There is a lot of legitimate discussion over whether hardware actually delivers (Larry Cuban, et al), but there can be little doubt that these annotation tools help learners and help teachers do the stuff of sharing that is at the heart of learning.
I highlighted Bud's CommentPress version of CCS in a blog post for the Kentucky Writing Project site on KWP Connect so I am very aware of that. I have commented and I wish that something like this had been available before they were implemented. Sighs all around. And I will be using that in a retreat this weekend with other teachers as we plan our summer tech academies. Thanks for the reminder. Annotating can serve as Bucky Fuller famously remarked as a trim tab for the future of CCS. Annotation as feedback not assessment, right? I go back to Bud's site at least once a week to see what others have noted there.
Katie McKay's voicethread is digital literacy at its best. If one's goal is to evoke an emotional response, these kids win. And more importantly they do it in a medium they understand and can share. How many learners of this age could get their point across as effectively as these guys and gals do with text alone? VoiceThreads is very learner friendly and can fold in other digital media as well as digital response tools.
I gave up on VoiceThread when they went all "paid" on me. Sad, too, but I didn't find the money to carry on... but now that you bring it up again, I may have 'found' some PD money to do it for a year. So...I will get that ball rolling up that hill again. Call me Sysiphus or Ishmael as you prefer. Perhaps, as you suggest, we can share a 'voicethread' as a response here?
As always Paul Allison breaks the mold. He did this screencast in 2005! He goes all 'meta' on us as he draws back to the ten-thousand foot view to demonstrate how audio and video commentary (just another form of annotation, right?) can be used to understand how a digital tool works. That is the power of wiki's, isn't it? They fairly scream out for historical analysis. It also occurs to me that etherpad-like collaborative tools do much the same thing with their 'timeline' function. Some pretty powerful video and audio annotations could be done using that tool, too. The combinations beg to be studied. Which is better text annotation to video/audio or audio/video to text? Yeah, that is a false dilemma, but you get the idea.
I love how you reference Digital IS Resources. I am seeing how others are creating their resources by looking at the sources you suggest. I see what you did there . I will be scouring others' resources in Digital IS to find some other examples before I go outside the boundaries.
Thanks, Christina. More grain to grind for the cake. I am looking for other examples right now. You will find them on the Diigo list I mentioned above.