A paper jointly presented with Mr Azmi Abd. Latiff - GLoCALL 2010 - Kota Kinabalu Sabah

1. Azmi Abdul Latiff ZainalAbidinSayadi Faculty of Science, Arts and Heritage UTHM Johor Malaysia

2. Using as an e-Writing Collaborative Tool Azmi Abdul Latiff ZainalAbidinSayadi USING GOOGLE DOC AS AN e-WRITING COLLABORATIVE TOOL USING GOOGLE DOCS AS AN e-WRITING COLLABORATIVE TOOL

3. Explosion of Internet technology Education-main benefactor of Internet technology

4. Internet is a great tool for language learning Limitless potential as a language learning tool-only limited by imagination and creativity of teachers.

6. Evolution of Web technology

13. the role of Google Docs in helping them to write the proposal and final report - how the collaborative writing help them to improve their English writing skill

14. 94 engineering undergraduates at UTHM ex diploma from polytechnics Technical Writing - group research - prepared proposal and final report

15. Students were asked to fill up an online survey on their profile Groupings based on language proficiency (SPM English/MUET)

17. Students were exposed to Google Docs at the beginning of semester. Group research started in 6th week Questionnaire and interview for data collection Frequency count, percentage and qualitative description

18. SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

19. Despite the students’ familiarity with Web 2.0 applications such as Facebook (100%), Blog (73%) and Youtube (60% of respondents accessed at least 5 times per week majority of them were first time users of Google Doc.

20. They did use Google Search (100%) as a search engine to look for websites (85% used Google as only search engine), images (Google Image) (96%), Google Maps (70%) and Google Chat (97%) but less than 5% explore some other Google applications including Google Doc .

21. They agreed that two Google applications namely Google Docs (including Documents, Spreadsheet and Form) and Chat helped them to collaborate in their group research. Reasons Different sections/classes in other subjects Lived at different hostels and at different locations,

22. Google Chat allowed them to conduct online synchronous discussion. Chatting topics Discuss assignment (64%), Latest updates on study matters (85%) and personal matters (93%) (Gossiping, dissatisfactions, interests not related to academic) The discussions/chat were conducted in a mixture of English and their mother tongue (majority in Malay and English).

23. The students agreed that Google Doc allowed them to Save resources online found when doing literature review. The reading materials were stored online Save list of references that they collaboratively updated Share files with their group members. At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated.

24. Features of Google Doc that the students loved the most are: Auto-updated nature of it. They did not have to remind their group members of the updates that they have done to their work or send emails to send documents with the latest amendment. Online storage of files Files sharing At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated.

25. Another feature that they loved is the real-time editing that they can do collaboratively with other group members. They could see their mistakes in terms of grammar, sentence constructions, spelling and factual information. At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated.

26. Google Form allowed them to create online questionnaire. Distributed their online questionnaires through email and Facebook. At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated.

27. At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated.

28. At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated. HOW GOOGLE DOCS HELPED THEM TO IMRPOVE THEIR LANGUAGE

29. Placing students with better English language proficiency and made them the group editors also helped the groups to produce better research proposal and the final report. In correcting the writing piece, the students used features such as Google Chat and Comments At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated.

30. The group editors, besides contributing their ideas, were also found correcting errors in spelling, sentence construction and vocabularies. The group members strongly agreed that the corrections made by their editors helped them to realize their mistakes. At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated.

31. The students however agreed that knowing that their idea or writing was checked by their peers made them uncomfortable as they preferred to be corrected by the lecturers. The final products were not totally error free but the online editing certainly helped to reduce the errors. At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated.

32. Teacher’s Role in Google Doc Online comments on students’ work. Check active writers Check ‘passengers’ in group through ‘See revision history’ At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated.

37. At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated. DRAWBACKS

38. Unavailability of Offline Google Docs beginning 3rd May 2010 As Google Doc is a Web-based application, connection to the Internet is very crucial to ensure it is functioning. At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated.

39. One major drawback of using this application is the instability of WiFi connectivity in the campus. The students complained that there were times they could not access to their stored documents due to poor Internet connectivity at their hostel. At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated.

40. At the initial stage when the students were doing literature review and looking for secondary data, the reading materials were stored online at Google Doc either the PDF documents or list of references that they collaboratively updated. THANK YOU TERIMA KASIH