A Notable Addition to MCS Chromebooks

A Notable Addition to MCS Chromebooks

Hi everyone! My name is Will Herring & I’m the newest member of the Moore County School’s Digital Integration Facilitation team. During my second week on the job, one of MCSs’ outstanding APUSH teachers asked if there was an app in the Moore@School Google App Store that would allow his students to 1) annotate and 2) collaborate in PDF files. To prepare for the AP test he needs to have students practice with document based questions (DBQ’s) that can run upwards of 8-10 pages per student. If such an app was available, teachers could save thousands of copies (and time), expose their students to a wider range of resources, and give them powerful tools to activate critical reading, thinking, and peer editing skills.

Enter Notable PDF to the Google Marketplace. Notable is available as either an App or extension in Google Chrome. Import PDF’s individually with “Open As” or set Notable as your default viewer. Connect with real-time collaborators with the “link” icon in the top right corner of your screen. Once you have the document you need, there are two options for annotation;

Highlight & Comment: Choose the “highlight” icon in the top right of the screen, select the color you want, and select text you want to annotate. When you release the mouse, a comment box will automatically appear on the right-hand column.

O Target & Comment: Double click on the document where you would like to add a notation. A “target”  placeholder will stay there and a comment box will appear in the right-hand column.

I can see a place for this app for collaborative idea development, peer review/feedback (but not replace Docs), and resource analysis. I’m really looking forward to see how our foreign language and visual arts teachers figure out how to use this tool.

Maybe the greatest feature for my logistics oriented mind is that Notable will work offline and upload when the student returns to a WiFi enabled area. This is so important for those students without access away from school.