marginalia enhancing the moodle discussion forum
DESCRIPTION
Marginalia (http://www.geof.net/code/annotation/) is an award-winning open source Web annotation tool integrated into Moodle discussion forum. It allows users to highlight passages of text and type notes in the margin of a post, as with a paper book. Furthermore, a user can choose to share the notes with others in a forum. By making annotations in a discussion forum, participants are better able to mark up points for follow up, summarize the dialogue, and make further contributions based on what they have read. This presentation describes the design of Marginalia, explains the pedagogical considerations behind its design, illustrates how it can be used in online classrooms, and shares our initial research findings.TRANSCRIPT
Bridging Past and Present: Marginalia as an Enhancement
to Moodle Discussion Forums
Cindy Xin & Geoffrey Glass
[email protected], [email protected]
Simon Fraser University
Canadian Moodle Moot, Edmonton, April 1 - 4, 2009
“A record, if it is to be useful to science, must be continuously extended, it must be stored, and above all it must be consulted.” (p.3)
Vannevar Bush in AS WE MAY THINK, The Atlantic Monthly, July 1945
Why Marginalia?
Why the Moodle forum?
A poll –
Have you used any Web annotation system?
Other web annotation systems
Annotea
Diigo
How Marginalia is different?
Discussion page
Summary page
What have we learned?
How is Marginalia used and for what purpose?
What kind of conversations or social interactions, if any, does Marginalia foster?
In what ways, if any, does it support re-visitation and reflection in online dialogue?
Research Questions
Observations from three online classesClass one: a fourth year undergraduate
class in philosophy
Class two: a graduate class in educational technology
Class three: a graduate class in e-learning research and practice
Quantitative usage analysis
Content analysis on conference posts and annotations
Semi-structured interviews
Methods
Usage
Results
Class Duration
# of Participants
# of Messages
# of Annotations
Philosophy
2 wks 11 25 84
Edtech 2 hrs 17 18 45
E-learning 2 wks 6 45 178
User experience – intuitive and unobtrusive
Results (cont’d)
Usefulness o to index and recallo to think and reflecto to clarify and explain, and o to share and communicate
Results (cont’d)
Private vs. public use
Results (cont’d)
From “thought graffiti” to “nods on the side”
Results (cont’d)
1.Marginalia makes interaction more conversational.
2.Reading becomes active, blurring the line with writing.
3.Past was revisited and brought into present. This creates a “rolling present.”
4.Marginalia creates a new temporal and spatial order in forums and offers new possibilities for social and intellectual engagement.
Discussion
The quote function
Different online pedagogies for utilizing Marginalia
Further development for specific research and pedagogical goals
Future Directions
