THE WORD PROCESSOR

Word processor as being "a computer program for writing, editing, revising, formatting, and printing text" and they claim that it can overcome many of the mechanical problems associated with typing as:

• mistakes can be corrected on the screen
• there are no errors in the final copy
• complex editing such as repositioning blocks of text can be done with a few keystrokes
• there is no need to retype because of an error
• once typed, anything that is correct will not need typing again
• all changes can be accomplished with ease and features such as boldfacing, justification, etc. Become possible (Lockard et al. 1994, 30).



The Writing Process

A word processor is a computer application that allows text to be entered and stored in a computer file. This text can be changed and formatted in a variety of ways. It would, therefore, appear to be ideal for use in the writing process where children have the opportunity to do all their writing at the computer. In this way, the first draft could be produced, reviewed, and the necessary changes made on the computer doing away with the need to completely re-write it. Once completed, the text could be printed out to produce a very professional product that does not bear any traces of correction.

Process writing has four stages, drafting, revising, editing and publishing (Forcier 1999, 130). If this is done by hand writing, students are going to quickly become bored with rewriting their document, but using the word processor, the document only has to be written once and then all the changes made to that and the final printout will bear no traces of all the alterations that have been made. This will, Forcier (1999, 130) suggests, encourage a far more positive attitude to writing and motivate students to experiment with language.

However, he warns that teachers need to guide the students' composition and provide the necessary feedback for revision. Roblyer, Edwards and Havriluk (1997, 130) note that the word processor can help the students (and teachers) produce documents with a better appearance, and this is, of course, a great advantage to students who have poor handwriting. They also point out that the use of the word processor makes sharing of materials easy; teachers can exchange lesson plans and other teaching materials on disc and change them to fit their own needs and students can share ideas and products among themselves.

Forcier (1999,130) states that students can also use the word processor for collaborative writing, a technique that allows more than one student to engage in a writing activity together. He outlines the stages in this process as:

• students agree on an outline
• parcel out the writing tasks
• written documents are merged
• students edit each other's work

When using the computer for this process, he suggests that the activities could be:

• Brainstorming
• Begin drafting on the computer
• After 15 to 20 minutes, students exchange places and continue writing where the previous student ended
• Edit work

He notes that there is now software available which allows for collaborative writing to take place over a network with students able to write and edit each other's work in real time (1999, 130), Microsoft Word can be used to 'track' changes. This shows additions, deletions and changes that different writers have made to a shared document.

However, while the word processor has a lot of potential to improve student's writing, I do not think that it should automatically be the main application to be used in a class. Unfortunately, the majority of schools do not have sufficient computers available to allow the entire writing process to take place at the computer and so the word processor is frequently only used at the publishing stage (I heard about one school where the children did not even do this; parents helpers typed the children's work into the word processor and the children got a printed copy of it -- they did not even see the computer). This obviously negates most of the advantage of using it.

From a personal point of view, I could not survive without a word processor. Since starting to use one, I believe that my writing has improved, but this process did not take place overnight. When I started, I was much more concerned with operating the computer than I was with what I was writing, but after about six months, I was familiar enough with the word processing package to start concentrating on my writing (today, with much more user-friendly software, this would be accomplished in a much shorter time).

I would suggest that for students' writing to improve through the use of the word processor, they must have frequent access to it and so the school must have sufficient resources to provide for this. Forcier (1999, 130) supports this view:
If students are to capitalize on the power of the word processor as a tool and employ it with confidence, they must develop an understanding of its application and a reasonably high level of skill in its use. Using this tool, they will enhance their written communication as they acquire and construct knowledge in various content areas.


Keyboard Skills

A further problem that arises when considering the use of the word processor is the lack of keyboard skills that most children have. I was given a typewriter when I was about eight and taught myself to type in my own peculiar way. With the advent of typing tutors for the computer, I set out to teach myself how to touch type, but it just would not work. When you have learnt bad habits, it is extremely difficult to 'un-learn' them. Inquiries have shown that students are now coming into the TAFE system to learn typing who have been using computers for some time and so have picked up bad keyboard skills and they cannot be taught to type correctly. In an age when keyboard skills are more important than they have ever been, we are producing a generation of kids who cannot learn to type properly.

A point to be considered is for how long typing skills will be necessary as processes such as voice recognition continue to improve. Maybe this will be another of the traditional skills that we can forget about.



Why keyboard skills should be taught

Keyboard skills should be taught at present for two reasons. The first is to ensure that students do not develop bad habits that will prevent them from learning to type when the time comes. The second is to ensure the efficient use of equipment; the lack of computers experienced by most schools is only compounded by students having poor keyboard skills as tasks that should be completed in a short time take much longer.

The question is, when should it be taught? I think that there are two different things that have to be considered. The first is basic keyboard layout and what the special keys do. This should be taught from whenever children start to use the keyboard. The second is typing skills. While there are varying arguments as to when this should be started (some teachers say that it can be taught at kindergarten, others say that children of this age are incapable of using a keyboard correctly), most people seem to agree that year three is a suitable starting point.

We did some work with year three students using a typing tutor and found it to be very successful; all the children learnt the home keys and how to use the other keys properly. However, after using the typing tutor, we asked them to use the word processor, and when they did so, they resorted to 'hunt and peck'. We could not find a way of overcoming this lack of transfer of skills between tasks. In hind sight, we were probably putting them into cognitive overload as we were asking them to think about the story they were writing, how to use the word processor, and to place their fingers on the correct keys. Something had to give and it was the correct fingering which was the least important aspect of the process.


At what age should children start word processing?

There is a range of ideas about this. Some suggest that children should use the word processor early in schooling leaving handwriting until motor skills have improved, while others take the opposite view and claim that it should not be used until children have mastered handwriting skills. In view of this Hunter, Benedict, and Bilan (1989 in Lockhart et al. 1994, 38) state that "Ultimately, individual teachers and schools must decide when to implement word processing, taking into account not only the appropriateness for the students but also the school's ability to provide sufficient computer access". Lockhart et al. (1994, 38) add that "Regardless of when it is introduced, word processing should support, enhance, and extend the curriculum, and should not become an isolated computer activity"




The effect of using the word processor on hand writing skills

Roblyer et al. (1997, 130) state that some educators feel that word processing will free students from the physical constraints of handwriting and enable them to advance more quickly in their written expression skills, others wonder about the impact of this early use on students. It may affect their willingness to spend time developing handwriting abilities and other activities requiring fine motor skills.

They state that there has been no research undertaken in regard to the effect of the word processor on handwriting but they claim that computer users state that their "handwriting isn't what it used to be" as there are infrequent opportunities to use these skills (1997, 130). It respects to the fine motor skills, it could be argued that using a mouse and other input devices could help to develop them.

Undoubtedly, an increased use of the word processor will bring about a deterioration of handwriting skills. However, we must ask whether it matters if our handwriting skills deteriorate or students do not develop good handwriting. While it will continue to be important for us to be able to write notes, how much public writing will we do by hand in the future? In a parch report one of my students wrote that the teacher of the class that she was observing said that there was not enough time to use the computer as the available time had to be used for learning more important things such as hand writing. Which will be the most important skill for the children in this class as workers in the Information Age to have, the ability to produce good handwriting or to be able to use a computer?

We must stop teaching the skills that we value, and teach those that will be of value to the students. This, of course, is easier said than done. The education system is one of the most inert systems that we have and it is very difficult to introduce changes to what is taught. A further constraint is that most parents have a conservative view of education and they are often the first to complain if the curriculum is changed so that children are no longer taught what and how they were taught.