<oldGeezerVoice:on>Back in my day, we had to take notes offline. If we wanted to share them with other people, we had to put them in an email or on a flash drive, and then hope that it didn’t get lost in the process. That was the way that it was, and we liked it. We had to buy expensive programs like Microsoft Office just to get something else other than basic text typing. Sure – there was OpenOffice, but no one was brave enough to go open source. And if Office crashed on us, and couldn’t recover our notes – we had to re-type all of them. And we liked it.<oldGeezerVoice:off>
Hard to believe, but the cutting edge way we used to take notes just five years ago is becoming a thing of the past. Take NoteSake for example: a site designed specifically for college students, so that they can take notes online, organize those notes, work as groups, or even share notes with others.
Of course, you will need to be in a classroom that allows notebook computers and has wireless access. Many schools are getting set up this way, but there are always those fussy professors that have a problem with students bringing notebooks to class.
The pros about NoteSake are the organization and the sharing. You organize with tags, just like at other Web2.0 sites. So, create tags for each class, or even each unit in each class, and find your notes fast. Work in groups easily, or share notes with other students that might have been sick.
I also like that you can download notes as PDF or Word docs. I would probably do that on a daily basis, just for security. Websites do crash from time to time after all.
Also, with direction that the iPhone is taking mobile web access, sites like this will take mobile learning to a whole new level. Even though typing notes on an iPhone might prove difficult, someday someone will come up with the perfect solution for that, and students of the future will only need to come to class with a cell phone. Amazing.
The downside is that this is a stand-alone site. What would make it killer would be to add organizational tools like a calendar. Or, if someone like Google would buy this site and integrate it into their services… or even if Moodle would integrate with this – that would be killer.
Matt is currently an Instructional Designer II at Orbis Education and a Part-Time Instructor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley. Previously he worked as a Learning Innovation Researcher with the UT Arlington LINK Research Lab. His work focuses on learning theory, Heutagogy, and learner agency. Matt holds a Ph.D. in Learning Technologies from the University of North Texas, a Master of Education in Educational Technology from UT Brownsville, and a Bachelors of Science in Education from Baylor University. His research interests include instructional design, learning pathways, sociocultural theory, heutagogy, virtual reality, and open networked learning. He has a background in instructional design and teaching at both the secondary and university levels and has been an active blogger and conference presenter. He also enjoys networking and collaborative efforts involving faculty, students, administration, and anyone involved in the education process.
