Extension Elective2–3 hours (3 sessions)

Digital Walls & Civic Writing

This elective examines how the features of social media platforms function as annotation tools and how users' digital mark-making constitutes a form of civic writing. Quote tweets, hashtags, amended screenshots, reaction videos, stitches, and reply threads are all annotations — notes added to texts that circulate, contest, and construct meaning.

Designed for: Educators, students, digital literacy advocates, and social media users

1

Your Media Is Social Annotation

30–40 min

2

Case Study: #SharpieActivism and Beyond

35–45 min

3

Audit, Analyze, Compose

35–45 min

By the end of this elective, you will

Reframe social media features as annotation tools

Analyze how digital annotation enables counternarrative and community formation

Critically evaluate how algorithms shape whose annotations are amplified or suppressed

Compose civic digital annotation in response to a discourse you care about

Connection to core curriculum

Extends Course 5's Module 2 (Digital Walls & Platform Annotation) and Course 3's analysis of #SharpieActivism. Bridges Pathway B's critical focus with Pathway A's interest in digital tools.