Not only are digital interactive notebooks a great way to engage students in the classroom, but they almost guarantee you won’t hear these phrases ever again!
I left my notebook at home.
Wait, I know that page is here somewhere…
I am so tired of lugging this stack of notebooks home to grade!
With digital learning trending both in the classroom and at home, digital interactive notebooks are a useful tool for a variety of educational settings: traditional classroom, blended, flipped, and distance learning.
Top 10 reasons that digital INBS are awesome:
1.They can’t get lost!!!
2.No more messy cutting and gluing!
3.Fosters 21st Century Skills
4.Less paper = go green!
5.Students are able to stay organized throughout the unit because everything is in one place!
6.The hyperlinked table of contents helps students easily find what they need.
7.Students can interact with the pages.
8.It’s a flexible tool that works well for a variety of classroom set ups – distance learning, flipped classrooms, and blended learning.
9.You don’t have to haul a stack of papers or notebooks home to grade!
10.Students that do not have internet access at home are able to work offline if they are using a Chromebook!
Help students get the most out of the digital INB
- Students should view the notebook in “edit” mode. This will allow them to drag and drop, create text boxes, and type.
- Teach students to use the hyperlinked table of contents or the tabs to efficiently maneuver through the document quickly and easily!
- To get more screen “workspace”. Simply click the up arrow in the top right corner of the screen. This will enlarge the work area.
Digital Interactive Notebook FAQ
I don’t want the students to be able to move the text I type on a slide. Help!
In the toolbar, click on “VIEW” then “MASTER.” Make a copy of the master you would like to use. Any text or images that you place on the master slide will not move once you add it to the slide deck! Then use the downward arrow next to the + (add slide) to insert the master slide.
What if I want to add a slide AFTER I have assigned this to my students?
No problem! If you are using Google Classroom, here’s what to do!
Create a post in the stream that shares your MASTER copy of the digital INB. This will be “view only” for the students. Instruct your students to open the document you shared and go to the slide you want them to add. Students will right-click the slide to copy it and paste the slide to their slide deck.
What if I want to grade only one page from the notebook? Do I have to search through every student’s interactive digital notebook to find the assignment?
No! The easiest way to do this is to create an assignment on Google classroom. Teach the students to take a screen shot of the page you want to assess. They can then add the file from Google Drive or link to the page you want to view.
Now you can see exactly what you are looking for without searching tons of pages!
Take a look at a digital interactive notebook sample – it’s no prep, customizable and aligned to standards!
