Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Group Digital Annotation for Classroom Texts


In December I read a post on ProfHacker that some of you may have seen already, but it really stuck with me.  The article discussed a collaborative annotation software tool called HIGHBROW, which is being used by some English classes to facilitate higher levels of interaction with the reading material of the class.

I wrote about this idea in my own blog a couple of weeks ago, and how I’m really excited about the potential application of this technology to engineering textbooks.  I’d like to see the engineering textbook become a central component of learning in the classroom (not just reference material), so that lecture time can be targeted on understanding tough concepts and interacting with the material, instead of just reiterating the same material that’s already in the text.

What are your thoughts on this?  To me it seems like a smart application of Web 2.0 in the classroom, but I’m cautious because it may only seem like a good idea to serve my preferred learning style.  Would you use this in your liberal arts classroom, or in your engineering classroom?  How could this product me improved to suit your preferred teaching style?  Of most interest to me may be the question of what niche in the learning process is filled by this product that isn't currently being filled in a different way?

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