Dropbox and Evernote are invaluable for organising personal lives, but when used together in education, they become even more powerful.
Evernote is a extremely versatile and practical program for making and storing notes on just about anything. When used by teachers and learners, its versatility is immense. Teachers have to hand an immense storage facility for their work; more practical than any filing cabinet. Learners can organise and make notes in a more methodical and interactive manner.
Using Dropbox in the Classroom
Dropbox’s uses in the classroom, are not limited to just being a receptacle for storing photos and files. Dropbox is also a private file server, a collaboration tool, and possibly even a web design tool.
Dropbox’s free 2GB limit is easily extended by synchronising with Evernote, providing a back and forth method of selecting working files.
Teachers can use Evernote as a storage repository for all paperwork and supporting files of a curriculum. A simple, nested structure with appropriately created tags, allows the separation of curriculum and work files. A syllabus is easily broken down into units. For example a base tag will give the course name, Bookkeeping, a sub tag may be Level One, and a sub tag of Level One could be Unit 1.
Using Tags in Evernote
Under Level One tag store all the exam body information, curriculum details, old exam papers, schemes of work etc, with separate tags if required. Under Unit 1 store all Unit 1 resources with their individual tags. The resources may include PowerPoint, worksheets, audio files and forms of assessment.
Learners can mimic the structure for keeping their own copies of resources, but can also use Evernote as a means of creatively and interactively storing notes. Rather than copying notes from a Whiteboard or Flip chart with pen and paper, encourage the learner to photograph notes with a mobile phone and instantly send the photographed note to Evernote.
Synchonising Dropbox and Evernote
Setting Dropbox as an import folder in Evernote automatically synchronises the two programs. Files that are subsequently deleted from Dropbox are still stored in Evernote, ready to export back when required. Learners who have a Dropbox account can use it for storing assignments. Assignments placed in the public folder are remotely accessible by teachers for assessment by sharing the public URL. Sharing Individual folders with a whole class allows for group collaboration.
For a web design project use Dropbox’s public folder as a scratch pad. A web page structure created in Dropbox can be reviewed, adapted and amended before finalising on a hosting package or web server.
The uses of Dropbox and Evernote in a classroom are only limited by imagination. A few ideas are outlined, but the more the teacher and learner utilise the programs, the more ideas are created and developed, resulting in powerful and inspirational learning tools.
Denise Oyston - I am a Further Education Lecturer, specialising in IT. I am interested in basic skills teaching, especially literacy and numeracy as well ...
Join the Conversation