Markup.io is a free service that gives you the ability to quickly draw and annotate on any webpage with no download or installation necessary. Markup.io runs simply as a bookmarklet within your web browser. After installing Markup.io you simply click it from within any webpage and start drawing or writing. When you are finished marking up the page, you click on publish. By publishing your drawing and annotating you essentially create a screen capture of the page. You can then share that image with others by distributing the URL.
Now What?
Markup.io is a very simple tool that can really help out in the classroom. One great way to get using today would be to demonstrate a note taking technique on a web based article. You could even create a homework assignment with questions using any webpage on the WWW. Students can use this tool to annotate over a site or circle words they don't know.
Hello cloud based sticky notes! Fetch Notes is a super simple site which allows you create notes on the web or via text/e-mail. It is definitely a no frills way to put your thoughts down on "paper". Using Fetch Notes you can create uncategorized notes or you can use hashtags to group notes together. For example, if I want to create a "to do" list (or my wife's list for me to do) I can use #todo in front of my notes and it will group all of those together. You can also use text messaging and e-mail to create or add to your notes too. One feature I found to be pretty cool was the ability to text the site and have your notes returned. If I wanted my #todo list sent to my phone I could text Fetch Notes fetch#todo and they would send me all of my notes with that hashtag. Pretty cool!
Now What?
Fetch Notes could be a great way for students to take notes in class and organize them in one location. Some students might like this service because of the text feature and the ability to recall notes via text. There will be a group feature coming shortly where notes will be able to be shared among a group of students.
Evernote is awesome...we all know that by now. As an educator it is a great way to organize all of the stuff that teachers need to organize (bookmarks, notes, lesson plans, forms, etc.) and then actually be able to go back and find it. You can even save audio, video, pictures and whatever else is on the web (or in your mind) and what's even better is that it syncs everywhere. I have been using Evernote now for about a year and I am constantly learning new ways to use it both professionally and personally (love having my shopping lists in the cloud). Recently, I installed the Google Chrome extension called Evernote Web Clipper which allows me to clip anything from the web directly into my Evernote notebooks. This is a must have Chrome extension.
Evernote Peek is the newest edition to Evernote's lineup (Skitch is also very cool) and it is a very handy app for students. Essentially the app turns your notebooks into flash cards in conjunction with the smart cover (they have since introduced a way to use it without the smart cover). Simple to use, you create a note with a question for the title and the body is the answer to that question. You can then study using that notebook on your iPad. Genius.
Now What?
If your students are using iPads in the classroom then I'm sure they have Evernote installed. This would be a great addition to that app and would allow students to create their cards right in class. If you aren't lucky enough to have a class set then you can share this app with your students and show them how to use it.
