I’ve just begun the foundations course for the Sloan-C Online Teaching Certification. In the forum post in which I introduced myself to the cohort, I happened to mention that I’m an Evernote junkie. The course facilitator asked me (and others) to share an example of how we use Evernote for our online classes. Here I’ll share how I use it for online Elementary Greek classes.

**How I Use Evernote**

As you probably well know (or at least could guess), when one is learning a foreign language—a contemporary one or a "dead" one like Hellenistic and biblical Greek—one must, of necessity, learn some number of vocabulary words. In biblical Greek, the number of words learned varies from grammar to grammar. I happen to use a grammar that pushes the students to learn a fairly significant number for elementary-level learners. As is typical of any grammar, each chapter contains a vocabulary section; students are asked to memorize these words and a number of their possible senses. This is one place where I use Evernote in my Greek classes—and not just Evernote, but also the app called Peek.

I create an Evernote notebook for the vocab in each chapter of the grammar (here’s the one for chapter 2 of the grammar for example). Students can join these notebooks (actually, they’re wide open to the world; anyone can join). Each word is a note in the notebook. Each note is tagged with a chapter code (e.g., FNTG2), part of speech (e.g., NON for noun, VRB for verb, PAR for particle), and the tag "vocab." This allows me or the learner to filter what vocab they see. For example, if the learner wants to see only particles from FNTG 2 they can filter by searching in Evernote with the following string:

>tag:vocab tag:FNTG2 tag:PAR

Each note consists of the following:

- The Greek word as the note title

- The definitions, part of speech, the root/stem of the word, and a recording of yours truly pronouncing the word (Erasmian pronunciation)

Here’s an example (screen shot from Evernote Web view of the note [click to see live note]):

[I just had a student ask me about this particular word; I just sent him a link to the note.]

**Evernote Peek**

Another cool thing about doing this is that students with iPads can use Evernote Peek to turn the notes into flash cards. After joining the notebook I’ve shared, learners may open it in Peek. Then, by flipping up the first third of the Smart Cover, students are presented with the word (the note title). In my case, since I put audio recordings in each note, they hear me pronouncing the word. The user closes the cover, then lifts it halfway open to display the definition and whatever else would be on the "back" of the "card." Users can also mark the word as correct or incorrect, depending on whether they chose the correct answer. As I write this up, I realize that it’s a bit challenging to describe. Go check out Evernote’s blog about it and see this video from Evernote on how Peek works.

If you want to learn more about how I use Evernote for learning and teaching or work or organizing my life, let me know. Oh, I should mention that I am currently working up a presentation for students in which I will demonstrate using Evernote as part of my workflow when researching for papers, articles, etc. I’ll share if you want to see it; however, it’ll be after the first of February before it’s ready.