- I should definitely try out Evernote.
- Twenty Questions is a surprisingly complicated game.
- Digital literacy must be taught in our schools.
I've never tried to be as organized as I've been in these last four weeks, and I hope it doesn't stop any time soon. However, from all of the presentations, and the recommendations from fellow MACers, Evernote sounds like the greatest thing since sliced bread. With its sensitivity to image text, allowing for search within pictures, this might be the organization tool I've been missing. Sorry Google Docs - you may have met your match.
Twenty Questions was used as a tool to demonstrate the power of questioning, and the value of using good questions in a logical order, much the same way online researchers scour the Web. Our game was at once infuriating - who starts with specific questions?! - and thrilling, although I felt like, as a cohort, we had difficulty deciding on the route to find the answer. However, if we came away from the activity with anything useful, it was that searching for the "right" answer may yield many correct answers, all of which have nothing to do with what was being searched in the first place.
The other important take-away I had from this class was the importance of learning to read online texts with a critical eye. I was fortunate to be forced into this habit as a PR consultant; knowing the journalist or blogger who penned an article, and understanding their reputation, was key to my job. But all too often my eleven year-old brother regales me with tales of his "research" online. Most of his searching involves putting some interesting term into Google - "black hole," for instance - and hitting the Images tab, only to find the most beautifully Photoshopped pictures and artist interpretations on the World Wide Web. While these are just pictures, they point to the larger problem with the information superhighway being available at our fingertips. Having access to too much information is both a blessing and a curse, and educating our students about how to verify fact from fiction, and good fact from not-so-good fact may mean the difference between an A and a C.
Or between winning and losing a rousing game of Twenty Questions.
Hey GP! I really enjoyed your blog for today. I too was introduced to Evernote and feel that it is a great site to be familiar with. Moreover, I might have to bail on Google Docs and switch over to Evernote like yourself. You will have to keep me updated with your opinions and experience with Evernote as you become more familiar with the site.
ReplyDeleteWhile Evernote is sweet, I still prefer Google Docs, just because the integration with my Gmail account is pretty seamless. Also, I thought the searchable pictures would be really useful, but the delay in syncing in Evernote - between the software and the online-hosted site - makes it a difficult thing to use when you're in a rush. Google Docs also allows for sharing and collaborative work - like our citations document - and I think that separates it from Evernote, which I don't think has those capabilities.
Delete