Evernote Use Review

            Unlike the majority of my classmates, I never used Evernote in class. For most of the year I never even tried making an account as we were instructed to do. The main reason I never utilized this app was because I feel that I can hand write much faster than I can type on an iPad. I also think that it is much easier and simpler to have notes and information written down on paper inside a binder or notebook, rather than have to log in to some iPad application and worry about saving them when finished. Although I never experienced any problems with Evernote because I did not use it, I’m sure it was aggravating for some of my classmates when we had a substitute teacher and student’s notes and work could not be accessed on the iPads. Although I never actually used Evernote, there was one point in the year where I decided I might want to use it for a project where we would have a lot of time to work on it in class. So I created my Evernote account and tried starting my project. Embarrassingly enough, I could not figure out how to use the application. I cannot remember exactly what the cause of my confusion was, but I do know that I eventually gave up and never used my Evernote account again.

            I am probably not the best student to ask for feedback on using the Evernote application, because of the fact that I never actually used it. However, I did think it would be useful for one project we had and tried using it. But I couldn’t figure out how to use the application and because of this never tried using it again. Therefore I think that the steps taken to open a new document or set of notes, whatever they may be, should be greatly simplified. Either simplifying Evernote or perhaps having an extensive walkthrough or help menu on Evernote would be very useful. But this is just my opinion; most of the kids in my class seemed to find it very useful and easy to use. However, I believe that one factor in the high percentage of students using Evernote in my class was the fact that it was an honors class. In order for high school students, especially students not in honors classes, to see Evernote as being more useful and practical than the handwritten notes they are more used to, Evernote is going to have to be very easy to access, understand, and use.

iPad Use Review

Having a set of iPads in the classroom was fairly useful for my classmates and I. The iPads made transferring work between school and home much easier. Not having to schedule computer lab time for essays and projects made our class much more productive. The fact that students did not need to have access to a computer to email work home saved a lot of time for our class. Another useful function of the iPads was their ability to connect to the Smartboard. Instead of having to email a project that needed to be presented to themselves or the teacher and reopen it, students could simply open their project on the iPad and connect it to the Smartboard. Being able to avoid the use of computers all together seemed to make our class work much quicker and more productive. The iPad was also useful in smaller ways. When a word, author, or subject needed to be looked up or researched, students could quickly and easily find the information on the internet. And when the class had to read a poem or writing piece together, the document could be easily accessed on the iPad, rather than passing out copies which is impractical and slow going.

            Our class did experience some difficulties with the iPads. The most frequent problem we experienced were the difficulties with the internet and the Wifi. Our school has a fairly poor Wifi connection and it frequently caused the class problems when we could not access the internet. Another problem that would likely be experienced in many schools is our school’s internet firewall. Many useful websites, such as our teacher’s class blog, were often blocked for no apparent reason. These problems usually took quite some time to fix, and interrupted the productive work flow of our class. Also, if our teacher was ever absent, our class would be stuck with a substitute. When this happened, we would not be able to use the iPads, and many students’ entire collection of notes and work was stored on them.

            I think that it would certainly be worth experimenting with giving more classes a set of iPads. However, they would be much more useful in some classes than others. It would be for teachers to determine which classes could best use them. Having iPads to use in class would likely make many classrooms run more efficiently. But I do not think it would be worth it to assign every student an iPad. Many students would not find them all that useful for school work, and might already own their own iPad or laptop. Also, it would be a big problem if such small and expensive devices were lost, damaged, or stolen.