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Note-taking

5 Free iPad Apps for Sketching Notes

December 2, 2014 by admin

the-light-bulb-349400_640 Sketching notes or sketchnoting appears to be becoming a popular way of taking notes and organizing ideas. I’ve done that on paper for years and you may have too. Sketchnoting allows me to create outlines in any format that I like, quickly connect ideas through arrows and lines, and illustrate ideas when words aren’t enough. Sketchnoting on an iPad enables students to edit and share sketchnotes more quickly and easily than ever before. Here is a handful of iPad apps (some freemium, some completely free) for sketchnoting.

IdeaStorm is a free iPad app for quickly creating sketches and diagrams. IdeaStorm allows you to create individual sketches and collections of sketches. To create a sketch just tap the “new drawing” button and start drawing. You can choose from three line thicknesses and five colors to use in your drawings. All drawings are automatically saved in the app. IdeaStorm does not require or even offer the option for creating an account. Students of all ages can start using the app in a matter of seconds. One drawback to IdeaStorm is that drawings can only be shared if you take a screenshot of them, save them to your camera roll, and then share from your camera roll.

Idea Sketch is a simple app for creating mind maps on your iPad. One of the features of Idea Sketch that stands out is the option to flip back and forth between a web format and an outline format. This makes the app a good choice for students who occasionally prefer to a linear outline instead of a web layout. Creating a mind map on Idea Sketch is a simple process. To get started tap the “Ideas” button then tap the “+” button. All mind maps start on a blank screen that you fill up by tapping anywhere to add a text bubble. You can change the colors and sizes of each bubble. To add a new connected bubble just tap, hold, and drag a bubble into place. To switch to a linear outline format tap the “list” icon in the upper, right corner of the screen. Tap that icon again to switch back to the web format. Completed mind maps can be exported as images or shared via email.

Inkflow is an iPad app that can be used to sketch mind maps, draw pictures, write free hand, and just about anything else you might do with a pencil and paper. All of the pages that you sketch on and write on can be organized into little books that include page-turning effects. Inkflow is the perfect app for people like me who like to sketch out their ideas before sharing them in presentations, in writing, or in video productions. Inkflow is also great for people who like to take notes in a free-hand format in which they can easily include little sketches and diagrams along with their written words.

Penultimate provides a place for you to hand-write notes on your iPad. The app allows you to create multiple notebooks with multiple pages in each. You can change the color and size of the pen strokes that are created when you write in your notebooks. Each page in your notebook can include pictures that you have stored on your iPad or pictures that you take through the Penultimate app. The app provides the option to change the look of the virtual paper on which you write. You can copy and paste content from one page to another and from one notebook to another.

iBrainstorm is a free brainstorming application for the iPad and the iPhone. The app allows you to record brainstorming sessions using a combination of free hand drawings and sticky notes. You can share and collaborate with other users of iBrainstorm.

Check out Kathy Schrock’s page on sketchnoting for great ideas on using sketchnoting in your classroom.

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Filed Under: Elementary School, High School, Middle School Tagged With: free ipad apps, ipad apps, Note-taking, Notes, Sketch, sketch notes, Sketches, sketching apps

Thoughtree – Quickly Record Your Thoughts On Your iPad

September 26, 2013 by admin

Screen Shot 2013-09-26 at 1.02.30 PM Thoughtree is a free iPad app for quickly recording and sharing your thoughts. The app is quite easy to use. To record your thought just tap the “+” icon at the bottom of the screen and type your note to yourself. Thoughtree does offer the option to create folders to organize your thoughts. Thoughtree notes can also be labeled with reminder icons. All of your notes can be shared via email or your favorite social network.

Thoughtree isn’t the most robust app that you’ll try this week, but it if you’re looking for a simple app in which to write your notes, Thoughtree is definitely worth giving a try.

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Filed Under: College, High School, Middle School, University Tagged With: free ipad apps, Note-taking, Notes

5 Free iPad Apps Students Can Use for Taking Notes

August 23, 2013 by admin

school-36784_150 One of the things that I love about the start of the new school year is that so many students have goals for making “this year the year they…” For many students that blank is filled in with “stay organized” or “take better notes.” If your students are going to be using iPads in your classroom this year, here are five free iPad apps they can try for taking notes and keeping those notes organized.

inClass is a fantastic free iPad app that students can use to take and keep track of the notes they record in all of their courses. inClass allows students to organize notebooks for each of their courses. Within each notebook students can include typed notes, audio notes, video notes, and pictures. The ability to store those four types of notes makes inClass a great app for students to use in a science lab where they might want to have a little video clip of an experiment along with their own typed notes about the lab experiment.

Evernote is the Swiss Army knife of iPad apps. Students can use Evernote for a little bit of everything from bookmarking websites to dictating notes to themselves. The app will automatically sync with students online Evernote accounts so that they can access my notes, bookmarks, and saved files from any computer or device that is connected to the web.

Penultimate provides a place for you to hand-write notes on your iPad. The app allows you to create multiple notebooks with multiple pages in each. You can change the color and size of the pen strokes that are created when you write in your notebooks. Each page in your notebook can include pictures that you have stored on your iPad or pictures that you take through the Penultimate app. The app provides the option to change the look of the virtual paper on which you write. You can copy and paste content from one page to another and from one notebook to another.

Fetchnotes is a service for creating and organizing notes for yourself. Organizing your notes on Fetchnotes is quite simple. When you write a note, just use a hashtag to label your note. Then whenever you want to search for a note just enter a hashtag. For example, if I was a student taking notes in a history course I might use the hashtag “#revolution” for all notes related to revolutions. Then I could go back and read all of my notes about revolution by just searching for that hashtag. Fetchnotes lets you create groups of people with whom you share notes. When you want to share a note with someone else in your group just add @ before that person’s name to have the task appear on your list and his or her list. In addition to being available through the free iPad app, Fetchnotes can be used in your web browser. Fetchnotes also offers a free Android app.

Last but not least is Google Drive for iPad. While not nearly as robust as the browser-based version of Google Drive, Google Drive for iPad can be used by students to create notes documents. If your school is using Google Apps for Education, your students are probably already familiar with how to use Google Drive. Of course, their notes will sync to their Google Drive accounts so that they can access their notes through any Internet-connected device. Click here for a short (13 page PDF) guide to using Google Drive for iPad.

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Filed Under: College, Elementary School, High School, Middle School, University Tagged With: free apps, free ipad apps, ipad apps, ipads in education, Note-taking, Notes

5 iPad Apps Students Can Use to Record Audio Notes

July 16, 2013 by admin

Whether for convenience, accuracy, accessibility, or a combination of the three there are times when having the option to quickly record audio can be handy. Here are five iPad apps that students can use to quickly create short audio recordings.

Screen-Shot-2013-01-21-at-11.18.17-AMinClass is a fantastic free iPad app that students can use to take and keep track of the notes they record in all of their courses. inClass allows students to organize notebooks for each of their courses. Within each notebook students can include typed notes, audio notes, video notes, and pictures. The ability to store those four types of notes makes inClass a great app for students to use in a science lab where they might want to have a little video clip of an experiment along with their own typed notes about the lab experiment.

supernoteSuper Note is another free iPad app that students can use to record audio notes in the same digital notebooks that they type their notes into. One of the nice features of the Super Note recorder is that you can pause your recording and start it again without having to create a separate audio file. In other words, a student could start a recording in the morning, pause it for a lunch break, then come back and continue the same recording in the afternoon. Super Note offers convenient tools for color coding notes and sorting notes chronologically and alphabetically.

soundSoundCloud is the audio recording app that I demonstrate more than any other. SoundCloud’s free iPad app allows you to record up to two hours of speech for free. Each recording is automatically uploaded to your online SoundCloud account where you can share it with others. SoundCloud recordings made on the iPad can be trimmed to remove dead air or mistakes before being uploaded to an online account.

Recordium is an iPad app for creating audio recordings. Like Sound Cloud, Recordium can be used to quickly create a spoken note or to record someone playing an instrument. Recordium can be used to trim the end or beginning of a recording. You can also snip out a middle portion of a recording and save it as a separate recording or trash it. Where Recordium gets interesting is in the annotation features. The app allows you to highlight and tag portions of your recordings. Your tags can even include pictures. Completed recordings can be shared to a number of services including Google Drive and Evernote.

Evernote-Camera-Roll-20130531-143303-550x412

evenoteEvernote for iPad includes the option to make an audio recording. To make a recording just tap the “new note” icon then tap the microphone icon to start your recording. Recordings cannot be edited in the Evernote app, but you could download them and edit them in another app. Of course, your audio notes in Evernote can be saved in any of your Evernote notebooks.

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Filed Under: College, Elementary School, High School, Middle School Tagged With: audio notes, audio recordings, free apps, ipad apps, Note-taking

Fetchnotes – A Free & Simple Notes App for Your iPad

July 4, 2013 by admin

Screen Shot 2013-06-30 at 1.49.50 PM Fetchnotes is a service for creating and organizing notes for yourself. Organizing your notes on Fetchnotes is quite simple. When you write a note, just use a hashtag to label your note. Then whenever you want to search for a note just enter a hashtag. For example, if I was a student taking notes in a history course I might use the hashtag “#revolution” for all notes related to revolutions. Then I could go back and read all of my notes about revolution by just searching for that hashtag.

Fetchnotes lets you create groups of people with whom you share notes. When you want to share a note with someone else in your group just add @ before that person’s name to have the task appear on your list and his or her list.

In addition to being available through the free iPad app, Fetchnotes can be used in your web browser. Fetchnotes also offers a free Android app.

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Filed Under: College, Elementary School, faculty, High School, Middle School Tagged With: free ipad app, free ipad apps, Note apps, Note-taking, Notes

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