Projects

I love technology (when it works), and I frequently have ideas on how to implement technology for various ends. This space is where I’ll (eventually) put up details about projects I would like to pursue and how I’m attempting them.

Project #1: Annotated text library

  • Purpose: To provide a place for students, teachers, and other lovers of literature to engage texts through web annotations
  • Explanation: One thing I have always felt strongly about is promoting student response to literature. I also observed in a first-year writing course that many students were aggravated by some professors’ requirement to make marks in their books; the professors wanted to see evidence of thorough and critical reading, while the students wanted to keep their books clean so they could sell them back to the local bookstore. The first thought I had: Why not use technology to accomplish this purpose? After all, we have things like e-paper that allow for layers of information; this should be within the range of possibility. At the same time, it ought to be possible for teachers to use this capability to their advantage: to see how students layer their own responses with the literature, thereby creating a new text (which was consequently another thing that the aforementioned students had difficulty grasping). Even better yet would be the ability to allow classrooms to network their own multi-layered texts. Thus my idea was born.
  • Details: The annotated text library would be a user-generated site that would allow users to upload texts that are in the public domain (to prevent copyright infringement) and then leave annotations on those texts that would be tied to their username (and could be made identifiable in groups, e.g. “Mr. Broaddus’ Post-Colonial Annotations”). Users would also be able to view other users’ annotations (provided those users have not made them private) and see a full multi-layered presentation of responses to a given text. Users would also be able to send links of their annotations (either by user or by groups) to others, who can see those annotations. This would allow teachers to have students create annotations and submit them to a group (e.g. “Mr. Broaddus’ 2009 English III – The Minister’s Black Veil“), which then could be retrieved to ensure that students have engaged the text thoughtfully and used during instruction (if the appropriate projection capability exists in the classroom) to prompt discussion using students’ responses. Remote classrooms that are studying the same works could then pair up and provide responses for the other class to discuss, extending the classroom beyond the physical space.
  • Tech stuff: Such a system would need to be relatively browser-compliant (at least Internet Explorer 6+, Firefox 2+, and Safari 2+). (This annotation script is a great model and claims to be compliant in these browsers.) It would need to include at least the following features:
    • user registration functionality;
    • login/password reset;
    • personalizable preferences settings;
    • upload/text entry options for original texts;
    • AJAX support for annotations;
    • “friendly” URLs for sharing annotation views;
    • the capability to toggle between global, individual, and personal views for annotation-text viewing; and
    • an annotation grouping functionality.

To send comments or suggestions, please contact me here.