How useful is Evernote?
The session guide for this week started by saying that, "managing the information that you locate on the Internet so that you can revisit or locate that information again is an impossible chore for your browser bookmarking tool." I couldn't have related to this quote any more! I use the Internet excessively for both personal and academic research, and over the years, I have accumulated way too many bookmarks in my browser that are, without a doubt, slowing my computer down. Last week, we looked at a tool called Diigo to help with online content curating. With our introduction to Evernote this week, I feel that I will be using that more than Diigo, simply because it does everything that Diigo does, and more (i.e. note taking, adding images, tags, etc.). I prefer centralized tools where I can use it for multiple functions, so naturally, Evernote is my tool of choice.
Evernote has many functions and advantages that sets it apart from other content curation tools and resources. MacrGeek (2010) pointed out in his video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyrE6SpTNSA) that users can embed research articles into Evernote - a function that Microsoft Word can't even do. That way, we can keep our notes and the primary sources that we use in the same file and access it pretty much anywhere. Green (2012) takes a more critical approach when looking at Evernote's usefulness, considering both the pros and the cons (http://theflannelboard.blogspot.ca/2012/03/my-tribute-to-evernote-students-guide.html). He points out that it is a great tool to use to take class notes because we can then access it on any other device, and states that its tagging ability makes searching for the work that we have done much easier. He also points out the incredible usefulness of its web clipping too, and the fact that we can use it to annotate our PDFs - an advantage over any other tool we've looked at in this course. Even though Evernote allows us to keep everything in the same place, its data limit means that there is only so much work that we can store on it, which is unfortunate. However, we must consider that we are using the tool for free, and most cloud-based tools must limit the amount of data that we can put on it. Miller (2010) points out in his writing that Evernote can sync to pretty much any device - giving it a major edge over other content curation tools, many of which require the use of an Internet browser (http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/take-a-minute-to-collect-your-thoughts-with-evernote/24020). Miller strikes an important point - successful digital tools must be able to function on a variety of popular devices that people use; otherwise, it's usefulness and popularity will be seriously diminished.
I foresee Evernote becoming a key supplementary learning tool for me, and I'm sure that it will make my life much easier in many ways. First of all, the fact that I can access my notes on any device means that I can be studying even when I don't have my laptop with me - which saves me a lot of normally wasted time. Furthermore, as we have practiced this week, Evernote allows us to share our resources and notes with people we are working on with a significant amount of ease. Group work will continue to be a significant aspect of my academic career, so Evernote will be relevant for me throughout my years a student (only issue would be that many people don't use Evernote). Most importantly, Evernote's web clipping feature its the most useful, in my opinion. The fact that I can keep track of all of the useful information I find online, and access it on any device (whether off or online, because I have installed the app) means a significant reduction in the time spent re-researching. Many tools allow us to simply save our bookmarks and access it on another computer, but Evernote actually allows us to directly take a screenshot of the page, meaning that we won't need to rely on the Internet in the future if we want to access it after it has synced to our app. Clearly, we can see that the creators of Evernote have a tendency to go above and beyond, which is why I wasn't surprised when I learned that I can also embed research articles in it. This means that I can access all of my research articles on any device, and annotate them and have them sync to all of the other ones. Furthermore, the ease at which I can switch between using different articles means that I don't need to have 20 different .pdf files opened (which lags my computer significantly). In all, I see Evernote becoming my central organizational tool.
(Tan, n.d.) (http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/evernote-5-new-features/)
How does this add to my PLE?
Under the Organizing Content section of my PLE was Microsoft Word, computer desktop organization, and browser bookmarking. Evernote has the ability to replace all 3 of these parts of my PLE - I can take notes with them, organize my notes with them, and keep track of everything I find on the Internet. However, the one issue that is stopping Evernote from becoming the app I use for everything is the fact that there is limited storage. This means that eventually, I will have to start clearing out the things I have on my Evernote account, but I don't want to lose the work that I have done. Although I can take the files, transfer them to Microsoft Word, then save them to a hard drive, it just seems like it would be easier if I just kept everything organized on my computer. This means that I am risking losing everything if I ever lose my computer, but I have been able to rely on my computer for the past 3 years, so I see no reason to completely change the way I am doing things. Reliability, it seems, is my main issue with Evernote - I will gradually use the app for more and more of my work, but I can't simply decide that I will now completely rely on it - I need to build my trust in this tool!
Interestingly, Evernote can also be used in conjunction with other tools in different parts of my PLE (i.e. Twitter). As fellow student Emily pointed out, it is quite neat and powerful that this app can be connected to different useful tools (http://emilyf93.blogspot.ca/2014/02/week-6-report.html). This is just another quality that sets Evernote apart from other helpful tools!
Lessons Related to Digital Citizenship
This week's work brings up a problem related to element 1, digital access (Ribble, 2011, p.16). Though Evernote is incredibly useful for sharing work and saves time when doing group assignments, we must consider those who don't have access to any digital tools at home. This means that even with the state of the art technology that are available to us now, we must keep in mind those who don't have access to even the most basic tools, and be flexible in terms of the tools that we choose to use with each assignment. It's not about constantly using the most powerful tools - but choosing the ones that fit the situation. In a group atmosphere, we must select tools that are accessible to all members.
Feedly Reader Update
This week, I found an article related to 'going paperless' from my Feedly reader (http://www.documentsnap.com/top-paperless-products-2013/). Interestingly, the top 2 ebooks related to going paperless were about Evernote (Duncan, 2014). The article brings up an important thought - these tools are all helping us reduce paper consumption, saving students money and making it much easier to organize their files. When I look back at how my parents organized their files years before, with boxes and boxes of folders, it's shocking to me that there is something like Evernote that allows us to access and work with all of our files absolutely anywhere!
(Long, 2012) (http://digitalageofliterature.wordpress.com/)
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