Sunday, March 2, 2014

Weekly Reflection & Report Post #6: Evernote

     Being a digital native, I am familiar with a lot of applications and digital tools to assist me in my daily personal and professional life.  The classic Evernote elephant is becoming increasingly popular as people begin to discover the digital product.  I had never considered the Evernote elephant as a sign to discover the tool leaving me two steps behind active users of Evernote all the time.  Thanks to ADED 1P32, I have been introduced to pretty much a new way of digital efficiency.
     Evernote was launched in 2008 and has become a major success since.  They have over 11 million users globally.  Although there are several other digital tools that perform similar tasks and functions alike, Evernote seems to be an “all-in-one” software and service.  It provides active technology users to be more productive, organized, and structured.
     This week while exploring the digital tool of Evernote to research the topic of Digital Security, I have realized that this is a fantastic tool to use for many aspects of my life.  This includes meeting personal, academic, and professional needs to become efficient while staying effective. 
     Evernote is a service that captures multiple forms of information (Hamilton, 2010).  Although its primary function acts a note taker, it has many abilities to enhance the classic note taking experience.  Unlike the (somewhat) old fashion hand written notes, this service offers more.  You can store virtually anything you want onto Evernote including photos, notes, articles, web clippings, bookmarks, and more.  Considering I have only been using this tool for a week, I have yet to discover all of the software.  There are countless options to create an uncluttered location to collect practically anything you want. The task management tool acts as a “universal inbox” to store stuff which helps users reduce paper clutter (Pinola, 2010).  The most interesting function that Evernote can perform is digitizing hand written notes.  Although I can’t admit I have actually used this feature, I still find this very advanced.  The cross-platform application also has a back-up service for their users (Pinola, 2010).   How Evernote works as a digital reference system is also a great benefit for researching.  This service has introduced users to a custom and personalized way of collecting and storing anything.
     In reference to Malan’s five types of tools to help build a more effective personal learning environment, Evernote would fall under an organizing tool (2010).  Organizing tools enhance personal learning environments by offering digital citizens an opportunity to clear cluster, sort information, and stay neatly arranged.  I believe that it is in my best interest to eliminate some of the previous tools that have been explored from my personal learning environment.  I feel that Evernote is a “man of many trades” in regards to other digital software and tools. By disregarding other tools I have explored, I can now focus on the one tool that I actually find easy to manage.  Within the past couple of weeks of participating in ADED 1P32, I have noticed that having more tools can actually negatively affect my learning environment.  The stress and time consumption that come along with maintaining and utilizing several different digital tools has taken a toll on me.  I have now realized that Evernote is a tool of my preference that will assist me in my daily personal and academic practices. 
     Throughout this course, and particularly the exploration of Evernote, I have focused my attention on one of the nine elements of digital citizenship.  Digital security has always been an aspect of the digital world that is very interesting to me.  In college, I had enrolled in a course called “Techno-world: Emerging Issues”.  Ever since the completion of that course, I have been very aware of digital security and the dangers of it.  By researching this topic furthermore via Evernote, I realize how serious of a danger the internet can be.  This sense of insecurity is becoming ubiquitous within digital citizenship as technology has given man the power to breach the safety and security that digital technologies seem to lack.
The item below has been discovered from my RSS Reader from Tech Crunch’s website. It clearly illustrates the uneasiness that comes along with being safe and secure while participating in the digital world.


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