Thursday, March 26, 2009

Updates to NowComment.com

Dan Doernberg just sent me a note about upgrades to NowComment.com that might be of interest to you:

"times-- each user now can set a time zone as their default, so that all times given will be given in your "local" time. Setting the time zone is done by editing your Personal Profile: http://nowcomment.com/profile
tags--- probably not useful to you, but students can optionally input one or more tags for each comment. Tags aren't searchable (for now), they just display.
mail notifications-- each user can also set their email settings in their Personal Profile to control how many emails they get when other people comment on conversations (threads) they have participated in... hopefully the settings are self-explanatory (but ask me if not clear, so I can improve!). When the emails arrive they will (as of today) contain a hyperlink to let the email recipient go directly to the relevant conversation.
reminder that new comments posted via the "Add Comments" pop-in don't show on the poster's screen (after the pop-in is closed) unless the screen is refreshed---- that part of our interface has been confusing to everyone... until we figure out a longer-term improvement this reminder note should be at least helpful."

- Brett

2 comments:

Randy Holland said...

I would like to express a concern about NowComment.com. I think this is a remarkable tool for group use. However, our research paper is an academic paper that needs to be scrutinized in its original format. Most likely this format is Word. NowComment.com displays the academic paper in a web-type writing format, such as a blog. I don’t believe the class is submitting a blog entry as a research project paper.

However, NowComments.com can be used effectively for group participation and be used as a proofreading tool if the user has a hard copy of the original Word doc. I am suggesting that the groups may consider reading their research project paper in the Word format and responding on NowComments.com. Both actions will have to take place in order to improve and respond to working drafts. My suggestion may “kill two birds with one stone” so to speak.

Randy Holland said...

I would like to express a concern about NowComment.com. I think this is a remarkable tool for group use. However, our research paper is an academic paper that needs to be scrutinized in its original format. Most likely this format is Word. NowComment.com displays the academic paper in a web-type writing format, such as a blog. I don’t believe the class is submitting a blog entry as a research project paper.

However, NowComments.com can be used effectively for group participation and be used as a proofreading tool if the user has a hard copy of the original Word doc. I am suggesting that the groups may consider reading their research project paper in the Word format and responding on NowComments.com. Both actions will have to take place in order to improve and respond to working drafts. My suggestion may “kill two birds with one stone” so to speak.