Comments on: Annotated Zotero Group Bibliography Assignment

By: Final Version of the Annotated Zotero Group Bibliography « Brian Croxall

Final Version of the Annotated Zotero Group Bibliography « Brian Croxall — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:17:50 +0000

[...] just wanted to post a quick note in a follow-up to last week’s post about my Annotated Zotero Group Bibliography assignment. I’ve finished the assignment, which [...]

By: Billie

Billie — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:22:45 +0000

Brian, this is great! I would agree with others and say “yes” to all three of your questions. I’ve done a similar assignment in many of my classes, and I *do* require books. Students can learn the art of the “power read” if the book is long. But, as you know, there is significant skill involved in parsing a book into a one-paragraph (or so) annotation.

By: Ben Miller

Ben Miller — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 03:11:07 +0000

While I agree that you don’t want your bibliography to be 60% the same text reposted, it may be a teachable moment if students find themselves *wanting* to post the same texts: what is it that’s so appealing (or easily findable) about those sources? Since Zotero allows you to tag individual notes (and not just the sources they refer to), you could allow students to fulfill one of their two texts by significantly expanding an existing annotation. Then you’d be encouraging students to check the library before going ahead, but you’d also allow a more multi-voiced commentary on the most popular sources than a strict first-come, first-served policy.

Really excited about this application of the Zotero beta; looking forward to hearing how it plays out!

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 20:53:34 +0000

Thanks all for your comments.

@Rachael There isn’t really a mechanic for enforcing the only two students per source rule that is built into Zotero. They will just have to police themselves. I wanted to add this since the last time I taught this class, 2/3 of the class read similar articles (almost all of the about House of Leaves, which they loved). If they turn the bibliographies in on paper, that can work, but when there is so much sharing going on, it seemed risky.

@Melissa I think we’ll be able to avoid triggering the need to purchase Zotero storage space, but that’s not something I’d even tought about.

@Mark Thanks for the link (although it’s evidence that you’re ahead of my game yet again). I’m going to adapt some of your language to improve mine at this point. I like the three tiers to the assignment, but I also want them to read more things closely.

By: Amy Earhart

Amy Earhart — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:33:53 +0000

Great idea and thanks for sharing. I’ve developed a similar assignment with COLLEX, but I like the idea of a shared library.

By: Mark Sample

Mark Sample — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:19:40 +0000

For what it's worth, here was my most recent annotated bibliography assignment using Zotero. I use a tiered method, so as not to overwhelm students, but if you have three separate due dates, at the end of every unit, I don't think you need the tiers; students should be able to handle two sources per unit. I would tend to have them stick with articles rather than books; the field moves too fast for books, and students can get a better sense of an ongoing conversation from recent journals. I do like that you have the students tag their names; this is something I forgot to do, and once the citations are in Zotero groups, it's cumbersome to figure out who uploaded what.

By: Melissa Sexton

Melissa Sexton — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 13:32:25 +0000

Yes to all three of your questions above. This looks great, Brian! Excited to hear how it turns out. I tried to do something similar with my class last semester, only with using images from MARBL. We ran into a glitch, however, in that we were asked to purchase group space as we were going along. So, if this is only text based, I guess you’ll be fine but there are still lots of glitches in Zotero that I found to be frustrating for our group purposes.

By: Rachael

Rachael — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 07:00:37 +0000

A networked/public annotated bibliography is a great idea that promises to make an otherwise drab assignment into a relevant and meaningful task. I have tried that in the past using (gasp) WebCT/Blackboard discussion boards, but Zotero seems much more suited to sharing research – obviously. I do think that six entries at two paragraphs each seems a bit heavy for one deadline, so I like the idea you suggest, of having one due date per unit. Though this might increase your workload in doing multiple checks to see who has met each due date. To say “a particular source may be posted only once and by only one student,” I can’t envision the logistics of enforcing that stipulation, but I understand why you would want it. I am not a frequent Zotero user, so maybe there is some trick I don’t know about. Thank you for sharing this assignment.