Notability Workshop with Tech Staff

By: Rachel Barry

On Tuesday, the tech staff at Elk Grove High School attended a mini-workshop to learn how students use Notability.  As many students come to the Help Desk for help with technical issues, the technology staff wanted to see how students were using this app and to then learn how to address some of the common issues that students have with the app.  Here is a summary of the some of the features discussed.  

Organization
Many times students come to the Help Desk to ask for help finding a document.  Many times it is because the student doesn't have folders set up in Notability.  It is easy to organize and color-code in order to accurate sort your documents.  First, click on the "+" sign at the very top left of the screen.  

The confusing part for students is the difference between a "subject" and a "divider".  You will first want to set up DIVIDERS.  This is different than what your mind would normally believe.  The dividers are what the students would name their courses such as "Geometry" or "Biology".  Then, the SUBJECTS are for individual units, standards, or methods of sectioning off materials within a course.  Here is a sample of how a student can gradually add units as they are working in a class:

Exporting a Document
Most times students export a document, they will be submitting an assignment to Schoology.  To do so, students will click on the export button in the top left.

Then, they will click the "Share" button at the very bottom of the dropdown options.  

In most cases, the student will want to export the file as a .pdf.  If they want to share it as a note, they can change this by clicking on the arrow next to .pdf and select "Note".  Next, they will click on "Share Note".  They will select Schoology as the app to export to.

Within Schoology, students will follow the prompts to submit the file to the appropriate course and assignment.  

Additional Features
In the workshop, the tech staff also learned how to annotate, highlight, add text boxes, cut & paste, add pictures, and add audio to a note.  Most students navigate these features with ease, but the tech staff found it helpful to explore the capabilities and uses of Notability.

If you would like additional help in using Notability or have any resources to share about ways you have used it, please stop by the Collab Lab!