Awesome Screenshot Extension

Each week social studies students do an Article of the Week (AOW) that connects with the 7th grade curriculum and/or global current events.  Students are expected to read and annotate the article before completing another task--writing a paragraph summary, answering questions, having a small-group discussion, or participating in a debate.

Since moving to 1:1 Chromebooks, I have tried to figure out a way to have the students annotate using technology.  After exploring several tools, it appeared that Awesome Screenshot was the way to go!

Awesome Screenshot is an extension that allows you to capture a whole page, a screen shot, or a selected portion of the page.  It then opens in a new tab with a toolbar that allows you to box, circle, underline, or blur items.  It also has a free-hand drawing tool, and a text tool to type in commentary.  You can then save your annotations for later.

Yesterday I introduced this extension to my seventh graders as an option.  They also could choose to annotate the old-fashioned way--with paper and pencil.  Interestingly enough, 43% of them chose to work with paper and pencil.   Those that did choose to try Awesome Screenshot really liked its capabilities as it was easier to annotate using this extension than Google Drive.

That said, there were some parts that weren't so awesome about Awesome Screenshot.  For example, I shared the document with the students via Drive.  Awesome Screenshot would only capture a screen shot and not the whole article; as a result, students had to find the article online and capture it from the original webpage. (Now I know that it's best for me just to send them a link.)  Some students said that they wish there was a highlighting feature and that the margins for comments were limiting at at times. Lastly, there were a couple students who lost their work from clicking on a link or accidentally clicking on keys on the keyboard. There is no autosave feature, which is something we've gotten quite used to by using Google Drive.

With some practice, Awesome Screenshot can benefit many students.  However, I will continue to offer up various options to my students in order to best suit their needs.  If that means almost half of them continue to work with paper and pencil, so be it!