Furthermore, even if readers do not engage in such explicit social behavior, they will often carry out a conversation with the text itself, such as questioning an author’s argument or agreeing with a particular section. From individuals sharing their perspectives in a book club to students discussing a particular passage in class, reading often involves a significant social component. “Text Annotation” (Wikipedia)Īlthough reading itself is often a solitary experience, taken more broadly, reading can nevertheless be viewed as a very social activity. And it looks as if that might be happening right now. And yet I’ve continued to hope that, in some not-too-distant future, e-reading will learn to take marginalia seriously. As readers, they disable the thing that, to me, defines reading itself. As John Dickerson recently put it on Slate, describing his attempt to annotate books on an iPad : “It’s like eating candy through a wrapper.” Although I’ve played with Kindles and iPads and Nooks, and I like them all in theory, I haven’t been able to commit to any of them. You can’t even write by hand in an e-book - at least not comfortably, not yet. The digital book - scentless, pulp-free, antiseptic - seems like a poor home for the humid lushness of old-fashioned marginalia. “What I Really Want is Somebody Rolling Around in the Text” (New York Times) Those interactions ultimately become part of the book too, a kind of amplified marginalia. Online, a book can be a gathering place, a shared space where readers record their reactions and conversations. Watch video » “With Social Reading Books Become Places to Meet” (The Chronicle of Higher Education) You can also layer in enrichment materials, assignments and quizzes-opening up almost limitless opportunities to engage students and foster analysis and writing skills.
Things to annotate with free#
Subtext is a free iPad app that allows classroom groups to exchange ideas in the pages of digital texts.
“Turn Any Book into a Digital Classroom” (Subtext, iPad application) Social reading activities may be done synchronously or asynchronously, depending on the task and circumstances. Collaborative online annotation offers a new kind of reading experience: instead of making notes in the margin of a book, readers can now share their reactions instantaneously and build a body of commentary about a text together. Social reading allows a group of users to annotate the same text together and to share their annotations with each other.
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