Etwinning

eTwinning ingenuity and talent: Sync.in for synchronous collaborative writing

This new section “eTwinning ingenuity and talent” aims to be a space for interaction and learning among equals. It is a corner for underlining the good practice of our “Twinnologists” who are avid to experiment and try out new strategies, tools and teaching proposals in their development of eTwinning projects.

We begin with a veteran in the eTwinning programme, Valentina Cuadrado Marcos, a teacher at the IES Alonso de Madrigal school (Ávila), who tells us step by step the working process using a web 2.0 tool for collaborative writing which she recently used in her project, Legends Across Europe.

In the last phase of the Comenius-eTwinning project which we are developing at the IES Alonso de Madrigal school (Ávila), Legends Across Europe, we needed a system for writing an act of a play and we found Sync.in.

Sync.in is a synchronous collaborative writing tool that is in real time. In spite of not having been designed for teaching, once again and as in other cases, for example Mixbook, the market offers us a very useful possibility.

We had used Google docs previously with other teachers, but we wanted a more attractive system for the students. When we found Sync.in we thought that it would motivate them. This tool has also allowed us to work with the students in separate groups with regard to space and time.

It offers two options: one free, which is always Public, and another Pro, which is not free. This option has a 30 day free trial offer. Our team opted for the trail offer version and we generated the address: amadrigal.sync.in, which is no longer operative as it was the trial version.

To create an administrator account, you have the register with an email account.

The administrator invites people to collaborate through their email accounts. When the invited people receive the message and accept, they can then begin to collaborate.

Each collaborative work project is called a NOTE. There can be several in the same account, although all of them will have the same users. Each project is assigned a different name although the address is the same.

The site shows a horizontal tool bar at the back with the following elements: Note List, where you see the different projects being worked on; Security, with options for access to each project; Note Options, with the possibilities for sharing; Export, which will permit exporting the work at any given moment of the process; Saved Revisions, which will facilitate reviewing all the moments which have been saved; Time Slider, which will make it possible to know at what time the contributions were made.

Each participant selects a colour, which will permit us to clearly recognize the authorship of what is written immediately. All the collaborations are saved using the Save Now button which appears on the left of the screen in blue, and we can go back to them at any moment during editing by just clicking on Saved Revisions. A bar will appear with all the saved contributions and by entering into each one we can check, correct or evaluate.

The tool provides a chat which appears on the bottom right of the page. The conversations are seen in the previously chosen colour. This represents added value to the collaborative task.

Corrections made are also marked in colour. This characteristic facilitates self-evaluations on the part of the participant and evaluation on the part of the administrator.

All the work can be reviewed at any moment, by entering in Saved Revisions.

The administrator establishes the access channels, which can be changed when desired. For this on the tool bar at the back, the Security button will make the project Private – and only members of the working group will have access – or Public which will admit Internet guests. In this case a password can be established or the page can be left as Public.

All the work done can be exported as HTML or Plain Text while the process lasts. To do this we enter Export and mark the desired option.

And you can review entering Saved Revisions.

Time Slider is a time line which permits us to see at what moment a contribution has been entered and who the author was. It helps to arrange the material chronologically and to follow the general development of the project, both from the point of view of the ideas and the point of view of the authors.

Finally, the green button Share this Now opens up a window with several options.

From the work point of view, Sync.in is an easy-to-use tool which offers opportunities not only to collaborate but also to discuss and use your creativity. It facilitates team work and brings the participants nearer in a motivating way.

Source of the images: Headline photocomposition from the eTwinning National Support Service and images of the Sync.in tool sent by Valentina Cuadrado.