Evernote Pilot Run

Today I did a couple of things for the first time.  Anyone who says teaching online is not fun does not enjoy playing with technology like I do.  For starters, I declared recently that I was going to embrace Evernote this semester, and I have already begun to do just that.

Yesterday I spent the morning reading a textbook chapter for an online instructional design course I am enrolled in this semester… (Yes, folks, the online teacher is also an online student!)  I sat at my dining room table with the book and my iPad with the bluetooth keyboard from my desktop, and I used the Evernote app to type my thoughts, comments, and questions as I read.  Then I got to a point in the chapter where I really wanted to capture a bulleted list.  Instead of retyping the whole thing, I used Evernote’s camera feature to photograph it.  I was so excited to see that it inserted the pictures right into my document, and then I was able to keep on typing under the photos.  If anyone wants to see what that looks like, click here.

Today, as I lounged in bed taking a break from work–since that is one of the benefits of working from home–I found an article on my iPhone that I wanted to keep for one of my online courses.  Instead of bookmarking it, I opened the Evernote app and copied the URL into a new note.  That’s when I saw the audio icon.  Instead of typing a note to myself to explain why I was saving the link to the article, I recorded one!  Now that is interactive technology.  Here’s a link to that file, in case you are curious.

Overall, I’m very excited about the potential for this multiplatform service.  Evernote seems to be a great app on the mobile devices, and also nice to use when I’m on my desktop, which is an iMac, (of course).

You were just waiting for me to say that, weren’t you?  😉

Note: this blog is not in any way supported by Apple.

Getting Ready for PUP with a Reading Round UP

Later this afternoon I’ll be presenting at NOVA’s PUP (Power up your pedagogy) conference.  My session is called “Mobile Apps that Support Learning: How and Why Faculty 
Should Use Them.”  I came up with the idea for this session last August, and immediately ran to my NOVA colleague, Nikkia Anderson, who is an Instructional Technologist for Hybrid Instruction.  She and I collaborated on the development of the session, and today is our third time presenting it.  You’d think I’d feel ready, like today would be a piece of cake.

But no, I awoke at 5am with new ideas and questions to ponder that would make my session even better.  Here’s some last-minute reading I drummed up this morning along with my first cup of coffee:

Help Students Develop Lifelong Learning Skills with Web 2.0 Tools – Faculty Focus | Faculty Focus.

Embracing the iPad and the Wonderful World of Apps in the Classroom | Faculty Focus.

Evernote Blog | How my students started using Evernote – Education Series.

Now, not only do I feel amped about presenting, but I’ve come up with an experiment for this semester: I’m going to embrace Evernote on my desktop (using the “Web Clipper” add on for Firefox) and also on my iPhone (using the mobile app) and encourage my students to use it (with delightful incentives, of course) to see how much it really enhances higher order learning in the online, mobile classroom.