I am surprisingly a human being who is often frustrated very easily by disorganization. In this ever changing world of technological advances, it has become confusing and difficult to stay organized especially with electronic publications. It hurts my soul forever. I am thankful that Jeff and Rory included this extra fun activity.
The Organizing Your Online Life activity gave us the opportunity to explore new and exciting online organizers. I especially loved Kelsey's presentation on Evernote. Evernote is beyond awesome. We are constantly given PDF readings, and there's no place to put them. It would be nice also to just simply have the text as well rather than all the extra nonsense. Evernote provides a means to simplify PDFs and other online readings. Evernote is a program that I will most certainly use both personally and professionally.
Matt offered a great presentation on Google Drive as well. I am familiar with Google Drive already, but Matt was able to demonstrate new functions that I was not aware of. There are all these cool add-ons that are typically free. Google Translator is one of those such add-ons. I already use Google Docs extensively for class and even with students at Scarlett Middle School. The share feature makes group projects so much easier.
Blendspace is a newer online organizer specifically designed for teachers. I love how you can organize pictures, videos, etc. It creates a space to incorporate such items in an actual lesson plan that you can share with students. It's fantastically amazing.
It was a great opportunity to learn about all three organizers. I had a blast! Yay for organization! Now, I don't have to be frustrated and upset. I have the tools to use. Woohoo!
I'm glad that you got as much as I did out of this activity. I presented on Evernote which I think is an awesome program. I am generally unorganized and to have a web based tool in which I can organize my personal and professional life will be great for me. I think that Evernote is a great research tool because it allows users to organize all of their references into one space that is easy to access and easy to use.
ReplyDeleteStephen, I am totally with you on how confusing and difficult it has become to stay organized with the overload of electronic messages, readings, documents, presentations, etc. that get thrown at us on a daily basis. My online life is all over the place to say the least... So, the most useful thing I took away from the OYOL presentations was also the opportunity to get organized. I think all three of the tools offer easy-to-use and convenient ways to keep a variety of different learning materials in one place. I definitely am going to try and take advantage of all of these in some way. I agree that Evernote will be particularly useful, especially this year as a teacher/student hybrid being. One thing that does concern me though is that with all these different tools, having my life spread out all over the internet, I will eventually become disorganized again. Do you feel the same way? If not, how do you plan on staying organized with vast multitude of technology platforms we will be expected to use to at least some degree?
ReplyDeleteHey Steven! It was great to hear some of your thoughts on the different apps that we learned about. Bonus, you write this blog in the exact same way that you talk so I read the whole thing in your voice. I'm curious, you seem really pumped about each of these tools, will you actually be actively using each of them, or is there one that seems more useful to you? I presented on Evernote and fell in love with it. I am able to make to do lists and check off little boxes when I complete things. For example, I have a note that has a little box next to 12 numbers for each of the 12 comments I needed to make and this will be my 12th little check! Woo hoo! I'm glad you feel like your life can be more organized due to these tools. Peace out!
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