13 Free Web Annotation Tools for Teachers to Draw, Add Notes, and Highlight Sections on A Web page

 Web annotation tools are among the most important elements   the 21st century digital kit educators need to have. These are free services that allow you to interact with web content by adding notes, commenting , highlighting, bookmarking and sharing. Below is a list I have compiled containing some of the best web annotation tools for teachers to use when navigating the net. Using these tools, teachers will be able to easily capture and draw on a webpage to point out specific elements to share with others. I have also recently published a list of  7 free bookmarking tools for educators  that you can check out as well.

Here is the list of the web annotation tools. All of these are very simple and easy to use. Some of them require a sign up which is quite easy.



1- Diigo

Diigo is the first web service that comes into mind when talking about web annotation. I have been using it  for quite some time now and all I can say is It is really  excellent. Diigo has a tool that lets you annotate web pages, add notes and colour specific chuncks of a paragraph to share with your colleagues.



2- Sharedcopy

This is another great bookmarking and annotating web service. It allows users to save a web page and annotate it the way they want via adding comments in text boxes or highlighting important parts. It also has a social ingredient in it in that users can share their annotated content with each other.



3- Awesome Screenshot

This is one of my favourites. It is a chrome and Safari extension that allows users to capture screenshots of their webpage and then draw on them lines, annotate them, add text and comments, and share them with others. If you are a Chrome or Safari user then this is indispensable.



4- Bounce

This is also a great annotating tool. It is very easy to use. Just type in the URL of a webpage and Bounce will then create an image of it allowing you thus to add text and annotate it.You will also be able to share your annotated content via a unique URL.



5- Markup.io

This is mainly a bookmarklet that you can drag and drop onto your browser toolbar. Once there you can then very easily annotate any webpage you are viewing by simply clicking on that bookmarklet. Again when you finsih adding amd drawing on your webpage you can share it with others via a generated URL.



6- Screen Draw

This is an awesome extension from Firefox that allows users to annotate their selected webpages. Users can  circle elements, type in notes, or draw on any webpage they want before saving the annotated work as PNG or JPG files.



7- Webpage Screenshot

This is a Chrome extension that allows users to take a screenshot of a webpage and add their own drawings or arrows.



8- Jing

This is another awesome tool that allows users to create annotated screen capture images. Once you take a screenshot of your webpage you can then add text, arrows, draw on it  and highlight sections of text within it.



9- Crocodoc

This a great tool that lets users annotate , edit and share their PDFs, Power Point files, and Word Documents. It is very easy to use and all it takes is you uploading the file you want to work on and select your marking tool and there you go. You can also share with your colleagues.



10- Yawas

This is another free web annotation tool for both Firefox and Chrome. It allows users to highlight text and annotate webpages and with a single right click save the annotated work to Google Bookmarks.



11- MyStickies

This a free tool that lets users place little yellow squares of digital paper anywhere in a webpage.



12- Draw Here

This a bookmarklet that you can add to your toolbar  in order to be able to draw on top of any webpage when you are browsing the web.



13-  Trailfire

This tool allows users to use trails to guide others to what is important on the web. Users can also place comments on webpages.