Abstract:
Social annotation takes something that academics do habitually-annotating books and papers, often by writing in their margins-and makes it a collaborative, open-source project. Applications of social annotation are being actively explored in various fields (like computer programming) and in various contexts (like peer review). This project proposes that the social annotation tools now becoming available have a special relevance to humanities education. Despite the field’s diversity, humanistic disciplines are fundamentally centered on examining the structures and details of complex texts like novels, histories, philosophies, and archives. While annotation has long been something that readers do alone, this project will show the powerful impact on learning that can be produced when students and instructors annotate together, reimagining the margins of texts as spaces of collaborative, engaging learning and teaching. It will explore how instructors can annotate digital texts in ways that are visible to students, and how students can respond to their instructors and to one another if everybody is looking together at the same digital documents.
Code:
T0199
Principal Project Supervisors:
Keywords provided by authors:
Start Date:
01 May 2018
End Date:
30 Apr 2019
Status:
Completed
Result:
Ten instructors participated in the project, impacting eleven different courses (with 18 course groups). 584 students took part in the project. These levels of participation are generally aligned with the project plan. 356 students participated in the project surveys about the use of annotation tools in their classrooms. Results were very positive, confirming the results of some previous research. For example, on a 5-point scale, students strongly believe that “The SA tool supported sharing between students” ( =4.18) and that “The SA tool helped me pay attention to specific information in the learning materials” (=4.09). During the instructor roundtables, instructors confirmed that they appreciated the use of SA tools and some have reported that they continue to use them after the project has ended. Finally, during the student focus group interviews, students emphasized that the SA tools expanded their ability to understand both the course materials and the views and insights of their fellow students.
Impact:
The existing research on social annotation has come primarily :from the disciplines of education studies and computer science. This project provides the first large-scale exploration of social annotation’s relevance to the literary humanities. The coding and analysis of the student focus group transcripts shows clear evidence that social annotation supports the methods and principles of humanities education in general and literary reading in particular. These valuable conclusions form the basis for at least one journal article and for future explorations in future projects. More generally, the project impacts EdUHK colleagues who are now aware of a major alternative form of blended learning and technology integration. Social annotation, we believe, is generally superior to online threaded discussions for many teaching purposes and contexts. This valuable conclusion supports and develops the university’s campaign to improve the scope and quality of blended learning in the years to come.
Deliverables:
Books/ Book Chapters/ Journal Articles/ Conference Papers
Clapp, J., DeCoursey, M., Lee, S. W. S., & Li, K. (2020). “Something fruitful for all of us”: Social annotation as a signature pedagogy for literature education. Arts and Humanities in Higher Education. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/1474022220915128 (https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/something-fruitful-for-all-o…)
Seminars/ Presentations/ Sharing Sessions
Clapp, J. M. (2019, October). Social Annotation and Humanities Education. Sharing at the departmental seminar of Department of Literature and Cultural Studies conducted at The Education University of Hong Kong. (Number of participants: 25)(https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/social-annotation-as-formati…)
Clapp, J. M. (2019, October). Open annotation and humanities education. Seminar conducted at the departmental seminar of Department of Literature and Cultural Studies, The Education University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China. (https://repository.eduhk.hk/en/publications/open-annotation-and-humaniti…)
Other Outputs
Clapp, J. M. (June 2020). “Formative Assessment in the English Literature Classroom.” Professional Development Programme of the Education Bureau of Hong Kong.
Financial Year:
2017-18
Type:
TDG