Callatis 9 A - Google Group
Using Google Groups
One of the classes I teach, 9 A – Mathematics – Computer Science – bilingual English, inspired me to write this post. The first school week we created a Google group for the class and ever since then, every week, they have been doing some of their homework online. I always post the task and set the deadline and they all post their homework.
“So what?”, I hear you say. Well, we have been doing this online collaboration for only a few weeks and I feel this is a good moment to share my first impressions with everyone visiting this blog.
Students are more responsible
I’m sure it won’t come as a surprise that many students prefer to copy their homework instead of trying to solve the task themselves. Be it vocabulary or grammar exercises, reading comprehension or creative writing, as long as it’s handwritten, they’d rather copy one of their classmates’ work than do it themselves. Even if the teacher checks the homework on a daily basis, it’s going to be difficult to spot identical solutions and even more difficult to say who copied from whom.
When they have to solve online homework, the students immediately notice that each post has the date and time displayed in the right-upper corner of their reply. This detail suddenly makes them aware of the fact that the teacher will know exactly who posted their homework first and who “got inspired” from the others’ work.
Although it may sound like, in order to become responsible, students need to fear the teacher might catch them when they copy their homework, the reality of the classroom demonstrates that this is exactly what happens.
Students do more online reading
Some of my students told me they write their homework in Word and then they paste it as a post in the discussion thread on the group. Others said they prefer opening the thread and writing their homework there. In both cases, students said they always read some of their classmates’ answers before contributing their own work.
Be it the students read other posts to “fish” for ideas, to quench their curiosity about what others have written or to avoid repeating what the others have already said, the fact remains: they read. How often would we find students reading other classmates’ homework, when written in their notebooks?
Self-correction and self-evaluation
Writing homework in their notebooks, students do not usually have access to what their colleagues have written and they cannot compare their own productions to those of their peers. When students post their work on the group-space and read the other posts, they may not realize that what they’re doing is to actually evaluate the other productions and, unconsciously comparing them with their own, they are likely to become more aware of their level of English and feel stimulated to work on improving it.
On the other hand, students’ posts are corrected online and all the comments the teacher makes can be seen by all the students. If the teacher starts correcting before the deadline, chances are that some of the students will review their homework before posting it and correct some of the mistakes they saw corrected in their colleagues’ posts. Much as this practice may not be too fair, it might contribute to students’ taking responsibility of their own learning, raising self-awareness and improving online reading. To avoid demotivating his/her students, the teacher should not grade these posts. After all, teachers’ main goal is not necessarily grading, but finding the means through which to make his/her students become independent learners.
Word-processors stimulate students
When asked about their favourite way of doing homework, my students were unanimous in replying: “online”. All of them said that looking at a blank page in their notebooks is highly demotivating, a feeling they do not experience to the same extent when looking at a blank page on the computer, and even less if they choose to do the homework directly on the thread, where they have the possibility to read what others have written and get inspired.
There are also other reasons why my students prefer doing online homework, they say “everything seems easier“. It is easier to edit the text – you simply delete and rewrite. To correct the mistakes, you can use the auto-correct feature of the word-processor which underlines the mistakes and draws your attention to them. A simple right-click on a word opens a drop-down list and offers several options of correcting that word. You need a synonym? A right-click on the word solves this problem too. Would you like to change the word-order or rearrange the paragraphs? Just select the words or paragraph you want to move and drag them/it to the new position. Do you need to check the meaning of a word? A tab in your internet browser with an online dictionary can help you whenever you’re in doubt about the meaning or pronunciation of a word. Last but not least, some students’ handwriting is so difficult to read that they feel more comfortable knowing they won’t give the teacher a hard time when reading their homework.
Sounds simple? Well, it is!
Less time spent on homework
Although it may come as a surprise to you (as it did to me), my students told me they spend less time doing homework when they do it online. I feel tempted to say they only have this impression, because they read more, they edit more, they look up words in online dictionaries or they look for information on the internet. What, then, gives them the impression they spend less time on homework? The only answer I can come up with is that they are so multitasking and so used to doing things using the computer and the internet that they don’t think they’re putting any effort into their homework, and what’s more, they really enjoy doing it.
Instead of conclusion
While these are some of the advantages of doing online homework, I am well aware that there are some disadvantages too, one of which is students’ handwriting is likely to become less and less readable, an aspect which will definitely work against them when sitting for written examinations. Should this prevent us, teachers and students from making things easier and more enjoyable when it comes to doing homework? The image at the top of this post answers for me.
