but rather an expansion of opportunities. Students can work collaboratively on a document at home, but it is also applicable for result-oriented in-class sessions. Interactive pads simplify group work and can help making collaborative working even more productive and ,therefore, more frequent because direct access to results of group works eases the burden for students and teachers, inside and outside of school. This includes that absent students, who miss a lesson, also have the chance to access compiled results of group works and integrate themselves quickly into one group when they are back at school again.
Moreover, interactive pads foster social skills, communication skills, organisation skills and writing competence in an authentic problem-oriented and task-related way. Thus, rather introverted students who might not feel comfortable during phases of group work have the chance to participate and gain confidence to express their ideas in a written form.
3. Possible Use of Yourpart
Inside school:
Collecting ideas concerning a specific topic
Writing stories together or in groups
Writing letters, invitations etc.
Brainstorming in groups
Etc.
Outside school:
Preparing presentations in groups
Preparing handouts in groups --> self-paced working
Working on different tasks in groups as homework
Etc.