Sunday, April 22, 2012
Digital Notes: Combine Readability & Google Docs
One of my favorite tools to share with students and teachers is Readability. This handy bookmarklet tool scrubs webpages clean of distractions by eliminating the ads and creating a more readable version of digital text. By itself, it's a really useful tool for students, but when combined with Google Docs, it can be part of an effective and efficient method for taking digital notes.It's important to note that the strategy offered here is not meant to replace traditional methods of note-taking. Rather, it is meant to be one of many note-taking strategies that can be introduced to students throughout the year as they engage in frequent everyday research experiences. If the goal of research is to find information, use it and properly cite sources, then introducing students to multiple strategies and allowing them to take flexible learning paths will help them become independent researchers and life long learners.
Risk Free Ways to Try Digital Notes:
- Content related article reviews
- Sharing current events
- Preparing a script for a podcast or narrated slideshow
How To Combine Google Docs and Readability for Digital Note-Taking
Friday, April 13, 2012
SlideRocket Sample: Cool Tools for Vocabulary
As someone who creates and shares presentations frequently, I'm excited to add SlideRocket to my tech toolkit of cloud-based presentation tools. It's slick, collaborative and available for free with a Gmail or Google Apps for Educators account. A refreshing change from Google Presentation, SlideRocket is feature-rich and fast. Here are a few of my favorite features:
- Vivid themes
- A sophisticated Inspector Panel which includes opacity and pinpoint rotation of images, text and videos
- Access to stock photography or options to upload your own images
- Embedded video
- Fun plugins which include a real-time Twitter feed.
If you decide to try this tool yourself, remember to be diligent about saving. I did experience some problems with this, perhaps because I've gotten spoiled by not having to save a Google Presentation, or perhaps because I kept getting logged off due to inactivity, but it is something to note:
I'm a newbie with this tool, but I'm sharing a quick presentation I put together to guide a recent webinar, Cool Tools for Vocabulary.
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