Saturday, September 29, 2012

Evernote Peek

On the teacher iPads I installed a new app called Evernote Peek. If you are unsure what Evernote is I have a couple of posts on the blog  and there is also the Evernote website. Evernote is a cloud based (data on the internet not your computer or device) note taking program that works with most computer operating systems and devices. The focus of this post is an app called Evernote Peek.

Evernote Peek was originally an iPad cover that folded several times. The cover interacted with Evernote simple by folding it up once to get the question, and then again to get the answer. The questions created with Evernote could be simple math facts, true / false, or up to paragraph length answers.  In short, it allowed you to create your notes in a way they could later be used as a studying aid with Evernote peek. The app I installed works the same way its just a virtual cover.

How does it work? Evernote's organization scheme is notes, notebooks, and bundles. You may have a notebook with a collection of notes, but sometimes several notebooks go together such as with a class you might be taking. That is the purpose of bundles. In using Evernote Peek every note will be a question that is part of a notebook. You could then list all the notebooks in a bundle called study or quizzes.

If I was doing this for the first time I would create several notebooks; third, fourth, and fifth, and then add them to a Library Quiz bundle.  Every note I create will be one question in the quiz and I will add that note to the correct notebook; third, fourth, or fifth. If I was creating a third grade note the title would be, What kinds of books could I find in 398.2? The content of the note would explain I'd find folk tales. fairy tales, fables, and tall tales.  I would then add that note, if its not already there, to the third grade notebook.

On the iPad I would run Evernote Peek and select the third grade note book, and the information will be displayed in a quiz like fashion. I would drag the virtual cover 1/4 of the way up to get the question, and then pull it up more to check the answer.

I probably would not use this for simple math facts, True - False, or multiple choice type questions, but it would be useful for short answer, paragraph length, or solutions including a graphic or video.  One big advantages of Evernote is you can interact with it using iPhones, iPads, Kindle Fires, Nooks, computers etc. You could take a photo of a map in a textbook, work it up in Skitch (drawing program on iPad), and create a note with the image.

Here is a video of Evernote peek in action.



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