1. Evaluation of Google Notebook
As a part of our teams effort to explore and evaluate Google Applications, I examined
Google Notebook. The purpose of Notebook is to provide a space for users to clip and
collect information while surfing the web. My experience was very positive using the
application because it has a very simple interface similar to Google email. Notebook
allows you to type notes, copy and paste URLs or information from the web, organize
and create multiple notebooks on varying subjects and export notebooks to Google Docs
or export as HTML. You can also add comments on Notebooks to help continue the
organization of web information. As a whole, I did not experience any negative or
frustrating moments while using Google Notebook. I already had a Google account so
there were no problems logging in and I had immediate access to the application. If used
over an extended period of time, perhaps some negative attributes may be observed but
upon initial examination it seems to be a very easy to use tool.
Google Notebook could be especially helpful in the classroom by aiding in research
organization. I often see my students research notes scattered among multiple binders
and full of illegible lengthy URLs of web addresses they would like to revisit. Rather
than waste the time (and increase error for miscopying lengthy URLs) using Notebook as
a place to gather all web research into one location is a simple yet powerful
organizational tool. I was not aware that Notebook existed but I will certainly be sharing
it with my students as we embark on our final research project. It could be beneficial for
many different age groups with a research purpose in mind.
In order to use the tool in the classroom, students would need to be able to set up a
Google account and be somewhat practiced in web research. Because the tool is
designed to focus on information found surfing the web, students must have some basic
skills in collecting data for a purpose. Once notebooks are created, there are multiple
ways to share. Notebooks can be easily printed or exported to Google Docs. You can
also invite collaborators to view and edit a notebook by submitting an email address or
make the notebook a public web page. To encourage collaboration, Google Notebook
would be a great tool to use with small groups set to research similar topics. It can act
almost like a wiki in that each group member can have access to add and edit web content
to their notebook.
And the best part is that if you have internet access, the information is always there! I
can’t count how many times a group member who is responsible for holding group
documents may be absent from class leaving the other members of the group without
pertinent information. Housing group research on Google Notebook would prevent that
problem from infringing on productive class time.