Instructional Technology

Writing Tools in the Classroom

David Elderbrock

Following ITP's workshops last fall exploring new instructional tools for writing, a growing number of instructors are using StorySpace to improve their students' writing skills. StorySpace is an easy-to-use hypertext authoring application that helps writers create linked text, graphical images, sound clips, and even digital video. Students in instructor Margaret Sokolik's College Writing course, for example, are using voice annotations and graphics as well as text to provide background information and commentaries on the book Einstein's Dream.

Writing instructors report that StorySpace is a great tool for helping students plan and develop essays. The program enables students to write in segments that may be combined to produce a whole draft. Instructors have found that generating a StorySpace "web," as the structure of hyperlinked writing spaces is called, helps sharpen students' ability to articulate relationships among the various ideas in their writing. For example, instructor Catherine Yoes has students in her English 1A class develop definitions of science fiction and work in groups to link these and related information. Some instructors have expressed an interest in having students use StorySpace in foreign language writing projects. Others are devising ways to use StorySpace as a medium for peer editing and collaborative work.

For more information about instructional tools for writing, contact ITP Humanities Coordinators Steve Thorne (thorne@garnet.berkeley.edu) or David Elderbrock (dbrock@violet.berkeley.edu).