Tools for Schools Research Task (Part 1)

• Explain what is does and how it might be used
• Include a series of screen shots that describe how to use it
• Tell us if the tool can be used on a smart phone or tablet as well as a computer
• Find one example of another product that does a similar job
• Post this information on your blog

Look at this link
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Evernote

• is a suite of software and services designed for notetaking and archiving
• "makes it easy to remember things big and small from your notable life using your computer, phone, and the web"
• You store notes inside Notebooks so you can create a Notebook for each project you’re working on
• You can store data locally and/or synch it to a folder in the cloud
• automatically saves notes – there’s no need to look for the ‘save’ button
• The basic version is free, premium is $5 a month / $45 a year
• Accessible from devices with internet: computers, smart phones with Evernote app
• Alternatives: Microsoft OneNote, Springpad, wikidPad, RedNotebook

How to use it: (the basics of evernote)

1) Download the installation software

2) Create new account

3) Create your first note by clicking "New Note"

Type & edit your note. Style the text by changing font, increasing or decreasing size or changing the colour. Bold, italicize or underline text. (these options are available in the toolbar)

4) Add images. Just drag into note.

5) Syncing. This allows you to create and find your memories on virtually any computer, web browser or mobile phone. Just click "sync"

6)  Saving web content with Evernote Web Clipper. Highlight part of webpage you wish to clip & click evernote button in toolbar

Microsoft OneNote

• easy-to-use note-taking and information-management program where you can capture ideas and information in electronic form
• you can insert files or web content in full-color, searchable format or as icons that you can click to access
• limited to computers, and Windows smart phones. Marketed more to tablet pc users as they can experience extra features such as the ability to incorporate hand-written notes
• ability to incorporate and prioritize to-do lists-->beneficial when one is working on a lengthy research project
•  designed for personal use, however you are able to share notes with others
• Alternatives: Evernote, Springpad, wikidPad, RedNotebook
• You can access and edit an entire notebook from a Web browser, even on computers that don't  have OneNote 2010 installed
• you can use Microsoft Office Mobile 2010 if you have Windows Phone 7

How to use it:
1) Customizing text:
Method 1 --> Select & right click --> mini toolbar appears (which has similar tools to other microsoft software)

Method 2 --> Ribbon --> By default the ribbon is minimised, but by clicking a particular tab it opens and by clicking out it closes again. This can be handy when writing notes so that there is more room to type without having to scroll down a lot. By clicking on the "^" looking button (see image below) it stays maximised, which is handy when needing to use lots of tools. Each tab has a range of tools & options to choose from. The text formatting options is under "Home."

2) Drawing: Click on "Draw," choose your pen, choose colour and thickness, draw, erase & more.

3) File menu:
Info --> allows you to get information about and change any settings about any notebook currently opened
Open --> open existing closed notebooks
New --> create new notebooks
Share --> configure notebooks so that you can collaborate with others
Print --> Print or preview pages

4) Creating a new notebook:
First choose where to save notebook. If you choose Web, OneNote will save it on SkyDrive (you will need a Windows Live ID) allowing you to access it from any computer with Internet and to be able to share it with others. If you choose Network, you will be able to share only with those of your own organisation or only with people who have access to the same SharePoint site.

Next choose the name of notebook and confirm the location. When that is done, click "Create Notebook."

5) Create new pages by clicking "New Page" or choosing the options in the drop down menu beside New Page

6) Inserting and linking: By clicking "Insert" in the ribbon menu, you can see different buttons allowing you to insert screen clippings, pictures, files and links.

If you want to link text or an image, right click and select "Link." The Link dialogue box will pop up giving you options to choose from including linking to a web address or linking to different locations in OneNote.

Delicious

• allows you to save all your bookmarks online, share them with other people, and see what other people are bookmarking so you don't lose track of important websites/ information on websites
• search and tagging tools help you keep track of your entire bookmark collection and find new bookmarks. Tagging involves different bookmarks being "tagged" with related words that can be searched, e.g. a bookmark about computing may have the tag "computers"
• Allows you to find others interested in the same topic & you can see the research they have bookmarked
• “Mobilicio.us is a “mashup” that combines the del.icio.us online bookmarking service with Google’s Mobile Search tool. This allows you to browse through “mobilized” versions of your del.icio.us bookmarks from your phone browser or other limited-display browsers.”
• Alternatives: Google Bookmarks, Pinboard.in (this one isn't free), Hisotrio.us

del.icio.us offers the following fuctionality:

• Viewing bookmarks by tag or cloud
• Viewing bookmarks alphabetically or by frequency
• Viewing bookmarks by tag. Tagging is a much better organizational tool than folders.
• Tag each bookmark with one word descriptions.
• Create bundles or groupings of bookmarks. These bundles can have their own tags.
• Subscribe to particular tags or users. This will create an alert when a new bookmark has been created with that tag or from a particular user

How to use it: 
1) Register by clicking "Get Started"

Then just follow the registration process.

2) By clicking the "Tag" button on your task bar when browsing the web, you can tag that particular site.

After clicking "Tag" the following form will pop up. Simply fill it in. Multiple tags can be used however they must be one word. You can also choose to make your bookmark private by ticking the "do not share" box.

Clicking on the Del.icio.us shortcut (next to tag button (in the above above image)) takes you straight to Del.icio.us where you can see all your tags.

Igoogle

• lets you create a personalized homepage that contains a Google search box at the top, and your choice of any number of gadgets below
• Alternatives: my.yahoo.com, netvibes.com, pageflakes.com
• You can get igoogle on your phone, just go to www.igoogle.com on your phone
• gadgets come in lots of different forms and provide access to activities and information from all across the web, without ever having to leave your iGoogle page

Some things gadgets allow you to do:

• View your latest Gmail messages
• Read headlines from Google News and other top news sources
• Check out weather forecasts, stock quotes, and movie showtimes
• Store bookmarks for quick access to your favorite sites from any computer

How to use it:
Personalise your homepage!

1) Click "Add Gadgets" to choose from a range gadgets to your personal preference.

When you find a gadget you like, simply click "Add it now." You can also use the search bar to assist in finding a gadget you'll like.

2) To rearrange your gadgets simply click and drag

3) Delete no longer wanted gadgets by moving mouse to right hand corner of the gadget, click the drop down menu next to the gear and select "Delete this gadget"

4) Choose/change theme by clicking "change theme" & choose from the different themes available