Evernote for Everything Education!

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work. --Aristotle

The internet is overflowing with enthusiastic posts from teachers about how they use Evernote in the classroom. This post from Michael Cruz (2011) provides a thorough look at using Evernote from a teacher's perspective. I particularly like his idea of using Evernote to compile Pro-D material and teaching resources. He also suggests using it as a place to keep/share handouts; however, many teachers use wikis or moodle to provide handouts to kids which also works well.

Buffy Hamilton's (2011) post at Evernote is perhaps the most useful in terms of discussing how students can use Evernote. She writes that "Evernote [is a] perfect solution for the students’ need to archive and organize traditional and non-traditional sources of information". Her write-up got me thinking about how I would encourage secondary students to use Evernote. Certainly, setting up a notebook for each course makes sense. What could go in each notebook?

• Assignments: no more lost work and available from all computers
  
• Notes: scan them in and tag them!
• Relevant websites, emails and tweets

Imagine... misplaced binders would become a problem of the past and notebooks could be shared between classmates AND teachers. Really, it's a revolutionary way to go paperless... it sure makes me wish my district had more access to technology such as laptops, iPads, etc.

My use of Evernote at the online school is a work-in-progress, I currently use it to keep track of notes regarding individual students, as well as course and project sign-up lists, etc. I have attached useful websites to notes for certain students with unique needs. I also use it to keep track of administrative trivia that is easily forgotten or misplaced.

Because of Evernote's infinitely flexible approach to organization, research and file-keeping, when and if I finally land a library position, I would put Evernote at the top of my list as a Web 2.0 tool to highlight with students and other teachers. I would also find it extremely useful in terms of collaborating with departments and individual teachers on their teaching material, as well as keeping track of all the data and ideas that constantly flow through a librarian's head! Evernote has, so far, been a highlight of my web tools adventure.

References

Hamilton, B. (2011, January 5). How my students started using Evernote - education series. Retrieved from http://blog.evernote.com/2011/01/05/how-my-students-started-using-evernote-education-series/

Cruz, M. (2011, January 13). 10 tips for teachers using Evernote - education series. Retrieved from http://blog.evernote.com/2011/01/13/10-tips-for-teachers-using-evernote-education-series/

Evernote for Artwork!

An original idea. That can't be too hard. The library must be full of them. ~Stephen Fry

For the past couple of days, I've been busy experimenting with Evernote's capabilities. With the kids out for a walk with their Dad on this cold but sunny morning, I have a little time to share my discoveries!

I started out by experimenting with my "travel" notebook to test out the Evernote extension in Firefox. I tried clipping portions of travel websites as well as copying whole pages over to Evernote. I like the ease of the extension for adding tags and filing web pages to the correct notebook. I do not like the fact that there is a significant pause as the clip processes and one more than one occasion the entire format of the website--text and images--have been messed up in the transfer. This confirms my original suspicion that Diigo is the superior tool for internet research while Evernote is the superior tool for personal notes and organization.

After playing around with the Evernote Extension, I started to wonder how else I could use Evernote for documentation. Suddenly, an epiphany! I searched around my house, collected some of my son's artwork, scanned it, created a new notebook in Evernote under my Family stack, and then added the scanned files. Voila!

To further test it out, I tried syncing my desktop Evernote with the web version and my iPad App. Here, I had a little trouble. Syncing had some technical glitches and I had to reboot and try syncing about ten times. However, I prevailed and now I can see Ethan's turkey on several devices. Crazy!

I now have a system for creating and viewing digital files of my children's work that will show progression over time. Of course, I'm still going to keep a box of their best work in their closet, but I think this is pretty nifty! I'm playing around with ideas for how to make the file work best. Perhaps I could have a file for each year and in that file I could add photos of milestones (e.g. riding a bike), artwork, etc., so I end up with a little digital scrapbook.

What do you think? How do you or would you use Evernote?

Tidy Up Time! Using Evernote to Manage Your Life

Out of clutter, find simplicity. --Albert Einstein



After starting out on a strong note this morning by stumbling upon the above video, I spent the next two hours fruitlessly searching the internet searching for tips about how to organize my Evernote account to help me run my life. I found posts from GTD (Get Things Done) wizards such as this one and this one, but neither one provided me with the magic key to organization that would fit my life.

I gave up on finding the answer "out there" and fiddled around with Evernote's stack and notebook feature until I started to carve out some areas of my life that could use some housekeeping. Then, feeling inspired, I added some other areas of my life that don't necessarily need cleaning up, but would benefit from some attention and creativity. This is what I ended up with:
I purposely did NOT include school in this set up because I've set up a separate account at work, and I'm going to investigate educational uses later in the week.

As I was setting up the folders, I could envision all the useful things that could go into them: milestones and notes for each child, parenting tips, lists for those ideas I come up with and then forget, journal entries to keep track of important events, a custom made recipe book for all those great ideas I find in food blogs, etc.

I plan to spend the rest of the week populating my new system. I'm going to focus on the travel folder so I can start researching those trips my husband and I daydream about. I love the thought of filling those folders up with pictures and descriptions of where we want to go with the kids someday.

I'm thrilled by the flexibility of Evernote to add almost anything I can think of: you can upload files, scanned documents, photos, web clips, emails, notes you type in, voice notes, etc. Even though I have the Evernote App on my iPad, what I really wished for today was an iPhone so I could add ideas and photos on the go.

Between Evernote and Google Calendar, I just might be turning into a VFP (Very Functional Person).

References

AndrewEvernote. (2009, August 18). Evernote to the Rescue [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNE0R3rEe5Q

Hyatt, M. (2011, May 2). How to organize Evernote for maximum efficiency [web log post]. Retrieved from http://michaelhyatt.com/how-to-organize-evernote-for-maximum-efficiency.html

Naslund, A. (n.d.). Getting organized with evernote [web log post]. Retrieved from http://www.brasstackthinking.com/2010/06/getting-organized-with-evernote/

Diving Deeper into Diigo

So you see! There's no end to the things you might know, depending on how far beyond Zebra you go! --Dr. Seuss

I just tucked my daughter in for nap time with some warm milk and a Dr. Seuss. His wild and wacky way with words always gets me inspired (as you might have already guessed from the title of my blog).

Today, I started experimenting with Diigo's ability to highlight, sticky-note, comment and share annotated links. I quickly discovered that one can do a lot more with the Diigo toolbar than the Diigolet button I had previously added to my toolbar. So, I downloaded a very quick plug-in for Firefox and I was off and running.


Trying out Features

First, I experimented with the Highlight and Sticky Note feature to post some reminders to myself on a blog post I found about using Evernote. Then, I discovered that I can use Diigo to create a special URL to share that blog post along with my highlights and sticky notes: Here it is!

The Diigo Toolbar also has a sidebar feature that allows you to create a general comment on a website that will appear in your Diigo library or in a Diigo group. The Diigo toolbar also has a screen capture tool that will save just clips of a website to your Diigo library. Overall, the Diigo toolbar has a lot to offer!

The more I experiment with Diigo the more I think about how it is a tool that can support my various roles:

• As a graduate student to organize and collaborate on research
• As a teacher to share information with my students (especially when I want to draw attention to a particular aspect of a website) and also between students on shared projects
  
• For personal interest (eg. to save my comments on recipes, etc.)

A Closer Look at Classroom Use

Berger and Trexler (2010) prefer Diigo in the classroom to other social bookmarking services as it "has distinctive features that support active learning" because "it allow the students to mark up Web pages as they would a paperback book--with sticky notes, highlights, and comments--and then share those notes with others" (p. 57). Diigo's ability to allow students to engage their reading with opinions, comments and questions is key.

When the idea of sharing and commenting on each other's research using Diigo was put to the test in an English classroom, teacher-librarian Deborah Gottsleben-Delaney (2010) noted that "[i]t really didn't matter if one student found an excellent website. The conversation that surrounded that source became a lesson in itself" (pg. 14). I could imagine this would be particularly useful when critiquing the validity of websites, etc.

I'm excited to put social bookmarking, as well as highlighting/commenting to more use both as a learner and as a teacher!

References

Berger, P., & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing web 2.0 tools for learning and teaching in a digital world. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Gottsleben-Delaney, D.. (2010, December). I Go, You Go: Why You Should Use Diigo. School Librarian's Workshop: New Year Issue, 31(3), 14. Retrieved November 11, 2011, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2237906941).

Current Events #8: Adobe Flash Concedes Defeat

We are not retreating - we are advancing in another direction. --Douglas MacArthur

I love my iPad! LOVE IT! But, the one thing that frustrates me is that it won't play Flash content. I can't watch the multimedia at many websites and I can't browse Ikea! I did a little research and found Steve's Jobs "Thoughts on Flash" to to understand why this aspect of the web did not function on the iPad.

This week an article at Vancouver Sun caught my attention: Adobe throws in the towel to Apple in Web Software War. If it's not going to be developed for mobile devices, I wonder how long it's going to be maintained at all. Here is an article at CNN that states that Adobe Flash is on its way out on all devices.

It looks like big changes are coming down the line for some of our favourite Web 2.0 tools like Animoto, Voicethread and Prezi.

References

Finkle, J. (2011, November 9). Adobe throws in the towel. The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved from http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/steve-jobs/Adobe+throws+towel+Apple+software/5683707/story.html.

Goldman, D. (2011, November 10). The beginning of the end for Adobe's Flash. CNN. Retrieved from http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/10/technology/adobe_flash/

Job, S. (2010, April). Thoughts on Flash. Retrieved from http://www.apple.com/hotnews/thoughts-on-flash/

Have a playdate with your bookmarks!

Wisdom I know is social. She seeks her fellows. --Thomas Jefferson

We've been bookmarking sites for a long time with our browsers, and now we are using services like Diigo to do it so we can access the bookmarks at any computer. But how do I make bookmarking social? What does this mean, anyways?

Berger and Trexler (2010) define social bookmarking as "the ability to share what you find with others and see what they have "tagged" perceiving additional uses" (p. 53). This video from the Common Craft Show explains social bookmarking beautifully (even though it happens to use the tool Delicious rather than Diigo):

Up until now, I have been bookmarking, and I have been tagging, but I have not looked at the social aspect of it. In Diigo, you can choose to follow certain people, and thus, their bookmarks and tags. I did a Diigo search for friends with my Google account and it turns out that two people I know use Diigo, so I sent invitations. (Suddenly, I am having a flashback to trying to find contacts on Goodreads. In real life, I actually do have friends...honestly.)

Another way to utilize the social aspect of bookmarking at Diigo is to use the Group feature. This post on Learn it in 5 provides a great overview of how to use Diigo Groups. I have applied to a popular group called "Diigo in Education" to see what that will yield.

I can definitely see the benefits of setting up groups for classes, and in this way I could easily share numerous relevant websites (with comments and sticky notes) for research or projects. A school could set up a group to share valuable educational websites with teachers and teachers could then share comments about them. Oh, the Pro-D possibilities! My head is spinning.

References

Barnes, M. (n.d.). Diigo Groups. Learn it in 5: how-to videos for the technology classroom. Retrieved from http://learnitin5.com/Diigo-Groups

Berger, P., & Trexler, S. (2010). Choosing web 2.0 tools for learning and teaching in a digital world. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited.

Lefever, L. (2009, March 18). Social bookmarking in plain English, for the rest of us [Video file]. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/HeBmvDpVbWc

Diigo vs. Evernote: The Showdown

To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan, and not quite enough time. --Leonard Bernstein

Time to revise my plan! I was feeling bogged down this week trying to tackle both Diigo and Evernote at the same time. I didn't know where to start, so I'm going to slow the pace down and focus more on Diigo this week, and more on Evernote next week.

I've worked with both tools enough to know that there is crossover between what they can do:

• Both can act as internet "collectors". (With Evernote, you clip a webpage or just the URL, whereas with Diigo, you bookmark it.)
  
• Both use tags to organize your information.
  
• Both are searchable.
  
• Both allow you to share content with others.
  
• Both tools would be useful in the classroom for teachers and students alike

However, I am leaning towards using Diigo as a internet research management tool, while using Evernote more as a personal management tool. Why?

• Diigolet is an easy tool to quickly bookmark a page with tags and move on.
  
• Diigo serves as a vast resource center for sharing and commenting on research
  
• Evernote's notebook feature allows to you categorize many aspects of life/work
  
• Evernote has the ability to keep personal notes, photos, and voice memos unattached to websites
  

This post helped me organize my thoughts about Diigo and Evernote. Well, there is a lot to tackle for both tools, so on with Diigo!

References

Ebersole, Ray. (2010, December 23). Evernote vs. diigo - a replacement for Delicious? [web log post]. Retrieved from http://edutechation.wordpress.com/2010/12/23/evernote-vs-diigo-a-replacement-for-delicious/