Lino allows users to post digital sticky notes on a virtual cork-board. Users can share ideas by posting texts, images, videos, links, and any type of files to the sticky notes. Sticky notes come with different colors. Users can change the color and the size of the font. Additionally, the size of the sticky notes can be altered and tagged. The tag function permits users to search among stick notes. It also allows user to set due dates on the sticky notes. The Canvas can be made public or set for private use. Users can access Lino on iOS and Windows operating systems. Apps are also available for iOS and Android phones or tablets.
Benefits
Lino provides a virtual environment for people to brainstorm ideas, solutions, and other type of collaborative projects. I am going to focus on using Lino to teach explicit reading comprehension strategies. Using sticky notes to teach reading comprehension skills is not a new idea. However, by using multi-media sticky notes, we:
- help students to visualize their thinking;
- deepen students’s understanding of the text and allow them to make connections by texting, uploading images, files and videos to their sticky notes;
- encouraging individual sharing and collaborative brainstorming;
- set due dates for different tasks;
- organize sticky notes with flexibility;
- make the collaborative thinking process to be assessed anywhere, anytime on any device.
Preparations
- The teacher registers an account.
- In order to post sticky notes in response to a topic, the user should create a Canvas first, which is like a bulletin board.
- Create a group for your class for easy class management and idea sharing.
Applications
By using Lino’s multi-media sticky notes and utilizing the sticky note colors, students practice to:
- Share their prior knowledge and experience (scheme) before reading via the K-W-L activity;
- Predict solutions to a problem presented in a text.
- Infer by posting three different color sticky notes for What I read, What I know, and What I infer;
- Create questions after reading. Students post four different color sticky notes when using the Question-Answer-Relastionshop (QAR) strategy: Right There Questions, Think and Search Questions, Author and Me Questions, and On My Own Questions.
- Engage with an informational text by using the Text Coding strategy during reading. They create four different color sticky notes representing four different symbols. For example, “?” for Questions: I don’t understand. I wonder…, “!” for important ideas; “V” for vocabulary that I can’t work it out; “＊” I already knew this. For this activity, have students code the text individually prior posting sticky notes on Lino. Teacher and students can create any symbol to code the text.