• Names: Anne Burke, Undergraduate Instruction and Outreach Librarian; Adrienne Lai, NCSU Libraries Fellow; Adam Rogers, Emerging Technology Services Librarian
• University: North Carolina State University
• Location: Raleigh, NC
• Website: http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/

When we first heard about how librarians at North Carolina State University were using Evernote to help new students get acquainted with the university library, we knew we wanted to learn more. Turns out, Anne Burke, Adrienne Lai, and Adam Rogers came up with a clever scavenger hunt, leading students to discover the nooks and crannies of the library, as well the library’s digital archives, staff, and various resources. They did all of this using Evernote and a fleet of iPod Touches. Read on to learn more about the NCSU Libraries Scavenger Hunt and see how you could recreate it at your school!

A new approach to orientation

North Carolina State is a very large state university and our library can be intimidating for new students. It’s open twenty four hours a day for the majority of the school year and is used by thousands of students daily. In May 2011, we were looking for a way to acquaint students with the library facilities, resources, and staff, but we didn’t want to just have them sit in a classroom. Instead, we wanted to get students out of the classroom setting and experience the library in a mobile way. We wanted to rethink the old way of library orientation and do something more exciting.

The idea for a scavenger hunt was born and the next step was to identify the best app to make it happen.

Evernote comes out on top

In our search for the perfect scavenger hunt app, we came across two major challenges: many of the apps were prohibitively expensive for our project, and some were great for leading people across a wide geographic area, but wouldn’t really work for our activity, which would take place all in one big building. Given our time frame and budget, we wanted to move quickly and find a tool that wouldn’t force us to pursue funding. Evernote, with its free and affordable Premium products, turned out to be a great solution.

Scavenger Hunt implementation and goals

In order to make the scavenger hunt a reality, we deployed Evernote on a fleet of iPod Touches that we distributed to each student group. Each class of 20 students was broken up into teams of four and given clues for for finding particular things in the library. In the past, we would have done this using a pencil and paper, but with Evernote, it was all digital.

We had three major goals for the students:

• Become familiar with our space
• Become familiar with the library collections, services, and Website
• Become familiar with a new technology

Prior to the actual scavenger hunt, we set up a brief orientation for the students to familiarize themselves with Evernote. We offered some instructions for how to create a new note, how to snap a photo, and what Evernote is, as well as why we were using it for this purpose. To make the scavenger hunt work, we created a separate Evernote account for each team and made sure to share the scavenger hunt notebooks with a single Evernote account that the librarians would be able to access. The students were instructed to create a new note for every clue they found within a 25 minute timeframe. Some of the clues included having students find the reference desk and take a picture with the reference librarian (so they’d know who to ask questions in the future), locating a specific book, and finding important library landmarks.

As the students created new notes, they were automatically time-stamped and synced to Evernote everywhere, so the librarians were able to see the clues coming in while sitting at their computers. We have a master Evernote account that the librarians are logged into back at the classroom on their laptop and iPad, so we can see updates to all Shared Notebooks. Some notes were photo notes and some required students to type out an answer to a question, so they were able to interact with virtually every note format in Evernote and save all of their notes in one place.

At the end of the scavenger hunt, we awarded prizes and candy to the winning teams (those who found the most clues) and also gave each student a handout on Evernote, so they’d be able to use it in other ways throughout their academic career.

What we learned

Ultimately, the aim of the scavenger hunt was to get students involved in the university library, get to know the staff and the vast amount of resources they have at their fingertips. By doing it in such a creative way, we found that the students didn’t just learn, they had fun!

We noticed that students loved seeing themselves hamming it up around the library, and really enjoyed taking photo notes. A few teams found creative ways to capture their clues — one team took audio notes. We’ve now done the scavenger hunt with over 90 classes, and, beyond being a popular activity with the students, it’s become very popular with the faculty. Research shows that students learn better when they’re moving around, doing things themselves, and that is exactly what they were able to do with Evernote. We’re excited to kick off a new round of scavenger hunts this fall and looking forward to finding new and interesting ways to use Evernote to help students learn.

Evernote for Schools

Learn more about using Evernote in an education context by visiting our microsite for schools. You’ll find an array of resources including videos, case studies, guides, a discussion forum, upcoming webinars, and more. Don’t forget to follow @evernoteschools on Twitter for the latest updates.

• Name: Megan Cotter
• Evernote Student Ambassador
• Profession: Student
• Location: Pittsburgh, PA
  
• Website: http://ottermc.blogspot.com
• Twitter: @OtterMC
  

Go to the Evernote for Higher Education discussion

We’ve talked to a lot of students who use Evernote for everything from taking notes to working on group projects and today we’re excited to announce our new Student Ambassador, Megan Cotter. Megan is a college student who’s here to share her tips for ways to use Evernote in a college or university setting. Megan is kicking things off by sharing a few of her top tips for using Evernote in college, just in time for finals.

10 Tips for Using Evernote to De-Stress College

College students have to keep track of a lot of things: every set of class notes, every internship/job application, every piece of information for every extracurricular activity, and on and on. All that stuff just leaves us stressed, trying to sort through each piece of paper to find the one thing that we need at that moment. As a lot of you may already know, Evernote is a great tool for organizing all of it and taking a little bit of the stress out of college.

2. Organize Your Research
No student can escape the endless amount of research. Evernote Clearly removes all of the distractions and lets you have exactly what you need from a website. Rather than printing out multiple pages, just clip however many lines you need. Cuts down on the paper, and makes that research project a whole lot easier.

3. Keep Up With Your Professors
Every school has that professor who puts an impossible amount of information on the board or on slides. Rather than trying to get it all down, just snap a picture. After class, use Skitch to add any extra information that you need and then put it right in with the rest of your notes.

4. Keep Everything Together, Not Just the Digital Stuff
Maybe you would rather take notes by hand. Or you have a professor with a “no technology policy.” That doesn’t mean that you can’t keep everything organized. Scan your handwritten notes and handouts into Evernote and they will be completely searchable. This way, when finals come around, you’ll be one step ahead.

5. Work Together Even If You’re Apart
One of the most stressful parts of group projects is finding a time everyone can get together. Rather than rearranging everyone’s schedules, use a Shared Notebook to keep everything up to date. You can also use a shared notebook with your study group. Make a study guide that the group can access and add to.

6. Remember the Best (Or Cheapest) Campus Pizza Place
Trying to remember the great pizza place you ate at last weekend with the huge student discount? Put it in Evernote Food. Then next time you’re having a craving, you won’t have to waste time calling for prices.

7. Know Your Stuff
Sometimes, accidents happen and you’ll end up needing medical attention. Instead of sitting in the doctor’s office, trying to remember what medication it was that made you break out in hives and when you last had a tetanus shot, keep a medical notebook with every random detail so you’ll never be caught unaware.

8. Take Control of Your Time
Does checking your favorite blogs for a new post become a major source of procrastination? Have them delivered right to your Evernote account with ifttt. Then you won’t have to waste time checking for a new one. There are a lot of other ways you can use ifttt for college, too.

9. What Do I Have at Home?
Don’t end up buying duplicates of things. Keep an inventory of everything you have. Snap a picture of each item and tag it with where it is: home or school. Check your inventory before you buy, that way you’ll have extra money for the pizza place from #6.

10. Let Everyone Know What You Want
Everyone has a wish list. Whether its a movie that just came out, a new computer, or a fancy coffee maker, use the Evernote Web Clipper to clip each item and purchase information into a notebook. Make it a public notebook and send the link around. Maybe it will appear in your next care package!

The Evernote Ambassador Program

Evernote Ambassadors are amazing individuals that are here to teach, share and help you get more out of Evernote. Learn more about Ambassadors and consider submitting your story.

Join the conversation happening in our Lifestyle Forum to connect with Ambassadors and other Evernote users.

Join the conversation

Download Ambassador Guides

Drap and drop them into a New Note or attach them to a note so you can access them from any computer or mobile device where you have Evernote installed!

Joshua Zerkel’s Productivity Tips (PDF)
Brandie Kajino’s Organization Tips (PDF)
Carley Knobloch’s Spring Cleaning Tips (PDF)

Evernote for Schools

Learn more about using Evernote in an education context by visiting our resource-packed microsite for schools. And, if you’re a U.S. college student, use your .edu email address to get Evernote Premium for the remainder of the school year, for free. More details here.

• Name: Rob Van Nood
• Location: Portand, OR
• Profession: Teacher
• Blog:  evernotefolios.wordpress.com
• Website: www.engagingeducation.me

• Evernote for Schools
• Join the Evernote for Portfolios Discussion Forum
  

Bio

Rob is a teacher at Trillium Charter School in Portland, where he primarily instructs students aged 8-11. He has been working to develop online portfolios with students for the past six years and has taught in private schools, traditional public schools and public charter schools for the past 15 years.

I use Evernote, Everywhere:

• iPhone
• iPod Touch
• iPad
• Mac
• Windows

E-Portfolios: a student’s project warehouse and progress tracker

I started teaching 15 years ago and that is when I first came across this concept of a ‘portfolio.’ A portfolio is a storehouse for projects, writing pieces, art, and performances. It can be used by students, teachers, and parents to document what they’re doing (either day-to-day things or through their best work or improvements they’ve made). I see portfolios as a way to hold onto and think about what you’re doing.

Initially, I had my students create paper portfolios. They would keep a binder and at the end of a project, they’d go through their school folders and pick out their best work or compare two pieces that showed growth.

We had a bin where we’d put these documents and at the end of the year, they’d have 10-20 pieces that they’d take with them into the next school year. The problem with paper portfolios — beyond the fact that they take so much room — is that a lot of this work would never see the light of day. If it’s up to the teacher to be responsible for a student’s paper portfolio, it rarely gets used.

After spending years with paper portfolios, I’ve transitioned this concept into digital form, and have started to implement Evernote as the primarily system for creating portfolios in my classroom.

Evernote as an portfolio system

I was using portfolios with limited success and spending a lot of time on them, until Evernote came into the picture.

When I first started researching options, I was coming across a lot of companies that were really expensive, charging a lot for each student’s use. I also knew that we needed an app for mobile devices that would make it easy to capture and document paperwork and I wasn’t finding that in most of the tools I was evaluating. Evernote was free, had an app for virtually every device, and we could get started right away.

After creating accounts for the students [learn more about how to get set up in the Portfolio Forum discussion] capturing and organizing information became insanely easy. Here is how we are using Evernote in the classroom:

• When our school first decided to use Evernote, we set up demos with the students to show them how to use Evernote. At their age, students familiarize themselves with technology really quickly and naturally. A few picked it up immediately and started teaching their fellow classmates. Getting everyone up to speed didn’t take a lot of time.
• Before setting students up with Evernote accounts, I created a set of guidelines for the students so they knew what kind of things to put into Evernote. We also discussed the kinds of tags that they should be using, so we’d all be on the same page.
• Students started asking, ‘How can I put this into Evernote?’  I set my classroom up with a Lexmark Pro scanner so students are able to immediately capture their work and send it to their Evernote portfolio. They can also capture using any number of mobile devices where they have Evernote installed. They’re even able to access their work on their iPod Touch in class.

• When a student comes up with an interesting strategy on a whiteboard, I have them write down their name next to it and take a picture of it, or record them explaining what they came up with. Great ideas are saved to Evernote to show progress over the course of the school year.
• I’ve actually started emailing parents with these progress notes immediately after I capture them. I’m able to show the parents that their kid had a great growth moment or did something they’ve never done before. The real-time sharing was appreciated not only by the parents, but also excited the students.
• The final ‘piece’ of the portfolio work is, of course, sharing. For our Spring conference, we asked students to have one example of work from each area (math, writing, art, kinesthetic) to share with their parents. The students actually taught the parents how to use Evernote at our conference by familiarizing them with their portfolios.

Parent/Teacher conferences and Evernote

Students started documenting their work in Evernote in September and in November, we had a parent/student conference where I met with parents to discuss their kids’ progress in school. When I sat down with the parents and their kid, I would simply type their child’s name into Evernote, pulling up every single thing I had documented. This way, I was really able to tailor our conversations to a lot of specific details related to their child.

Real-time sharing to show progress

With Evernote, I’m able to show parents their kids’ progress in school in real time. They don’t have to wait for report cards. Evernote has really changed the way I’ve been thinking about report cards all-together. With Evernote, we’re constantly documenting what students are doing and sharing this feedback with parents.

Evernote for Lifelong Learning

One of the most important reasons for using Evernote as a portfolio system is that it allows students to take their portfolios with them, even if they are no longer at Trillium. Evernote takes the documentation, reflection and sharing out of the hands of teachers and puts it in the hands of the students, who can continue the process. Instead of keeping a box in their parents’ basement of everything they’ve done, students are now able to virtually carry these milestones with them wherever they go and therefore, watch their progress as learners, improve themselves, and continually add new and relevant pieces of work.

Evernote for Portfolios Webinar

Want to learn more about ways to use Evernote as a portfolio? Join Evernote and Rob for a presentation and discussion of the story behind using Evernote as a portfolio at school.

Register here

To learn more about Evernote in education, visit Evernote for Schools and follow @evernoteschools.

Are you an educator? How are you using Evernote with your students? Please share in the comments.

More Evernote for Schools posts:

• Evernote For Schools Site: Resource for Using Evernote in Education
• Student Ryan Kessler Transformed His Workflow, Raised His GPA and Left His Textbooks at Home (Back-to-School Series)
• Evernote for Schools – Education Series Roundup
• Evernote for Students: The Ultimate Research Tool – Education Series
• Evernote at School: The Montclair Kimberley Academy’s 1:1 Program, plus Q&A Webinar

As more teachers and students adopt new technologies, including Evernote, they’re looking for useful resources to help them along the way. We’re excited to introduce them to Evernote for Schools, our new microsite devoted to helping those in the education community use Evernote more effectively.

Evernote Encourages a Lifetime of Learning

Teachers and administrators who are looking to start their students on a path of lifelong learning can find a collection of resources at Evernote for Schools including education-related case studies, videos, and a discussion forum for connecting and sharing tips and ideas for using Evernote in a school setting. Students can use Evernote to organize all their content (notes, projects, worksheets, lists and more) on all the computers, phones and tablets they use, at school and at home. Evernote allows students to build on their learning year after year by carrying their work with them from school to school, without the heavy load of  backpacks and binders.

Evernote Premium For Schools

Looking to bring the Evernote experience to your school? Our new offering is the easiest (most cost-effective) way to put Evernote Premium accounts in the hands of everyone at your school. Evernote Premium for Schools offers all our features, services and benefits bundled together at a special education rate. It’s perfect for groups of teachers, classrooms, whole schools or entire districts. Learn More

Evernote at the Florida Educational Conference

We recently had the pleasure of connecting with educators face-to-face at the Florida Educational Conference (FETC) where Carlos Fernandez, an Instructional Technology Coordinator for Leon County Schools in Florida, shared his top tips for using Evernote at school. Carlos reached out to us prior to the conference to let us know he was already presenting a workshop on Evernote. After talking with him we were so impressed with all the ideas he had, we asked him to lead our Learning Lab. During the Learning Lab Carlos was able to connect with fellow teachers and administrators, present some of his favorite Evernote use cases and help others get started and incorporating Evernote into their schools.

Check out the slides from Carlos’s (standing room only) presentation: Evernote in Education

Stay Connected

There are many ways to connect with the Evernote for Education community. Here are some ways to tap into the community.

• Join the Evernote for Schools Discussion Forum
  Want to learn how to use Evernote in a 1:1 program? How about the best way to organize all your lesson plans? The Evernote For Schools Discussion Forum is the place to share and learn tips and tricks, best practices and more.
• Follow us on Twitter
  The @evernoteschools Twitter account is dedicated to sharing all the great ways people are using Evernote at schools. Follow us here for tips and tricks, latest blog posts, case studies, upcoming events and activities.
• Talking about Evernote? Let us know.
  If you’re giving a presentation about Evernote at a conference, leading workshop, webinar or just spreading the word at your school, we’d love to hear about it. Visit the site and fill out the form here.
• Check out our events
  See what conferences Evernote will be attending and presenting at next:  Upcoming Events
• Join our Webinar
  Sign up for our webinar: 11 ways to use Evernote in your Classroom (February 15th, 10pm PT)

We have lots of upcoming Evernote for Schools activities. Check back often for new content, videos, case studies and more.