Here is an excerpt from my upcoming book: Reading Workshop 2.0: Teaching Reading in the Digital Age about commenting on texts (coding and marking up) with digital apps.
Commenting
Using Apps on Mobile Devices
In addition to online, computer, and
browser based programs, there are numerous apps available for mobile devices
like smartphones and tablets that allow readers to highlight, comment on, and
aggregate a variety of digital texts, including books, PDFs, images, and
webpages. In general, these apps allow readers to import a text, highlight
specific sections, type or handwrite notes in the margins, aggregate these
highlights and notes, and share highlights and notes with other readers online.
For the past few years, I have been
trying out a variety of note-taking apps and have found Goodreader.com, Notes Plus,
and Penultimate to be the easiest apps
for importing texts (mainly PDFs) and adding highlights and comments. Depending
on whether you are on an Android, Apple, or other platform, these note-taking
apps offer similar features and capabilities and are easy to navigate once you
get used to them. There are many apps available to choose from in the iTunes
and Google Play stores online. Again, I suggest beginning with the basic or
free versions of these apps before investing in the full or premium versions.
Goodreader
seems to be the most advanced of these three apps, offering a range of
highlighting, annotation, and sharing features. Let me take you through how I have
used this app on my tablet (iPad) and offer some ideas for using these apps in
the classroom. I have used Goodreader
primarily to annotate and comment on PDF files of journal articles. In this
app, the main menu is accessible by tapping on the screen of my tablet and
offers the following capabilities:
- Highlight sections of text that can be
aggregated and share
- Add bookmarks to particular pages
- •
Attach annotations or comments that can be
aggregated and shared
- •
Create outlines of my notes in an attached file
- •
Search through the text of the document for
particular keywords
- •
Add arrows, boxes, circles and markers for
calling attention to sections of texts or images
- •
Compile notes and annotations into a file that
can be uploaded or emailed
The Goodreader app could easily
be used by students to take notes, add comments, and share highlighted sections
with other readers in a literature study group or for a research project. The sync features in Goodreader allows multiple readers to upload and share notes about
a document while reading it at different times, in different places.
Penultimate and Skitch are two more of my favorite note-taking and annotation apps.
Both of these mobile apps are part
of the Evernote suite of apps and
they sync with one’s Evernote account
for sharing highlights, comments, and screenshots. These apps allow me to
import a PDF version of a text, highlight it, add comments, draw arrows on it,
circle sections, and make margin notes. These apps require an Evernote account and offer basic and
premium versions for working with various documents and images.
Notes Plus, Paperport Notes, and Notability are additional note-taking
apps that can be used in a variety of ways to read, highlight, annotate, and
share ideas across readers and classrooms. In addition, many of these
note-taking apps allow readers to audio record lessons, make audio recordings
of their own ideas, take pictures of images and classroom presentations, and
share these files online. I recommend you start with the free versions of these
apps when available, play around with the various features offered on each app,
find one you like, and spend time getting to know its capabilities.