Evernote
is an amazing note-taking and organizational program that makes the possibility
of "going paperless" a reality, and it offers so many other benefits
for users with any aim in mind, from students and educators to engineers and
businessmen. Part of what makes the program so unique and useful is the fact
that it can be accessed from anywhere - any computer, cell phone, or tablet. All
that is needed to access the saved information is a log-in email address and
password. This free digital notebook allows users to organize unlimited
notebooks with unlimited notes inside including webpages, photos, videos, audio
files, documents, pdf's, text notes, and more. Evernote is very useful for
people in different fields because of its versatility and the fact that people
have discovered ways to cater the features of Evernote to the demands of their
own jobs.
Practically
every job requires some form of collaboration, and Evernote takes that into
consideration. Evernote allows users to share notebooks with others, even if
they are not Evernote users, so that what the user has created and compiled can
be accessed by others. This is a great tool for educators because it allows
them to share lesson plans and other documents with other teachers,
substitutes, students, and parents. When sharing a note, Evernote generates a
URL that links to an html text page where the information can be viewed. The
free version of Evernote allows you to share the notes with others, but the
premium version is necessary for others to edit the notes.
Evernote
also takes into consideration the fact that its users will likely need to organize
and reorganize their notes. While researching Evernote I discovered that it is
possible to merge multiple notes together into one note, delete multiple notes
at the same time, and move notes to other notebooks. To do any of these things,
simply hold down the ctrl key on the keyboard and click on the notes that you
want to merge, delete, or move. This is especially useful for teachers who want
to reorganize or combine lesson plans and de-clutter the rest of their notes.
Another
great organization feature that Evernote offers is to create links between
notes. You can access any note's "note link" by right-clicking on the
note and selecting "copy note link." This will put the link to that
particular not on your computer's clipboard. Then, simply paste the note link, which
will appear with the name of the note, into another note. You will then have a
link from the note where you have pasted the link to the note that you copied
the link from, and all that you need to do is click on the name of the note to
immediately open it. This is very useful if you have information that you want
to remain in separate notes, but you want to be able to access them together
quickly because the link will keep the note from getting lost in notebooks.
Another great way to use this link feature is to create one note that is the
table of contents for the notebook. You can title it "Table of
Contents" and keep it at the top of your notebook. Within the note, you
can include links to the other notes along with summaries of what they are if
need be. This way, you don't have to scroll through all of your notes, and they
are listed clearly with a link right in front of you. This could be a great
tool for a teacher looking through saved articles, assignments, or lessons. For
even easier access, also try storing notebooks in the "shortcuts"
tab.
In
using Evernote over the past few months, I've found many useful features;
Evernote allows its users to save web clippings directly from internet pages,
make checklists, tag notes, record audio, and set reminders on notes. These are
all fairly basic features, but useful none the less. I think that tagging notes
could be particularly useful in organizing notes and resources. As a teacher, I
believe that tagging could be used to tag every note having to do with each
student with that student's name. Then, when you are looking for information on
a certain student, all you need to do is type in the student's name, and every
note with that tag will appear. Also, tagging could be a great way to keep
track of lesson materials based on subject matter. If everything having to do
with a specific topic is tagged with that topic, then it is easy to find every
resource on that topic.
Another
simple feature that I think is particularly useful for a teacher is the ability
to record audio. Teachers could easily use this tool to record students while
doing a reading record and checking for student's fluency and miscues. It would
also be something great to have saved for parent-teacher conferences if necessary.
One
thing that I really like about the Evernote web clipper is that it allows you
to clip the entire web page or just take a screen shot, and you can do quite a
bit of editing to both. The web clipper allows you to add stickers, change the
shape and border of the image, add text, highlight, and write with a marker.
Evernote
also generates an email for every user, and when anything is sent to that email
address, it automatically becomes a note. This eliminates the hassle of copying
and pasting every email that you need into Evernote and worrying about
downloading attachments and re-uploading them to Evernote. When a teacher gets
an email about a student and needs to keep the email for reference, he or she
can simply forward the email to the Evernote email address, add the tag name of
the student, and be finished.
References
[Untitled image of Evernote features]. Retrieved October 28, 2014 from http://rns0819c56a2lq76d4620mbbv0.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/evernoteapp.png
[Untitled infographic of Evernote organization]. Retrieved October 28, 2014 from http://missspinkontech.global2.vic.edu.au/files/2013/08/Evernote-Organisation-for-Teachers-1-1gp32fn.jpeg
[Unittled image of Evernote web clipping]. Retrieved October 28, 2014 from http://mnli12.wikispaces.com/file/view/hero_webclipper.png/353683370/hero_webclipper.png
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