Annotation Studio engages students in the process of interpreting literary texts and other humanities media documents by searching curated multimedia collections for relevant materials, posting comments, tagging, remixing, and sharing with other users – skills that today’s students have already acquired from the many hours they’ve spent interacting with peers on the Internet. Instead of skimming over difficult passages or being frustrated by them, students use our annotation tool along with their new-media skills to open up the texts their instructors assign. Instead of passively reading, they are actively discovering, annotating, comparing, sampling, illustrating, and representing. Courses in which Annotation Studio has been used include:
- Literature
- Composition
- Foreign Language
- History
- Classics
- Anthropology
- Media Studies
- Digital Humanities
Instructors report that their students, by using Annotation Studio, developed new approaches to critical thinking while honing the foundational skills of humanities research, writing, and presentation. Pedagogical objectives that Annotation Studio support include:
- Close reading: paying attention to details, not just broad themes or plot.
- Strengthening memory of texts read, with marked improvement of recall during discussions.
- Generating original material that can be developed into essays.
- Taking effective notes; quoting passages responsibly; citing sources.
- Developing arguments; making connections across texts; formulating questions.
- Developing a distinctive critical voice and confidence in one’s own opinions.
- Creating a community around reading, writing, and classroom discussion.