Markify

Several months ago, I came across the free browser-based tool Markify.   Based on the times that I've tried it out with others in professional development sessions, and the feedback I've heard from teachers who have used it, I've been impressed enough to want to share it in a blog entry!

How does it work?

You can sign up with an email and password, or SSO with Google or Microsoft.  Once logged into your "Dashboard," you can sort through previous "Lessons" (recently used, shared by others, owned by you, or newest created) or start a brand new Lesson with a Board.  It can just be a blank page, but you can also "Freeboard" ("create an unlimited canvas for whiteboarding") or upload a PDF.  

Once the Lesson is launched, you can (re)name the file in the upper left, use the annotation tools with the toolbar along the left side, or share it out in the upper right.

Let's start with the toolbar.  You have all of the usual suspects:

• "Selection," where you can select specific annotations,  or use the pan option to"grab" the board to move around in the canvas, or multi-select objects.
• "Draw," where you can change the color,  thickness, and opacity.
• "Markup," where you can underline or highlight text or graphics (again, you can change color, thickness or opacity).
• Erase
• "Text Box," which offers both rich text and equation options.
• Shapes
• "Stickies" to create sticky notes with customization of color, text, inserting hyperlinks, etc., "watermarked" with your name in the lower right.
• "Comments" to insert feedback or an observation, which also indicates who made the comment.
• "Page," where you can insert something onto the whiteboard that can be made small or big.  Think of this as a simple "Board within a Board," where you can (for example) bring in another PDF and provide another place or thing to annotate upon.
• "Media," where you can embed a YouTube video or upload an image.

You can also create multiple whiteboard pages within your space.

Of course, annotation by yourself can get lonely!  That's where sharing comes into play.  You can launch a Lesson and allow others to instantly join without them needing to create accounts.  (They are asked to give their name when they join.  This is where expectations and norms come in -- of course students may give goofy names or even be asked to do so to remain anonymous, but if you don't have real names, you can't give real credit for contributions.)  Also, Markify is device agnostic; someone can join from the mobile browser of their phone just as easily as the browser of their Chromebook.

Note that for all the various ways collaborators can join, by default all of these are "view only."  They will see whatever annotations are being made in real time.  However, at some point, you may want others to join in on the fun, and that's where Markify really shines as an innovative tool.

As the person who launched the Lesson, you have total control of who and how many can annotate, and for how long.  You can grant someone annotation permission but also revoke it at any time, and whether you have just one or a dozen or thirty friends with editing rights is up to you.  There's even a way to toggle off certain annotation tools so they cannot be used (by default, all are available for participants). 

From the student's interface, their options are initially limited.  They can move around the Board with the select or pan tool, possibly copy text or a hyperlink -- and that's it.  However, you can choose to give editing rights to any "Viewer," or recognize when a student "raises their hand" to participate.

Taken from an Android phone. Note the "raise hand" icon at the top of their toolbar; students can request editing permissions, but can also "lower their hand."

From the teacher's perspective, you can give a student (or students) editing rights, lower their hand, observe just their movements within the Lesson (even if it's just clicking or panning), or remove them from the session.  Markify will indicate if students are idle, or viewing something else in another app/tab.

At the end of a session (or at anytime), you have other options by clicking "File" in the upper left, next to your Lesson's name.   From here, you have options like exporting to a PDF (each page separately, or everything as a single page, or selected elements), print, or even see a "timeline history" of each participant's contribution.

Coming soon is a Breakout feature, where you can "allow for lessons to be 'broken out' into individual or team work." (There are limited sign ups within Markify for early access; this seems poised to be a premium feature once it's publicly released.) You will create a Lesson as normal, which will become the "base document" replicated for each group.  You then can use "AutoPair to put members into teams randomly (or groups of one), Team Up to allow members to pick their team, or manual to setup teams yourself."  You can monitor each group while they work, and even see a "percentage of work" indicator for each group member in order to determine the proportion of each student's contributions.

A brief overview video (1:26) of Markify is here:

How could you use it?

Markify is a great way to monitor and manage digital collaboration.   Consider the chaos of creating a  typical Google Doc and making the link editable by everyone, then having thirty students suddenly clicking and typing simultaneously.  With Markify's granular permission system, you can make contributions become a flood or a trickle.  While Breakouts may be a premium feature, it shows yet another way to have students work together in a way that can be tracked and assessed and somewhat private, without worrying about a student typing "the teacher is an dweeb" for the entire room to see.

By starting a session, you can either project the teacher view at the front of the room, or students can follow along on the screens of their individual devices.  As a direct instruction move, you could then model ways to annotate text before allowing them to do the same (perhaps even with hard copy of a text and old fashioned highlighters and pencils!).  Or, after having a clear conversation about expectations and norms, have a classroom "conversation" in real-time using Markify as the common space to "talk" through the analysis of text or a graphic. 

Downsides?

It's hard to quibble with a free tool that allows for such meaningful collaborations.  It might be nice to have an option of importing an image or YouTube video from the start of a Lesson (right now, the only file choice is a PDF), but of course you can easily upload numerous media once the Lesson is created.

Thanks to Markify showing us that there are still some new, free digital tools we can try out in the classroom!

Have you tried Markify, or have a similar app to recommend?  Make a Comment below!