How Can Teachers Support Writers in the 21st Century? A Look at Digital Learning Communities

Abstract

The focus of this quasi-experimental study was to determine how using digital learning communities that incorporate technology and meaningful feedback affects students’ writing achievement and if students’ familiarity with technology impacts their achievement level. This research also examined the relationship between student performance and familiarity with technology. Two third-grade classrooms participated in an 8-week intervention. The experimental group participated in the digital learning community while the comparison group participated in traditional pen-paper writing. Pre- and post- writing samples in addition to a 9-criteria rubric were used to assess the learners’ academic writing skills. A 12-question survey was conducted to explore students’ experience with technology. A paired samples t-test, a Pearson correlation, and ANCOVAs were used to analyze the data. The findings show that successful integration of technology, student experiences, and explicit feedback had significant effects on the treatment group in increasing their writing achievement. Results indicated that students did not have to be familiar with technology to be successful with the intervention. Additionally, the students who started with a lower self-efficacy score tended to make more gains.