Abstract:

By combining social writing platforms, such as Google Drive, and web services, to hold and offer interactive resources, can provide a valuable didactical resource whose reach can go much beyond a classical e-book. Every phase, from the writing to the final deployment, can be turned into a valuable didactical reaource able to boost and support almost any phase of the Meaningful Learning with Technology [Jonassens]. We discuss this approach illustrating some experiments done within two university courses where teaching, elearning and new technologies are among the main topics. In one case, with maths students, we designed a multi-document made of a Google Document and a GeoGebraBook linking each other. In this "rich textbook" the student finds explanations, formulae, pictures and animations and interactive materials to play with and explore the laws and properties of conic reflections. In another documents, made with Digital Humanities students, we faced the the basics of programming with a self-paced approach combining text, interactive examples and exercises.

Keywords:

Constructivism, social writing, student engagement, interactivity.