Evernote & Diigo: 2 Web Resources for the Connected Educator

There are two Web 2.0 products I have found reason enough to purchase beyond the freemium versions: Evernote and Diigo. Both of these products figure prominently in my daily activities as a high school administrator. They are often two Web tools I open first thing every morning in preparation for my school day as a principal. Here's some of the ways I use each of these products in the course of my work day.

Evernote

I use Evernote, both Web and desktop verions. I also access and use it on my iPad and on my smartphone. It has become one of my primary administrator Web tools. Here's some of the ways I use it daily:

• To-Do List: I mentioned doing this in an earlier blog post, but I create a weekly To-Do List in my Evernote application for a few reasons. I make it weekly because so many of the tasks I face are a variety of both short-term and long-term tasks. With Evernote, I add more and more tasks as the week goes by, and for those tasks that don't get completed, it is a simple matter of copying and pasting in the next week's To-Do List at the beginning of the next week. I also can access my To-Do List anywhere through my phone or iPad.
• Administrators Log: I once had a seasoned administrator tell me, "If it ain't documented, then it didn't happen." My Administrators Log is my documentation tool for all the of the major incidents and tasks I have to tackle during the course of the day. With the tags features, I can make my documentation notes even more easily accessible, and because I have Evernote on all my devices, I can access these notes any where too.
• Resource Collection Box: At the end of the week, I send out an email newsletter to all my staff and to the parents. In that newsletter, I share resources and ideas on education. These resources and ideas are collected throughout the week in my Evernote Notebook entitled Weekly Email Update. By the end of the week, I usually have quite a few resources to share.

Evernote