Google Keep and Evernote as Classroom Tools

There is a category of Web 2.0 tools that is known as Annotation and Note Taking. I would add in organization. Organization is not an innate skill. Organization must be taught. Some would argue that some people are naturally organized. Actually, some people are naturally more inclined to linear thinking which can look like organization. Organization is a skill, and like any skill, it can be taught.

There are inherent problems with teaching organization. One of them is being organized does not look the same for everyone. What works for one student may not work for another. However, there are some basic skills to being organized that are universal.

1) Use a calendar so you know when things need to happen.
2) Use a to-do list so you know what needs to happen.
3) Prioritize your to-do list.
4) Pick a spot for all of your "stuff" and label those spots.
5) Be consistent about putting your "stuff" where you decided it should go.
6) Get rid of the "stuff" that you don't need.
7) Create routines.

These universal skills to be organized apply to both our analog and our digital lives. This is where Google Keep and Evernote come in. Google Keep and Evernote are free digital tools that allow teachers and students to keep their digital "stuff" organized. By no means are these the only tools for this, just the two that I consider do the job the best. In this case, the best means ease of use, accessibility, offline capabilities, platform freedom and mobile capabilities, as well as navigability.

Google Keep is part of the Google family of apps. As such, it obviously works well with GAfE (Google Apps for Education) and plays nicely with Google Drive. Keep offers a Chrome extension that allows you to easily clip content from the web, label it, and store it in Keep. One of the great features of Google Keep is Reminders. Reminders allows you to create a to-do list with dates that can also be location-based. It allows you the option to put the reminder in as many of your Keep Notes as you need it to be and you can copy it to Google Docs. It even allows you to add drawings (think Sketchnoting).

Keep allows you to neatly organize text, images, videos, podcasts, websites, etc. into Notes by label. Think of all those times you found a web article, a video, a podcast, an image, ...  and thought I want to share that with my students! Or use it in a lesson plan! Or share that with the art teacher! It's hard to keep track of all of those bits and pieces we come across on Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, professional journals, bulletin boards, etc. Keep allows you to put all of that content into neat and organized labels so that you can easily find your content. You can have as many labels as you like and use as many labels as you like on your bits and pieces. You think that article might be useful in 5 different classes? Give it 5 different labels! You want to show that video to 2nd semester 3rd hour? Label it that way.

Now let's talk about how Google Keep can be used by and with students. Are you an elementary teacher that takes photos or videos of student work? Great. Make a label for each student and those videos, photos, files etc. can all be stored together in Keep. Teach middle school English and have students researching the historical and cultural background of The Outsiders? Awesome. Students can create a Keep Note/label for each facet of their research so that they can all be organized for the writing process. They can even annotate their research as they clip it from the web. Even better, Keep stores the original web address which makes creating citations a breeze. What about high school music teachers? Keep is there for you as well. Students can store audio and video files from their Drive (which means files from their phones) in Keep so that they can prove they've improved their practice, nailed that scale, or really attended the musical theater.

Keep is web-based but also available for Android and Apple devices.

Evernote is also web-based with apps for Android and Apple devices. Evernote offers a web-clipping tool to allow you to easily clip content from the web and store it in Evernote. Evernote is organized by Notes and Notebooks as well as tags. The basic functionality of Evernote is very similar to Google Keep. The major differences are:
-Keep works best with Chrome while Evernote is an equal opportunity web browser clipper.
-Keep uses Notes and Labels while Evernote uses Tags, Notes, and Notebooks which means Notes can be organized into another layer.
-Keep is integrated into G Suite which means it is accessible through Google Drive.

Keep and Evernote are both great tools for helping both teachers and students organize their digital lives. Just like one calendar system or one specific organizational system may not work for everyone, you'll have try Keep and Evernote (or another off of this list) until you find the right digital organizational system for you and your students.