Wednesday, October 9, 2013

Classmint: An option for note-taking and sharing

No matter the technology or latest educational catch-phrase, students need to be able to take notes, write things down, organize their thoughts, explain answers, etc. In the past, paper/pencil was the only option, now, however, there are many options out there to help students take notes. Classmint.com is a great note-taking tool for students and teachers to use. With classmint, you can take notes about a topic and virtually "fold" the note over to cover up the writing part, to allow you to see if you can remember what you wrote about the certain topic. You can share these notes, which would allow the teacher to get notes to students who may need a little extra help. Sharing them online is key because then they can't "get lost" and the student can access them. Classmint will also read the notes to you. Classmint allows you to upload documents from your computer as well. If we ever get 1:1 in this district, this could be a very useful tool in taking notes for students. 
 I have posted an example of classmint notes below. If you click on the link, you will see some "notes" that I made about the rise of Mesopotamia as a powerful civilization. I would provide this to my students as a review tool, as we have already discussed these "events" of Mesopotamia. The students can click "fold" and the note will fold over so the "answers" are covered up. Some might say, "Why can't they just use their paper? Why do we need this?" The answer is simple: the ability to share and edit together is a big thing. Also, having the "notes" on the internet makes it easily accessible anywhere, even on the way to practice or grandma's house. Check out classmint and perhaps you could find a couple other ways to use this in your classroom and help to integrate more technology into your curriculum.

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