Online Organizers: Helps or Headaches?

In this assignment I got to review several online organizational tools. Task managements, file storing, idea organization, and usability were key factors in evaluating the tools. The platforms are as varied as their purposes. Some were easy to use and other, well, not quite so easy.

Workflowy

This organizational tool was a challenge to use, and I gave up. The organization of an ever expanding outline appealed to me initially, but once I tried to make it work I was stuck at every turn. I watched videos for support and just could not see how this was better than my trusty old paper notebook. I did not find any way to collaborate with others. I understood the tagging options for long complicated lists from my experience with Twitter, but don’t see a need for a list that big. I tried to make it pretty by changing the backgrounds, but you have to upgrade to the pro version for anything other than a white background and serif font. I admit to being a novice with online organizational tools. This one was beyond me. Their tagline is “organize your brain”. I think I will look elsewhere to organize my brain.

This tool could be used in the classroom to model hierarchical tasks and to help students understand outlining with main and subordinate topics. Research papers and project organization are the main school projects that pop to mind when considering how students could use this application.

Remember the Milk

This tool has many interesting options. It is a task organizer with emailed reminders, collaborative assigning options, and an easy to use interface. I like the individual tabs for work, personal, and study needs. I love that it will make a weekly (or daily, or monthly) calendar of tasks to complete. Tasks can be tagged and searched with an easy to find sidebar. There are options to connect with other Remember the Milk customers, and there are email reminders of tasks due.

For student use, I could see this tool being used to manage larger projects that require multiple steps and collaboration as well as simple personal organization. When trying to balance school projects, extracurricular activities, and family responsibilities, this tool can be utilized by all. The interface is very user friendly and the help screens are informative.

Wunderlist

It lists tasks. It connects to other Wunderlist users. It allows for easy subheadings and attaching notes from online documents. The online format was simple to navigate and nice to look at. There are options for organizing lists alphabetically, by date, and by assignee.  There is even a speak to print feature that allows users to simply speak the task and it shows up on the list. There is some customization allowed. I liked it much better than Workflowy, but not as much as Evernote. 
Students and teachers alike can use this for task organization and communication. 

Scribbless

It’s a list. On the computer. You can share it. That’s about it. No help screens. No cool functions. Just a list like I’d write on the back of an envelope. Eh, thanks, but I think I’ll stick with the envelope because there is no log in needed.

I don’t see why a student would need a list maker for online use, especially if it is not attached to a reminder set up. Of all the tools I looked at, this one was the least useful and customizable.

Evernote

This organization tool allows you to create notes and put them in a notebook. You can attach a date for reminder purposes. There are several places that offer to allow you to upgrade to premium status for additional features. The help tutorials are buried about 2 screens from the opening home screen. Once you find the help tutorial, I realized that embedding content is just a few clicks away using a simple drag and drop process. Evernote is very proud of its product and has offers to upgrade in several places.

This application would be very helpful for note taking and research with students. The share features would allow collaboration between students and instructors and the easy drag and drop process would be easy for novice users. This seems to be the premier product for organization because it can be customized in many ways and is transferable to many platforms.

Pinterest

Pinterest will organize your weblinks with a visual bulletin board system. This is by far my favorite online organizational tool. Here is my educational Pinterest board.

Visit Marie's profile on Pinterest.

I love how easy it is to "pin" a site for future use and how quickly items are retrieved. For students, this site could be a site to organize and store online resources for all topics. Students can find and store information on research reports, often visited sites, social networking, and so on and so on. It is like an online, interconnected warehouse.