Use Your Phone to Digitize Notes

Most notes can be typed directly into a laptop, but sometimes it’s better to hand write something.  Formulas in math and science are a good example.  Not everyone has a smart board or tablet PC in order to facilitate the digitization of handwritten notes.  And even those of us who do often have the need to digitize other things, like:

• scraps of paper where we did impromptu lesson-planning or student tutoring
• chalkboard or whiteboard notes
• student-made posters
• evidence of classroom activities
• receipts for tax-deductible classroom supplies

Some things you could scan, but that requires you to have a scanner handy and to take the time to do it.  However, if you have a good enough camera on your cell phone, just take a pictures of whatever you want to digitize.  For some, that’s enough, but let’s take it a step further: if you have a smartphone, email the photo to yourself or, even better, a web-based note service like Evernote or Google Docs.  Most of these services support emailing photos as attachments (they provide a special personalized email address to which you can email your notes).

On my iPhone, I use a free app called Genius Scan.  After I take a photo with my phone, Genius scan crops and scales only the note part of the photo, optimizes it, and even combines multiple photos into one PDF.  Lastly, I just email it to Evernote, and then I have easy access to it for later reference from anywhere.

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