Evernote and Professional Development

Evernote

Evernote for the Social Studies – Part 9: Evernote and Professional Development

Professional development is a key component for any educator, administrator or professional that needs to keep up with and provide the best expertise available.  Professional development can come in forms of workshops, conferences and any other form where people get together and discuss and train on issues in their field.

As one might expect, you may be taking several notes during this time to review and reflect upon afterwards.  Thanks to Evernote, you can create and organize your notes with notebooks and tags for quick and easy access.  Evernote also allows you to share your notes with your colleagues via social media or by the unique note URL.  Melissa Seideman recently used Evernote to take notes while attending  a conference for West Essex Regional School District.  Melissa was kind enough to share her notes with everyone via Twitter and agreed to let me share her notes in this blog as well.  Below is a part of her notes from the conference:

New Skitch

Click here to see the full note.

Using bullet points and bold headings, it is much easier to create a solid note to review and organize.  What is also great about creating notes such as this in Evernote is that anytime you make updates to the note it is automatically saved in the link you shared – no need to re-share the link.

How to organize your Evernote note

Here are some quick tips on how you can organize your notes in Evernote, making it much easier to review and access later on:

Note organization

Special thanks goes out to Melissa Seideman for inspiring this post!

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Digitize Articles with Evernote

Evernote

Evernote for the Social Studies: Part 8 – Digitize articles with Evernote

In my newest post on my Evernote for the Social Studies series, I wanted to take a look on how Evernote can help History teachers digitize hard copy articles like newspaper and journal articles.

Even in today’s digital age, not every resource we run across is on the web or readily available as a electronic format.  With the Evernote app, anytime we run across a passage in a book, newspaper article or journal entry we can now quickly take a snapshot and save and organize it for future reference.

Here is a example of a newspaper article I ran across while visiting Taos, NM recently (snapshot taken with Evernote Android app and some cropping done with Skitch for Windows):

To see how this article looks in a Evernote note, click here.

skitch

How to access the “Page Camera” in the Evernote app

Page Camera 1

Accessing the “Page Camera” with your Evernote app (Android) is quick and easy.  Simply follow these instructions:

1. Go to your Evernote app on your smartphone/tablet and click on the notebook you would like to work in.  Once you are in your selected notebook, click on “New note”.

2.  Once you have opened a new note, click on the camera to activate your device’s camera.

Page Camera 2

Page Camera 4

3. Once you have launched the camera, click on “Page Camera” to mold your device’s camera to capture the article.  This will actually allow you to put the article in a bit more perspective from the camera view and narrow it down to exactly what you are needing to capture.  Once you have taken the picture, the Evernote app will then process it and make it as in-focus as possible for easy reading.

Now that you have captured the article, you can save it in your Evernote account and organize it by using tags.  You now have a hard-copy resource saved and readily available at a moment’s notice in your Evernote account.  Not only that, you can now share that note with anyone you would like by sharing on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn or by coping the note’s URL.

Source cited:

The Taos News – Taos, NM

Oct 3 – 9, 2013 edition (accessed Oct 21st, 2013)

Evernote for the Social Studies blog posts

If you have a moment, take a look at some of the other “Evernote for Social Studies” posts I have made here on this blog:

Evernote for the Social Studies: Part 1 – What is Evernote?

Evernote for the Social Studies: Part 2 – Evernote in History Class

Evernote for the Social Studies: Part 3 – Evernote & Skitch

Evernote for the Social Studies: Part 4 – Lesson Planning with Evernote

Evernote for the Social Studies: Part 5 – Evernote and Study Blue

Evernote for the Social Studies: Part 6 – Staying Secure with Evernote

Evernote for the Social Studies: Part 7 – Evernote Food

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Evernote as a Portfolio: Promotes Lifelong Learning!

Thanks to Justin Stallings, my blog has featured a bunch Evernote blog posts (see the previous posts listed below). Evernote is by  FAR one of the best tools I use on a daily basis in my classroom: from lesson plans, to file sharing, to assignments, to bookmarking…. the ideas are endless. After co-hosting #sschat a follower asked me to explain how I had my students create digital portfolios using Evernote.

Why a portfolio? 

A portfolio is really useful way to store projects, writing samples, and student-centered learning. It can be used by students, parents, and teachers to document progress and learning in the classroom. Portfolios allow students to reflect, share, and document their own learning. This summer I planned a really awesome senior project where my students took a problem with the government, researched it, conducted their own research, and presented a solution. The cumulative project was a portfolio documenting their progress: including a research paper and a documentary film about their topic.  You can view the project here. This summer I transitioned from the idea of doing a paper portfolio to a digital one using Evernote as the primarily system for creating portfolios in my classroom.

 

Why Evernote?

As I was researching options to create digital portfolios Evernote naturally came to mind due to its ability to sync with any device,  as well as be accessed from any internet browser. The Evernote app allows students to easily capture and document their portfolios from any device including iPods, iPads, or their mobile device.  Evernote is free, has an app for every device, and is easy to use. Check out Evernote.

 

How do you use Evernote as a digital portfolio?

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Evernote as a Lifelong Learning Tool

One of the best features of using Evernote is that it allows students to take their portfolios and share them with the world! Evernote allows the student to be in control of their own learning in terms of sharing, documentation, and ultimately reflection. Instead of digging out files from a basement, my students will be able to digitally carry their milestones and accomplishments with them. They can watch as they progress into lifelong learners and the ownership placed on the student. It is a very valuable process to observe and as a teacher it is so rewarding to see your students be excited about their learning. 

 

Previous Evernote Blog Posts

Please see Justin’s posts in the Evernote for the Social Studies Series:

Part 1: Evernote for the Social Studies: What is Evernote

Part 2: Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote in the History Class

Part 3: Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote and Skitch

Part 4: Evernote for the Social Studies: Lesson Planning with Evernote

Part 5: Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote and Study Blue

Evernote for Educators Livebinder

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Part 7: Evernote Food

evernotefood

In this seventh installment of my Evernote for the Social Studies blog posts, we will take a look at Evernote Food – a fun and interesting app to capture, cataloged, and learn about recipes and all types of food.

What is Evernote Food?

Evernote Food (available for IOS and Android) allows you to build your own collection of recipes, take snap-shots and notes of meals, and search for restaurants in your area.  While some schools have restrictions on bringing food into the classroom, it may not be possible to have a “food day” to learn about what foods come from different continents and cultures.  From the teacher’s perspective, it would be just as simple to get some pictures of different meals that are enjoyed across the globe and present a Powerpoint presentation over it.  This, however, leads to little or no engagement.

Learning and Engaging with Evernote Food

When I was student teaching, I had a wide variety of students from different cultures and ethnic backgrounds.  Some came dressed every day to class with traditional clothing and was pleased to share some activities they do in their culture.  Even though we may not realize it sometimes, the best source of information is not always the internet – it is our own students in our classrooms!  With Evernote Food, students can now share what meals they have that are specific with their culture.

Evernote Food Home Page

Accessing the Evernote Food app from their IOS or Android device, students can explore recipes, create their own cookbook of their own recipes or recipes that they have clipped, explore restaurants, and access their “my meals” section where they have saved images and information on meals they have previously eaten.

With Evernote Food, students engage in the learning process by doing their own research and sharing what they have found.  Going back to the idea of having students capture their own meals that may offer a look into different cultures, Evernote Food makes that process quick and simple.

Evernotefood

When you create a “new meal” in Evernote Food, it provides this easy to use template.  You can choose to create a meal title, select the place which it was taken, type of cuisine, and create a tag for better organization in your Evernote account.  You can also input notes and snap shots regarding the meal into the same template.  This would work extremely well if it is shared in class or if the student shares it on the class website or blog – the explanation is already done in the template itself so students can begin reading about it as soon as they see it.

The great part about this is that you can also choose to share this meal information by coping the URL to it and sharing it that way, or you can share by posting to Facebook, Twitter, or Google +.  The unique URL would work especially nice because you could have your students copy the URL to their meal and submitting it to a designed Google Form or blog post.  And of course, once the student shares the meal either on a social media network or by simple URL, other students and teachers can save that information into their own Evernote account.

As a side note, once you have created the new meal, it automatically saves it into your default folder in your Evernote account.

Here’s an example of what a finished meal template looks like:

evernotefood 1

Conclusion

Evernote Food provides many ways students can interact and engage in learning that they may not have given much thought to before.  The main reason to use any technology like this is for the students to engage with what they are learning and with each other.  Students must be able to share what they have learned with their fellow classmates and teachers.  With Evernote Food, if you ever decide to have your students do projects over certain cultures or countries, let them go out and experience it and capture whatever it is that they are doing.  Whether it be traditional meals, dances or songs, students need to capture that moment and share among their peers.

If you would like more information about Evernote or Skitch, please visit my Livebinder, Evernote for Educators:

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Digital Ways to Engage your Students

I am running a professional development session after school this week about digital ways to engage your students in their own learning. These are a few of my favorite apps or web-based programs that I plan to introduce at the workshop. 

  1. Infuse Learning: (online) Infuse Learning allows teachers to push questions, prompts, and quizzes out to students’ devices in private virtual classrooms. This is wonderful for a quick assessment or review activity on the spot. My student’s love the draw something feature where I give them a vocabulary word and then they draw it and send it to my screen. I have done this with AP and regular US history, both courses had wonderful results.
  1. Socrative: (online or app) Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises via smartphones, laptops, and tablets.  This is great for a quick assessment or review game. For sample teacher codes visit: http://goo.gl/3CRiV   
  1. Gooru-:(online or app)  Gooru Collections allow any user to have access to more than 3,000 educational materials. The website is organized into playlists and is designed for every 5th-12th grade student. The options are endless from videos to games, to digital textbooks, useful teacher approved websites, quizzes, and so much more.
  1. Today’s Meet: (online) helps you embrace the backchannel and connect with your audience in realtime. Encourage the room to use the live stream to make comments, ask questions, and use that feedback to tailor your presentation, sharpen your points, and address audience needs.  I use today’s meet to have my student’s back-channel during a classroom debate, video, or resource sharing session when I do not want “verbal” discussion.
  1. Skitch:  (online or app) Get your point across with fewer words using annotation, shapes and sketches, so that your ideas become reality faster. This works well in groups. I assign each group a different topic and they need to create Skitch slide about that topic. They send their slides to me or their mirror their ipad through the Apple TV and teach the class about their topic.
  1. Evernote: (online or app) Evernote lets your take notes, sync files across your devices, save webpages, capture inspiration, and share your ideas with friends and colleagues.  There are so many wonderful ways to use Evernote for file sharing, lesson plans, digital portfolios writing submission. The ideas are endless!
  1. Animoto (online or app) or iMovie (app) Create a digital movie with photos and text slides.  Remember to create a teacher account. For sample projects and handouts http://goo.gl/aCntL
  2. My Big Campus (online or app) My Big Campus extends the classroom to a safe, engaging online environment that balances educational use of Web technologies with network and student.

Useful Resources

-Ipads In the Classroom by Annalisa Kelly Itunes Store. Free ebook http://goo.gl/nWcVh

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5 ways to use Evernote in 2013

 

Happy new year!

 

As we begin a new year, some people might be looking for ways to “go digital” and have everything organized in a easy and simple program.  With so many tools out there today that allow you to do just that, one of my top picks is Evernote.  I’ve been using Evernote for a couple of years now and I’m still finding ways to use Evernote to organize everything I need to.  If you are curious about Evernote, here are 5 ways you can use Evernote in 2013:

 

1.  Organize your Tweets on Twitter

Planning on using Twitter a lot this year?  Twitter is my main social networking site for my professional development in education – and I’ve run across a multitude of resources shared from people I’ve followed.  So many resources in fact it would take weeks to go through them all.  If you are looking for ways to organize your tweets from Twitter, Evernote can take care of that.  First, you’ll want to follow @myEN on Twitter.  Once you’ve done that, @myEN will send you a link to sign in to your Evernote account and from there you can connect your Evernote and Twitter account.  From that point, simply put @myEN in any tweet you send and it will automatically be put in your Evernote account.

With that being said, however, there are apps you can use on your tablet/mobile device to share your tweets to your Evernote account.  Here is a blog post from Evernote.com that suggests some apps that will help you do that, “9 Things to Capture from Your Twitter Stream and Apps to Help You Do It“.

2.  Scan your paper documents into Evernote

Have a ton of paper documents that you wish you could digitize?  With Evernote, you can get make all of those hard copies into digital copies and organize them so you can easily and quickly access them wherever you are at.  I recently introduced Evernote to one of my former students and explained how it could help her with her studies and also catalog and organize her lecture notes (my full guest post about this, Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote in History Class, can be found on Melissa Seidemann’s (@mseidemann) blog, notanotherhistoryteacher.edublogs.com).  Here’s a snapshot of one of her lecture notes that she captured with the Evernote app on her Iphone:

You can do this via the Evernote app or another app compatible with Evernote.  One app I recommend is CamScanner (IOS & Andorid), which allows you to share in the cloud and save as a PDF file.  Once you have captured the document on your mobile device, it will be in your Evernote account – which will be with you whether you are on your phone, computer, or tablet.  You can also scan documents into your Evernote account with other devices besides a phone or tablet.  Here is a list of devices that will streamline the process, truck.evernote.com/hardware.

 

3.  Clip articles while browsing the internet

Ever run across a interesting article or recipe on the internet and when you later try to find it you can’t?  With the Evernote webclipper, you can clip the article and have it whenever you need it.  Here’s an example of a article I clipped using Evernote:

 

What is also great about Evernote, is that it also provides a way to clip only the article without the clutter of the ads or page features.  Using Evernote Clearly (another browser extension), you can clip the article itself and get rid of any ads that are on the page that it is located on.  Here’s an example of how a article looks using the standard webclipper and the same article using Evernote Clearly: Standard vs. Clearly (links open in Evernote).  Either way, you can “clip” the article into your Evernote account and have a copy of it in your account.

 

4.  Explain with Skitch

It’s one thing to describe what you are talking about, however, if you are trying to explain something to someone it can be a lot more effective to show them what you are describing instead.  With Skitch, you can capture your computer screen or markup a photo and place arrows or dialogue on it to describe in detail what you are explaining.

 

Here’s an example I provided in another guest post on notanotherhistoryteacher.edublogs.com, Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote & Skitch.  What is great about Skitch is that you can take the photo and mark it up directly from the Skitch app (available both on IOS and Android), which makes life a lot easier.  As with this photo that I took while at the Palo Duro Canyon, I am able to show what “Red Claystone” looks like.  This works especially well in the classroom in trying to accommodate your lessons to include examples of the topic.  Skitch, now owned by Evernote, also allows you to upload your markups and photos directly into your Evernote account.  This way, if you are on the run and want to snap a photo and mark it up later, you can easily access it from your Evernote account and modify it when you are ready.  You can also do the same thing while on your computer and want to show examples of something or even trying to help someone with tehnical support.

 

 

5.  Share your resources from Evernote with note and notebook links

Now that you have a plethora of resources, how do you share them from your Evernote account?  You have two options at this point, you can either a) share an individual note or b) share an entire notebook.  All of the following images were captured using Skitch for Windows PC:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you choose to share an individual note, you can choose different options, as per the given example below:

 

If you choose to share an entire notebook (which you can do this by simply “right clicking” the notebook in Evernote you want to share and select “share notebook”), which is really useful if you use it to gather resources which you want people to be able to access at their convenience, you can create a public notebook link that will allow anyone to view or join the notebook:

 

 

Conclusion

Hopefully these are some good starting points for you if you are interested in using Evernote this year.  With so many different things you can do with Evernote, you’ll find out that it can make life much easier.  You can find out more about Evernote and about other apps that work with Evernote at: www.evernote.com.

 

If you are a educator and would like more resources for Evernote, please feel free to visit my Evernote Livebinder, Evernote for Educators:

 

 

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5 reasons why you should use Evernote written by Justin Stallings

Guest Post written by Justin Stallings. You can follow Justin @justinstallings  or his blog.
Evernote is one of my favorite online tools.  I use it on my Iphone, Android tablet and laptop to gather information and jot down thoughts and ideas.  Here are 5 reasons why you should give Evernote a try:
1.  Never forget a thought or idea
Ever had a really awesome idea or something that you thought of and wanted to write it down before you forgot it?  With Evernote, you never have to forget anything.  With my Iphone app (here’s the Itunes store link for it) I can quickly launch the application, create a new note or edit an existing one and type in the thought or idea.  Once you’re done, that thought is now in your world of Evernote–it will be on my laptop, tablet, and on the web at evernote.com.
2.  Organize and catalog online content
Since one of my teaching certifications is Composite Social Studies, I love to read and save articles over history, economics, and politics.  Evernote has truly been an awesome tool for me to use this year because we are in a election year for the President of the United States.  With the Evernote webclipper, any time I run across a article that I find interesting and want to refer to later, all I have to do is click the webclipper, select the notebook I want to put it in, and it’s done.  Here’s an example of the Google Chrome Evernote webclipper I use:
It’s also nice that I can assign tags to the article that I’ve just clipped for even more organization.  This saves me all kinds of time and hassle.
3.  Sharing made simple
With Evernote, sharing content and notes has never been easier.  As soon as a new note has been created in your Evernote account, you have the option of sharing it several different ways.  You can share via Twitter, Facebook, Email, or even via link directly to the note.  Here’s the link to a article over Ben Bernanke that I clipped a few months ago.  You also have the option to share an entire notebook so your users can access all of the notes in that notebook.  With this capability, you can share one link to your students where they can access all class lecture notes.  Thus, with Evernote you have one central “hub” to which you can share your content.
4.  Simplify other online tools with Evernote
Evernote in itself is completely awesome.  However, once you realize that there are other online websites/tools that also use Evernote with their services, it makes it all complete.  There are a wealth of apps for Iphone and Android that you can combine with Evernote, check out the Evernote “Trunk” to see what you could be using with Evernote:  http://evernote.com/trunk.
5. It’s Free
With Evernote, you can have the option to get a premium account or you can just keep the basic (free) account.  Here’s what you’ll get with a free account:
  • 100,000 Notes; each note can be a maximum of 25 megabytes (mb) for free users and 50mb for Premium users.
  • 250 Synchronized Notebooks (including Notebook Stacks). All 250 notebooks can be shared. There is no limit to the number of Local Notebooks (which aren’t synced) you can have.
  • 10,000 Tags.
  • 100 Saved Searches.
  (evernote.com)
Event though I have a premium account, I never maxed out my usage even when I had the free account.
Hopefully these reasons give you some insight on why to use Evernote.  Of course, these 5 reasons are just a start to the numerous things you can use Evernote for.  I’ve also created a “Evernote for Educators” livebinder with a lot of articles on how others are using Evernote.  Feel free to browse:
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5 free mobile apps to capture student work written by Justin Stallings

GUEST POST WRITTEN BY JUSTIN STALLINGS. YOU CAN FOLLOW JUSTIN @JUSTINSTALLINGS  OR HIS BLOG.
Mobile technology has provided new opportunities for students and teachers to both capture and organize data.  With the advent of mobile technology in the classroom, students can do a number of things like capture notes from their spirals or the whiteboard to capturing pictures/video of a project they’ve been doing in class.        This allows students to both share and reflect upon their learning.
Here are 5 mobile apps to capture student work:
1.  Evernote (IOS, Android, Blackberry)
Evernote is a mobile app that is cross-platform friendly–so regardless if your students prefer the Iphone, Android, or Blackberry they will be able to install the app and use it.  With the Evernote app, students can take picutres of classroom activities (not to mention activities assigned outside of class) or they can take audio notes as well.  So if you have your students taking notes in a spiral or journal, they can make them into digital notes with the Evernote app and have access to them 24/7.  More importantly, once they’ve created the new note from the app, they will have it access to it on any other device which they have downloaded Evernote or they can simply access it from the main website www.evernote.com.
2.  JotNot (IOS)
Jotnot is a very impressive mobile app which makes pictures or “scans” very crisp and clear.  Depending on how new your mobile device is (which I still have the Iphone 3GS so the camera on it is not as good as some of the new models) taking pictures may not exactly be as clear as you want–especially when reading text.  With JotNot, you can take a picture and change the settings on it to make it clearer to read.
The only downside to the free version of JotNot is that can’t share via Evernote or Dropbox–that is only with the paid version ($1.99).  With the free version, you can still save the image to your phone’s photo library and upload it into Evernote or Dropbox app from there.
3.  Whiteboard Share (IOS)
Whiteboard Share is a app that I just recently started experimenting with.  Essentially, with Whiteboard Share you can take a photo and share via Evernote or email.  The main benefit of this app is that it when the image is uploaded into Evernote, it makes the text more readable (evernote.com).
The other benefit to using Whiteboard Share is that it gives you a “zoom” feature on the camera, which the standard camera on the Iphone (3GS model at least) doesn’t allow for that.
4.  Pinterest (IOS)
Pinterest is quickly becoming a fun and easy way to both capture and share photos.  With the Iphone app you have access to your previous “pins” and can take photos directly from the app and assign them to a “pin board” for easy organization.  The pin boards can be a easy way for students to organize photos into different categories (i.e. Group projects) and be able to reflect on what they did later on.
5.  Voicethread (IOS)
Voicethread is a very engaging tool that students can utilize in the classroom.  With the Voicethread Iphone app, you can take a series of pictures and categorize them into different “threads” and make them into a type of “slideshow” presentation.
What sets this apart from the other apps is that once you take the photo, Voicethread allows you to make comments on it either by voice, text, or video.  So instead of students just making a caption description of the photo, they can also take audio notes or even actually video of them describing what is going on in the picture.
Honorable Mention:
CamScanner (IOS, Android)
CamScanner is also another excellent app that students can use to capture there work.  With Camscanner, you can take a snap shot from your Iphone or Android device and save it as a PDF or upload directly into your Evernote account.
Thanks to Melissa Seideman (@mseideman) for suggesting the app!
Conclusion:
If you are looking for a cross-platform app, Evernote is the way to go.  Of course, if students have the Iphone or even a Ipod Touch they have a few more options to choose from (for now at least). I’m sure that there are a few that I may have overlooked, which ones would you recommend?
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Part 6: Staying Secure with Evernote

This is another wonderful guest post written by Justin Stallings. For more information about Evernote or Justin’s previous posts see below.

 A few weeks ago, a good friend of mine had his home broken into.  The important part is that he and his family were not in harm’s way and are safe.  Unfortunately, however, some items were taken from his home–including his laptop.  When that happened, it got me thinking about my own computer, tablet, and mobile device and what I should do if something like that should happen to me.

Not only have I thought about security of my devices themselves, I have also thought about security with my Evernote account.  Evernote is installed on my desktop, smartphone, and my tablet.  Because I have the ease of access with Evernote on all my devices, I also considered what should happen to my Evernote account should one of my devices were stolen.  Fortunately for Evernote users, there are several ways to have more security with your Evernote account.

What does Evernote say about security?

Here’s Evernote’s official statement regarding security:

Evernote is committed to protecting the security of your information and takes reasonable precautions to protect it. However, Internet data transmissions, whether wired or wireless, cannot be guaranteed to be 100% secure and as a result we cannot ensure the security of information you transmit to us; accordingly, you acknowledge that you do so at your own risk. Once we receive your data transmission, we make all commercially reasonable efforts to ensure its security on our systems:

  • Your Evernote password is protected by encryption and only you have access to it;
  • Your personal information and data stored in our systems is protected by various physical, electronic and procedural safeguards. It is housed in a secure facility and Evernote restricts physical and network access to this facility to select trained staff and regularly evaluates its technologies, facilities, procedures and potential risks to maintain the security and privacy of our users’ data. As a rule, Evernote employees do not monitor or view your personal information or content stored in the Evernote service, but it may be viewed if we learn that our Terms of Service may have been violated and confirmation is required, or we otherwise determine that we have an obligation to review it; and
  • Certain Evernote services support the use of standard SSL encryption to protect data transmissions. However, this is not a guarantee that such data transmissions cannot be accessed, altered or deleted due to firewall or other security software failures.

If Evernote learns of a security system breach we may attempt to notify you and provide information on protective steps, if available, through the e-mail address that you supplied during registration or posting a notice on our web site. Depending on where you live, you may have a legal right to receive such notices in writing.  

Source: evernote.com

Safety tips with Evernote Desktop

I do a majority of my work on my laptop–everything from blogging, researching on the web, and organizing my resources in my Evernote account.  For quick and easy access, I have the Evernote Desktop installed on my PC.  All I have to do is click on the Evernote icon on my desktop and I’m in.  With that being said, however, if someone were to steal my laptop it would be that easy for them to access my Evernote account (besides of course if they were somehow able to get passed my Windows log-in password).  Here are some safe practices I use with my Evernote Desktop:

1.  Make “signing out” a habit

Is it a pain in the rear to sign into your Evernote account every time you boot up your computer?  Sure.  However, consider this:  Is it more of a pain to sign in your account every time or having someone access your Evernote account and you trying to prevent as little as damage as possible by changing your password and other potent data?  Once you sign out of your Evernote account, you’ll be more secure than just staying signed in the entire time:

If someone steals your computer, don’t make it easier on them by just letting them into your Evernote account with no effort at all.  By not selecting the “stay signed in” option, it makes whoever steals your computer put in your user id and password (see the bottom of this post for tips on how to create a strong password).

Again, this makes things a lot less easy for you to sign in to your account–but anything that’s easy for you is equally easy for for any would-be thieves out there as well.

2.  How to encrypt sensitive data in a Evernote note

We talk a lot these days about going digital in the classroom–everything from assessments, projects, and record keeping.  For educators, some might keep sensitive student data (such as contact information or student ID numbers) in the “cloud” for access to wherever they are at.  The one thing that should be discussed and considered is how safe that data will be once you place it in the online database.  With Evernote, you can add a 2nd level of security to any note data by “encrypting” it in the Evernote note.  Here’s what it would look like and how to do it:

Example of text in a Evernote note:

With this feature in Evernote, encrypting sensitive data might be something you would want to consider.  As in this example, should you choose to use Evernote to keep information about your students, you can encrypt it to make sure that if someone is able to hack into your Evernote account they will have to also hack into the encrypted information.

 

Example of how to select data you want to encrypt:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Example of creating a encryption password in Evernote:

As with any password, you’ll want to create a strong password for your encryption password as well.  Be sure to check out the end of this post for more information on how to create strong passwords.

(Image credit: Screenshot by Ed Rhee/CNET “How to encrypt selected text in Evernote“)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How data encryption looks once you are done:

Once you are done, that data will now be “encrypted” for more security.  As you can see in this image, the data is no longer visible just by signing into your Evernote account–you will be required to enter your encryption password to access that data as well.  You can do that by double-clicking the encrypted image and it will then prompt you to enter in your password to get access to it.

Safety tips for your mobile device

Safety while on your mobile device is something that should be practiced just as much as safety while on a computer.  Fortunately, Evernote also takes safety on mobile devices into consideration by allowing you to set up a “pin lock” on your Evernote account.  It is important to note, however, that this is a “premium” feature.  Here’s a post on what you’ll get with Evernote premium, “Ten reasons to go premium“.

Here’s an example of what the “pin lock” feature looks like on Android.  Once you go to the Evernote app, you’ll be prompted to enter in your pin number in order to access your account.  This really is a excellent feature to use for security on your phone, should you happen to lose your phone or if it gets stolen.  You can enable this feature on the Evernote app by going to settings—–>other options–>setup pin lock (Android).  You can do the same thing on your tablet or Ipad should you choose to have that 2nd level of security as well.

Other Security Resources

Though the main purpose of this post is to discuss security with Evernote, it is also important to emphasize the importance of practicing good security measures when you are using your computer and when you are connected to the internet.  Here are some resources that might give you some ideas on how to stay secure on your computer and electronic devices, as well as on Evernote:

Evernote

Evernote privacy policy

Evernote’s Three Laws of Data Protection

Freetech4teachers.com:

Three simple tools for creating strong passwords

Resources for Safer Internet Day

Cell Phone Security

Android security

Iphone security

Educationaltechnologyguy.com

E-safety resources

Please see my other posts in this series, Evernote for the Social Studies:

Part 1: Evernote for the Social Studies: What is Evernote

Part 2: Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote in the History Class

Part 3: Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote and Skitch

Part 4: Evernote for the Social Studies: Lesson Planning with Evernote

Part 5: Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote and Study Blue

Evernote for Educators Livebinder

 

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Part 5: Evernote and Study Blue

Continuing on with our “Evernote for the Social Studies” series, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss how we can use Evernote to teach about the 2012 Presidential Election, seeing as how the presidential election is just over a month away.

Now is a great time to be a Social Studies teacher, especially if you teach Government.  With all the issues being discussed during this political election year, there is a vast sea of resources for teachers and students to observe and study over.  In fact, there are so many articles that are written and so much terminology that’s thrown around it can be overwhelming at times.  Luckily, there are two awesome tools that teachers and students can use to gather and organize these resources…Evernote and Study Blue.

What is Study Blue?

We live in a world where everything is digital.  Everything to paying bills online, finding news articles, and yes, even studying.  Teachers and students now locate and share their content online, making the learning experience more engaging.  Online tools such as Evernote, Livebinders, and Google have provided ways for teachers and students to gather that content and present it online.  However, when  it comes time to study, what digital tool is there to facilitate that need?  Enter Study Blue.

Study Blue is essentially what I like to call “21st century studying” or what Study Blue calls “your digital backpack”. Studying has evolved beyond opening a text book and looking for key terms in the glossary, we now incorporate pictures, audio, and technology into the studying experience.

Study Blue

What is also nice about Study Blue, is that allows you several different ways of studying and adding studying materials:

With your study materials, once you have created your flashcard set, you have the option of studying as a review sheet, quiz, or as flashcards right their on your computer.  However, you might wonder what happens if not all of your students have access to a electronic device?  Study Blue also allows you to print off your flashcard set and cut them up into a hardcopy flashcard set or even export them into a Excel spreadsheet.  Here’s the link to a flashcard set of mine to see what it looks like when you select to print them off:  US Election Volcabulary. (Link opens in Evernote).  You can also share the URL to the flashcard set to Facebook, Twitter, and email (though whoever you share the link with must be signed in to their Study Blue account to be able to view it).

Studying Goes Mobile

With all of our technological advancements today, students are usually connected to some kinda of electronic device.  Text books are not the only means of studying now.  Students are now studying with the phones, tablets, and laptops.  Here’s a interesting graphic from Study Blue that shows some data about how studying has evolved over the years:

With Study Blue, students can study anytime they have their cell phones–in between classes, on break at work, or whenever they have free time.  Even better, Study Blue allows you to connect your material on their website to your Evernote account.

Study Blue and Evernote

Once you sign up for a Study Blue account (which is free, by the way), you can choose to go under your profile preferences and connect your Evernote account to your Study Blue account.  Once you have connected your two accounts, a new notebook in your Evernote account will be created, called “Study Blue”:

Let’s say, for example, that your students keep their class notes in their Evernote account.  If they prefer, when they want to study said notes, they can simply copy that Evernote note and move it into the Study Blue notebook.  Once that is done, that note will now be in their Study Blue account and they can simply go log into their Study Blue account and retype that note into flashcards.

How does this help the teacher?

Going back to how Study Blue and Evernote can help you teach the 2012 Presidential Election, one of the main things your students might have issues with is keeping up with the terminology.  Politics can have a slew of terms, which from a student’s perspective can be very overwhelming.  If you want to give your students some extra time with the terminology, creating and sharing these flashcards can be extremely beneficial.  If allotted the extra time, students might have a easier time with it during class, thus cutting back the time which you would have to revisit the terms and material.  Here’s the link to my Study Blue flashcards, or if you don’t have a Study Blue account, here’s the link to the notes in my Evernote account:  Study Blue link or Evernote link.

All of this is just a sampling of what you can do with Study Blue.  Sign up for a account today and give it a try!

For more information, here are more resources:

Studyblue.com

Evernote blog post on Study Blue

Part 1: Evernote for the Social Studies: What is Evernote

Part 2: Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote in the History Class

Part 3: Evernote for the Social Studies: Evernote and Skitch

Part 4: Evernote for the Social Studies: Lesson Planning with Evernote

Evernote for Educators Livebinder

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Part 4: Lesson Planning with Evernote

Lesson planning is a huge component of any educator’s classroom.  We have to breakdown the instruction into several considerations to give our students the best means of learning the objective–i.e. what is the objective of this lesson, what resources will I/students use, what activities will be incorporated, etc.  Once it is all said and done, a lesson plan can be bursting with content and resources–which can be quite overwhelming for the teacher.  Wouldn’t it be nice if we had a “central hub” to gather all of our resources for quick and easy access?  Enter Evernote.

 

The more I get hands on with Evernote, the more I’m finding out about the extensive ways in which Evernote can be used in education.  One way that Evernote is making a teacher’s life easier is by making lesson planning much easier and streamlined.  Two educators that are apart of my PLN on Twitter, Melissa Seideman and David Andrade, are also huge fans of Evernote.  I recently asked if I could share their experiences with using Evernote and they agreed.  Here’s their testimonies:

Melissa Seideman:

Lesson Plans

The first set are screen shots are of my lesson plans. I got the idea of lesson plans using Evernote from twitter and I will never go back to any other type. I organized each class into a separate notebook and I created notes for each unit. The hardest part was setting up the lesson plans but once it was set up it’s so easy to just enter information.

Here are Melissa’s screen shots for lesson planning:

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

Example 4:

I find Evernote for lesson plans to be one of the most time saving technologies I have implemented into my classroom. I have my lesson plans on every device thanks to Evernote. I can make a change with a simple click on my phone, ipad, or computer. Every change syncs and keeps me organized. I am also making notes in each lesson to change if I teach the same course next year.  I have also shared my lesson plans with members of my department as well as my principal. I highly recommend using Evernote for lesson plans.

 

Using Evernote for Student Portfolios

My seniors are doing a final portfolio project using Evernote. The project is very detailed with each step of the project. It took a few days of getting students adjusted to working in Evernote rather than opening word, but the progress is beautiful. They shared their project notebook with me and I can see every change as well as the progress each student makes.   I attached a few student projects. I also created a shared notebook that I shared with them such as my how to guide, what if I am absent, and a sample portfolio layout. This project is truly digital in every sense including the directions for each project work day.

Here’s Melissa’s screen shots for student portfolios:

Example 1:

Example 2:

Example 3:

 Example 4:

 

Example 5:

Evernote is a great way to teach our students to be digitally responsible, organized, and literate. My hope using Evernote they will find other uses for cloud computing as well as ways to successfully use technology outside of school in the real world.

 

David Andrade

Evernote is my main lesson and resource organizational tool. I have notebooks setup for lesson plans and lesson resources, along with notebooks for things to do, things to research, and things to share. My lesson plan notes are set up by unit and have the objectives, links, resources, and attached files (like handouts and lab packets). I also have notes setup by week that I use to keep track of where each class is and to schedule my plans out. I can easily share resources and information with my students or colleagues. I have notebooks for faculty meeting notes, ideas for future lessons, Android tips and resources, technology support, and personal notebooks for financial notes and account information, recipes, travel plans, and much more.

In the image below, you can see my lesson plan notebook. It has my schedule for each week with what I am going to do in each class, each day. I also have notes with my unit and lesson plans, links to other resources, notes, and I have attached the files I use with each class.

Lesson Plan objectives:

David’s post on winning Evernote premium for himself and his classes for a entire year:

I just won a very cool contest Evernote hosted for educators. Along with 9 other teachers, I won a year of Evernote premium for me and all of my students, along with training and support to implement it with my class.

I have been using Evernote myself for years and always share it with my students, but this will be my first year really using it with them. I’m learning more about sharing notebooks and setting up groups and classes with Evernote. The first webinar from Evernote was great and we have a Yammer group for support, as well as more training from Evernote throughout the year.

Students have already been using Evernote to take notes and upload files from me and attach them to their class notes. Many are also taking pictures of notes on the board and uploading them to Evernote. I’m also having them submit assignments to me via Evernote. Each class has a notebook and the students tag anything they send me with their name for easy sorting. This will become their online portfolio. Students can share notes with me or email me files right into Evernote.

They are getting so used to it already, that when I say “where should you save this?” they automatically answer Evernote.

You can follow David on Twitter or his blog (Twitter: @Daveandcori, Blog: Educationaltechnologyguy)

I highly recommend you follow Melissa and David, they have shared some great things involving a vast area of education.

What do you think?  Give Evernote a try!

More resources for using Evernote:

Evernote for Educators Livebinder

Evernote for the Social Studies:

Part 1: What is Evernote?

Part 2: Evernote in the History Class

Part 3: Evernote & Skitch for the Social Studies

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Part 3: Evernote & Skitch for the Social Studies

Welcome, Social Studies teachers!  Over the last couple of weeks, we have been introduced to what Evernote is and how you can use it.  Of course, once you get started with Evernote you’ll discover all kinds of ways you can use–both in the classroom and your personal life.

Last week, we looked at how Evernote can help students and teachers in History class.  For those of you who teach History, hopefully you’ve had a chance to try Evernote out for yourself and your students.  Please share if you have!

Evernote for Geography Class

Continuing on into my “Evernote for the Social Studies” series, I wanted to take a look this week at how Evernote can help Geography teachers.  With Geography, we look at a lot of maps and physical features.  We show students pictures of different terrains and land features and discuss differences and similarities among them.  Geography teachers will sometimes print off maps and have students label and color them, which may work for getting students familiar with certain items, but it’s not extremely engaging.  If you want to have more ways to engage your Geography students, allow me to introduce you to Skitch.

What is Skitch?

Skitch is a free tool, purchased by Evernote last year, that allows you to annotate and create images.

Here’s a short video of some uses for Skitch:

What is great about Skitch, not only can you save your images to your Evernote account, you can also share your images via Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, Pinterest, and email.  This way, if you have ever been out and about and ran across something that you would love to share in class, all you have to do is launch the Skitch app, snap the photo, annotate and share to your heart’s desire.

Here’s a example of a screenshot I took on my HP Touchpad (rooted to run Android) via the Skitch app of the United States.  Once I annotated and saved the image into my Evernote account, I had it wherever else I had Evernote installed.  Check it out:

Engaging your Geography students with Skitch

One thing that I feel strongly in is that learning is not confined to the walls of the classroom, learning can occur all around us.  Coloring maps and seeing pictures is one thing, but having students going out and taking pictures of the landscape of which they live in is far more engaging.  What’s nice about doing something like this is that a expensive camera is not required.  Thanks to today’s technology in smartphones, most students already have a camera available to them just by having a cell phone.  I’m sure that there are some students who do not own a cell phone, however, I believe the biggest majority of them do.  When I was doing my student teaching, a majority of my kids (which the school was in a low socioeconomic status) owned a cell phone.  What’s great about mobile technology is that it can be a great tool to engage students in the learning process.  Going out and having students experience their own “backyard” is much more engaging that just seeing images in the classroom.  Here’s a few examples from when I went to the Palo Duro Canyon–the 2nd largest canyon in the United States, located near Amarillo, TX:

Map of Palo Duro Canyon State Park:

Yucca Plants:                                        Red Claystone:

How does this help the teacher?

As educators, our minds are always on how can we present learning in ways which will reach our students.  If you are like me, you’ll see something that could be a great idea to use in the next lesson or something that you can utilize in the classroom.  With Evernote and Skitch, you can take a snapshot of whatever you come across, annotate it, and save it to your Evernote account for future reference.  As with the images I’ve shared also, you can explain certain attributes of Geography a little easier and engage your students to explain what they’ve come across as well.

Conclusion

Once your students save the image in Skitch, they can save it to their Evernote account and share that image via Twitter, Facebook, email, or via the note URL.  If all students were allowed access, I would think that allowing all of your students to “Tweet” their photo to the rest of the class would be a great way of sharing and a strong way to get them engaged.

These are just a few examples of what you could do with Skitch in the Geography classroom.  The best thing I like about doing something like this is this could have the potential to spark interest in students who may have never been engaged otherwise.  What if we took a chance and did something like this in class and the end result was the students becoming life-long learners?  We don’t want our kids to stop learning after they’ve left our class, we want them to continue and excel their learning.

Give Evernote and Skitch a try, you’ll be surprised of all the possibilities that you and your students will come up with.

For more information, here are some useful links:

Part 1: Evernote for the Social Studies–What is Evernote?

Part 2: Evernote for the Social Studies–Evernote in the History Class

Evernote Livebinder

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Part 2: Evernote for the Social Studies

Last week, I posted at what you can do with Evernote.  Hopefully you’ve had a chance to get hands-on with Evernote in the last few days and got a feel for how awesome it really is.  Once you do get started with Evernote, you’ll wonder what you did without it.

Evernote in History Class

(Photo courtesy: Library of Congress)

Continuing on in the “Evernote for the Social Studies” series, today I wanted to take a look at how Evernote can help students in History class.  For this post, I contacted a former student of mine and asked if she would be willing to take a few minutes with me and take a look at what Evernote could do for her in her History class.

Digitize and Organize your notes

As I sat down with her and we began to discuss what she was doing in her classes, she showed me some of the notes that she had taken in her class.  Currently, she’s in 8th grade and taking a United States History class from Colonization period to the end of Reconstruction of the American Civil War.  The notes had been done on loose-leaf notebook paper and she kept them in a folder specifically for that class.  As we discussed the positives and negatives of taking and retaining notes that way, the one thing that concerned her was loosing her notes.  Here’s where I showed her where Evernote could step in and take care of that problem.  To start off with, we created a new notebook “US History Notes” in her Evernote account (age requirement is 13 yrs old for any users of Evernote, see the privacy policy).  Using the Evernote app on her Ipod Touch, we took a snapshot of her notes:

She like the idea of creating a “notebook” specially for her US History class for quick and easy organization.  What I also showed her as well was how Evernote can help her refresh on her notes and prepare for a test.  On the notes above, we looked at Evernote’s search feature to quickly find needed notes.  Once she took the snapshot of her notes, she would title them–i.e. Jamestown notes:

Notice how performing a search of “jamestown” in her Evernote notes came up with her Jamestown notes and how Evernote highlighted the searched term in yellow.  As a side note, if you are a premium user you can also search for text in the image themselves.

At the end of our discussion of Evernote, she said she was going to try using Evernote for the next couple of weeks and see how it will help her.  I’ll be updating everyone as she continues to use Evernote over the next few days.  In her words, she classified Evernote as “cool”.  Yes my fellow educators, Evernote will make your students say “cool”.

 

Staying up-to-date on current events with Evernote

The interesting part of history is that it does’t stop, history happens every day.  If you plan on having your students keep up with current events throughout the school year, why not have them clip articles with Evernote?  As my former student did for her history notes, have your students create a notebook in their Evernote account and name it something like “Current Events”.  If they have the Evernote Webclipper installed on their internet browsers (weather it be at home or at school) they can clip a article that they like or over a topic that you choose for them.  Here’s an example of article I clipped and also added a short response, the article is over the events in Libya.  What’s good about this is that students can email you the article they clipped or share in on Facebook, Twitter, or copy the note URL and put it in their Livebinder.

 

How does this help the teacher?

When I was student teaching, I had students who lost their notes, forgot to bring them to class, and everything in between.  As we discussed in the first post of this series, students can access their notes from their computer, tablet, or mobile device.  When a student scans their notes into their Evernote account, they won’t be able to say “I lost them” or “I forgot them”.  Of course, as the teacher, you might consider typing or scanning your notes into your Evernote yourself.  This way, if you do want to share your notes with your students, you can share them the same way your students can.  Here’s how to share notes and notebooks.

 

Conclusion:

Hopefully this gave you some ideas on how you might use Evernote in your History class.  As with any technology tool that is used in the classroom, the main goal of it is to use it to engage the students and nurture them to become life-long learners.  Once I showed Evernote to my former student, she automatically started to see things that she could do with it.

 

Next week, we’ll look at how Evernote can help in the Geography class.  Looking forward to sharing more ideas for using Evernote the Social Studies classroom!

 

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Part 1: What is Evernote?

Evernote

Hello, my name is Justin Stallings.  Melissa and I met through our Professional Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter and I recently became a guest blogger on this blog.  Before I go into my posts, I wanted to give a big THANK YOU to Melissa for allowing me to post on her blog.

Introduction

For those of you who don’t know me, I’m a big fan of Evernote.  I discuss it a lot at my blog and I put together a Evernote Livebinder a few months ago that received a “Top 10 Livebinder of 2012” nomination.

When I started to look at the content I had for Evernote, I realized that there wasn’t much material that was “content specific”.  Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity to discuss ways Social Studies teachers can use Evernote, beginning a series titled “Evernote for the Social Studies Teacher”.  Over the next few weeks, I would like to discuss ways in which Social Studies teachers (History, Government, Economics, etc) can utilize this great and free tool.

What is Evernote?

Before we begin to look at how Social Studies teachers can use Evernote, we need to first understand what Evernote is and what you can do with it in general.

Screen Shot 2013-03-28 at 10.50.37 PM

Need better organization?  Need a tool that you can create notes, clip articles, and have access to your uploaded documents from your computer, tablet, or mobile device 24/7?  With Evernote, all of this is now a reality.

Of course, the first thing that you’re thinking of is “How much does it cost?”  This is the best part of Evernote…it’s free!  With that being said, there is a paid version as well.  Here’s what you’ll get with the free version:

  • 100,000 Notes; each note can be a maximum of 25 megabytes (mb) for free users and 50mb for Premium users.
  • 250 Synchronized Notebooks (including Notebook Stacks). All 250 notebooks can be shared. There is no limit to the number of Local Notebooks (which aren’t synced) you can have.
  • 10,000 Tags.
  • 100 Saved Searches
(Source: Evernote.com)
Evernote on all of your devices
After creating a free account at www.evernote.com, you’ll want to gear up your devices to use Evernote to it’s full potential.  You can download Evernote onto your PC or Mac for easier access and install the mobile app for your smartphone or tablet.
Evernote Web Clipper
If you do a lot of research on the web, you’ll want to get the Evernote Web Clipper:

The web clipper can be installed on internet browsers Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer.  Once you find a article that you like like, you can “clip” it into your Evernote account for future reference.  The cool thing about this is that it clips the article itself and not just the url of the page.

Evernote Mobile Apps

With technology becoming a integrated part of the classroom, it’s important to have a tool that goes with you, on any device you have.  Evernote provides apps for your IOS devices, Android devices, and Blackberry devices.  With the Evernote app, you can quickly create notes from your mobile device, access web clippings, and everything else you have in your Evernote account.

Conclusion

All this is just a start of what you can do with Evernote.  Next week, we’ll be looking at different ways a History teacher could use Evernote in the classroom.

I recommend to browse around at evernote.com in the next few days.  The Evernote Trunk provides a exhaustive list of other applications that integrates Evernote with theirs, so Evernote provides a ton more uses.

Of course, if there is anything anyone would like to share, I’m always happy to learn new things myself!

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