I’ve mentioned Awesome Highlighter in previous posts as a nice little application that lets you pick any webpage; highlight whatever words you want, and then email the page for posting on a blog or website. I’ve had students use it when we are in the computer lab to help reinforce some skills I teach in the classroom about being very careful about highlighting only the most important words — not the whole paragraph.

TechCrunch, though, just posted about either a new feature, or one that I just missed the first time around. You can write virtual notes, like post-its, and connect them to each area you highlight.

This ability now makes Awesome Highlighter move way near the top of my list of useful applications. I often have students use sticky notes in class when we’re reading something to demonstrate reading strategies (summarize, evaluate, predict, connect, etc.). When we’re in the computer lab, I’ll have them do the same with similar online tools like Jump Knowledge and Fleck. However, with this feature, Awesome Highlighter becomes the easiest of the bunch and the one that is most accessible to English Language Learners. No registration is required.