Social Annotation for Power Negotiation

Julie Rosenthal,Emily Carlisle-Johnston,Timothy Turriff

doi:10.18357/otessac.2021.1.1.43

Abstract

Social annotation and role-play are two pedagogical approaches that promote active, student-centred learning. In this paper, we report on how the two approaches were combined in a senior-level university course that aimed to reveal the multiple dimensions and complexity of policy development and decision-making for natural resource management. We begin with a review and analysis of social annotation and role-play as teaching strategies. We then describe their combined implementation in the senior-level course—including reflections from the course instructor and a student in the class—while situating our reflections within the context of an existing framework for critical social annotation. We conclude that when implemented together, and with careful preparation and clear expectations of student conduct, the complementary strengths of social annotation and role play offer unique opportunities to subvert hegemonic models of knowledge production and exchange. The addition of students’ role-played annotations enabled us to redefine whose knowledge and experience are worthy of consideration by giving voice to students as authorities alongside authors of texts and by filling in gaps in the perspectives presented in texts.

Highlights

Social annotation leverages collaborative technologies to help students make sense of texts alongside peers
Some scholars question the potential for social annotation to subvert power structures around knowledge creation and authority without simultaneously reinforcing problematic power differentials (Bali et al, 2020; Brown & Croft, 2020)
In reflecting on our pairing of role-play with social annotation we address considerations introduced in Brown and Croft’s (2020) framework for critical social annotation, organized around the pedagogical concepts of: learning space, participant power, and knowledge creation

Summary

Introduction

Social annotation leverages collaborative technologies to help students make sense of texts alongside peers. Social annotation is considered an open educational practice, in that it often uses open content and technologies, centres collaborative learning, and enables students to “shape the . Social annotation enables students to co-construct knowledge and negotiate power structures that traditionally privilege authors and teachers over readers and students. We engage with Brown and Croft’s (2020) framework while sharing how we paired social annotation and role-play—both student-centered pedagogies that empower students to contribute to their own and others’ learning (O’Neill & McMahon, 2005)—to create a learning space where students challenged traditional knowledge authorities by “talking back” to texts from diverse perspectives. Addressing the dearth of literature that documents the combination of role-play with social annotation, we propose that the two practices are complementary, especially in disrupting hegemonic knowledge

Literature Review

Conclusion