Skype+Info

Online Note Taking Applications

Zoho: []

FREE: This site allows you to sign in using different accounts like Gmail, Yahoo, or Facebook. However, you may also sign up with its own username/password, too. The basic setup reminds me of Excel: There is a "book" organized by "pages." In each page, you can add almost anything! A simple text box -- or the "writer" is more of a word processor. You can also link videos and music (or record directly to the website using a webcam!). You can also add presentations, RSS feeds and more. It's all there for you. The white space allows for dragging and dropping, then pinning it down when you've got it placed. I don't neccessarily like how each "box" you add disappears when not clicked - if a text box hadn't been used yet, it's invisible.

Evernote:

Evernote HAS to have an e-mail address, limiting users to students who have one. It also requires that students be over the age of 13, which is fairly reasonable. This program can be downloaded and used from a computer, just on the web, on your smart phone, etc. Very universal in that respect. I really like this statement: " Use Evernote on your phone to snap a photo of a whiteboard, business card, or wine label. Evernote automatically makes text in your snapshots searchable!"  Evernote allows students to take notes online through texts and images, as well as links. Although it doesn't do as much as Zoho, I think it is more user-friendly. You can have multiple "notes." There are a few great features, though. Between the lists of urls, pdfs, documents or even writing within images, everything is searchable. My favorite, underrated feature? The AUTOSAVE. I don't know how many times students are working on something, computer crashes, and they lost it. Now they have little excuse! I also like the other products that are sister applications to Evernote... like Web Clipper or a program that cleans up blog pages.

My Fruit Notes:

Fruit notes requires an e-mail address for a username, it seems, but doesn't require a student to check it in order to sign in. This program is basic: allows for notes in textual form, links (although I couldn't get the link box to load), images from online only (url needed), etc. One interesting feature, though, is that you can load your cell phone or home phone information so you can call a number and record your voice! I can see this being a great way of sending yourself notes! You may also share notes with friends that are also on the site. It looks like you can also respond to them, too. Other than being able to call in your notes, the discussion board feature seems like the best part; the rest seems outdated.

Overview: I think all of these have some great uses- the obvious would be to research online by organizing notes and information using one of these applications. The best, to me, would be either Soho or Evernote. If they are working on multi-media projects, or are visual/audio learners I'd have them go with Soho. The ability to record video/audio is awesome! I can see it used in conferences on rough drafts: pull up their writing on Zoho and go through it with the student, all the while recording our discussion so the student doesn't miss a word (to tell you the truth, that would be an awesome way to use screencasting-- students could see the changes as well as having the verbal discussion to review).

However, Evernote is so universal that students can access it anywhere--even their cell phones. Their add-ons like the Web Clipper, if they are allowed to be downloaded, is another useful feature to make students' lives easier. Decisions, decisions!