Teaching with AI and Annotations: A New Era of Critical Thinking?
As artificial intelligence continues to reshape higher education, instructors are navigating both excitement and uncertainty. Tools like ChatGPT and other generative AI platforms are becoming fixtures in the academic landscape—but how do we ensure they enhance learning, rather than replace it?
One powerful answer: pair AI with social annotation.
By combining these tools, educators can create learning environments that foster critical thinking, reflection, and collaboration—bringing the best of both human and machine intelligence into the classroom.
AI Is Changing the Way We Teach—And Read
AI is transforming the educational experience—from how students complete assignments to how they access, generate, and interpret information. But this transformation brings a key challenge:
How do we preserve—and strengthen—critical thinking in the age of AI?
While AI can accelerate tasks and offer support, it doesn’t naturally encourage deep reading or reflective dialogue. That’s where social annotation comes in. By slowing down the reading process and inviting peer-to-peer engagement, annotation can serve as a counterbalance to automation—keeping the human element at the center of learning.
5 Ways AI and Annotation Work Together to Strengthen Critical Thinking
1. Encouraging Active Engagement Over Passive AI Use
Generative AI can quickly produce summaries and answers—but it can also tempt students to disengage from the deeper thinking process. Annotation flips the script.
Asking students to annotate encourages active reading, original interpretation, and personal reflection—skills that AI can’t replicate.
2. Using Annotation to Evaluate AI-Generated Content
What if students annotated AI responses instead of relying on them? Instructors are already using Hypothesis to help students assess AI-generated content for accuracy, bias, and tone.
This transforms AI into a learning opportunity—where students become editors, evaluators, and critical readers of machine output.
3. Creating Space for Collaborative Meaning-Making
AI might be good at generating text—but it can’t engage in real dialogue. Social annotation enables students to respond to each other’s insights and build shared understanding.
It brings community and conversation into the reading process—something AI can’t do alone.
4. Helping Students Develop Media and AI Literacy
Critical thinking today means more than analyzing texts—it means evaluating sources, questioning algorithms, and understanding how information is shaped. Annotation supports all of this.
When students annotate news articles, scholarly sources, or AI outputs, they practice the skills that define digital and AI literacy.
5. Supporting Scaffolding in AI-Enhanced Assignments
Instructors are beginning to use AI as part of project-based or writing assignments—but students still need guidance and structure.
By asking students to annotate prompts, AI-generated drafts, or source texts, instructors can create a layered, reflective process that promotes metacognition and deeper learning.
Conclusion: Don’t Replace Thinking—Reinforce It
AI isn’t going away. But how we integrate it into our classrooms will shape what students learn—and how deeply they think.
By combining AI with social annotation, educators can spark richer conversations, reinforce critical thinking, and create learning environments that are thoughtful, collaborative, and future-ready.