Cool Tech Tool: Google Notebook

Notebooks and note cards have been used for years to summarize, organize, and track cited references. When using the Internet, it has always seemed a little inefficient to go from electronic references to hand-written notes, only to type content back into electronic text. I have been using Google Notebook for about four weeks and think it has great potential to help students accurately organize and cite Internet resources.

For example, a student locates information on a website relevant to their research topic. They highlight text or images they would like to "clip," right-click, and choose "Note this (Google Notebook) from the pop-up menu.

The highlighted information is automatically transferred to the student's account along with the website address and the date the note was created. The Notebook can be viewed on any computer with Internet access. Do you have students submit their note cards with their report? Google Notebook allows users to make their note pages public or print in an easy-to-read format (sample).