Evernote and Postach.io, A Match Made In Tech Heaven

If I've said it once, I've said it quite a few times, blogging is an open reflection of learning and is a wonderful (and easy) way to share our learning. I have been blogging in this space for over 5 years now. I have over 500 posts and have shared a bunch. I couldn't imagine my professional life without my blog.

Recently, I've been wanting to share more and more. But I faced a quandary. I wanted to share just little bits of information with a little detail. Just one or two things that didn't need much depth but that just didn't fit in this space because that isn't the focus here either because of a specific timeframe or for some other reason. I have so much rich information I am curating and I want to share it but I need the right way to do it.

Well Steven, Twitter would be a great use for that. And frankly you are already doing that there.

Well Self, you are correct. But I am limited with Twitter. 140 characters doesn't leave me much room for the kind of depth I was seeking.

Then I discovered Postachio.

And now I have a new obsession.

Postachio is dead simple blogging and publishing. Don't believe me? Watch.


In its essence, it's a hook for your Evernote account that allows you to post by simply tagging a note in a specific notebook with a Published tag. That's it. No fuss, no mess.

Y'all know how much I love Evernote. (If you don't you should read my posts.) So for me this made so much sense. I am curating so much in my Evernote already. And using some IFTTT recipes (you can read about those too) I am saving a bunch there. So now I have an easy way to share that. I move notes into my Postachio specific notebook, edit them, then just add a Published tag. Thats it!

And you can take advantage of Evernote's powerful tools like the web clipper and Skitch to really create amazing and simple posts. And because Evernote lives on all your devices (at least it should), you can publish from virtually anywhere.

So for me, this solution was perfect! I finally have a way to get those short, individual thoughts out of my Evernote and share them with the world.

Which got me thinking...

This would be incredible for schools!

Think about it. Evernote has so many wonderful portfolio features like audio notes and inserting documents and PDFs right into notes. So for students to create portfolios there makes a whole bunch of sense. Now hook that portfolio notebook to Postachio and you have a wonderful, shareable, public representation of student work. It really can give kids a simple way to have a global audience for their work.

And not just kids. I advocate for School Leaders, Administrators and Teachers to use Evernote for professional growth portfolios. Now with Postachio those can be easy, public representations of learning.

For me, Postachio won't at all replace this space. It's the additional space I was seeking for so long. But for some, Postachio could be a great place to start the blogging process because of its integration with Evernote and all the rich features there.

Oh, did I mention both Evernote and Postachio are free?

You can check out my new Postachio site at http://postachio.web20classroom.org to see what I am curating.

And be sure to check out the Postachio blog. They have a great series on #PostachioEd, using the platform in a variety of ways in the classroom. 

Summer Learning Series-Giving Evernote A Try

This is the eighth post in my Summer Learning Series. These are short posts with tools, tips and resources for you to try something new this summer or something you can take to the classroom in the Fall. First was Collaborative Learning With Edmodo and then we followed up with Learning With Hashtags. Then we looked at TED Talks. We moved on to Twitter chats. Then our last post looked at some pretty neat things you can do with YouTube. Last week we  took a look at Diigo and how to curate the information you are finding this summer. Then we examined the things to consider if you want to use Twitter in your classroom or your school in the coming school year. Today we look at a tool I can't live without, Evernote. 

I'll admit it.

I have to be one of the most unorganized people on the planet. I have notebooks in just about every bag I carry. Multiple calendars and I still miss appointments. Slips of papers as reminders with some string of illegible thoughts on them, that, when I find them, I don't have a clue what I was thinking when I wrote them.

I have more than 10 different types of projects going on at anyone time. A book, book chapters for others, keynotes to write, presentations to prepare, consulting, product review, and on and on and on. Not to mention my projects with my district.

Organization isn't really in my vocabulary.

Well, let me say, it wasn't in my vocabulary.

But it is now, thanks to Evernote.

I had tried Evernote in the past. Installed it and looked at it and couldn't really find a use for it. I would uninstall it and go on my way, unorganized, missing appointments, stressing about putting things together. But that is all in the past. I use Evernote everyday. I can't live without it. So much so, its on every phone, computer and in every browser I come in contact with.

Ok, so what is it?



To boil it all down. Think of Evernote as this giant filing cabinet. In it you put all the different notes, clips, photos, scans, just about anything. You can organize these notes into notebooks. Really what you use it for is up to you.

Here is a small view of some of my current notebooks.

So I have notebooks for work, personal and other work I do. And I nest notebooks. I like keeping things separate. That has really helped with my organization. I also use the To-Do notebook as my list of upcoming and current projects and responsibilities.

I keep Evernote open on my computer at all times. I never know when I am going to need it or when it could come in handy. Inside one of my notebooks you will see all my notes.

In this notebook are notes for 3 presentations I did at a district technology conference. I plan out my slidedeck, resources, videos, everything, can go right in the note for that particular session and I have it no matter where I am. I can scan in items, add Word docs, exe files and loads more to a notebook or note. Did I practice a part of my preso that I wanted to save the audio for? No problem! I can even include audio as part of my notes. (That works even better on a smartphone.)

You can also install the Evernote Web Clipper extension and save portions of websites or just some text from a blog post that you want to use somewhere else. You can also connect Evernote to your Twitter favorites and whenever you save a favorite it goes into a notebook. (That is one of my favorite features.)

There are lots of uses in Education too. Here are some of my favorite resources:

• Evernote 101- This video from my good friend Josh is a great starting point for folks who want to get started. 
• Evernote For Educators- This Livebinder is packed full of getting started links and ideas for using Evernote with students. 
• Evernote On Classroom 2.0 Live- There was a great webinar all about Evernote and its application in the classroom. 
• Resources From Cybraryman-As always, Jerry has a page for Evernote. 
• 10 Evernote Tips For School-From The Evernote Blog, a great list of things to think about when using Evernote with kids. 
• Evernote For Schools-Just launched, here you can read more about how to get Evernote in your school and read about how other schools are using it. 
• The Complete Guide To Evernote In Schools-A great eBook from my friend Nick, it has everything you need to get started using Evernote in your classroom. 

One idea for use is portfolios. Because of Evernotes ability to accept lots of different kinds of inputs (text, images, audio, files, PDF, etc) it makes it a perfect edition to the portfolio-based classroom. The same is true with teachers. If you are an administrator, think about it. Since notebooks can be shared, you could create a notebook for each teacher, share it with them, and use that as a place to gather evaluation materials throughout the year. Simple and elegant. 

Evernote is 100% free. You can download it as many times as you want. There are versions for both Mac and PC and it works on your smartphone too. There are, however, monthly upload limits for things like images and PDFs. You can pay for Evernote Premium (which I do.) that gives you lots more space, the ability to search your PDFs, the sharing option and more. For $45 bucks a year, well worth it if you ask me.

Best thing to do now is go download it and start small. Use it for a project or two that you have going on. And I would bet in a month or 2 you will say, just like I do that I can't live without it!

Do you use Evernote? How do you use it? What are your favorite resources? Leave some comments below.

What Do You Mean Evernote Could Get Better?

Last time I wrote about the way I organize myself completely changed for the better with Evernote. Really, I can't talk enough about this program and the endless possibilities there are for it. (Just look at the comments from that post.)

In that post I gave a few resources for learning about Evernote and even fewer with how to use it in the classroom. Well, lots of people have sent me lots of great resources and I wanted to follow-up and post some more. These are sites, lists and ideas all for using Evernote for your personal use or in the classroom.

Get Productive Fast With Evernote- Mark Stout contacted me about this great eBook he created about getting started with Evernote and then some of the more advanced features like integrating IFTTT.com. At $10 bucks its a bargain for truly understanding everything there is about Evernote.

10 Tips For Using Evernote Effectively- This recent article from ReadWriteWeb was a great addition to my Evernote resources. They covered things I hadn't even considered and once I discovered them I became even more productive.

The Secret Weapon- A few weeks ago I was pining on Twitter about my overflowing inbox and how I wish I could funnel everything through Evernote. That is when Dean Shareski sent me The Secret Weapon. In it you learn how to take control of your inbox and use Evernote as the place to deal with email. This was the ultimate for me in getting my organization under control.

The Evernote-Livescribe Connection- Last year at ISTE I was able to get my hands (finally) on a Livescribe pen. (Basically, it records the movement of the pen and the audio around the pen. Perfect for teaching, learning, notes, meetings, etc). Well, you can import your pencasts into Evernote. So you have your notes and audio all in one place. Think about this for student conferencing or remediation activities.

100 Different Uses For Evernote- This article delivers what the title says.

Trunk For Evernote- There are lots of other programs that can help Evernote become the center of your universe. Apps, sites and and more are listed here.

Evernote In The Classroom-In this post you really see how one educator uses it in their classroom.

Evernote As A 1-1 Reading Conferencing Tool-This one I save for last because it is my favorite. My good friend Russ, has been using Evernote for a while now. In this post he lays out exactly how he uses Evernote and notebooks conferencing with his students. While this is in a Language Arts classroom, the ideas here are universal and can be applied anywhere.

So there are 8 more resources for understanding, learning about and using Evernote. Remember, Evernote is completely free. You can use it on as many computers, phones and tablets as you want. Make sure you read my first post about how I was using it and check out the comments too to see how others were using it as well.

Do you have any more resources to share? Hit up the comments below!