Boom Writer: Fast Tracking Learner Motivation with a Price Tag!

   BoomWriter in a nutshell.

    Boom Writer is a really useful and agile ICT tool that assists learners in the production of written texts. And although it is true that by itself it is "just another ICT tool", it is my firm belief that Boom Writer can complement other tools in promoting motivation and learner autonomy. More specifically, through a continuous assessment, mirroring and feedback process, students are capable of co-constructing an end product in which they can actually claim complete co-authorship. This blog post aims in underpinning the theory and the mechanics that govern the aforementioned learning processes through the use of this highly sophisticated but at the same time user-friendly ICT tool.

Rationale and theory underpinning the use of this tool. 

    At this point, and before I proceed in highlighting some of the key features that Boom Writer has, I feel compelled to stress that this tool cannot in any way present itself as innovative. It is rather "a means to an end" tool, that empowers teachers who work in well resourced educational environments, achieve high motivation levels in writing-an area which is by nature one of the most challenging both for learners and educators.
  As a teacher that only recently endeavoured in a journey of Continuous Professional Development (CPD), undertaking a proposed 1 year full time MA in ELT with a specialism in ICT/MM, I really do feel the need to go above and beyond the traditional "cliché" of a low-resourced classroom containing 200 students situated in the middle of a jungle. And this is because, it is my firm belief that these kinds of mentalities that introduce barriers and varied contexts can't really contribute towards innovation in education. If we as educators believe that technology isn't "universally applicable" then why should we work towards widening the gap of the "digital divide"?  

  With the aforementioned kept in mind, a look back in my own teaching practice, revealed that learners in my country are very much reluctant to produce essays that entail tackling either an academic or a more traditional "story telling - continue the story" subject. In my opinion, this is mainly attributed to the fact that the former subject requires to a large degree advanced analytical skills and critical reasoning, which mainly entails a lot of effort on behalf of the students, while the later seems to bore them (not to mention me) to an admittedly high degree.
  Having spent countless hours trying to "tweak" a subject so it might present learners with some intrinsic or extrinsic motivation has had in numerous occasions taken its tool on my teaching practice often leaving learners with gaps in their writing skills. The memory of having to face a classroom, filled with students, where only half of them had completed their homework producing an essay - ultimately leaving me with no other choice but to force them to do it in class and in expense of valuable teaching time - is all to recent and painful. 

  And this is exactly were Boom Writer comes in. My basic inability to find the extra time and strength to devise alternative approaches into written activities or to motivate my students to produce final collaborative texts without having to fight over the content or erase each-others work (I must admit that learners in Greece aren't so much accustomed to peer-assisted learning as students in Great Britain), led me to seek ready made (but costly) solutions that could fit my needs.

  In more simple words, this inability, had in numerous occasions forced me to treat the writing section of each chapter as a separate lesson. Even more so, I could detect that traditional approaches that entailed students having to tackle a typical "continue the story" essay that followed a grammar lesson on past forms, almost always resulted in complete and utter boredom from all parties involved.

A "first" look.

     My initial review revealed that, while using Boom Writer, learners are placed in a unique on-line environment that tests and ultimately promotes their analytical and critical thinking skills constantly. The continuous voting and feedback process which is made user friendly through special software, allows learners to quickly scroll-through 4 documents at a time thus arguably promoting skimming and scanning dexterity.This feeling of collective creative work which is nurtured in a highly collaborative but at the same time competitive environment, not only allows learners to claim complete authorship on a final textbook but also motivates them to a large degree.

    Teachers using Boom Writer, can add students with the click of a button, classify them by grade, generate their unique username and password, scroll through the "Story Starts" section to find an admittedly great selection of 1st chapters (or create one that is custom tailored to their needs) and then simply click on the ‘New Book’ button. This then allows students to write the rest of the story! While using this tool, I was also pleasantly surprised by the attention to detail and the overall user friendly interface which includes classification of the "story starts" section into genres (science fiction, science, action and adventure, humour, mystery, realistic stories, suspense and thriller, myths and monsters) as well as difficulty levels (Basic, Intermediate and Advanced). The "market place" section also managed to arouse my interest because of the fact that it features story starts written by professional authors exclusively for BoomWriter.

A "closer" look.

    An even closer look on Boom Writer, reveals that, it is in fact an "open-ended tool" that allows teachers advanced controls over the number of chapters, the word limit, the deadline for submission and finally the voting. Even more importantly, teachers can extend, reduce or end the amount of the allotted writing time while they are placed capable to monitor individual progress at any given time. Some special features also include, an easy access dashboard that enables teachers to add, remove, move or approve students and a book section dashboard that enables teachers to monitor student production by seeing which books are active, await publication, are in draft mode, published or finally suspended. The aforementioned functions not only spells the word "power" for all prospective teacher-users but in my humble opinion manages to embody in the best possible way the true destiny of the future Teacher that functions as a multi skilled Administrator, Facilitator, Guide, Monitoring Agent in the Second Language Acquisition dominion.

    Once individual or pair/group work has been submitted for review, teachers then have the option to approve or request further alterations from the students. There is even an additional editing option for the winning entries prior to publication to address any spelling or grammatical errors. Following that, voting takes place with the teacher again being in a position to extend, reduce, or even immediately end this feedback process (voting process). As mentioned earlier, the novelty here is a special scoring system that allows students to quickly review 4 papers at a time, pick out their favourite and cast a final anonymous vote. The entry with the most votes is declared a winner and after receiving a final check by the teacher for any grammar or spelling mistakes, the essay is then included in the "published book".
    Subsequently, learners are then instructed to do the second, third...etc and finally the last chapter, each time ending up with a winning story. This continuous evaluation process results in a final collaborative book which is then printed out (for a fee) and then send back to the school and the authors which are no other but the students themselves.   

    

"Added" features.

    Early in the start of this post, I mentioned that BoomWriter is in a position to complement other tools in promoting learner autonomy and motivation. This can be achieved through the use of WordWriter and ProjectWriter. ProjectWriter refers to the option that the teachers have to individualize a writing component by going above and beyond the "story starts" section so we are going to focus only on WordWriter. 

    WordWriter uses an interactive interface that manages to deliver vocabulary filling exercises in an original content. What this practically means is that Educators can set up writing tasks that contain specific vocabulary. In simpler terms, teachers can evaluate learning outcomes by selecting the key vocabulary, which then subsequently appears to the students in the form of a list. The higher the use the better the marking. The vocabulary disappears from the list when students use it adding an element of interactivity and "marked progress" that positively motivates learners to devise elaborate structures in order to fully exhaust the aforementioned list.   

   The real novelty of this tool is that teachers can effectively measure student understanding, recognize possible inefficiencies and provide individualized feedback by focusing on target vocabulary. Teachers can also opt-in to include in this exercise harder-unknown vocabulary to "canalise" learners towards a pushed-output, as extrinsic motivation for obtaining higher marks or in a flipped classroom. 

    Last but not least, WordWriter can work along side any brainstorming tool, like Tricider and/or mind-mapping tool, such as Popplet, providing the necessary initial vocabulary. Learners through their own written work witness the growth of their vocabulary range but at the same time have a plethora of tools that assist them towards a maximum outcome in a minimum amount of time. 

    To better understand how these ICT tools can assist in the presentation of a seamless, well-paced and salient instruction giving just imagine a situation where:

1. Learners are directed to WordWriter that contains initial-key vocabulary. They are asked to speculate on the content of today's lesson. This can be done in individual tablets, PC's or the main screen in a "connected classroom". 

2. Learners are directed to Tricider and are asked to present their ideas on a key subject. They are instructed to use as much vocabulary as possible in writing their arguments.

3. Learners work collaboratively to skim and scan all the arguments, evaluate them by giving their opinions on other student's arguments and finally vote for the most convincing ones.

4. Learners are directed to Popplet and are asked to classify the main arguments in a logical order to support their basic ideas-outcomes.

5. Learners are directed in another WordWriter that contains  further, more elaborate vocabulary. They are instructed to split into 2 large groups (the advantages and disadvantages group) and produce two main arguments each. 

6. Open classroom discussion takes place with arguments and counter arguments from both sides. 

7. Learners use a google doc to produce a final collaborative essay that contains advantages and disadvantages. 

8. It is time for homework. Learners are instructed to log into ProjectWriter, use today's lesson and produce a full essay on a similar subject that contains the same key vocabulary.

    Through the process outlined above, learners reach a final collaborative text in which the claim COMPLETE co-authorship, during which my input/Teacher Talking Time was kept at minimal levels.

    To complement all of the above and setting aside the serious disadvantage that it is not free, in the advantages section we can also note that an educators' blog, coupled by a complete teachers manual and a quick guided tour, manages to place newcomers straight into the spirit. Finally, as a welcome "treat", newly subscribed teachers or institutions receive a complementary book token. This basically means that there is no printing cost for the first book, as long as 3 email addresses of fellow teachers/colleagues are added in the "referral" section.      

    

Conclusion

    So to sum up, I strongly believe that BoomWriter can either be used by:

1. teachers who work in well resourced classrooms and can spare a "buck" or to put it more mildly "invest in new technologies", 

2. busy education professionals that just can't afford time (but can afford the money) and

3. NQT's or older generation teachers that feel outside their comfort zone with technology and generally lack the experience and theoretical background to effectively design writing activities (and can afford the money),

or alternatively by: 

1. teachers who are familiar with ICT tools and want to used it as a"blueprint" or "best practice guide" to design their own activities with the use of free tools.  

     Either way, the technology is out there, but the choice on how, where and when to best use it always belongs to us.