"Organizing my Online Life" was harder than I thought it would be. This might have been due in part to the the site I was investigating - Evernote, itself a kind of app, offers its own app store site full of OTHER Evernote add-ons. Obviously there was going to be no way I could even touch on all of those, so I tried to just stick with the basics.
The part that I found most difficult was finding the right level of instruction to use. I consider myself to be squarely middle-of-the-road in terms of technology competence - I'm not especially tech savvy, but I know how to get things done (eventually). You'd think I'd just write from that perspective when making my how-to guide and everything would be fine. But, I found myself wondering if I was being too basic for all the whizzes out there, or assuming too much for anyone who might have trouble just composing an email. I think I managed to find a balance in the end, but it was much trickier than I thought.
That, then, got me thinking about ways to teach technology in the future. We talk a lot about how today's kids are born with a device in their hands, but I figure there has to be SOME form of learning curve. The chances that my entire class is going to come in knowing how to code are pretty slim. So, how do I reach a similar balance with my students? How can I explain how to use online tools for them without coming across condescending while still remembering that not everyone automatically knows how to upload things for me to grade (I know I still don't know all the intricacies of M+Box).
With that being said, I think my resource, Evernote, is one of those things that get get overwhelming really quickly. I'm not sure how in-depth I'll ever get with its usage, but I can see myself offering it as an option to my students. I don't think I'd ever REQUIRE anyone to use it... I'm still pretty partial to the leaving-myself-sticky-notes-on-my-binder method of organization myself. I know it's not tidy or foolproof, but old habits die hard. I'll probably just stick with the basic note-writing capabilities of Evernote for my own usage, but it's nice to know that it offers more in-depth options for those of us more capable to managing this whole online life thing.
I also talked about Evernote on my presentation and I also found it really simplistic. I didn't know what to talk about really. I think that's something that Evernote does well. It is very user friendly. There are a bunch of extra apps that can be very useful but there are only a select few that are essentials like the webclipper. Other things like the ever-food app, what? Pshh, that's for Instagram junkies. One of things I thought about is how would you present this to students as a resource when you don't know who is tech-savy and who isn't. I guess it's just like any other curriculum and you'll know with experience.
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