When creating the hand-out, I found it difficult to think about how someone who is not very familiar with using technology would need things explained. I think this was a useful exercise because when explaining technology to your students, their levels of knowledge will likely vary greatly. Learning to explain the basics in a step-by-step manner is vital. I originally thought that speaking for 25 minutes would be impossible, but when it comes to walking people through an unfamiliar task, it takes time. 25 minutes ended up passing quickly and I still had more features of the app that I had not explained thoroughly.
I have incorporated Evernote into my every day life, and for the foreseeable future will continue to use it. In fact, it was a check-list that I created on Evernote that reminded me I need to complete this blog post! See? It is quite useful! Also the icon is a little elephant, and elephants are my favorite. It's a match made in heaven.
The other app that we learned about that I loved was Blendspace. I saw this app as an incredibly useful tool for a teacher looking to create a lesson quickly. I thought the quizzes you could give throughout the lesson were a great idea. You can have your students view the lesson at home as well and keep track of the time that they spend on it. I plan on trying out Blendspace when I start planning lessons!
The other app that we learned about that I loved was Blendspace. I saw this app as an incredibly useful tool for a teacher looking to create a lesson quickly. I thought the quizzes you could give throughout the lesson were a great idea. You can have your students view the lesson at home as well and keep track of the time that they spend on it. I plan on trying out Blendspace when I start planning lessons!
Hi Ms. Swigart,
ReplyDeleteI presented on Evernote too. I had similar thoughts about the necessity of using yet another tool to take notes. However, upon further investigation I grew to like it. I have not incorporated it into my daily life yet. This is because I like to have all my notes in one place and currently I use Notability on my ipad but I might make the switch for fall semester. It seems like Evernote can do so much more. I really like that you can tag words or phrases for easy access later down the road. It is a great tool to use in a classroom where each student has their own computer to use.
Hi Ms. Swigart,
ReplyDeleteLike Ms. Adcock said, I also presented on Evernote, and I'm a little embarrassed, because I just learned some new features just from your post! I wish I could have heard what everyone had to present on the programs now! I really like the idea of annotating PDFs as well, and you make a great point that it would be a great tool for organizing the piles and piles of readings we have to do in our program. Do you think that maybe this application is more student focused, and would be better for students to use as an organizational tool, or rather for students to LEARN to use as an organizational tool, then for us to use in the classroom?
Senorita Swagger,
ReplyDeleteI, like my colleagues above, also reviewed Evernote for that assignment. I thought it was kind of pointless at first because it was so much like just using a bookmarks folder on the browser. I also keep my own separate to-do list, so it really just seemed unnecessary for me. One advantage of it, though, is the ability to have articles available to read on my phone. I tend to bookmark things I want to read later, so that is pretty handy to be able to view them anywhere. I also had a thought that it might be cool for my future as a history teacher to have students create accounts and then use Evernote to organize articles and sources for some kind of research assignment. Hopefully you can find a use for it in your professional life as well as your newfound personal use.
Swag don't come cheap,
Mr. Johnson
Hi Ms. Swigart,
ReplyDeleteNot to be repetitive, but I also presented on Evernote! I was similarly skeptical regarding it's usefulness, but quickly found that it has some amazing features. Like you I have already started using it in my daily life. However, what I found most interesting about your blog was the connection you made regarding explaining new tasks to a room full of students. You wrote that "this was a useful exercise because when explaining technology to your students, their levels of knowledge will likely vary greatly". I had not considered the connections between this assignment and explaining new material to a class. Thank you for sharing your insights, I look forward to reading your next post!
I feel like the title of my post would be "ME TOO!" I was also an Evernote presenter and LOVED the satisfaction of being able to create a to-do list and check off each box. The fact that I can access my to-do list on all of my devices is especially helpful, and helps reduce stress when I panic about assignments. I didn't realize the awesomeness of annotating PDFs in Evernote though...and I still can't figure it out. Could you please help me sometime??? If I am understanding correctly too you can access your notes and their content (PDF/website/text/whatever) when you are offline! This is a great feature for me, especially because I don't use data on my phone and rely strictly on wifi, so when I am on the go I can do some reading.
ReplyDelete