Note Taking and Annotation Made Better For All

    It’s no secret that pen and paper has been on its way out for some time now, but that doesn’t change the fact that we tend to scribble down random notes so that we can remember to email our teacher and fellow classmates about questions we have from the readings. What if we could somehow simplify the process and make things easier for teachers, students and all others? There’s a program that I was recently introduced to and I thought that it’s worth sharing so others can know what kind of direction educational technology and note taking is going. The program is called NB and is an annotation taking tool developed by the Haystack Group at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

    How it works essentially is let’s say that the class book or readings are posted online in a PDF file and everyone in the class including the teacher, the teaching assistant and the students have access to the file(s). After reading through the material, if the student has a question, they would usually try to send over an email to the teacher or classmates in hopes of trying to make understanding of something they read. This method does work, but there’s many variables that can keep the process from going smoothly. Unchecked or multiple emails that can be missed, etc. One of the many things that NB can do is allow it’s users to post notes directly to the readings themselves. Not only can the instructor see the note, but the fellow students can as well. They can answer the question that you have and there’s even features such as a voting option. Is there a question that seems multiple people have, but nobody has an answer to? A voting type option can be created where it can be voted on by users and it’s made much easier for the instructor to see it first before other questions that may not have scored as high. And let’s not leave out the teachers on this one. They can, for example, use the annotations as a way to make sure the students have read the material. They could require the students to make a certain amount of annotation posts as either questions or answers to fellow classmates questions, etc. It’s a win/win for all involved.

   These are just a few of the many available options for teachers and students to take advantage of. On top of that, new features and options are in current development and will be eventually added in. In my opinion, I feel that NB could be a very powerful and useful addition to those who choose to use it. The ease and simplicity of compiling reading, annotation and group work/socializing into one online location should be very enticing. When you factor in what NB can do, it’s no surprise that pen and paper is fading away just that much more.