Another Annotation Tool

I assign quite a bit of research and writing and I’m always looking for ways to engage learners more in that process.  A.nnotate, like the AwesomeHighlighter app I wrote about previously, would seem to be a tool to help support a more interactive and engaged researching and writing process.

A.nnotate lets you upload documents (PDF, .doc, .ppt, .xls, OpenOffice) or take snapshots of web pages,  add annotations to them, and invite others to do same.  The annotations take the form of highlighted text with colored text boxes floating on the page. Notes can be private or shared. You can even have both types of notes on the same document.   All notes and every doc/web snapshot are listed in your personal directory and you can search them via tag words.

The free version of A.nnotate gives you 150 credits a month which equals about 30 1-page PDF files or 15 web shots (or various combinations).  You also have the option to purchase more credits if you wish.

Highlight and Annotate Web Pages

Several times a week, I point people to specific web pages with interesting tidbits of information.  Generally, I have to say something like “check out the third sentence in paragraph 2″  to direct them to the right spot.  Of course, I could just copy/paste the text in question, but then the context of that text is lost.  I could also just pdf the page and then annotate it with the markup tools in Adobe Acrobat but it’s not very convenient and, since many people don’t have the full version, I don’t like to promote that as a strategy. So, I was happy to find Awesome Highlighter.

This tool lets you highlight specific info on a web page and even add notes. Then, you simply send the provided link to whomever you wish.  Here’s an example of this blog highlighted and annotated with Awesome Highlighter.  To create the highlights, you simply visit the awesome highlighter web page, enter the url of the page you wish to highlight.  The page opens and the highlighter and note tools are there for you to mark up the page as you will.  Once you’re finished, you’re given a URL to share that has your notes and highlights.   If you’re a Firefox user, you can add a plugin to your browser so that you can access the tools easily without going to the Awesome Highlighter web page.

I can see students using this to share research and faculty using it to emphasize certain areas of web resources they provide.  Plus, the notes tool could be used by faculty or students to ask questions, add more information,  add counter-arguments to  content found in the site, etc.