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Google Notebook
If you spend a lot of time online, chances are you've come across information you wish you could revisit later, whether to digest it more slowly, investigate it further, or share it with a friend or colleague. With Google Notebook, you can browse, clip, and organize information from across the web in a single online location that's accessible from any computer. Crafting a lesson plan? Researching a topic? Just add clippings to your notebook. You don't even have to leave your browser window.
To try it out, simply sign in to the Google Notebook homepage with your Google Account username and password, then download the Google Notebook browser extension. As soon as you restart your browser, you'll see a Google Notebook icon in the bottom-right corner of your browser window. Click on this icon to open your mini Google Notebook, where you can save clips of any online content that interests you.
With Google Notebook, you'll be able to:
- save clippings from sites around the web so you can access them later
- annotate your clippings by adding your own thoughts or comments
- organize clippings into different notebooks or in sections within a single notebook
- search the full text of your own notebooks and any public notebooks
- invite specific collaborators to contribute to your notebook -- just click on the "sharing options" link in the top right-hand corner of your Google Notebook and enter the email addresses of the people you'd like to share it with
- share the information in your notebook with everyone -- once inside "sharing options," select "publish this notebook" to make your Notebook public
For step-by-step instructions, take a look at the Google Notebook tour.
For instance, when building a lesson plan, you might clip and save relevant tidbits of information or links you'd like to refer to. You can create a separate notebook to plan your activities for an upcoming conference. If you're collaborating on a project with a colleague, you can use a shared notebook to work together in real time as you assemble references and notes. You could even create a notebook to keep track of interesting Google Group discussions you've participated in, so you can find and reference them later.
In class, your students can use Google Notebook to document where they're finding information while completing a Webquest. Teams of students working on group projects can keep track of online sources, such as books they find through Google Book Search, in their shared notebooks. And if they share it with you, you can annotate the clippings, letting them know what you think of the sources they've selected.
Teachers speak out
 "I'm using it as my online notebook; I've got different areas for different apps and thoughts. I'm finding it particularly useful right now in conjunction with Google Groups. Since I receive posts in digest form and there is no way to single out a single post to refer to later, I simply select the post and click 'note this' to paste it into the appropriate section of my notebook. References to the ongoing discussion of our locations in Google Earth goes in my Google Earth section. Things I want to look into further go into my 'Check It Out' section. I'm telling ya...if you haven't opened your Google Notebook yet, you're missing out! The BEST part is that I can access it from ANY computer ANYWHERE at ANY time. I no longer have to worry about 'schlepping' my hard copies around or walking around w/a permanent slouch in the left shoulder from all the weight."
Nancy Sharoff, Math Teacher |
