Marginal Syllabus has been sponsoring ‘flash mob annotations’ since August 2016. Good on ’em.I have participated in a few of them, mostly after the fact. They are of intrinsic value, but I wish they were more playful. I wish they were more ‘mob-like’ and unruly as if people actually had skin in the game. I wish they didn’t seem more like classroom assignments. Mostly, I would love for the ‘mob’ to clean up their mess afterwards or recycle it or best all tranmute it.
What I mean by that is that I want folks to go beyond generating a passel of noisy annotations that only languish in the margins of digital forever. In fact I think that if no one is willing to honor the occasion of a flash mob with a better and more useful signal, then we should archive the annotations somewhere and then expunge the notes. Otherwise we are guilty of adding more noise to an already noisesome and chaotic information niche.
Below is a Hackpad with all of the textual annotated material enclosed. I will be adding the other pics, gifs and video back in as best I can this week. What could we do with this? Perhaps we can wikify the comments (Hackpad is particularly handy at that) or copy over to another pad and curate the best comments. Or maybe we can generate poetry or collaborative work in other areas. Howsabout if we just thought of the hackpad as a wormhole that we can fly through to other parts of the digital universe, other habitable planets or galactic marvels like binary stars and black holes–a larger sandbox where more creative work can be carried on.
I know. This doesn’t fit in with the standard operating procedure of tenured production: if you can’t put it into your tenure portfolio, then it doesn’t exist. If so, then step aside and let those from other realms (K-12, adjunct faculty, concerned outsiders, students of all ages) carry the day.
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Thanks for the article, and the time/effort required to copy all of the annotations into the hackpad. I agree with your concern about “adding more noise to an already noisesome and chaotic information niche”. Just following your invitation and reading through the hackpad today took nearly an hour of time I might have spent elsewhere.
However, it’s valuable time. A couple of reasons.
a) I’m learning from what I read, and anotating makes me read closer. It duplicated the yellow highlighter I use with traditional books. More importantly, it shares what I’ve highlighted with others, and it created an archive I can build of readings that I’ve highlighted
b) I’ve been trying to bring people together around existing research, on line youth program directories, etc. for over 20 years, with the goal of building more consistent involvement, by more people, in efforts that expand learning and mentoring supports for youth in high poverty areas, in programs designed for long-term support as kids move through school and toward adult lives …and jobs. As I participate in the annotations and #clmooc events, I keep trying to serve as a “bridge” that others can cross into the ideas you’re all sharing, and the tools you’re using.