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WEEK of December 18, 2006
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Collaborative Journalism, And Writely So

by Jeffrey Stanley

This semester for the first time, Middle School journalism teachers Erin Mansur-Smith and Tony Tanael are allowing students to use a new web-based collaborative writing tool, Writely.com, to edit The Oatmeal Chronicles, the Middle School’s student newspaper.

“It’s a wiki, a web based collaborative tool that allows multiple people to edit a given document, even simultaneously,” explained Tony. Writely.com allows students logged in from various locations to see and edit a document at the same time on their computers.
The product is similar to MS-Word’s track changes feature, which also allows users to co-edit a document, but this program resides on the Internet. Google recently acquired Writely.com and has renamed it Google Docs and Spreadsheets as part of its plan to develop an entirely web-based product to compete with Microsoft Office. For now, Writely.com remains free of charge.

Journalism has been a Middle School course for three years but this is the first time it’s been co-taught. “I think both of us bring something different to the course and students benefit from our different styles,” said Tony, now in his second year at BFS. He also teaches study skills-computer literacy courses and works in the school’s Department of Information and Media Services.

“We teach sections in the rights and the responsibilities of a journalist, elements of a story, interpersonal communication and editing skills,” said Erin, now in her third year at BFS. She also teaches humanities and history courses. She explained that in the past the journalism course taught students how to put together a newspaper in the old cut-and-paste style, but in the age of electronic media the old workflow is becoming outdated.

“The old way would involve fifteen kids writing Word documents, emailing them to us or giving us printouts, with most interactions being between teacher and student,” Erin said. Writely.com allows students to seek advice more easily from their peers and critique their classmates’ work while it’s still in progress.

Tony and Erin’s hope is that Writely.com will not only bring the class into the twenty-first century but also improve the students’ computer literacy skills. “I can hardly imagine a better tool for this,” said Tony. “I’m really hoping the students use this on their own for other things as well.” Tony uses the product himself for team projects in his NYU classes to facilitate collaboration. “It has been fantastic.”

Erin agreed. Despite some minor glitches (it doesn’t work with all web browsers) the two teachers are convinced the product is a good thing. “I think Writely.com is going to remain a part of the class,” said Erin. “I fully plan to explore other applications for the program in my other classes.”

top photo: Teachers Erin Mansur Smith and Tony Tanel (far right) with a group of journalism students
above: Teacher Tony Tanel uses the Smartboard for a lesson in media literacy

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