Recently, some schools started to ask their students to use iPads in class. Many application have been made for school’s purpose since then. I have been browsing on Apple Store to see what kind of application they were offering to students. Threw the hundreds I saw, there is one that I thought was particularly interesting. It is called Notability.
It is an application that is made to manage the notes you take in class. You can type your notes on it or you can record your teacher while he is talking in class to make sure you did not lose anything the teacher said. You don’t have to worry about having a beautiful handwriting, with this app you are sure that you will be able to reread all the notes you took in class. You can easily change the typing style, the color of the text, highlight stuff that you felt important, etc. You can make your notes pretty and understandable supper easily. Plus, the records you make are directly linked to your notes. Thus, you don’t have to search for which audio file is going with what typed notes file when you want to review. Everything is done automatically. You can put as much details as you like in your notes.
You can also markup documents and forms by importing PDF’s document or power point in Notability. That way, you don’t have to print out the power point and the documents the teacher sent to take notes on it. You can do everything with the app directly on your iPad, iPhone or iMac. You can also markup pictures that you took via Notability.
This application is also synchronized with cloud storage solutions. This is something fantastic because it is a very safe way to save your notes and everything you did with Notability. Even more, if you lose the electronic devise on which you have all your notes, you will be able to have them back by login yourself on iCloud. iCloud also give you the opportunity of sharing your notes with other people and also see the notes that people shared with you. Thus, if you feel there is something missing in your notes, you can always ask someone to share them with you on iCloud and you will be able to pick them up via Notability and mark them up afterwards. Also, once you are satisfied with your notes, you can share them via Dropbox, Google Drive, Email or AirDrop. By sharing your work, you can receive audio and written feedbacks from your peer on your file directly on Notability. Of course, your peers have to have a Notability account to do so, but still it is useful.
It is an application that is very useful, but that is also really cheap to buy. It is only 2,99$ on Apple Store. What is amazing it that you can switch very fast from writing to drawing, so you can easily keep the pace of the class. The app is getting faster every time there is an update done on it. This app is ratted four stars from most reviewer on the App Store website
As a future ESL teacher, I feel like having my students have Notability on their electronic devices in class would be an advantage. If is easier for them to take clear notes in class threw this application with all the options it offers. Also, they could record the teacher’s voice. This would save them time whenever they have a question. They only have to go back on the record and listen to it again to find out about the information they are looking for. It also saves time to the teacher because he does not have to repeat himself. I think that Notability is a very nice and useful application that every Apple product’s owner should buy.
Catherine Hébert
cheslteacher 