Better understanding their own writing process can help your students become more fluent and sound writers. Using Draftback, teachers and students can view and analyze the keystroke by keystroke evolution of any Google Doc from creation to submission. A user is able to see how often a draft was revised, who made the changes, and what type of changes were made. Students might use this to better understand their own writing and revision practice or study the writing process of others. Teachers can also use it to model effective writing and revision strategies. The teacher or a peer may provide guidance on ways to improve writing while the student can take a more objective view of their written work. In addition, teachers can share "work in progress" with parents or other teachers. Draftback videos could also be incorporated in to Screencasts with student voice-over.
Draftback can also help investigate issues of plagiarism. My students are still learning about fair use and academic honesty. I still get occasional instances of plagiarism, sometimes unintentional, in my 5th grade classroom. Google Docs revision history can help students become more aware of their practices, including copy-pasting large amounts of text from an outside source. Draftback video makes this practice even more evident.
My absolute favorite application for Draftback is as a powerful tool to evaluate and reflect on collaborative work. In addition to the video playback of all revisions, Draftback provides detailed analytics about all contributors. The data report shows, who logged into the doc, when, for how long. and how many revisions they made. What a great opportunity for student self-reflection.
Imagine the power of evaluating not just the product but the process.
Draftback is currently one of my favorite Google extensions to use in my classroom. Check it out in the Google Chrome Store
