TWT2014+-+Using+SocialBook+in+the+Classroom

SocialBook enables students to work and think collaboratively in the margins of texts, audio and film.
Students at Dalton carry on a conversation in the margins of //One Hundred Years of Solitude//.



Dalton students discuss //Pedro Páramo //in SocialBook . The entire feature-length film is divided into chapters. Comments can be inserted at any point.



The following excerpt is from Children of the (Touch)screen by Sol Gaitan, Dalton (emphasis added).
A version of the paper is available in SociaBook [|here]. [Note: To read and comment on this in SocialBook, you'll need to use either Safari or Chrome on a notebook or desktop computer.]

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We used SocialBook to read large portions of the two parts of Don Quijote de la Mancha, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra (Vol 1, 1605/Vol 2, 1615). I loved the fact that we were reading the book that changed forever the way humanity writes, using software that may change forever the way humanity reads. The icing on the cake, as a teacher and early adopter, was to witness the nature and quality of the conversation that went on. Students were addressing each other by name, creating amazingly interesting threads, quoting from different parts of the book and from each other’s comments, and linking to some obscure medieval texts to illustrate and support their arguments. In all the years I have been using technology, this time I felt on par with my students and their times. This year the experiment has been even more rewarding. **The quality of class discussions has ascended to a level that I had never experienced before. Students have become intimate with the texts they are reading in a unique way because they are doing a closer reading than when they read a paper book**, since they are sharing their thoughts with the class. The unique thing is that they are truly interacting with each other while reading, highlighting segments that can vary from a sentence or a verse in a poem, to a paragraph, which was not the case with blogs. **As a result, they bring that experience to the classroom and our discussions revolve around an ongoing conversation that takes the class home and home to the class in a seamless way.** Homework has then taken on a lovely hue because we use it as the pivot of our class. =====