Have you considered the power of visual note taking in your online instruction? Well, if you have not you should. Visual note taking will help enrich your teachable content and facilitate your remote teaching. The apps below are some of the best visual note takers out there. Most of them support collaborative team work allowing you to work with your students or colleagues on the same visual note, diagram or mind map and in real-time. The apps will also help you create visual notes in different formats including: mind maps, diagrams, flowcharts, handwritten notes, sketches on virtual papers, and many more. You can use the power of visual note taking to brainstorm new ideas for your project, to capture and record your thoughts, to enhance your expressive writing, to boost your planning and overall productivity, and boost your online teaching. We invite you to check them out and share with us your feedback on our social media profiles.
1- Inkflow
Inkflow provides you with a note taking and brainstorming experience similar to the pen-and-paper one. Whether you use a stylus or not, you will be able to easily sketch, draw or write your thoughts and re-arrange them the way you want. You can choose from a wide variety of paper backgrounds to use for your notes. You can also insert text and images anywhere on the page and customize their look and size. Your final notes can be exported as PDFs or JPEGs and can be shared to different social media websites.
2- Trello
Another great app to help you visually organize your projects and to-do lists. You can use lists, boards, and cards to capture your thoughts and enhance your planning. You can also draw on or insert due dates, labels, and checklists to track the progress of your projects. Also, “add Power-Ups like a Calendar view of your due dates or add locations to cards to get a Map view—your project will take on a whole new perspective.”
3- MindMeister
MindMeister lets you leverage the cognitive power of mind mapping in enhancing your overall productivity. It offers a number of interesting features that include: the ability to create and edit numerous mind maps, add different file types to your maps, use nodes to draw connections, supports real-time collaboration, syncs across different devices and platforms, and export your mind maps in PDF or PNG format.
4- Lucidchart
Another great app for visual note taking. You can use it to easily create flowcharts, diagrams, wireframes, process flows and many more. Lucidchart supports collaborative team work enabling you to work on the same diagram with your colleagues. The app offers various pre-made templates and shapes to choose from. Everything you create on Lucidchart mobile app is saved and synced with your account. You can also export your diagrams in different formats including PDF, PNG, or Visio.
5- Zoomnotes
“ZoomNotes Lite is an iPad/iPhone visual note-taking app. It lets you quickly make handwritten notes and sketches on virtual paper, on PDF files, on MS Word, Excel and Powerpoint docs (via GoogleDrive), and over images. Uniquely, it also lets you zoom in and out without arbitrary limits, an invaluable feature for this type of app. It has a free fully functioning pen (although you will be able to try the pens too), and more available as in-app purchases.”
