By Kelly Geigner, TEC 546

What is it?  Nota is a collaboration tool similar to an online whiteboard. Multiple users can work together to design their nota board with colors, images, pen marks, text, and built in shapes.  Nota boards can have multiple pages, and can be made public or private.  Nota boards can easily be shared via blogs, embedded into sites, or printed.

How can it be used?  The same way teachers have been having students make “posters” for years…only now it can be done instantly online with multimedia features.  Examples include:  “About me” posters  Reports on historical figures  Diagrams and explanations, “how-to”  Infographs  Organizing thoughts and brainstorming for a project

Isn’t there something like that online already?  Yes. What makes Nota unique is its simplicity. Nota is not designed for business use, and is not as feature rich as Glogster, which some teachers will find attractive.Glogster,  Nota is free of advertisements.  Nota has minimal text to read, which is ideal for low-level readers and ESL students.  Nota lets you easily search creative commons photos from flickr and add them instantly.flickr  Nota lets you add video, wikipedia info, and more.

4 Unique Ways to Use Nota 1. Have students create a profile of a famous person they admire, but DO NOT include the name of the person anywhere. Have other students guess the person and why the student found them interesting. 2. Use Nota as a survey keeper; share the board with students in a group and have them paste information to it. 3. Have teachers in the building create a teacher profile to paste on the school website for new students to see. 4. Have students choose a business, park, or location in their home town and create a board about it. Share the boards on the class website and direct local visitors to learn more about that location.

How much does it cost?  Nota is entirely free!  Nota is web based and runs on PCs or Macs.  Nota requires flash, and therefore will not run on the iPad at this time.  Registration is required (username, password, and address) to access Nota.

What are the drawbacks?  Though there are many one-click ways to share the created board, a quick link is not provided.  I found some of the features were limited when I used this in Internet Explorer; it worked much better for me in Chrome. (This is only a drawback if you are limited to IE.)

How do I use it to drive instruction?  Nota can be used as a unique formative assessment, having students create a board to demonstrate the material previously taught.  Example: After a unit on WWII a teacher may ask a student to create a Nota board that shows information about how the war started.

How do I use it to drive instruction?  Like any formative assessment, teachers can view the results to determine if the student has grasped the concept or not, and may need additional practice or reteaching.  Alternatively a teacher could create a board on a topic with factual and misrepresented information, then ask the student to edit the board so that it shows only the accurate information.

Does Nota allow for differentiation?  Yes. Teachers are able to increase or decrease the amount of information they require students to put on a board easily, without having to embarrass students by using a different program.

Resources to Check Out  Nota was featured as a 2011 winner of AASL Best Website’s for Teaching.AASL Best Website’s for Teaching  View a presentation on using alternative forms of assessment, such as posters, in the elementary classroom. View a presentation  Read this article regarding using posters as a means of assessment. Read this article