BP3_Minutes.io

As a teacher, I am constantly looking for 2.0 tools I can use with students in my classroom. Yet there is so much work I do outside of my time with students, sometimes I overlook ways to make that part of my job easier. The tool that I chose to review for this post is Minutes.io, and I plan to use it during any time the staff gets together to plan for the school.

This is a very simple, easy to use app that makes taking minutes (notes) of a meeting and then getting those minutes out to others a breeze. Gone are the days of typing up a Word document, printing it off, making 75 copies, and then passing them out to teacher mailboxes. With Minutes.io, the note-taker uses a template that makes recording information in a fast-moving meeting simple.

Once the meeting is over, the note taker can instantly share the minutes with the participants online, or even with individuals who may have missed the meeting via email. There is even an option for printing them off.

This app is free, and does not require a user to sign in. It was created in 2011, and was intended "to provide a simple, effective solution for meeting note takers". The Minutes.io website lists the following as features:

~take notes without logging in

~access all feature for free

~share notes by email or private URL

~record notes locally without an internet connection

The following screen shot is an example of how I will use Minutes.io while I take notes during our Building Leadership Team weekly meetings after school:

This app stands out to me because of its ease of use and simplicity. It makes it easy for the note- taker to pass the notes around digitally after the meeting. The layout is crisp and clean, with a virtual piece of white copy paper on top of a textured gray background. The meeting can be named anything the note-taker chooses, and the date and time are automatically generated. The location, minute-taker, and attendees area can be easily completed. The entire document page stays organized with simple note types of "to-do, okay, info, and idea". Due dates can be added to each note with one click of the mouse.

When using Minutes.io, team members have real time access to what was discussed. This will save me the time and paper used in the past. I am looking forward to putting this into action with my colleagues and administrators.