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.

   

Promoting Interactivity in & out of the classroom. Testing Tricider.

    In a nutshell, Tricider belongs to the category of what I like to call "open ended" tools. The main reason for that is that its use is limited only by the users imagination. As an EFL Teacher who has set out to further my understanding in how ICT tools can help modern day ELT, I really do believe that (provided with an internet access and a terminal - laptop, PC or a tablet) this tool presents a plethora of advantages with "the sky being the limit".

    But before I attempt any such analysis lets just quickly go through what Tricider is and what main features does it have. Tricider is a simplified on-line questionnaire where teachers can actually:

1) Write a question and then decide whether:

        A. they want to proceed in turning it into a classroom activity or
        B. with a push of one button, generate a link, which they can then forward to students via email or embed it into a classroom blog, Facebook page etc.

 
    And yes, a lot of you might rush to say: "what's the novelty in this?" when indeed there is a vast array of online tools that can do the same job with some of them even being admittedly faster. Well my answer is that the real novelty lies in the details. More specifically, it is the straightforward interface which incorporates positive and negative argumentative speech, ultimately promoting "mind mapping" that seems to make all the difference. In simpler terms, learners can write an argument, comment on other students arguments but more importantly with a push of a button decide whether to classify it as positive, negative or just vote.
    

   After this initial introduction it is quite easy to see why this tool is relevant to Language Acquisition. If used with consideration, this type of corrective feedback can take the game of peer assisted learning in a whole new level. Collaborative learning isn't a new idea however implementing and monitoring the procedure has always been the "Achilles' heel" for any teacher. A look back into my own teaching context reveals that learners always enjoy and find motivating a bit of "banter" that can abundantly derive from a pre-lesson or post-lesson Tricider activity. The added value is located in effectively promoting argumentative speech in a highly contextual environment but at the same time and even more importantly it manages to assist a balanced approach into presenting the various advantages and disadvantages. More specifically, this environment seems to favour simple, short and to the point statements that can be used as a initial brainstorming and classification activity. Going deep and narrow, is not a bad thing, especially when learners have to then explain and further elaborate on their statements or receive comments on them. 

    When writing a for/against essay in an IELTS exam, learners have to:

1. Identify all of the advantages and disadvantages then
2. Proceed in "weighting" them or determine their specific value and validity then
3. Based on this outline proceed in choosing which ones to use and finish off with
4. A concluding remark stating their general position/stance on the subject matter.
   
   Subsequently, learners that use Tricider can effectively develop their writing skills and more specifically amongst other things their critical reasoning, data classification and the ability to form a well structured and supported argumentative speech. So provided with the right question, Teachers that use this interface can effectively transform the whole classroom into a debate team.
    Following my last argument, I strongly believe that Tricider can be used just as effectively as a post lesson-consolidation activity or even during a lesson. In the latter case, learners are asked to form 2 groups (the advantages and disadvantages group) and then act out a lively debate providing declarative statements, supporting statements, examples and conclusions following the outline of a model paragraph formation. Other collaborative tools such as Google docs can be used to produce final written collaborative texts. As a variation of the aforementioned, learners can be allocated with an individual number (1's and 2's) and then be asked to mingle with an opposite number and try to act out a full argumentative dialogue using the prompts on the projector screen. As a post lesson activity learners can be asked to produce a 250 words for/against essay trying to incorporate the best arguments of today's lesson.
    I could probably go on writing about the possible different classroom applications that this tool has ending up in abusing my word limit for this blog. Instead, I will choose to focus in one last point which is of the utmost importance for my teaching practice.
   Tricider can effectively foster and promote interactivity in an IWB classroom setting (Armstrong, 2005). This means that teachers using this tool can unlock the full potential of their IWB software bypassing the traditional static "heads up" approach into teaching that the aforementioned system admittedly promotes. During my Action Research on the capabilities of IWB's, I found that tools like this complemented my efforts to re-arrange the classroom in an desperate effort to promote interactivity(Burns, 2010). More specifically, by allocating a computer screen to each pair of learners that was connected to the main screen and my administrative PC, I was able to present the learners with the question and then allow them time for cognitive response. Learner pairs proceeded in collaboratively negotiating the meaning of the main question and then proceeded in presenting the class with one argument. Upon completion all the arguments were presented in the main screen using Tricider. Learner pairs were then asked to produce at least one comment in each category:

 A. agreeing on an argument being an advantage
 B. agreeing on an argument being a disadvantage  or
 C. disagreeing on an argument being an advantage
 D. disagreeing on an argument being a disadvantage.

    Keeping in mind that there is a wealth of possible answers and comments on the answers which reveals the "open-ended" nature of this activity and the fact that it can be used as a pre-lesson or post-lesson activity we can easily assert that Tricider is by rights a tool which can be used in :

A. Flipping the Classroom (without having a flip due to the semi-controlled interactive environment) where learners have to respond to the link and provide sufficient arguments before the class begins and in

B.  Project-Based and Task-Based Learning approaches with the distinct characteristics easily being spotted.
        1. Incremental approach into negotiating the meaning, form and function of newly acquired language
           2. Peer-assisted, collaborative learning techniques
           3. Increased levels of interactivity and finally
      4. Open ended semi controlled drilling activities that eventually lead to or begin with the production of argumentative speech (top-down or bottom-up approach).
  
    As before an end activitie would either include:

A. a classroom discussion with two big groups presenting the advantages and disadvantages in the classroom or mingling activities (1's and 2's) or

B. learners using Tricider to “scroll back” and “tap into” the lessons' outcomes in order to be able to produce a final essay on the subject matter as homework.

    Last but not least if embedded into a class blog Tricider can be used as an on-line library offering quick and easy access to previous essay plans and thus effectively assist in providing consolidation, revision, quick reference to materials, outcomes, model sentences and rationales. On the down side, a "Tricision" lasts 15 days so that means that learners can result to considerable procrastination when accessing the link and seeing the "15 days to expire" notice on the upper right corner. Another disadvantage would be that Teachers need to be very careful when choosing a question especially when a little bit of "banter" can easily develop into a fierce classroom conflict.  
    To sum up, the epitome of the “interactive” and "multi-modal" potential that Tricider has on modern day ELT can be located in its parallel use with other technologies such as IWB software (Anderson, 2007) and other ICT tools such us "My Brainshark" "My Padlet" or Google docs. Directly linked to the aforementioned, Tricider can effectively assist teachers shift the weight of the room achieving the status of a true "facilitator" empowering learners to produce final collaborative texts. In this way, individual or pair work always results in group activities and rapid consolidation practices that manage to practice all four skills. (Jewitt, 2007). Learners are left capable to work individually, as a pair or as a group to achieve an outcome often without having to leave their seats. Even more so, learners are left free to negotiate the content and meaning through a vast array of materials and links which are embedded in their interactive notebooks (Golonka, 2012).
     This is why I really think that applications like Tricider can effectively empower teachers like me to surpass the “one size fits all” approach that many IWB systems promote nowadays (Haldane, 2007).

Many thanks for reading.

    Please feel free to use the following interface commenting and giving your own arguments on the main question. (and while you're at it why not take 2 seconds to answer this small question which is located on your right hand side and it's about the use of ICT in the classroom).

    Last but not least, for a complete video tutorial on how to use Tricider, I recommend Russell Stannard's Teacher Training Videos  

 

List of References

Anderson, S. H. (2007). Teaching and learning with an interactive whiteboard: a teacher’s journey. Learning, Media and Technology, 32(3), 271-282.

Armstrong, V. B. (2005). Collaborative research methodology for investigating teaching and learning: the use of interactive whiteboard technology. Educational Review, 57(4), 457–469.

Burns, A. (2010). What is action research? In A. Burns, Doing Action Research in English Language Teaching. A Guide for Practitioners. (pp. 1 -22.). New York: Routledge.

Jewitt, G. M. (2007). Pace, interactivity and multimodality in teachers’ design of texts for interactive whiteboards in the secondary school classroom. Learning, Media and Technology, 32(3), 303-317. 

Golonka, E. (2012). Technologies for foreign language learning: a review of technology types and their effectiveness. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 27(1), 70-105.

Haldane, M. (2007). Interactivity and the digital whiteboard: weaving the fabric of learning. Learning, Media and Technology, 32(3), 257-270.