Surfmark is an online research application that encourages critical thinking and helps students learn how to synthesize and integrate knowledge around topics. It is the most powerful research tool currently available on iPad that also teaches the process of doing research properly.
Surfmark is changing the whole structure of a work assignment and in the process making students better critical thinkers. Students are able to navigate through complex texts to analyze, synthesize and integrate ideas and successfully apply their learning to projects. Surfmark provides the student a structured way to capture the inherently unstructured dynamically changing content that is available to them, providing them the tools and opportunity to more effectively synthesis and organize and then collaborate on this information. It gives teachers a deep and unique view into a student’s thinking process as they research on different topics and lets them offer specific pointers that can directly improve students’ performance.
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Benefits:
Plugs into researchers’ workflow
- Multiple annotation tools (including voice notes!) for web pages and pdfs
- Limitless edits and additions to saved research for continuous improvement
- Automatically generates bibliographies (MLA, APA, Chicago and many more) and research summaries
Enhances the process of research
- Contextual saving and automatic organization allows fearless exploration
- Quantifies the iterative process of exploratory research
- Generates multiple views to gain key insights into the thought process
Encourages pedagogy
- Allows synthesis and integration of knowledge in a more visual way
- No need for plagiarism detectors - all the work is automatically attributed
- Changes Student-teacher dynamic from suspicion to that of collaboration
Spurs collaboration
- Collaboration with individuals and groups
- Wiki-like model of enhancing the research
- Contextual-search of public or shared private research for shared learning
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Features:
Save content and context:
Save exact copies of web pages
Add annotations such as highlight, drawings and notes directly to the web pages including PDFs.
Add voice notes directly on web pages.
Organize:
Group pages into chapters
View them as collage, book or flow graphs
Search through them using full text search
Modify:
Add or delete saved pages at anytime
Rearrange the surfmark to better reflect the progress of your research
Collaborate with others and mix-n-match pages to cross-pollinate ideas
Report:
Automatically generate bibliographies using MLA, APA, Chicago and other formats
Automatically generate summary reports including detailed ‘flash cards’ for each saved page
Access anywhere:
Access your surfmarks from any computer or even the phone
Add more pages through browser extensions and bookmarklets and continue the work on iPad
Analytics:
Monitor how students are using the platform
Correlate progress with real academic progress
Administration:
Control accounts through administrator and teacher dashboards
Set collaboration levels across courses and teams
You can only use this app if you already have an institution account. You can also request an institutional account through the app. For general usage, please check out non-edu Surfmark app.
This is our first attempt at the ipad app. Please help us make it better by reporting bugs and by providing feedback! support at surfmark dot net