Springpad: (social) notetaking and learning - better than Evernote

There is definitely not shortage of notetaking and webclipping apps. When it comes to notetaking you can do a lot with google apps themselves. However , if you want to keep everything in one place you have to use a notetaking app. The most popular notetaking app, both on android and iOS is Evernote.

When I first installed Evernote on my mobile device I had a real “wow” experience. However, the free version does not allow you to save notes on your mobile device and that means its use for mobile learning is quite limited and becomes useless even for shopping where you have no 3G or wi-fi access.


Springpad on the contrary is completely free and allows you to do most things the paid version of Evernote lets you do plus some more nice features including adding notes directly from web search and barcode scanner (QR codes). It has an intuitive app, web interface as well as browser plugins (chrome and firefox). What’ s more springpad syncs with google services (as well as, yahoo, facebook and others). 

At present you can sync events with google calendar and contacts with gmail. More syncing option would certainly be welcome (google bookmarks, docs and tasks).


What does that mean for mobile learning/teaching?

• Always keep you study notes  and webclips on your mobile device for learning on the go
• Share your notes with students/classmates who can

1. follow your public notebook(s)
2. comment on notes
3. add your notes to their own notebooks with one click

These features make spingpad a serious rival for moodle when it comes to distributing and sharing content for mobile learning as it is not possible yet to save moodle courses offline without Internet connection.