September 28, 2007

Marginally Better: Software Uses Side Notes to Turn Books Into Discussions

By BROCK READ

Adding notations to digital texts creates a new conversation among students and teachers

This fall, a student in Trevor Dodge's "Seven Deadly Sins" course asked the professor a tricky question about Dante's Inferno. Why does a work so obsessed with the afterlife make such infrequent use of words like "God" and "Lord?"

As she made the inquiry, the student at Pacific Northwest College of Art, highlighted a specific paragraph deep in the poem's eighth canto — a rare

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