Evernote 101: Publish To A Blog

Evernote, Evernote, Evernote!  Every where I turn someone seems to be talking about Evernote, but why? Yesterday was the day that I started my quest to figure it out and answer my UltiMaTe BiG QueSTioN: How do I use Evernote with students and teachers at school?

Let me back up even further...In 2012, I was on my treadmill (yes, that probably WaS the last time...) listening to Classroom 2.0 Live featuring Linda Yollis, a teacher of 3rd grade students in California.  The topic: blogging with students.  Let me state the obvious...she was so phenomenal that I still remember the conversation 2 years later!


Blogging?  In the vodcast, she stated that any class could blog, because blogging provides an opportunity to teach and practice quality writing (great for any content area and any grade level).  Blogging gives students an opportunity to produce quality posts for an authentic audience from around the world helping to build a global community.  By design, it provides

Image from Mrs. Yollis' Blog

opportunities for differentiation and it gets kids reading and writing about things that interest them (my mother-in-law, a retired librarian, says that this is critical).

So, what does this have to do with Evernote? Well, when researching ways to share a note in Evernote , I  found that you can publish from within Evernote to Postach.io, a blogging platform.  This is huge!!! I know of several teachers who have wanted to blog with students for some time, but the logistics of how and with what equipment has stalled the progress of the project.

In my mind this is Evernote to the rescue!!! Since you can use any device to add content to Evernote, students can add content to their blog from a computer, a phone, or anything else loaded with the Evernote app!  I had to give it a try...

So, I signed up for Postach.io and 

linked my Postach.io account to my Evernote account.

Postach.io asked if I was sure that I wanted to give it access.  (Don't worry, I can change my mind later if I decide not to use it.)

And then, poof...I was done!

I headed back to Evernote to tag the notes that I wanted to add to the blog as "published".  It was supposed to automatically publish to my Postach.io site, but...  

I guess I missed something.  So, I headed back to Postach.io and clicked the "pencil" to edit (though now, I wonder if I could have just hit the swirly arrows to sync...not sure.)

I then went to "Sources" and chose the notebook I wanted to share. The man on the video didn't say anything about selecting just one notebook, so I am not sure if it only possible to share from only one notebook in Evernote, but if so, consider naming it "Postach.io" or "Blog Posts", so that it is clear for students.

Final step, I went back to the Postach.io Dashboard and clicked the arrows beside the blog's name to sync.  Once Postach.io and Evernote are set-up, every note that is tagged as "published" will automatically appear on the blog  (without having to click the "swirly arrows")!   

So, Way #2 to use Evernote with students and teachers: PuBLiSH To A BloG!