Another great feature of Evernote - integrated in Outlook

I love Evernote. It's no surprise. I use it for everything and even more now in my new job as Chief Information Officer of the district. It allows me to keep everything - notes, files, and more all accessible anywhere on any device. I use the web clipper, Livescribe SkyPen, Android App, web app, and Windows Desktop App.

As a teacher, we all used the web version of Outlook. Administration and office staff use the desktop version of Outlook because we utilize more features. I had always used the web version of Evernote as a teacher and now use the desktop version (more features that I need). After installing Evernote, I noticed an Evernote logo on Outlook. What a great surprise. I can easily and quickly save any email (and attachments) or contact right to Evernote from Outlook.

This has become invaluable to me as I get organized and keep track of information, contacts, and resources. Instead of setting up a bunch of mail folders, desktop folders, and Evernote notebooks, I just put everything into Evernote. It also means I can access all of this from anywhere, very easily. I have my important personal and work notebooks set up to offline sync on my smartphone and Nexus 7 tablet so I can always access them, and I have the desktop versions of Evernote at work and home for offline access and backup.

Once again, Evernote has made my life easier and more organized.


Related:

Evernote for Educators Resources

Livescribe SkyPen - automatically sync your handwritten notes and audio recordings to Evernote via WiFi.

Nexus 7 Android Table Review

Collection of free training resources for Windows, Office, Google Apps, and more

I was putting together a list of free training resources and decided to share it with everyone. If you have some good ones, please share them in the comments.

Free Training Resources

Windows and Office

http://etc.usf.edu/techease/win/ - great help with Windows and Windows applications

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/training-FX101782702.aspx - free help and training from Microsoft on their products. Scroll to bottom for older versions. 

http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/guides/Pages/index.aspx - lots of great resources and tips for teachers. 

Google Apps for Education

Great resources on learning Google Apps and using Google Apps in the classroom.

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/training.html

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/educator-resources.html

http://edutraining.googleapps.com/Training-Home

http://its.leesummit.k12.mo.us/google.htm

https://sites.google.com/a/googleapps.com/k12-guide-to-going-google/pd

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2011/04/google-for-educators-resources-for.html

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/google-for-educators_22.html

Chromebooks (see Google Apps also)

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/training.html

http://www.google.com/edu/teachers/chromebooks.html

Misc. EdTech Resources

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/2012/06/10-technology-skills-every-educator.html - list of tech skills for educators and resources to learn them.

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com 

http://www.mobilenations.com/ - Android, iOS, Blackberry, Windows Phone/Mobile, and webOS resources, help, tips, and more.

http://web2012.discoveryeducation.com/ - Great resource from Discovery Education on educational technology.

http://h30411.www3.hp.com/Welcome HP Teacher Experience Exchange - tips, lesson plans, tech help, and more. 

http://www.180techtips.com/ one tech tip for each school day each year.

http://www.online-tech-tips.com/ great tips on all kinds of technology

Microsoft Store visit - very impressed

I recently visited a brick-and-mortar Microsoft Store. My wife and I were in the Danbury, CT area and decided to head over to the Danbury Fair Mall and go to LL Bean and, of course, I had to check out a tech store, so we went to the new Microsoft Store.

I was impressed by the fact that it was large, bright and open. There were plenty of customers and store employees. The store employees all had t-shirts on with different things like "Ask me about Windows Phone" etc. on them. They were very polite and friendly and very knowledgeable. I asked a few questions and listened in to them helping other people.

The store had products arranged in different areas and topics. Windows Phones were all over the store, arranged by brand and carrier, as well as desktops, ultrabooks, high end laptops, home use laptops, lightweight laptops, desktops, tablets, peripherals and hardware, software, games, game consoles and more. There was a huge wall-sized Kinect set up also. People were just sitting and trying out products and there was no pressure to buy or leave.

The stores have an answer desk for help and run free and fee-based training and help sessions. There are special events, including community events, music, and more. They also have a free summer program for children.

I was very impressed with my visit and really like the ability to see so many different products and be able to try them out. The selection was the largest I've seen, beating out stores like Best Buy.

I really liked some of the new laptops and found myself liking Windows Phone (not that I'm switching from my Droid any time soon). It was easy to use and the user experience is different from iOS or Android.

What is also interesting is the location in the mall - across the isle and 3 spots down from the Apple store, which is smaller. Both were very busy.

With so much being done and bought online these days, it's nice to have a real world place to go and try out new products.


(Disclaimer: I was NOT paid or compensated for this. I was just impressed with my visit).

Microsoft Surface - Windows 8 Tablet/PC - announced

Microsoft has just announced the Microsoft Surface, which is a Windows 8 tablet, measuring 10.6 in and 1.5 pounds. So, is it just another tablet? Not quite. It has a few very cool features, like running full Windows software, having a touchscreen that includes pen/stylus input (very cool for drawings, annotations, math and science) and a cover that has a built in, super thin, keyboard and touchpad.

It's pretty cool when you think about it, especially if you work somewhere that uses Windows OS and software and if you want pen-based input for drawings, science, math, etc. The keyboard built into the cover is also a nice touch and makes typing much easier on the tablet.

The unknowns: launch date and pricing. Initial reviews from tech sites are pretty positive.

Is this something you'd look at for yourself or your school?


Here's a video about it:

Update and full review on So.cl - I'm in and using it now

Yesterday I wrote about So.cl, Microsoft's new social network that they launched with very little fanfare. I was unable to login or create an account because it put me on a waiting list. I received my email invite this morning and am now on it and using it.

Something interesting happened yesterday though that annoyed me. I went to share my blog article about So.cl onto Facebook. I've done this a million times with articles and it always posts the link to my site. When I shared this article, So.cl took over and posted a direct link to their site. This has never happened before and I was not happy about it. So far, a big negative against So.cl. The other thing I don't like is that it automatically is using my Facebook profile picture here.

As you login using a Facebook or Windows Live account, you are given the following message:

So.cl is an experiment in open search. That means your searches on So.cl are viewable by other So.cl users and will also be available to third parties.

So.cl does not automatically post your searches, comments, or likes to your Facebook stream unless you choose this option. Also, we don’t contact your Facebook friends unless you invite them.

In other words, if you are on So.cl and doing an internet search, be careful what you search for as all other So.cl users will see it, along with "third parties" whomever that is.

Once you sign in, So.cl suggests some things to you. First, it shows you some topics you can follow that you are interested in, like music, travel, food, etc., then shows some of the popular people on So.cl to follow (none loaded on my screen), and then asks you to invite your Facebook friends to join So.cl.

I skipped this part and went right to the main page. Here you can explore topics, look at your feed (everyone, following, conversations, your own posts), post something, join a video party and check your profile. According to the main page, I have 10 invitations to use for people to join. If you are interested in one, let me know in the comments below.

The layout is nice and uncluttered, which is the biggest thing I hate about Facebook - the page is cluttered with "noise". Most of the posts were actually just "so and so searched for" or "so and so joined this video party". There weren't a lot of comment posts or "this is what I'm doing" posts.

The next thing I tried out was the "Explore" feature. I clicked on "Science" and it takes you to feed page that lists posts and searches about science. It also gives you a suggestion for the most popular ones and allows you to "follow" this topic. It was interesting and a different way to find some new resources and information. According to the site, there are 5569 users following "Science".

It seems the difference between So.cl and other social networks is that it is all about sharing internet searches and exploring topics of interest. It's interesting and worth a look, but I'm not sure how it will do competing against well established networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google+. In addition, there are tons of educational systems, like Edmodo and others that allow teachers and students to set up private networks.

It's new and has some interesting features to check out.

If you are interested in another social network, check out So.cl here: http://www.so.cl




Related:
Social Media in Education - connect, share, learn, communicate and more

Twitter, Google Plus, Facebook - a nice comparison

Edmodo - excellent, free, social network and educational system

5 Great course management resources for educators 

Google Groups - connect, share, communicate, discuss - great for education

Which Social Network should you use? Infographic on which to use when

Twitter - A great resource for Education

Google+ - more reasons it's great for educators

Twitter, Facebook, RSS feeds, Email, Google+ - why/when I use each one

Free Teacher Guides from Microsoft - great resources

Microsoft has some great Teacher Guides available for free. The guides have teaching tips and step-by-step instructions on a variety of topics and tools and technologies.

The guides are all free and downloadable in PDF form.

Topics include: Critical Thinking in web searches, Windows Movie Maker, Free tools from Microsoft, Digital Storytelling, Microsoft Office, web apps, OneNote, Bing and Mathematics, and Accessibility in the Classroom.

The guides are easy to use and read and a great resource.
http://www.microsoft.com/education/en-us/teachers/guides/Pages/index.aspx