Wednesday 22 February 2012

Evernote and 'saving' work: ePortfolios

As I am very new to the use of iPads in the classroom, I was struggling with a way to 'save' (in the traditional sense) the work students are creating. I only have 6 iPads for my class of 23 students AND we share the devices with three other classes in the school. I was concerned that some of the more intermediate students might delete projects or that primary students would delete work unintentionally.

I knew Evernote was the answer I was just not sure exactly how it worked. After reading many blogs, googling it, and watching youtube videos I figured it out (it's really quite simple!).

I created 'notebooks' for all the students in my class. Evernote provides you with a unique email address to send all documents to. These documents are then accessible from any device, anywhere, anytime. It also synches automatically in all places.

Now, when we finish something we email it directly to my Evernote account with that student's name in the subject line i.e. @Peter. If email is not possible, we take a screenshot and then email it or send it as a video link. I was also able to email their stories they created using the MyStory app a few weeks ago.

This is the start of my ePortfolios. I am trying to use the iPad to gather data on the students as they work. I take screenshots of their work. I have even started to put little assessment notes on the pictures. I created separate notebooks for assessment and for the portfolios I plan to share with parents (ones that don't contain my evaluation and assessment comments). I really like the idea of moving to a more paperless classroom; however, I need more iPads :)

A few issues:
I started recording my students' reading aloud with the video while doing a running record. I found that the video is too long to send to Evernote. Does anyone know of an app to use or another way to do it?
With my free education account I am only able to email 50 documents a day and I seem to hit that number a lot lately. I guess it's time to spend more $$.

I know there are infinite more possibilities with this app and I am slowly exploring them all. Feel free to share any ideas.