Review by Amanda Bindel, Common Sense Education | Updated February 2013
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Evernote

Get it now
  • Download on Google Play
  • Download from App Store
  • Download on Amazon

Impressive organizational tool has limitless uses

Subjects & skills
Subjects
  • English Language Arts
Skills
  • Communication & Collaboration
  • Creativity
Grades This grade range is a recommendation by Common Sense Education and not the developer/publisher.
6–12
Great for:
Common Sense says (See details)
Teachers say (83 Reviews)
Price:  Free, Paid Basic, Plus, and Premium plans available. Basic plans are free, and come with 60MB of uploads per month and access on two devices. The Plus plan is $34.99 per year and comes with more features, plus 1GB of uploads per month and access to an unlimited number of devices. The Premium plan is $69.99 per year, and adds even more features, including a presentation mode and the ability to annotate PDFs.
Platforms:  Android, iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch, Kindle Fire, Nook HD, Chrome, Windows Phone, Apps for Windows

Take a look inside

1 video | 5 images
EdTech Showdown: Evernote vs. Notability
Educator Video
2:56
There's an option to share with other Evernote users.
Composing a note is simple.
The search function crawls titles, tags, and the contents of your notes.
You can add photos to your notes, including handwritten notes (with a special Evernote notebook you can purchase separately).
There are a host of options for sharing outside of the Evernote platform.

Pros: Evernote makes it easy to access notes or saved information across devices.

Cons: The tool is only valuable if used effectively.

Bottom Line: This free information-management tool can help kids become tech-savvy and learn to better organize their digital lives.

How Can I Teach with This Tool?

Teachers and students can use Evernote for a range of tasks. Students can collect research for an upcoming project or paper, and teachers can share assignments, resources, or reading materials. A student misses a class brainstorming session? Snap a picture of the whiteboard or capture the smartboard and save it on Evernote.

The developer's website has many ideas on how to use Evernote for lesson planning, classroom management, and instruction. Ideas are organized for teachers in traditional K-12 classrooms, higher education, and 1-to-1 initiation schools.

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Standards:

With a history of rave reviews on the business, personal, and home-management fronts, Evernote has moved into the classroom. A cloud-based storage system, it allows teachers and students to access information from multiple devices and locations. Students can create notes, snap images, make checklists, or record audio on a mobile device or computer and make the information available on any other device or computer. The information in the notes is searchable, and notes can be tagged with keywords for easy retrieval. Location tagging is also automatically on. Students can create multiple folders to organize notes. Premium accounts can be linked automatically, but even in the free version, kids can share links to their notes or information.

This productivity app can shift the way kids manage information in school and the way teachers share it. Once kids learn how to use it, it can enhance their learning by keeping information on hand and organized. The interface is easy to use, especially for the touch-screen generation. Notes save quickly and can be accessed easily. With audio, text, and image capabilities, Evernote can track almost any piece of information. The search function makes finding notes easy, even if kids forget to tag topics. However, the text-within-image searches are hit or miss. The portability of data is really impressive. In a time when many teachers have a personal smartphone and a tablet for school, Evernote takes away the worry of not having the right device when it's needed.

Overall Rating
Engagement Is the product stimulating, entertaining, and engrossing? Will kids want to return?

Kids will take to this tool easily and will excitedly use it with friends and classmates.

Pedagogy Is learning content seamlessly baked-in, and do kids build conceptual understanding? Is the product adaptable and empowering? Will skills transfer?

Evernote helps develop important tech skills valuable in future school and workplace settings. If kids use it with guidance, they can improve research and organization skills and learn to better manage digital information.

Support Does the product take into account learners of varying abilities, skill levels, and learning styles? Does it address both struggling and advanced students?

Evernote's website and app offer numerous ideas and tutorials for utilizing the app fully.

Common Sense Reviewer
Amanda Bindel Classroom teacher
About our ratings and privacy evaluation.

Key Standards Supported

Writing

  • W.6.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding skills to type a minimum of three pages in a single sitting.

  • W.6.8

    Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources; assess the credibility of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and providing basic bibliographic information for sources.

  • W.7.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and link to and cite sources as well as to interact and collaborate with others, including linking to and citing sources.

  • W.7.8

    Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

  • W.8.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.

  • W.8.8

    Gather relevant information from multiple print and digital sources, using search terms effectively; assess the credibility and accuracy of each source; and quote or paraphrase the data and conclusions of others while avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

  • W.9-10.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products, taking advantage of technology’s capacity to link to other information and to display information flexibly and dynamically.

  • W.9-10.8

    Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the usefulness of each source in answering the research question; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and following a standard format for citation.

  • W.11-12.6

    Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.

  • W.11-12.8

    Gather relevant information from multiple authoritative print and digital sources, using advanced searches effectively; assess the strengths and limitations of each source in terms of the task, purpose, and audience; integrate information into the text selectively to maintain the flow of ideas, avoiding plagiarism and overreliance on any one source and following a standard format for citation.

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Teacher Reviews

(See all 83 reviews) (83 reviews) Write a review
Featured review by
Pat D. , Classroom teacher
Classroom teacher
Falcon Creek Middle School
Aurora, CO
Love it and use it!
I love using it. My students always want to know how I managed to clip the article or webpage for them so their is no extra information to cause distractions for them when they research. This feature is especially helpful with students who do struggle with distractions on a webpage.
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