Below is a prototype that I co-created in my Design of Emerging Technologies course in the Spring. My team and I were tasked with addressing a pervasive problem in education. We were interested in ways in which we could improve students’ abilities and attitudes toward reading and writing, as they are pivotal skills for creativity and critical thinking. We created an online PDF-reader website, PagePal, to make university students eager to complete their course readings through thoughtful engagement and strategies for focus.
The website features a section for establishing reading goals (i.e. study for a test, write an essay, participate in class discussion) so that students can be intentional about the strategies they use to complete their reading. The PDF-reader includes tools for highlighting, annotating and note-taking, a glossary for terms, a timer for reading breaks, and a section for questions. All readings and notes for each reading are compiled in a searchable library. The tools that we created for the website are grounded in research on critical thinking and deep reading and best practices from the UNC Learning Center.
Click on the photo below to see our full prototype website.
