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In the process, HyLighter can improve individual and group performance across
domains, disciplines, and tasks. Through various practices, HyLighter can enhance
the quality of instruction, and develop proficient, strategic, higher-level thinkers, and
self-directed learners, who know when, why, where, and how to apply knowledge
and learning strategies across tasks and content areas (Lebow et al., 2008; Hartman,
2001a).
For over 5 years I have used Hylighter as a form of distributed learning, primar-
ily in teacher education courses: Psychology of Learning and Teaching, Child and
Adolescent Development (graduate), and Adolescent Learning and Development
(undergraduate and graduate). Dede (2002) defines “Distributed Learning” as edu-
cational experiences that combine face-to-face teaching with synchronous and
asynchronous mediated interaction. Students, preservice and in-service teachers,
used HyLighter for a variety of collaborative interactions including (1) analyzing
and discussing assigned articles and case studies, (2) connecting assigned readings
with course theories and concepts, (3) connecting course ideas and materials with
students' prior knowledge, backgrounds, and experiences, (4) integrating Internet-
based concept mapping with other hypermedia and multimedia environments, and
(5) analyzing, developing, and refining lesson plans.
Permission was obtained from publishers to upload and annotate documents in
HyLighter. Students were taught how to use this social annotation software in a
college multimedia lab where I provided assistance and feedback. This involved
making comments on ideas that were meaningful to them, they considered to be
important, or that raised questions, and making connections from course content
to their own prior knowledge, personal experience, beliefs, cultural background,
and their professional experiences. In some courses, instead of administering a final
exam, as a culminating experience and authentic assessment students presented their
HyLighter projects to the class using a Smartboard.
Annotating documents online is comparable to paper and pencil annotations in
which readers highlight text and make comments. Contributors use the cursor to
block the text they want to comment on and a comment box opens for their input.
HyLighter's editor allows contributors to include hyperlinks, color, insert pictures,
and modify or delete their comments. Users can also record and play audio anno-
tations. The Compare feature enables viewing others' comments with a unique
color-coding system: yellow reflects a segment of text that the user commented
on but no one else did (“mine”), blue reflects a segment commented on by one
or more other people but not the person doing the comparison (“theirs”), and green
reflects an overlap between self and others, meaning “we” marked up and com-
mented on the same segment of text (“ours”). With blue and green, the more people
who highlighted and commented on the same segment of text, the darker the color.
This color coding creates a cumulative distribution of multiple readers' intellectual
travels through a document. Readers can track their own journey through a docu-
ment or compare theirs with the teacher's (the expert) and their peers. See Fig. 21.1
(Lebow et al., 2008). The table format, organized by text segments, is an alternative
way to display highlighted text and comments, and is very useful for viewing the
“big picture” of responses.
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