Technology Supported Writing Interventions

1. Technology Supported Writing Interventions George R. Peterson-Karlan, Ph.D. Professor of Special Education Special Education Assistive Technology (SEAT Center) Illinois State University

2. The Importance of Writing “Writing well is not just an option for young people – it is a necessity. Along with reading comprehension, writing is a predictor of academic success and a basic requirement for participation in civic and life and a global economy…Because the definition of literacy includes both reading and writing skills, poor writing proficiency should be recognized as part of this national literacy crisis.” (Graham & Perin, 2007)

3. Writing Matters – But Achievement Lags National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP, 2002), among students • 51-58% are at a basic level of writing • Below the desired proficient level • 16-22% are below the basic level of writing • Struggling writers(NAEP, 2002) • Low achieving writers by (Graham and Perin, 2007),

4. This is what a struggling writer looks like – 6th grader with LD

5. Lack a clear understanding of the purpose Fail to have a plan for a composition Lack strategies or procedures for generating and organizing ideas Over rely on narrative or descriptive text structures – “knowledge telling” Struggling Writers…

6. Struggling Writers… • Make more mechanical errors, with spelling errors the most frequent • Make more syntax errors • Show less word & sentence fluency • Correct only mechanical errors, but do poorly in identifying these errors • Do not have or sustain a plan for revising

7. The Good News! And the Bad News!! • The research-based models and methods for teaching good writing are known • Planning & Organizing • Translating & Transcribing • Editing, Reviewing & Revising • Good writing instruction is not being used!

8. Four Challenges to Improved Writing Instruction • Increase time students spend writing, (2) • Improve assessment of writing, • Apply emerging writing technologies • Provide of professional development for all teachers

9. The Role of Technology Writing has moved from a paper-and-pen to a technologically-driven activity. Technologies a are recognized as having the potential both to support writing and the teaching of writing and to provide new venues for writing itself. (National Commission of Writing, 2003; National Writing Project, 2006; National Council of Teachers of English, 2004)

10. The Role of Technology • Technology Supported Writing • Use of technologies which support all phases of writing – planning, drafting, editing & revising • Technology Enabled Writing • Use of technology to obtain information, share, and collaborate, even remotely • Multimedia Writing • Use of new genres and multimedia forms

11. Technologies in Education • Information and Communication Technologies • Digital technology, communication tools and/or networks used to access, manage, integrate, evaluate and create information in order to function in a knowledge society

12. Technologies in Education • Instructional Technologies • Used to increase student’s performance through adding skills to the student’s own skill base • Compensatory Technologies • Provide a means to complete a task such that, without the technology, a student would not be able to complete the task at the expected level of performance • Increase performance without necessarily increasing the skill base of the student

13. Technology to Support Writing • Our purpose – To examine evidence-based technologies that have been shown to support writing • Technologies include both • Information & communication technologies • Compensatory technologies

14. Prewriting Planning & Organization

15. Technology for Planning & Organization… Supports the student in • Determining the purpose or goal • Identifying a topic and intended audience • Generating ideas • Organizing ideas • Into text appropriate structures

16. Evidence supports use of technology that provides • Reminders of • CONTENT: Whatinformation orelements must be present (e.g., goal, topic, text elements, ideas, details, etc) • Assistance with • PROCEDURES: How to generate, select and/or organize information or elements

17. Tool features should include… • Explicit plan components • Content prompts • Procedural prompts • Visual-Graphic Mapping

18. Summary recommendations • Use planning and organization technology as an adjunct to, or in tandem with, process-based instruction in writing • Match students’ strengths and weaknesses with tools by their planning and organization features • Use electronic outlining tools and draft templates, that are genre-specific, contain embedded content prompts and procedure cues. • Directly instruct the student in how to use the tool and how to apply the tool to their writing tasks.

19. The Importance of Writing Text Production Preparing the Initial “Draft” Composition

20. Technology for Text Production Supports the student in • Legible print production • Transcription speed • Transcription accuracy • Length of the composition • Quality of the composition

21. Is faster better? • The goal of writing support: Increase the “productivity” of the writer • Productivity in AT has been defined as Quantity + Quality Time

22. Productivity increases • When in the same time or more time, • Legibility, spelling accuracy, capitalization, punctuation increases • The variety of words increases • The number of words or sentences written increases • The number or quality of ideas, details, text elements improves

23. Evidence supports use of technology that provides • Reduced transcription demand • Assistance with transcription accuracy

24. Tool features should include • Keyboard-based tools • Desktop or Laptop Computers • Portable keyboarding devices • Word processing software

25. Tool features should include • Word Prediction • Frequency • Recency • Grammatically-based prediction • Association • Automatic spacing • Automatic capitalization

26. Summary recommendations • Use word processors to improve transcription accuracy (legibility) and length, especially with students with high initial error rates • Provide keyboarding training to produce functional levels of keyboarding speed and accuracy • Consider the use of word prediction having text-to-speech output for those with persistent spelling difficulties. • Provide instruction in the use of word prediction and expect student success, to improve with continued use. • Expect transcription accuracy and composition length but not necessarily transcription speed to be better when word prediction is used

27. What about speech recognition? • Speech recognition (SR), or voice recognition, technology involves a speech-to-text system that • Interprets spoken language and directly produces transcribed text, • Permits the user to edit transcribed text • Control operating system functions • SR systems typically require the user to initially train the software

28. What about speech recognition? • SR technology has evolved faster than applied research on its effectiveness with struggling writers • The research base is very small with school-aged children so the results are only suggestive, not conclusive

29. What about speech recognition? Teaching use of SR • Struggling writers across grade levels can train the SR systems to an acceptable level of transcription accuracy • Standard SR training procedures will need to be modified as will expected training times • Text-to-speech output increases training success • Struggling writers across grade levels can attain competence in use of SR editing and correction procedures

30. What about speech recognition? When struggling writers use SR to transcribe • Transcription accuracy and speed increases with continued use of SR • Compositional length is longer • Compositional quality is improved • Word fluency • Sentence length

31. Summary recommendations • Consider the use of speech recognition with students with the most severe spelling deficits • Use text-to-speech output with those students having persistent reading deficits • Provide sufficient systematic instruction using strategies adapted to the learner • Expect transcription accuracy to improve quickly, but not transcription speed

32. Revising “Improving the Composition”

33. Two complementary processes • Editing • Detecting and correcting of errors in spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar • Revising • Improving the organization of ideas, supporting details, clarity of the composition • Makes the writing more interesting and understandable to the reader

34. Technology for Editing & Revising Supports the student in • Detecting & correcting errors • Managing the revision process • Providing prompts about revision goals • Providing procedural supports • Reviewing sentences for meaning • Reviewing passages and paragraphs • For content elements • For detail, interest, clarity and logic • Making revisions

35. Evidence supports technology that provides • Detection and correction of errors of convention • Spelling, capitalization, punctuation, grammar • Text-to-speech text review • Electronic revision guides • With Procedural Prompts

36. Tool Features should include • For Editing • Word prediction • Capitalization, punctuation supports • Context-sensitive grammar supports • Spell check with… • Flexible spelling detection • Homophone detection • Speech Output

37. Tool features should include • For Revising • Voice output screen review • Revising guides

38. Summary recommendations • Use spell checkers in conjunction with instruction in a proofreading strategy. • Teach students to strategically use a spell checker • Use a spell checker with text-to-speech output • Select spell checkers that have “flexible spelling” or phonemic spell check

39. Summary recommendations • Use a word processor with text-to-speech output in conjunction with instruction in revising. • Use electronic revision guides providing procedural facilitation. • Expect improvements in mechanical accuracy and composition quality

40. Final Words… • It has been argued that writing quality is the overriding outcome of interest (Graham & Perin, 2007) • But writing quality may be more appropriately viewed as the priority summative outcome • To develop writing quality, struggling writers need to learn discrete planning, transcription, editing, and revising strategies and skills • Teachers will need to monitor progress in formative skills in order to use technology effectively • Amount, speed, accuracy, fluency, complexity, and organization of writing

41. Center for Implementing Technology in Education (CITEd) • Works with state and local education agencies to develop systems to integrate instructional technology to meet the needs of all students • Provides support through innovative online professional development, research, technical assistance (TA), and extensive web-based resources, tools www.cited.org

42. Distance Technical Assistance atwww.cited.org • Learn Center: Features more than 700 resources tailored for teachers, administrators, technology coordinators, and PD coordinators • Act Center: Features the EdTech Locator and 9 PD programs and models from our partners • Research Center: Features more than 20 Research in Brief articles on 5 different topics and 5 research publications • My Center: Allows registered users to bookmark resources and build custom toolkits for colleagues

43. Helpful Links • TechMatrix: Find tools that help create accessible instructional materials • TechMatrix Webinar: Learn how to use the TechMatrix • EdTech Locator: Evaluate where you stand in the technology integration continuum • Differentiating Instruction Through Technology: Take this free, online professional development course