For our final summer class, we were each required to research a certain program that helps organize your life, the assignment being called "Organizing Your Online Life". I was assigned the program Evernote. I had heard great things about this program before beginning this assignment, but never had any hands on experience with it. I was a little unprepared to look at it from a teaching perspective, because I had only ever seen it used as a note-taking program, which is more closely associated with the student role.
My experience with researching was pretty basic. For learning to use any technological program, I find it easiest to find a YouTube video explaining in detail with visuals. I was actually able to find a 40 minute video going through all of the basics and all of the possibilities with just a basic Google search. (Video at: Evernote 2014 Tutorial --If you're at all interested) I was able to learn very quickly some of the tricks people had found with using this program, as well as the basic functions that most people use it for.
After having done the research, I found that Evernote seemed to be more of an organizational tool, rather than a hands on classroom tool for students. One major drawback I noticed with Evernote in comparison to Google Drive, was that there is no function for collaborative work, unless you buy a Premium subscription, which has a monthly or an annual fee attached to it. I think if Evernote itself could offer all of the perks of the Premium membership, I would be fully on board to use it in my classroom. You can share all different forms of documents with students, like webpages with and without images/ads, documents, lists, presentations, images, edited images, sound clips,...it's amazing. But the application seems much more geared towards individual organization rather than collaborative work, which I really enjoy about google docs.
Not to say that the basic application does not come with its perks! You can get a browser add-on which allows you, like I mentioned before, to clip web pages with and without pictures or ads, so it's easy to save any web pages of interest in one, organized place, separated into folders and neatly stored. Also, because Evernote is an online program and is compatible with basically any device, you can access your saved documents on any device you may have!
I really would watch the tutorial video, to see how Evernote could help you organize your own personal life, but as far as use in the classroom goes, I think it may just create more work for you as a teacher, and as Kaitlynn had mentioned, it becomes exhausting trying to spread yourself out across so many different online applications. When do the use of programs like this become counterproductive??
Ms. Nao,
ReplyDeleteYou offer some interesting insights here. I particularly like your assessment that "the application seems much more geared towards individual organization rather than collaborative work" and I definitely agree with you. Though it may be useful for helping me stay organized, I cannot come up with many ways to use it in the classroom. The only idea I've had thus far is creating a notebook for lesson plan ideas and using Evernote to bookmark websites and videos or jot down my own concepts for lessons. In order to actually create the lesson plan though I'd be more inclined to use a program like Blendspace. Have you come up with any ideas for using Evernote in the classroom? Thanks for sharing your ideas!
Hi Jeni!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your Evernote post. I, too, presented on Evernote, and completely agree that, as it is, it is much more for individual use to organize what you yourself are, for example, finding online. I do have to say, I really love that you can make checklists with boxes that can be checked off. Normally, I would like making checklists on paper much better; however, since 15/16 of what needs to be done for class is online, it is much more convenient to have the checklist on the computer. Like both you and Samantha, I cannot think of a way to really use this with students; GoogleDrive and Blendspace are far more suited to collaboration.
For organizing my own life, I have actually begun using Evernote. Did you like it enough to begin using it for yourself? If so, in what way? Or do you believe it is more so another application to spread yourself across?
Great post Jeni. I actually never thought about Evernote hindering our efficiency. I totally agree that having another "tool" to organize or take notes on would definitely make things more complex. I feel that the lack of collaboration in the free subscription is a major draw back and although it has it in premium, I really do not see myself purchasing premium for that feature when I could simply stick to my traditional GoodleDoc route. Great insight and wonderful post!
ReplyDeleteHi Jenny
ReplyDeleteThanks for the video, its a great tutorial. Like yourself I also never used Evernote but I am pretty sure you can actually still have people collaborate without having to get the premium account. Evernote is most definitely more of an organizing tool but I feel it could be used in a different way in the classroom for students. If you had all of your students set up an account I believe it could be used as a tool to receive homework assignment and could really help specific students with what there needs are. Additionally parents could set up an account to stay in the loop with whats going. Obviously this is going under the assumption that everyone has the technology needed at home but it could be an idea to use in the future.