New clarity to Evernote Policy

In Evernote’s new policy they create clear language around use of Evernote in schools, specifically in regard to COPPA (Children’s online privacy protection act). This new language is intended for the growing educational users.

Here is language from a recent email:

Important Note: New Legal Page and Changes to our Contracts Coming Soon

We spend a lot of our time improving our products to make them easier to use and more friendly. Now we’re applying that same thinking to our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and legal relationship with our users. On December 4th, we will launch a new Legal Page at Evernote.com that will collect the important legal documents relating to the Evernote Service and our products. We are also making some important revisions to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, making them easier to understand and reflecting our expansion from our California roots. You can review the new terms by following these links:

Terms of Service
Privacy Policy
If you read these new contract provisions and disagree, and do not wish to be bound by them, then you can close your account before December 31, 2012. If you agree with us and accept these changes, then you need not do anything; your continued use of Evernote will indicate your acceptance of the new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.

This post highlights the important changes to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, but we first want to emphasize something that hasn’t changed: Evernote’s Three Laws of Data Protection.
Your data is Yours
Your data is Protected
Your data is Portable
These laws continue to be our core guiding principles for protecting our users’ data. In fact, we have made a number of changes that are designed to clarify these Laws and to provide additional information for our users to enable them to understand how to protect their data and how we collect and handle your data and personal information. These are the significant changes we want to highlight for you:

Easier to Read

The first thing individuals will notice when reviewing our new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy is that they are more conversational with less legal jargon. We hope that the updated description of how we operate the Evernote Service and the respective commitments between Evernote and our users are much easier to read and understand.

A Global Company

As part of our effort to better support the needs of our users around the world, we have established a company based in Zurich, Switzerland called Evernote GmbH. This wholly-owned subsidiary will be managing our business and the Evernote Service for our users who reside outside of the United States and Canada, and will be contracting with those users under Swiss law. The Evernote Service and all of its servers will continue to be operated by the California-based Evernote Corporation. For our users in the European Economic Area, this means that Evernote GmbH is the data controller for data protection purposes.

Preparing for Evernote Business

As we announced at the Evernote Trunk Conference in August, we will soon be launching Evernote Business. We have updated our Terms of Service to reflect how existing Evernote Service accounts will co-exist with Evernote Business. Existing Evernote users who are invited to join an Evernote Business account will find that their existing account gains a number of enhancements, most notably the ability to access and share notebooks with others in that business. Evernote Business accounts will be managed by an Administrator who has rights to allow or restrict an individual user’s access to the business’ notebooks, but the Administrator is not provided any information about any user’s personal Evernote account. (We will not even tell an Administrator if an individual user’s account exists.) Nor can the content in an Evernote personal account be accessed, viewed or otherwise affected by an Administrator.

Evernote in Schools

We’re thrilled with the number of educators and administrators around the world who have shown interest in using Evernote in their schools, so we have modified our contracts with respect to use by underage individuals who might not be old enough to enter into a contract on their own, including specific guidance for schools in the US where we want to ensure that the requirements of the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act are satisfied.

Planning for the Future

We have established a policy not to disclose our users’ content to others, even next of kin, after a user’s death or incapacity. We have included this within our Terms of Service and encourage our users to decide whether their content should be available to others, and plan for this eventuality. We have also provided more guidance on the process by which user accounts are closed and how users can delete content from their accounts.

Resolution of Disputes

We have revamped our dispute resolution process by introducing arbitration provisions that will enable users throughout the world to resolve disputes they may have with Evernote more expeditiously and less expensively.

Using arbitration to resolve claims means that users will not be required to travel to California (or Switzerland, for Evernote GmbH users) to file a lawsuit and appear in court and, if the amount of the claim is less than US$10,000, the arbitration may even be done over the phone or internet, depending upon the circumstances. In an effort to resolve all disputes promptly, we are also including a provision that requires both parties to use good faith to initiate the arbitration proceeding within 30 days, with a mutually acceptable arbitrator managing the process.

Our changes will provide users outside the US an option to have their dispute resolved through arbitration, but under a special US law, we are requiring users in the US to use binding arbitration as the exclusive means for resolving disputes and to agree that such claims will be resolved only between them and Evernote (prohibiting participation in class actions or similar representative actions).

We feel strongly that requiring arbitration of disputes on an individual basis will enhance our ability to work with our users to resolve disputes, while ensuring that an individual user maintains control of the issue raised and resolution desired – and that this will happen much more quickly than the long months or years that class action matters typically require. Because we are requiring arbitration for US users (and others subject to the US Federal Arbitration Act), we will pay the arbitration-related fees for all claims up to US$10,000 and even in cases involving more than that amount if those fees would be prohibitive compared to litigation costs, unless, in either case, the claim asserted is determined by the arbitrator to be frivolous. We appreciate that this is a significant change, so we will permit existing Evernote users who do not agree with this change to “opt-out” of the arbitration agreement by notifying us via the methods described in our Terms within 30 days of December 4, 2012 (the effective date of our new Terms).

Please Read Everything

We strongly encourage everyone to read our new contract terms carefully, in their entirety. The content placed into Evernote is important, and all of our users should feel completely comfortable entrusting it to the Service. This post does not describe all of the changes to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy and is not, after all, our contract with our users. The provisions in our Terms of Service, Privacy Policy and the other documents are the binding contract terms. We hope our users agree that these terms are an improvement and, as always, we welcome input and feedback. Thank you for your support.

The Evernote Team

Going School Wide-Part 2

After a hiatus of many weeks I am ready to come back and do some more blogging about portfolios and Evernote.

My last entry focused on some of hurdles of getting people on board when moving toward online portfolios. I must admit that I wasn’t fully successful in the last 6-7 weeks of the year getting the kind of commitment for the school wide program that I wanted. Even though several teachers self selected to work with me, their commitment wasn’t 100%. I can understand this (especially at the end of the year) but I was disappointed after having spent a good chunk of time putting together a series of mini-workshops. Below I have provided the basic syllabus of the work I was going to do with the group. Having a timeline and outline like this is helpful to let everyone know the scope and direction of the work.

Goal: The goal of this Evernote training is three fold.

#1. To allow staff members to become acquainted with how to use Evernote as teachers.
#2. To Ensure that there are enough staff members at Trillium who understand the use of Evernote as an online portfolio tool to enable the school to implement a school-wide online portfolio program in the fall of 2012.
#3. To teach a number of Trillium upper school students how to use Evernote as an online portfolio tool so they can teach other students. These students would begin (or continue to use Evernote in the case of 6th grade students) using the program for much of the work they are doing in class.

Benefits of the training:

#1. Each staff member would receive an Ipod touch to use personally and with their students for the remainder of the school year.

#2. Each staff member would have access to one of two Lexmark scanners for the uploading of student work into their accounts.

#3. Rob would be available on Thursdays to support classroom work and training using the technology.

#4. Rob would support the staff members by teaching them how to use the technology as well as be available to answer questions and give technical support.

#5. Rob would support the creation of Evernote accounts for those students who would be piloting the program this spring.

Basic Syllabus (dates to be determined)

1. A 90 minute training on a Friday (in April) to learn how to create an account, how to add artifacts using the itouch, smartphones, phones, desktops/laptops and the Lexmark scanner. Staff will then receive their own itouch to begin testing.

2. Staff will spend 2 weeks using Evernote to record and document student work to ensure a clear understanding of the use of the technology and to allow them to see its benefits. After that 2 weeks staff will meet again with Rob for an additional 90 minute workshop on introducing and supporting Evernote in the classroom with students.

3. Staff will help choose a number of students who will pilot the program. Rob will be available for one class period on a Thursday to support the training of students in the use of Evernote.

4. Staff will support and monitor the chosen students, giving students adequate time (in class or advising) to chose artifacts to upload.

5. Staff will work together to create a simple reflection sheet which students will use when adding artifacts into their portfolios.

6. Staff will meet with Rob at the end of the year to debrief on the use of Evernote. (Successes, struggles, ideas for the future).

7. Staff will help train teachers in the use of Evernote when school reopens in the fall of 2012. They will be the lead support to ensure that all students will be trained in using Evernote by the end of September 2012.

Going School Wide-Part 1

(A pair of upper school teachers learning how to use the Ipod Touch in an Evernote introductory class at Trillium).

Over the past six years there have been all sorts of attempts to create a school wide online portfolio program at Trillium. The biggest hurdles have been the complexity of using the technology available and the ability of the staff to deal with the challenges they face with that technology.

Integrating new technology into any organization isn’t easy but it is made more difficult when people are resistant to it. This resistance seems to come in many forms.

#1. There are people who just don’t feel comfortable with digital technology in general. These are the people who are intimidated by it and even prefer to stay in the analog world. They need a lot of help doing basic things on the computer and the internet. Even when given support they feel uneasy.

#2. There are people who like the “old” way of doing things. They feel comfortable with the technology they know and don’t want to put in the time necessary to learn something new. They can be brought on board to new ideas but it takes some time and support.

#3. There are people who are resistant to more than technology. They might be technologically savvy but they don’t like others making them move to new things. They have a rebel streak in them.

#4. Putting in time to learn new things that other people are introducing often brings up resistance just because the time it takes. Committing additional time, especially in a work setting, isn’t easy for people. There are so many things that pull our attention and demand our time at work that people just don’t want something more to focus on.

#5. Resistance can come from administrators who are wary of costs, another “new” thing and the time and energy needed to introduce something to a group of teachers, students and families.

All these forms of resistance (and so many others) are legitimate and require thought and communication when attempting to introduce something new like Evernote portfolios to a school. My experience demonstrates this first hand. I have faced all these forms of resistance and learned that you can never “force” your way through it. You need to bring people in on the level they feel comfortable. That means having a good sense of everyone’s feelings and experience and then developing a strong plan to deal with issues ahead of time. If you can account for all levels of resistance and offer support to overcome them ahead of time you are going to be significantly better off in the long run.

Part of dealing with that resistance is finding allies for the project and building a base of support. While the lower school at Trillium (k-5) have been on board with the Evernote portfolio work, the staff in the upper school (middle school and high school) have put up resistance. Even when I presented many of the “wow” factors about using Evernote at a whole staff meeting it wasn’t enough to get people to commit to the time and energy required to make it happen.

One discovery I made was that while the school says that it uses portfolios to assess student work, we haven’t done a good job with creating a pedagogy around portfolio use. Some people use them and others don’t. Without the foundation of school wide portfolio use (in general) it was next to impossible to suddenly have ONLINE portfolios. It wasn’t until the school (with administrative leadership and support) committed to portfolios that we could start talking about Evernote as a tool.

What I needed to sell to the staff was that Evernote portfolios are not about more work for teachers but rather they put the job of documentation, reflection and presentation into the hands of students. THIS was a big seller. When staff begun to understand that this new technology frees them up and puts the onus on students a lot of resistance dropped away.

Eventually I was able to round up a crew of 4 teachers (2 middle and 2 high) and set about creating some portfolio allies. I would work with them and they would become the liaisons to the rest of their teams. It is always easier to learn things from the team you already work with. Resistance is significantly reduced in that kind of situation.

In Part 2 I will share my experience working with this smaller team.

Recording the entire learning process

Back in April I wrote about how students were using Evernote to record parts of the writing process. Below are photos of the entire process. (The first draft of a book review written on paper. The second draft off the review after a single student conference typed into Evernote. The rubric and feedback from many other students after they read the 2nd draft. The final draft of the review types in Evernote.)

Having the entirety of the writing process is extremely valuable as it clearly shows what kind of changes were made along the way. It is now easy to go back and reflect on the process and I can have a clear sense of how I can continue to design lessons to improve writing. Of course this kind of documentation can really happen with any subject.

Multiple Email addresses with One gmail account!!

One of the time consuming issues around setting up the Evernote accounts as I have done it in the past is the need to create individual e-mail accounts for students. To have an Evernote account you need to have an email account and if a large group of students don’t have accounts (or you want to control them) it takes some time. The process below definitely is less time consuming and makes it possible to more easily access all the student e-mail accounts if there is a need.

Multiple Google Email Addresses – One Gmail Account

Google Gmail is a very slick, free email product. One Gmail feature that you may not be aware of is that multiple Google email addresses can be created from one Gmail account. These bonus email addresses are easy to create and manage and can take a few different forms.

Multiple Google Email Addresses from One Gmail Account

Having multiple Gmail addresses can provide a range of uses including easily separating personal and business email and tracking incoming email from specific subscriptions and mailing list. There are three main methods for expanding the number of usable Google email addresses that you can have from a single Gmail account:

Using the @googlemail.com domain.
Using the “dot” or period in your email name.
Using the plus sign “+” at the end of your name and adding extra characters.
Using the “@googlemail.com” Domain Name
Let’s start with the use of the @googlemail.com domain name. With every Gmail account you actually get a second email address – one is the regular @gmail.com address while the second address has @googlemail.com as the domain. So Gmail will actually see myname@gmail.com as the same as myname@googlemail.com. All email messages that are sent to myname@googlemail.com will be delivered to your

Using a Dot or Period in the Email name

Another interesting facet of Gmail addresses is what is sometimes referred to as “Dot Blindness”. In an interesting twist Gmail does not recognize dots, ”.”or periods as characters in Google email address user names. This means that Gmail “sees” my.name@gmail.com or myna.me@gmail.com as the same address as myname@gmail.com. You can also use multiple “dots” in the username such as my.na.me@gmail.com.

The same “dot blindness” also applies to email addresses using the @googlemail.com domain name with my.name@googlemail.com or my.na.me@googlemail.com being routed to the same Inbox as myname@gmail.com.

Using the Plus Sign and Additional Characters
The third trick for extending the use of your Gmail account is the ability to add extra characters to the end of your username by inserting a plus sign, “+” after your name. Google does not recognize these characters but Gmail search filters do. The characters after the plus sign can be either letters or numbers. So myname+abcde@gmail.com or myname+abcde@googlemail.com will end up in the same Inbox as myname@gmail.com.

Test these out for yourself and see what works best for you. All the variations below are from the same Google email account and will all end up in the myname@gmail.com Gmail Inbox:

myname@gmail.com

myname@googlemail.com

my.name@gmail.com

my.name@googlemail.com

my.na.me@gmail.com

my.na.me@googlemail.com

myname+abcde@gmail.com

myname+123abc@gmail.com

my.name+abcdefg78@gmail.com

my.name+abcdefg78@googlemail.com

Benefits of Multiple Google Email Address from One Gmail Account

So you say, “OK, these Google email address tips are interesting, but what would I use all these variations for”? One use is to track where mail is coming from. When you sign up for a newsletter subscription or mailing list you can create a specific email address by using the plus sign and some specific characters or “dot” pattern. You can then track incoming email based on the specific email name that you created.

For example, you sign up for a subscription to a newsletter using my.name+456news@gmail.com and then in addition to the newsletter you signed up for you start receiving email from a number of other different sources to that specific address. This could indicate that the specific mailing list might have been compromised or even sold.

Another use of these address variations is for sorting out spam or unwanted email from a specific Google email address. By using Gmail filters you can automatically direct mail to a specific address, such as myname+666@gmail.com to the spam folder.

Variations on your address can also be used to separate out personal and business messages and automatically identify each with a different label and sorted to a different folder.

Simplified Google Email Address Management

Having multiple Google email addresses is a useful tool for addressing a number of different email needs. The benefits of having a centralized email account that can easily process a number of different email addresses without having to go out and set up numerous new accounts with additional usernames and passwords can be a real plus. And they are all managed from a single Gmail account.

Evernote Premium for Schools

As Trillium begins to move toward school-wide (k-12) implementation of online portfolios using Evernote some of the administrative “kinks” are being worked out.

#1. One of the main questions people tend to ask me about creating accounts concerns the legal age requirement. When creating an account you are prompted to check off a box that indicates that you are at least 13 years old. Of course this is a problem if you want to make accounts with students that are younger. The good news (which I just recently received from the Evernote team) is that COPPA (Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act) rules around use provide the ability for schools to act as agents between Evernote and the children’s family. If a parent signs a permission form (which states how Evernote will be used) the school can check off the “I am 13″ box for students.

#2. Evernote has created Premium for Schools administrative tools which allow the school to have a level of administrative control. (See below image) Having premium accounts allows for sharing of notes between all students (which allows them to easily collaborate with one another), provides a larger storage capacity per month and a higher level of tech support. Schools receive a discounted monthly fee ($2.50 rather than a typical $5.00) which may be prohibitive for some schools. (For Trillium that would cost about $10,000 per year for 360 students). However, that cost could also be passed to the families ($2.50 per month) which could be clumped together into a $30 fee payed at the beginning of the year or spread out in chunks. Of course a normal account is free so all schools, no matter their financial standing, could open accounts.

Documenting and Sharing Student Writing

Beyond using portfolios as a place to store finished work, Evernote allows my students to use it as a place for ongoing work.

This week my students have been working on book reviews for works of fiction they have been reading in book clubs. As they move through the writing process (pre-writing, drafting, conferencing, revising, editing, publishing) I am having them use Evernote to share their work with me. I spend a lot of time helping students become good critics of the writing of their peers. We do that in authentic ways where classmates can really help each other become better writers. That means that students are conferencing with each other at least once as they move toward publishing. Of course I want to have the opportunity to read kids work, but I tend to wait until they have already meet with peers.

Kids can often become frustrated in the writing process when they have to be constantly rewriting their work. This is where word processing comes into play with my students. I always ask students to write a first draft by hand. Most kids are not really fast on the keyboard so I want to make sure their ideas don’t get bogged down by the speed of their typing. However, once they have done a first draft and received feedback they like to get on the computer to type their revisions. In that way they also don’t have to do as much rewriting after I give feedback.

So I can see the work they do and give them feedback (without having to collect everyone’s papers) I have students put their revisions on Evernote using the Evernote word processing option. I also ask them to photograph their first draft so I can see the changes that they have already made. In this way it is easy for me to look at all the work they have done so far and offer changes and suggestions. I do this on a piece of paper that they can hold when they go back to their writing. Additionally students can photograph my suggestions as well. This ongoing documentation is a great way to show student growth along the path of a single piece of writing. When portfolios are “alive” in this way they become valuable tools for students, teachers and parents.

Below is an example of a student’s first draft (in photo) and their typed revision ready for me to look over.

Q&A from a University Staff Member

I get a lot of questions about my work with Evernote and I like to use them as blog entries. I imagine that many people out there have similar questions and I hope this format is helpful. This list of questions comes from an Information Technology Specialist at a University here in the United States.

What did the on-boarding process look like? Was the conversation with the teachers more of a “you must use Evernote,” was it more of a drawn out gentle coaxing, or was it somewhere in between?

The adoption of new systems and technology in schools is always a tricky proposal. You have the gung-ho folks who are eager to try and incorporate new technology and ideas. You have the group that need a little hand holding, support and guidance. You have the people who need a lot of support and hand-holding, and you have the people that are completely resistant and will never go along with it. Of course, there are many types of people in between, but for the sake of this conversation I have broken it down into 4 “categories”. The situation at Trillium has been no different. Fortunately at Trillium we don’t have anyone who is in adamant opposition to e-portfolios. This has to do with the fact that portfolios are part of the conversation here and staff are supposed to be keeping some kind of portfolio of student work.

The initial decision about adopting online portfolios (years ago) was a staff decision. I presented the idea as a way to simplify the storage of student work and the staff voted to go along with it. Unfortunately, at that time, the support stopped there. Without the adequate technology and support the implementation of the system wasn’t going to go anywhere.

Having adequate support (both technological and personnel) is vital for any adoption of technology. From experience it never works when you say “YOU MUST USE (fill in the blank here) “.

This year Trillium went through a renewal process with the Portland School District (which happens every 5 years) and Evernote Portfolios was something that stood out and really got people excited. It is being seen as a way that Trillium stands out as a school and also is an area where we can bring innovation to schools around the district. With that encouragement the Trillium School Board and administration decided to give this work its full support. At this point the school is no longer talking about “if” but “how” Evernote will be implemented.

The school will be putting time and resources behind this work (including technology, training, support, etc) which I believe will allow it to succeed. Part of that work is that I have been doing small presentations to groups of teachers to show them how great it really is. It doesn’t take much to wow people because it is SO user friendly and is an amazing way to share and store student work/learning.

I will be working with a small group of teachers who wish to pilot the program in their classrooms this spring. They will receive an itouch and lexmark scanner for their classrooms as well as training and support from me. The idea being that this group of teachers from all age levels (primary, intermediate, middle and high school) will then be the trainers for their teams next year. In that way we are building grassroots understanding, support, and excitement.

In addition, I am slowing building up the use of the portfolios. People will start with the basics, learning how to document work. Then we will move to more complex uses such as reflection and presentation. Again, we will be providing support along the way. So far this has been a two school year process and I am assuming it will be one more year until the school as a whole is taking full advantage of what the Evernote as Portfolio has to offer.

I am sure it could have happened in a shorter amount of time, but there needs to be the support in place to make it work.

What’s your experience with students and their work after they leave your school? Do you get a sense that they are still using Evernote at the same capacity as they did at Trillium?

We just started using Evernote for Portfolios last fall with students in the intermediate grades (3rd-5th). Next year we are hoping to have all students using Evernote as a portfolio tool. I haven’t begun any tracking student of student us beyond the school. I hope to be able to start answering that question in the coming years as high school students begin to use Evernote. Ideally it would be great to start connecting with local colleges and universities in Oregon (where many of our students go) to see if they are interested in the use of portfolios in this manner. My greater vision is that this tool would be a way for secondary and post-secondary schools to become more connected. Wouldn’t it be great if students could carry their portfolios with them to university? What would happen if college professors could begin to see the work that students did before they entered college? What kind of reflection could students be doing on their own learning if they had access to work from the time they were in the primary classroom. What an opportunity to see, understand, reflect upon and share ones growth as a learner.

Are there any “discoveries” or unexpected findings that your students or teachers have found in their use of Evernote?

The way I have set things up is that I want the students to use the technology and find what works. I think we are making discoveries all the time. I started using the audio recording and the camera to document reading samples at the beginning of the year and months later. That was a great discovery in HOW the technology supports documentation. Because Evernote is constantly improving the way you can interface with its platform, there are always new things to learn. Most of those things are being discovered by me at this point. We are at pretty basic use at this point, but I assume when some of the older students begin to use the technology they will make some new discoveries of how to use it in new and useful ways.

Evernote is free, but I imagine there is a cost for all of the supporting technology. What are all of the tools you’re using in the school to support the Evernote portfolios? In other words, if one were to build an environment such as yours from the ground up, what would it cost?

The great thing about the technology is that it is fairly cheap. In my classroom I have one Lexmark Scanner ($150) and 3 ipod touches (about $250 each for the larger gigabit storage). However, we have also acquired donations from people who are no longer using their older model smartphones. An old iphone donated from a family works just as well as an itouch because you don’t need a phone plan for it to work. Also, the lexmark scanner can hold up to 75 individual Evernote accounts, which means one scanner could be used by 2 or 3 classrooms. You could get started with a lexmark and one itouch for $400. Plus, most schools have laptops and desktops already that allow students to access their accounts, type using the Evernote wordprocess, etc.

At Trillium we are committed under $4000 dollars for a school that is k-12. That is pretty cheap for technology that has such a great application.

The great thing about this technology is that it is getting cheaper all the time AND students already have it. How many students are walking around with smartphones and itouches? The technology is already in the hands of many students which makes it a very accessible direction to go.

My Evernote portfolio webinar

Here is the webinar I gave with Evernote. It is a presentation about how I have implemented portfolios at Trillium.

Artifact reflection sheet examples

A recent viewer of this blog asked where they could get a copy off the student reflection sheet. Below I have posted 2 versions along with the corresponding artifacts.

The artifact reflection sheet is still a work in progress. You’ll notice the “old” version was more of a check list and the recent one requires more writing. We want the students to be reflective on their artifacts and that seems to require more than just checking off boxes. I would be open to ideas, suggestions and examples of reflection sheets that others may have used. What kind of questions really get students to think about their work?

One thing to consider is that this reflection sheet is used by 8-11 year olds. As this program is just starting to be used school wide there is no reflection sheet for students of other age levels.