Websites of the Week: Note-taking Tools

Study smarter, not harder!

This week we are focusing on great websites for note-taking.  Change the way you keep track of notes by using one of these online resources.  With online notes, you always have a backup, and easy access (as long as you have an Internet connection.)

Noodle Tools

NCS has a school-wide subscription to Noodle Tools, a great note-taking and citation tool.  Anytime you come to the library, you've probably heard about this tool as part of our instruction.  Noodle Tools allows you to easily create MLA and Turabian bibligoraphies.

Over the summer, Noodle Tools was updated to provide more features, making it easier to link notes to sources and class projects.  The NCS librarians look forward to integrating more of these new tools into our instruction.

If you haven't already done so, make sure to create a personal Noodle Tools account by following the instructions in our Tips In a Minute Series on NoodleTools. Updates to these videos will be coming soon!

Evernote

Evernote is Mr. Chase's organization and note-taking application of choice.  Evernote is a web-based service that also has applications for Mac, PC, iPhone and Android.  To get started with Evernote, simply create an account, create folders, and begin taking notes.

In addition to traditional typed notes, Evernote also lets you easily copy entire webpages, upload PDFs and other documents to a note, add images, and even forward email messages to your Evernote account.

Watch this quick video to learn more about how Evernote works.

Diigo

Diigo is a web-based highlighting, screen-capturing, and note-taking tool.  It's a great way to highlight text and add sticky notes directly on web pages in order to save them later.  Like Evernote, in order to use Diigo, you need to create an account, download a bookmarklet to your Internet browser, and then begin research.


To learn more about Diigo, watch the video on the Diigo homepage.

Voicethread - The New Training for "Teaching Tools on Your Time"

As part of the NCS Library’s "Teaching Tools on Your Time" series, we are hosting a new Alternative Presentation Tools training session on one of the hottest new sites in education:  Voicethread.

What is Voicethread?

Voicethread is a unique collaborative presentation application, kind of like a PowerPoint that encourages users to comment upon each slide.  Instead of "slides," however, you can add multiple kinds of content, including videos, images, text documents and more.

It may be hard to think of how you might use this service in the classroom at first, but many educators are using Voicethread to great effect.

• Create a collaborative study guide, with audio comments to lead a discussion
• Have students use a private Voicethread to collaborate on a project from different locations.  Each student can comment upon one particular slide, all as part of a group project.
• Narrate your PowerPoint lessons, encouraging students to comment upon ideas or topics raised.

Each time a user comments on a Voicethread, their comment is added to the end of a playlist.  This way you can "watch" a voicethread in a way similar to a Youtube video.  It's incredibly easy to create a Voicetherad, and even easier to comment upon a previously-created Voicethread.

Schedule a Training

To set up a time for training, email Chip Chase and list your available times.

We are still training users on Glogster, so if you'd like to learn how to use that website, let us know.

Also, if there is a specific technology tool that you would like to implement in your classroom, but not covered in our Teaching Tools on Your Time website, please let us know and we'd be glad to help provide training for you or your students.

Previous Posts

• Announcing Library Training Series: "Teaching Tools On your Time" - Glogster

Websites of the Week - Create a Dynamic Homepage

For this week's Websites of the Week, we are focusing on Dynamic Homepages!

What's your Internet Browser Homepage?  Do you use the NCS Website?  Yahoo?  Google?

Consider making one of these dynamic websites your homepage: Symbaloo, iGoogle, Netvibes, or Pageflakes.

These websites were created specifically with the thought of being a personal homepage.  Many offer the ability to add your own websites and widgets.  Getting access to your important websites might become a whole lot easier!

Symbaloo

Symbaloo is a great site that allows you to organize your favorite websites by topic, using iPhone-like icons, which the site calls "tiles" to access links.  You can easily customize tiles by dragging and dropping them around your page, creating new tiles from your favorite bookmarks, color-coordinating tiles by subject, and more. 

Create a free account to set up your own Symbaloo page.  You can easily make this your homepage on home and school computers.

iGoogle

iGoogle allows you to create your own customized "skin" over the Google search page we've all come to know and love.  Instead of just a simple Google search, you can add your own widgets to get more use out of the page.

Choose a background theme, add customized widgets, like the NYT news feed, Gmail and Google Reader feeds.  Or follow your favorite blogs and websites directly on this page. (Subscribe to the NCS Library blog and get all these great tips directly on your Internet Browser Homepage!)

Netvibes

Netvibes lets you create a personal dashboard by choosing varied widgets and content-channels from dropdown menus. You can easily add news feeds that interest you, and even pre-created feeds regarding certain topics.  Netvibes also allows you to add multiple homepages through tabs, and keep track of other user-created sites.

Pageflakes

Pageflakes is very similar to Netvibes.  It allows you to easily create portals of varied content by selecting modules from drop-down menus. You can easily add widgets, and even pre-created feeds regarding certain topics.  Pageflakes also allows you to add multiple homepages through tabs, and keep track of other user-created Pageflakes.

Printing from the Thin Clients

In order to add a printer to the Thin Clients in the library, or in Hearst Hall, watch the video below. Note: there is no sound.

Wireless Network Now Available in the Library

The wireless Internet connection is now available in the Library.  If you need to connect to the network with a personal computer, please see Mr. Rentz or Mr. Chase.

Thanks to the tech department for their hard work!