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。使用科学和其他STEM学科所需的证据编写精心制作的说明性和议论文写作，对许多学生来说是一项具有挑战性的任务，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。这个项目将提供一个平台，让中小学生可以阅读、进行研究、做笔记、做出决定、讨论如何组织写作以及协作写作，多名学生实时参与一个文件。开发人员将通过在软件中嵌入多个课程单元并提供专业发展支持，帮助教师将最佳写作实践注入他们的教学中。这种综合、协作的学习环境使学生能够学习共同核心国家标准所要求的关键技能，为在线提供的新标准化考试做准备，更重要的是，获得在高等教育和职业生涯中取得成功所必需的21世纪识字能力。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，特别是对有困难的学习者。目前还没有其他软件可以为中小学生提供一个单一平台的、全面的识字学习环境。这个项目是一个基于云的、实时协作的平台，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、稳定地协同工作，即使在互联网接入较弱或间歇性的教室也是如此。工程师们创建了专有插件，使纯文本协作程序能够处理HTML丰富的文本和图像，允许用户从电子书和网站选择和复制文本和图像，并将它们粘贴到协作笔记空间或文档中，小组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做出了什么贡献。学生可以听到有旁白的电子书朗读(使用预先存在的专有软件)，使用他们收集的信息来实时协作编写。通过压缩编程字符串的大小，项目工程师使多个组能够同时使用该程序，而不会耗尽服务器容量。第二阶段的研究将整合强大的课程和教师支持功能，并最大限度地提高该产品对低水平学校学生的影响。项目团队将在为期六周的校内干预期间测试功能，动态调整以确保有效性和易用性。该项目的创新力量在于其部件的优雅之和。

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.