QUESTION: Is it Evernote an innovation in education?

[pepg 0]

Hola,

To achieve innovation in education, is Evernote only a tool?

I mean, what improvements are achieved with Evernote that can not get with other innovations?

I see a PBL learning like an innovation, and I think Evernote is just a tool, not an innovation in teaching, right?

What do you think?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

Hola,

To achieve innovation in education, is Evernote only a tool?

I mean, what improvements are achieved with Evernote that can not get with other innovations?

I see a PBL learning like an innovation, and I think Evernote is just a tool, not an innovation in teaching, right?

What do you think?

hi. welcome to the forums!

if i understand you correctly, you are suggesting that evernote is a tool (like a pencil or a piece of paper), and that disqualifies it from being an innovation, which is a label we reserve for methodologies or processes like pbl learning.

so, i take it you are asking us to compare the improvements gained through using software to those gained through using a pbl pedagogy, and decide which is more innovative: evernote or pbl (the answer you favor seems to be embedded in the way you phrased the question)?

i think evernote is undoubtedly a tool (i would even argue that pbl and other methodologies are "tools" in a larger sense of resources you can draw upon to foster learning in the classroom), but how you use it would seem to be the key point. leaving aside the question of "what is evernote?", i think i would like to rephrase it as: are there any innovative ways to use evernote in the classroom (superior to current methodologies with pen and paper), or are the uses just a distraction (inferior to current methodologies)?

[pepg 0]

Hi!

Thanks.

Yes, we can rephrase the question as: are there any innovative ways to use evernote in the classroom?

For example, from my point of view:

- we can say that we are the first to use Evernote, and that this is an innovation ---> (I disagree with that, because I think that this is not an innovation)

- things we do with Evernote, were made or are made by combining, for example, other services such as online storage, wikis, etc. ..

- digital competence can work, but students often know more about computers than teachers ---> it could be an innovation

- .....

otherwise, the majority of videos about Evernote is all students with mac computer, with tablets, with smartphones, etc .... What about schools that can not afford a personal computer per student? no way to innovate in those schools with Evernote?

Thank you,

Pep

[MC_Otter 13]

Hi Pep. Thanks for inviting me to this discussion.

I would tend to agree with what has already been said. There are a lot of different ways to use Evernote in a classroom. Some of them function more like a tool while others are definitely innovative. The cool thing about Evernote is that there is no set way in which you can use it. Every user can come up with their own ideas and uses for it. You could come up with a new way to use it that no one else has done before.

I would like to respond to your question about Evernote in schools that cannot afford personal computers for each student. In my experience, schools that purchase personal computers for each of their students do that so each student can have all of their files, etc., in one place, removed from space on the school's server. I would say that Evernote takes away that need. If every student can access all of their notes, files, and everything else that they need from any computer, then is there even a need for personal computers in schools? I think that for schools that cannot afford to make a purchase for each student, Evernote could be even more innovative and more impactful.

Megan

[pepg 0]

Hi Megan,

Thanks for answering.

But what are the benefits for students?

What would improve their education? because that's an innovation, improved somewhat.

Would be more motivated?

Will they learn more by using Evernote that using the computer as they used before (or pencil and paper)?

Thank you.

Pep

[ursula 42]

First: Students know how to do certain things with technology. They rarely use it to its full capacity or understand the range of what it can do. I am amazed at how much I know (at age 57) that they do not know.

Second: EverNote is useful to me as a way for students to keep their writing and give me access to it. Or would be if my district did not consider EverNote a threat to security. Because this is the reality, I have not been able to explore many possibilities.

Any other teachers having this problem - district blocking sites like EverNote?

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

But what are the benefits for students?

Depends on the teacher. If you view this notebook, learn something from it, and apply the ideas in your classroom, then can we say that the students benefitted from Evernote?

https://www.evernote...3e-81a3e332bb9b

What would improve their education?

Depends on the teacher. Here are some ideas.

https://www.evernote...08bec6bdec7370d

Would be more motivated?

Maybe. Here is my list of shared notebooks that I have come across. You'll notice several students who were motivated to scan and share their notes with others. Amazing how students can collaborate with students all over the world by sharing their understanding of various topics. I sure wish it would have been around when I was in K-12.

https://www.evernote...38a7605d5874094

Will they learn more by using Evernote that using the computer as they used before (or pencil and paper)?

Maybe. Do students learn more with pencil and paper than they did with chalk and slates? I did a lot of my studying with brush and paper (Japanese calligraphy). I am a grad student/lecturer, so I have one foot in both worlds at the moment. I cannot begin to describe how helpful it has been for me. Nothing wrong with pencil and paper. I still use it! But, to scan in my notes, organize them, and have them available no matter where I am in the world? That is something powerful. It is amazing how Evernote has changed the way I review notes and make new connections.

In other words, it isn't Evernote vs. tradition, but Evernote leveraging the Cloud to take notes out of a folder on a bookshelf and put them into play 24/7.

[MC_Otter 13]

Well, as a student myself, even though I am at the college level, I have definitely used Evernote to improve my education. Being organized can be a huge asset to a student. But, not every student is organized. To use myself as an example, when I was in high school (in my pre-EN days) I was still incredibly organized. Binders, dividers, planners, I went all out. But other students were not that way. Now, sometimes that didn't matter and they still did fine, but for some students, that lack of organization was the difference between high grades and the ones that they were receiving, simply because they couldn't find their information to study/write papers. Evernote makes it easy. Even for an unorganized person, it's pretty much impossible not to be able to find something. The search options are so advanced that you can find anything you've captured pretty much instantaneously. That makes it easy to pull together research for a paper or create a comprehensive study guide. And in the end, that has definitely made me more motivated, simply because I know that when I sit down to write a paper, I'm not going to have to go through the same research possibly hundreds of times just to finish. But, obviously this will be different for every student. That is just my personal experience.

[brentrjones 1]

It doesn't matter if it is a tool or an innovation or both.

It is useful for me as a teacher because there are many bits of info that I need immediate access to. As a chemistry teacher, many things are visual. To write 2H2 + 02 = 2H20 I really need graphics because the subscripts matter. So being able to take a cell phone picture of a whiteboard of chemical equations is extremely valuable. Being able to find my own lecture notes is a huge asset to me.

[GrumpyMonkey 4,319]

It doesn't matter if it is a tool or an innovation or both.

It is useful for me as a teacher because there are many bits of info that I need immediate access to. As a chemistry teacher, many things are visual. To write 2H2 + 02 = 2H20 I really need graphics because the subscripts matter. So being able to take a cell phone picture of a whiteboard of chemical equations is extremely valuable. Being able to find my own lecture notes is a huge asset to me.

Great point about the potential for Evernote to be useful in teaching the sciences. In university settings students often find it difficult to integrate their handwritten notes from science/math classes and their typewritten ones -- Evernote bridges the gap.

Educators can share notebooks with photos of the equations they wrote in class: good for students to review, check their notes, and make up classes missed. Also, students can photograph the equations they copy during class and keep those in their notebooks along with typed (or even handwritten) explanations for later review.

[garychenc00l 13]

As a student myself, I use Evernote by myself unless more people join in, and my school get's wifi. But until then, I basically type notes up on my phone during class when it's appropriate and add more to those notes and make new ones and organize them on the computer. I can share these notes to whoever wants it, or entire notebooks. If my school started to fully use this, I would say things would be easier IMO assuming students won't mess around instead of listening or writing up notes. It was better for me, I remembered more, studied better and in general did better in school.

[Jim Dvorak 1]

Hi.

Education researchers have long held that such things as collaboration/cooperation among learners, time on task, active learning, prompt feedback, and respect for diverse learning ways of learning are crucial for learning (cf. Chickering & Gamson, "Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education," AAHE Bulletin 39 (1987) 3-7; Abrose, et. al., How Learning Work [san Francisco: John Wiley and Sons, 2010]). Evernote can help accomplish these things. Here are a few very simple/basic examples:

• Collaboration/cooperation: create a notebook and share it with everyone in the course, giving them edit permissions; ask them to collaborate on any number of things like create a master set of notes on course lectures, create notes for use with Evernote Peek if appropriate (e.g. vocabulary flash cards), create master notes on assigned readings, etc.
  
• Time on Task: implementing any of the above ideas creates a context in which learners are spending not just more (i.e. quantity) but quality time engaging the course content, their peers, and the instructor.
  
• Active learning: use shared notebooks to enable active learning processes such as reading, writing, discussion, or problem solving that promote analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of class content
  
• Prompt Feedback: Evernote can be used as a mechanism for turning in formative (or summative) assignments for which faculty can provide feedback (note that this process would be asynchronous, so "promptness" would depend on a number of factors).
  
• Respecting diverse ways of learning/learning styles: because Evernote allows a person to store many different kinds of media--text, audio, video, images, etc.--its users are free to create and store just about any kind of learning object
  

I hope this brief post points you in the right direction. Although Evernote is a "tool" it can certainly aid innovative learning and teaching by helping accomplish what researchers say it takes for learning to occur. Personally, I have found it to be beneficial for my students of Hellenistic Greek, especially for its use with Evernote Peek. We create the notes for the "flash cards" and also add audio pronunciations to the note so Peek can play them.

[DigitalCaveman 1]

Well, as a student myself, even though I am at the college level, I have definitely used Evernote to improve my education. Being organized can be a huge asset to a student. But, not every student is organized. To use myself as an example, when I was in high school (in my pre-EN days) I was still incredibly organized. Binders, dividers, planners, I went all out. But other students were not that way. Now, sometimes that didn't matter and they still did fine, but for some students, that lack of organization was the difference between high grades and the ones that they were receiving, simply because they couldn't find their information to study/write papers. Evernote makes it easy. Even for an unorganized person, it's pretty much impossible not to be able to find something. The search options are so advanced that you can find anything you've captured pretty much instantaneously. That makes it easy to pull together research for a paper or create a comprehensive study guide. And in the end, that has definitely made me more motivated, simply because I know that when I sit down to write a paper, I'm not going to have to go through the same research possibly hundreds of times just to finish. But, obviously this will be different for every student. That is just my personal experience.

Hi Megan. . .you share my exact sentiments as of late. I'm training all faculty at my college to adopt Evernote in the classroom. The approach and focus is to provide a student with a way to manage, navigate and contain everything associated with their cousres. We forget that in the days of old. . .workflow and organizational skills were built in to every assignment. We are an all ipad campus and what we've discovered is that where our students fail and fall apart is the ability to manage themselves as students. They do their work but then can't manage it and end up never turning it in, and in the end fail. . .Evernote solves this and class flow suddenly reflects the old way of doing things as you mentioned, "Binders, dividers, planners" etc. but now in a digital format. We are trying to build workflow into every assignment because these are skills students are lacking. Evernote is a good one stop shop for this. As for innovation, for those right brain students who were always held back (like myself) for the lack of left brain skills---organizing and managing my work, suddenly Evernote takes care of this important function and the playing field seems to be leveled. . .

[JayF 30]

Several informative posts here.  I and a few of my colleagues are working on materials (tutorials and activities) to might help college students use Evernote to manage their knowledge and increase their creativity.  We have worked with freshmen, senior preservice teachers, as well as graduate students.

 

Our materials are at www.evernoteaturi.wikispaces.com. 

 

I especially like that idea that we all have "goto" strategies to help us cope with academic work.  We're interested in how Evernote can be used to facilitate these personal workflows. For example, some people might synthesize several  notes into a  summary note using notelinks to provide a "trail" to the orginal notes.

 

Several of these strategies are on our website. We'd be interested in hearing other ideas.  Also, if there are other faculty members interesting in collaborating on a study of some sort, please contact me.

 

Jay Fogleman