The Use of “Google Docs” in Teaching Writing: An Alternative Way of Collaboration in Writing

Abstract

This article describes one of innovative strategies for education in digital era. It is
based on the research of utilizing “Google Docs†in teaching writing. Starting from
the questionnaire and observation that had been done by the researcher to English
students of Widya Dharma University of Klaten in preliminary research, there are
still many students that have low ability in writing because insufficient practice in
writing. Most of writing activities in the class give the theories of writing with less
practicing. Even when the students did the task, they only did the task based on the
instruction then submitted without any revision. Some students said that sometimes
the lecturer gave correction in class but it consumed the time and not all students
got their correction because limited time. When the correction given in other
meeting, it wastes the time and there is no time for making revision. This research
is aimed to face those problems by using “Google Docsâ€. The using of “Google
Docs†gives the opportunities for the students to review others’ works everywhere
and whenever they want, not only in the class. The findings of the research show
that there are significant improvements of students’ writing skill after applying
collaborative learning using “google docsâ€. So, it is proven that utilizing “Google
Docs†in reviewing students’ work can be alternative method to improve writing
ability.
Keywords: writing skill; collaborative learning; google docs; classroom action research