Module 2 highlights the importance of connection and community in distributed education. Part of this is creating opportunities for social and cognitive interaction, allowing learners (and instructors!) to think together. One technique for this is Social Annotation, which is a process of reading and annotated on a text collaboratively within a group. The basis of social annotation is that learning can be enriched by reading and thinking through information together. It can help learners understand the ideas in the text more deeply and understand how others think and deconstruct information.

For this activity, you will participate in the social annotation of the Cronin article. To participate, you will need to create a Hypothes.is account. Click here to join the EDCI339 community (https://hypothes.is/groups/d63oj3B4/edci339-fall2022).

Then you can access the Annotated version of the Cronin article here (https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.lancaster.ac.uk%2Ffss%2Forganisations%2Fnetlc%2Fpast%2Fnlc2014%2Fabstracts%2Fpdf%2Fcronin.pdf&group=d63oj3B4).

To Annotate:

  • Read the text.
    • Highlight and comment on any passages that spark ideas for you.
    • Highlight and comment on any passages that raised questions for you.
    • Highlight and comment on any passages that you didn’t agree with or that you think is worthy of critique.
    • Highlight and comment on anything that is of interest or that stands out for you.
  • Read your peer’s comments.
    • Respond to comments that you agree with or disagree with. Or ask additional questions if the comments raised questions for you.
    • Respond to questions if you have an answer or idea that may help clarify. Or if you have related questions of your own.

Social annotation is an iterative process where the comments and discussions become part of the text. You will need to return to the text overtime to see how the discuss evolves. This activity will run from Thursday, September 29th to Friday, October 7th.

In your Learning Portfolio, you will reflect on Social Annotation as a practice – how did the discussion change the way you read the text? How did it impact your understanding of the text and the impact it had on your critical thinking? You may include screenshots or quotations from the comments – make sure to proper cite your peers.

Make sure to also include a short self-reflection on why you chose this activity, how it aligned with your learning goals, and what you learned through the research that you completed.