SBIR Phase II: Using Real-Time, Synchronous Collaborative Technologies to Support Elementary and Middle School Students in Developing Reading, Writing, and Collaboration Skills

SBIR第二阶段项目将资助专门为14岁及以下儿童设计的协作写作软件的开发。在科学和其他STEM学科的学习中，使用证据写出精心设计的解释性和议论文对许多学生来说是一项具有挑战性的任务，而教师往往缺乏将这种写作融入日常教学的资源、工具、经验和/或机会。该项目将为中小学生提供一个平台，让他们可以阅读、进行研究、做笔记、做决定、讨论如何组织文章以及协作写作，多名学生可以实时为一份文件做出贡献。开发人员将通过在软件中嵌入多个课程单元并提供专业开发支持，帮助教师将最佳写作实践融入到他们的教学中。这种综合的协作学习环境使学生能够学习共同核心州标准所要求的关键技能，为在线进行的新标准化测试做准备，更重要的是，获得21世纪在高等教育和职业生涯中取得成功所必需的读写能力。在原型产品的初步测试中，该软件已被证明可以提高写作技能，尤其是对那些努力学习的学习者。目前还没有其他类似的软件可以为中小学生提供一个单一平台、全面的识字学习环境。该项目是一个基于云的实时协作平台，用于阅读、研究、写作和发布学生作品。它集成了多个程序，可以无缝地、稳定地协同工作，即使在互联网接入薄弱或断断续续的教室里也是如此。工程师们创建了专有插件，使纯文本协作程序能够处理HTML富文本和图像，允许用户从电子书和网站中选择和复制文本和图像，并将其粘贴到协作笔记空间或文档中，所有成员都可以同步参与。此外，每个用户都用一种颜色来标识，这样老师就可以看到每个用户对项目的贡献。学生可以听到朗读的电子书（使用预先存在的专有软件），利用他们收集的信息进行协作，实时地进行写作。通过压缩编程字符串的大小，项目工程师可以让多个组同时使用该程序，而不会耗尽服务器的容量。第二阶段的研究将整合强大的课程和教师支持功能，并最大限度地提高产品对低水平学校学生的影响。项目团队将在为期六周的学校干预中测试功能，随时调整以确保有效性和易用性。这个项目的创新力量在于其各部分的完美结合。

This SBIR Phase II project will fund the development of collaborative writing software designed specifically for children ages 14 and under. Producing well-crafted explanatory and argumentative writing using evidence, required in the study of Science and other STEM disciplines, is a challenging task for many students, and teachers often lack the resources, tools, experience and/or opportunities to integrate this kind of writing into everyday instruction. This project will provide a platform where elementary and middle school students can read, conduct research, take notes, make decisions, debate how to structure pieces of writing, and write collaboratively, with multiple students contributing to a single document in real time. Developers will help teachers to infuse best writing practices into their instruction by embedding multiple curriculum units into the software and providing professional development support. This integrated, collaborative learning environment enables students to learn critical skills required by the Common Core State Standards, to prepare for new standardized tests being given online, and importantly, to acquire the 21st century literacy proficiency necessary to succeed in higher education and careers. In preliminary testing with a prototype product, this software has been shown to improve writing skills, especially for struggling learners. There is no other software like this currently available to deliver a single-platform, comprehensive, literacy learning environment for elementary and middle school children.This project is a cloud-based, real-time collaborative platform for reading, research, writing, and publishing student work. It integrates multiple programs to work together seamlessly and with stability, even in classrooms with weak or intermittent Internet access. Engineers created proprietary plug-ins to enable a text-only collaborative program to work with HTML rich text and images, allowing users to select and copy text and images from eBooks and websites and paste them into a collaborative note-taking space or document with synchronous participation of all members of the group. In addition, every user is identified by a color so the teacher can see what each contributed to the project. Students can hear narrated eBooks read aloud (using pre-existing, proprietary software), using the information they are gathering to write collaboratively, in real time. By compacting the size of programming strings, project engineers are enabling multiple groups to use the program at the same time without exhausting server capacity. Phase II research will integrate robust curriculum and teacher support features and maximize the product's impact for students in low-proficiency schools. The project team will test features during a six-week in-school intervention, adapting on the fly to ensure effectiveness and ease of use. The innovative power of the project lies in the elegant sum of its parts.