Annotating the World-Wide Web

Abstract

The World-Wide Web has the potential to significantly change the ways in whichstudents interact with texts, making them more active participants in their reading.Unfortunately, while many see the Web as promoting interaction, most pages provide relativelypassive modes of interaction, only permitting students to click on one of a series of links toselect what to read next. In this paper, we present one step toward making pages moreinteractive: a system that permits students to annotate arbitrary Web pages with notes, glosses,questions and comments; to share those annotations with their colleagues; and to developdiscussions through those annotations. The World-Wide Web has the potential to significantly change the ways in whichstudents interact with texts, making them more active participants in their reading.Unfortunately, while many see the Web as promoting interaction, most pages provide relativelypassive modes of interaction, only permitting students to click on one of a series of links toselect what to read next. In this paper, we present one step toward making pages moreinteractive: a system that permits students to annotate arbitrary Web pages with notes, glosses,questions and comments; to share those annotations with their colleagues; and to developdiscussions through those annotations.