Over the past few weeks I've been playing with Evernote. I've been hearing good things about it for a while, but I was prompted by a colleague in another college to have a look at it. As I was currently in the process of applying for an increase in my teaching grade, and needed to compile a portfolio of evidence, I wondered if Evernote might be the format I was looking for.
I wasn't disappointed. I started by creating a few short notes, just to test the water. I added an attachment or two, and asked our campus Director (who would be reviewing the portfolio) to check that he could see the files. Once he confirmed that he could, it was full speed ahead.
One of the most useful things I've found about Evernote is the ability to use my smartphone to take photos of all my training certificates. Having installed Evernote on my phone, I can then upload the certificates with one click. Now, instead of having certificates all over the place - some one one campus, some on another, some at home - I will take a snap of them as soon as I receive them, upload it to Evernote, and then I'll have a copy of it ready to access whenever I need it.
The other thing I really like is the ease with which I can create links between notes. This means that my index can point to relevant evidence by simply right-clicking the destination note and then pasting in the hyperlink.
Criticisms are few - currently my notebook seems to take a long time to load up for a visitor - I think this is because there are so many certificates (bragging not intended!) and snaps of my classroom obs and so on - perhaps there's a need for me to optimise the images prior to uploading them (I only did a quick resize). I also ended up paying for a premium account (£4) - but this was because I had a lot to upload within a short space of time and there are monthly limits. This is something I plan to avoid in the future as I will upload things as I receive them.
All in all, Evernote is an excellent tool, and one I will definitely be sharing with my students and colleagues.
Glad you like Evernote. I use it daily - allows me to be paper free at work. Like you - I found myself paying the premium to start with - but haven't had to since my initial set up.
ReplyDeleteI was an avid fan of Microsoft OneNote - an absolute gem of a package. However after a couple of years usage I started to need something I could use across devices and platforms - and OneNote quickly ceased cutting it for me.
I searched around for a few alternatives and settled on Evernote and it does everything I needed OneNote to do - plus I can pick up where I left off from any device, my PC or my Mac.
Thanks Matt. I shared my experiences with Evernote with one of my student groups yesterday and they seemed impressed too. Might have been something to do with the rave reviews I gave it though!
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