By Martine Rioux
Led by a group of teachers and education consultants, the initiative focuses mainly on Cycle 3 of elementary school (Grades 5 and 6) and Cycle 1 of secondary school (Grades 7 and 8). In 2024–2025, 12 educational settings participated, involving 40 teachers. In 2025–2026, the number has grown to 18 settings and 46 teachers, including 14 new participants.
Some teachers from the first phase have continued to apply the approach independently. The project has also attracted interest from other teachers, who are introducing digital writing practices in their classrooms with the help of resources available on the project website, explains Isabelle Chevrette, education consultant for the local RÉCIT (a Quebec-wide network dedicated to supporting the educational integration of digital technology).
The project’s implementation is built on a structured process of professional learning and support. The team regularly updates a website that features various tools and teaching strategies, such as modelling classroom routines, learning keyboard shortcuts, using split-screen functions, offering direct feedback through collaborative platforms, and providing visual aids to guide text revision. “It is important for everyone to become comfortable with the tools from the start to make the digital writing process more effective,” notes Isabelle.
The project makes use of simple, accessible resources available directly through digital tools. Each student has a dedicated Chromebook and uses Word Online for writing. They use an online dictionary (Usito), which can be displayed beside their document on the screen, the Ctrl + F function to search their text, formatting styles for annotation, and the immersive reader to listen to their writing. These tools are permitted during exams, except for the immersive reader, which is reserved for students with special education needs.
“These tools allow students to write, structure, reread, and edit their texts more efficiently. It completely changes their relationship with writing. They discover that they can continuously work on their text and go back to make changes. The process is no longer linear as it is with pen and paper. On paper, students often feel that their text is fixed and find it difficult to make corrections. On screen, however, changing a sentence or reorganizing paragraphs becomes very easy,” explains Isabelle.
In this way, the text becomes a work in progress rather than simply a finished product. Students are more motivated to write; their texts are more developed, they use the dictionary more frequently, their vocabulary improves, and their syntax becomes more precise.
Teachers’ work has also evolved. “During classroom writing periods, the teacher can connect directly to students’ texts and provide real-time feedback. This brings a dynamic dimension to the writing process. When students see their teacher enter their document, they are excited and look forward to the comments,” adds the education consultant.
With digital writing, errors are less intimidating because they can be corrected immediately. Revision is no longer seen as a separate step but as an integral part of the writing process. Ultimately, the correction phase is easier for teachers: handwriting is no longer an issue, they can copy and paste recurring comments, and they save time to provide individualized support to certain students.
At the end of the 2025 school year, students from participating classes were able to complete their exams using a computer, except for ministerial examinations. All project tools, except the immersive reader (reserved for students with special education needs), are approved for use during official assessments. However, in spring 2025, students had to take their ministerial examination on paper due to certain technical constraints. Isabelle Chevrette remains hopeful that these issues will be resolved by June 2026, allowing students to complete their exams using the same digital tools they use daily.
For more ideas about using technology to motivate reading, writing and counting, see: Motivating Through Technology to Inspire Reading, Writing and Counting – the winter 2024-2025 issue of Engaged Learning magazine.
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