NowComment Practice Document for WestEd FAI Course
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A good way to learn how NowComment works is to practice on this short document.
First, a sample paragraph:
Our love of all things furry has deep roots in human evolution and may have even shaped how our ancestors developed language and other tools of civilization. "If you have a dog that can hunt, you don't need to turn into a fast-moving animal with sharp teeth," Shipman said. "If you're storing grains [known to attract rodents], you don't need to evolve claws and an intense focus to kill rats, [because] you have cats that do it for you." http://www.livescience.com/6818-caring-animals-shaped-human-evolution.html
Why would we need them
I just was at the Science center for the Dogs exhibit…It was all about the relationship between humans /dogs and evolution. Among many other things…it was fantastic
The need to communicate with other living creatures is a strong one, as our daily interactions with our pets illustrates. Our cat’s insistent vocalizations (quite unique for different situations) demand response from family members daily.
Please don’t reply to my comments; I’m a dog! Rub my bell… (more)
Please don’t reply to my comments; I’m a dog! Rub my bell… (more)
“No other mammal routinely adopts other species in the wild — no gazelles take in baby cheetahs, no mountain lions raise baby deer…. Every mouthful you feed to another species is one that your own children do not eat. On the face of it, caring for another species is maladaptive, so why do we humans do this?…
The domestication of animals wasn’t merely about capturing a buffet-on-the-hoof, from Shipman’s perspective, but the continuation of a long-term evolutionary project by our species to study animals, first when we were prey for them, and later as predators ourselves….
One of the clinchers for her argument is that the first animals domesticated were not food sources, but a fellow predator and scavenger: the wolf (dogs being descendants of wolves, even a subspecies by some reckoning). Clearly, domestication wasn’t first about eating the animal: Shipman suggests, instead, that the primary impetus for domestication was to transform animals we had been observing intently for millennia into living tools during their peak years, then only later using their meat as food. “As living tools, different domestic animals offer immense renewable resources for tasks such as tracking game, destroying rodents, protecting kin and goods, providing wool for warmth, moving humans and goods over long distances, and providing milk to human infants” she said."
http://neuroanthropology.net/2010/08/23/the-dog-human-connection-in-evolution/
Well said!
How to Make Comments on Text (the left pane in 2-pane view):
- In the quote above, click on any of the words in the first sentence; when the window pops up, fill in both the Summary of Comment and Full Comment fields of the popup form (leaving your comment as Sentence level). After you click the pop-up’s Start Conversation button your comment will show in the right window.
- There's a sample comment on Sentence #2 in the right pane; you can respond to it by clicking its Reply button. [Note that it's a comment from a dog, so you won't get a reply!]
- Add a comment about the whole quote by double clicking any word in the paragraph, then choose the “Paragraph” level radio button in the pop-up. To make a very short comment just fill in the “Summary of Comment” field and leave the “Full Comment” field blank when you click "Start Conversation".
How to Comment on Videos and Images (left pane)
Double click on the paragraph numbers by the right margin of the left pane, either the "10" for the video:
or the "12" for this photograph:
Making a General Document Comment
Double click on any text, image, or video; in the pop-up choose the “Document” radio button. This is used for comments not tied to any particular passage or image (e.g. historical background, writing style, related works).
Links on the Dark Blue Toolbar
- My Library take you to your list of documents.
- Groups takes you to the same page but highlights the list of groups (if any) you're a member of.
- Upload let's you add a new document to be commented/annotated/discussed.
- Public Documents are documents open to the entire internet (and indexed by search engines). More common are Private Documents, like the FAI course documents, that only those invited (course members) can read and comment on.
- Help has online documentation (with videos and text overviews), an FAQ, a QuickStart, and a Tech Support link.
Links and Icons on the Light Blue Toolbar
- Print Document (printer icon)
- Document information (“i” icon)
- Highlighting tool gives you 5 public and 5 private highlighting colors. Each can have a customizable meaning.
- More menu options lets you download the original document, shows you the document access dates, and much more.
- 2-Pane shows the original document and comments in separate panes, to help you read the document without distraction.
- Combined puts the document and all the comments in one window, so you can scroll through all the comments without having to click around.
- Full shows you all comments in Full.
- Summaries shows you just the Summary of Comment fields (and hides the rest of the comments) so you can skim to get a quick overview of what everyone is saying.
- Sorted lets your sort all the comments by name, date/time, or by tag.
- Updates if selected will send you an email notification of each comment made on that document (by default, as part of the Daily Digest email).
We hope you'll enjoy using NowComment.
For more tips and demo videos see our Help page.
General Document Comments 0
I love furry animals.
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