Learning by annotating: A system development study of real-time synchronous supports for distributed learning in multiple locations

This paper presents an annotative system to facilitate a real-time, synchronous distributed-learning in multiple locations - the SynTag system. The system offers an ICT-mediated support for collaborative learning in both on-site and off-site environments via the technology of broadcasting, interactive tagging and dynamic chart. The assessment of the practical experiment recognizes that the system is able to frame an online, instant communicative social network for system-users in varying locations. System-users are encouraged to concentrate on learning materials at the meanwhile embed in the presented feedbacks of collaborative learning. The SynTag system offers an opportunity of multi-locational collaborative learning for groups and individual participants. The current system has been addressed in learning programs for around a year, and its practical experiments are embedded for revised developments.