Squidoo - organize your interests online

Squidoo is a free site that allows you to organize things online. You can easily create portfolios of web pages and write about them.

You can also browse other people's collections. Here is the education page: http://www.squidoo.com/topics/education



You can use text, images, and even videos.

It's a great way to organize web pages for research, resources, and even projects.

Slatebox - presentation, mind-mapping, and more

Slatebox is a free tool that you can use to create presentations, mind maps, organize thoughts, and much more. You can create different slates (notes/items) and link and organize them.

There is a free version and it is very easy to use. You can work on slate's collaboratively with others also.

Teachers and students could use this for organizing their thoughts, creating presentations, and mind mapping.

They are working on a version specifically tailored towards education. If you would like to be part of the pilot program, go here: http://slatebox.com/Education

Here's an example of one on energy.

Related:

Popplet - online presentation, mindmapping, and bulletin board
MindMeister - online mind mapping and brain storming

Spicynodes - visualize and organize information and resources

Bubbl.us - online brainstorming for free

Thoughtboxes - organize everything you do - great resource for education
Mindomo - brainstorming and mindmapping software

Business/Manufacturing ideas applied to education

 

Business and Manufacturing Practices in Education. It's not a new idea, but I'm not talking about treating students like a product. I'm talking about some business and manufacturing processes that can help with other aspects of education. I've written about this before, but covering different ideas.

United Technologies Corporation has a quality program called ACE (Achieving Competitive Excellence)© that I used when I worked at Pratt & Whitney and Sikorsky Aircraft. Every employee is trained on ACE and expected to use it. They have been using it for decades and it does work. ACE is a "set of tools that helps the organization identify process improvement opportunities, solve problems and assist with decision making processes."

There are some great ideas in here that can be used for education. 

6S (sort, straighten, shine, standardize, sustain, safety) and add Spirt (to continuously improve)

This is a method to keep things organized.  A place for everything and everything in it's place. It means that things are labeled and signed and people know where to find things. This could help in education with keeping classrooms, offices, supplies, and paperwork organized, clean and clutter free, along with allowing others to find resources when needed. It is simple - everyday, employees make sure that they are keeping their area clean and organized and that every thing is labeled and put away at the end of the day.

TPM Total Productive Maintenance: safety/lockouts, equipment cleaning/inspection, scheduled walkarounds, preventative maintenance.

Too many times in education we are only fixing things when they break instead of maintaining them. This includes computers, office equipment and facilities. There should be scheduled maintenance of all of these things to prevent issues.

Process Cert/Mgmt: make processes effective, efficient, & agile - while being controllable & standard.
This is a way of evaluating processes and making them work better. This would include how things are done, such as running testing, handling problems, organizing the school day, school schedules, etc. Instead of just having things being done as they always have, this makes people evaluate how and why they do things the way they do and if it is the best way of doing things.

Standard Work: work is simplified & structured for max consistancy, repeatability, and quality
This is a great idea for repeating tasks, such as school startup, state testing, assemblies, office procedures, and more. The tasks are assessed and the best way of doing the task is written down in a procedure. We could use this for the start of school as each year things are missed and have to be done last minute. It's a great way to make sure that things are done the best way, every time.

QCPC: record turnbacks, investigate and eliminate reasons, RRCA: Relentless Root Cause Analysis and Mistake Proofing
I put these three together for education. QCPC is a way to track any problems, issues, errors, and the like so that they can be analyzed and the reason behind them found and fixed. RRCA is a way to look at a problem or mistake and keep digging to find the root cause of a problem. Mistake Proofing is a way of preventing the problem or issue from happening in the future.

An example would be that a student is failing a class. Why? He doesn't complete his work and doesn't come to school enough. Why? He has issues at home. Why? Because he is tired and sick often. Why? Because he works at a job all evening, 5 days a week. Why? Because his family needs the money. How do we fix it? Find a way to help the family so that the student does not have to work that many hours.

Market Feedback Analysis: improve product quality through use of data from customers, in-house.
This is something schools do in a way. They collect data on student performance and attendance. But what about getting actual feedback from the students on what they think about school, how things are going, what they are doing in school, how things could be improved? We should also be getting feedback from parents and the community.

(EH&S) Environment, Health and Safety - mistake proof, risk analysis, environmental impacts, safeguards
EH&S is about having a safe and healthy environment. Keeping things clean and in good repair, and helping to keep staff, faculty and students happy.

Six Sigma is another program, similar to ACE, that is used by many corporations in a similar way and it also has some great ideas that can be applied to education.

I think education can learn a lot from business practices, especially when it comes to quality improvement. All of these things can be used to improve things in schools, without treating anyone like a product.

Related:

Apply Business Practices to Education - great ideas that can help education

5 Tips for Success - in school, business and in life

ACE vs. Six Sigma report

ACE Overview
ACE Overview 2

Six Sigma in Education

Using Six Sigma to Solve Issues in Public School System

10 Things To Make Your Day More Productive

1) Wake up early. This will give you more time to get going in the morning and get things done. But make sure you get enough sleep by going to bed a little earlier. 

2) Time things. Many people take too much time doing things, like showering and getting ready in the morning. Set a schedule and stick to it.

3) Plan your clothing the night before. Put whatever you're going to wear to one side of your closet, or folded neatly on a chair.

4) Never run just one errand. Try to always combine at least two to three errands in one trip. Start with the errand furthest away, and then work your way back. There are even smartphone apps to help you plan your trips and even remind you of something you have to do as you get close.

5) Plan your day. Make and use lists. Don't try to remember everything you have to do. Always jot down tasks, errands, things to pick up, etc. Use a smartphone with reminder apps. Use a To-Do list and prioritize things. Check your schedule and to-do list every morning and create a daily priority list. Organize things for the day. At the end of the day, take a few minutes to make sure you are organized for the following day. 

See more tips from Ben Franklin here. 

6) Cook enough for two meals. Put the other half away for a quick meal later. You can also do big cooking or preparation on a weekend and pack it up for the week.

7) Clean and organize as you go. Don't wait until things pile up and you need a full day to do it.

8) Enlist help. Get others to help you out with tasks. 

9) Set aside a specific time and amount of time to return your phone calls, email, social networking etc. That way you don't waste time that should be spent on priorities. Try to eliminate interruptions when ever possible.

10) Reward yourself for a job well done. Take a quick, 15 miin, break in the morning and afternoon to recharge yourself. Make sure you have free time planned into your days or evenings to give yourself time to relax and recharge.

Related:

Taking organizing and planning lessons from Ben Franklin - great tips for educators too

Getting Students and Teachers Organized - tips and resources

Evernote - get organized - free and on all platforms

Awesome LiveBinder of Evernote Resources for Education

I'm a huge fan and user of Evernote for, well, everything. I use it for my lesson plans, lesson resources, lesson schedule, meeting notes, class notes, student notes, research, web clippings, recipes, to do lists, project management, and so much more. I share notes with colleagues and students. I can access my notes anywhere on any web enabled device. I created an Evernote for Education resource page to collect great resources and to use when I do training on using Evernote in education.

I just found an incredible resource for anyone looking to use Evernote, especially in Education. Justin Stallings, an educator that I know from my Personal Learning Network on Twitter, has created an incredible LiveBinder of resources on Evernote for Educators. There are links to official Evernote pages and videos on how to use Evernote, to links and resources on using Evernote as an educator to get organized, as a learning tool, and much more.

If you use Evernote as an Educator, you really need to look through this LiveBinder on Evernote for some great ideas and tips. If you don't use Evernote, why not? Seriously, Evernote is an incredible resource for educators and students alike and this page can help you get started.

Check it out: http://www.livebinders.com/play/play/245623


I'm adding it to My Evernote Resources for Education page.



Related:

My Evernote Resources for Education Page

LiveBinders - Organize materials in online binders

Twitter - A Great Resource for Educators

MentorMob - Learn what you want, teach what you love -

MentorMob is an alpha site I just found out about that allows you to create a "learning playlist". The learning playlist is a way of organizing information and resources from the web into one list.

It is free, and easy, to create a learning playlist. You add resources to your playlist from around the web to create an informational resource, a kind of virtual learning book too. For example, there is a Learning Playlist on "How to Root your Android Phone" that starts with an article from a website about rooting and what it is, then a video on YouTube on how to actually do it, and then a different website that has apps and tools you can now use on your rooted phone.

Learning Playlists are shared on the site, so you can look for already created ones or create your own.

This is a great resource for teachers to use as learning resources, "textbooks" and more with their students. Students could create Learning Playlists as a way of showing that they understand a concept by collecting "good" resources about a topic that explain the topic for others.

Give it a try!

Wunderkit - free web based to do manager now available to public

Wunderkit is a new web based to-do manager that I just found out about from Lifehacker.

It is from the same group that made Wunderlist, which is a great to list app that I wrote about last March.

Wunderkit was in private beta but is now open to the public. It is a free web app and there are also stand alone download apps for Mac and iPhone.

It is great for managing projects as you can create multiple workspaces for different projects and collaborate with others on the project in Wunderkit. You create to-do lists and milestones for each project and then organize things in the order you need. There are also sections for notes and chat windows.

There is also a pro account for $4.99/month if you need more features but so far all the reviews say that the free version is all most people will need.

This is a great resource for students working on projects, teacher teams and administrators who are trying to organize and work collaboratively on projects.

Catch - easily capture notes, information and more

Catch is a service, similar to Evernote, that allows you to capture notes, photos, voice memos, and more and then access it anywhere. You can use the iPhone, iPad or Android app or access it through the web. Data is synced on your device so you can access it even when offline. They have browser extensions for clipping web content also (Chrome, IE, Firefox).

The free account is pretty powerful and offers the mobile notebook and journal, text, web clippings, photos and voice memos, 3 streams and 70MB per month of content uploaded. You can even Geotag your notes.

You can also upgrade to paid accounts to add brainstorming and conversations, along with increased streams and data upload amounts.

A stream is a way to group different data (notes, photos, etc) into a topic to keep them organized.

You can share your content with others, or keep it private. They also have Catch-U, a help site that can help get you started using Catch.

You can create a free account or login using Google or Facebook.

Catch seems like another great way to collect and organize data and notes.

Related:

Notetaking Apps - a comparison of some popular ones

Evernote for Educators

Pearltrees - visually organize resources from the web

Pearltrees is a great, free site that lets you organize web content in a visual pattern. There is a Chrome browser extension that makes it easy to add sites to your tree. Trees can be shared and even worked on collaboratively.

What is nice about this vs. other bookmarking tools is that you can organize your sites visually and connected by related topics or ideas.

There are no limits to how many trees you can create, and you can either use the extension or just add in links manually.

This is a great tool for educators to use to organize web resources for themselves, their classes and students, or for colleagues. It is also great for students to use for organizing for themselves, or for a class project.


Here is an example Pearltree on Educator Resources:

New Evernote for Education resource page

I am a huge lover and user of Evernote. It is my main resource for lesson plans, lesson schedules, notes and so much more.

I've written about Evernote many times on this blog, have shared it with educators at conferences and professional development, and show my students how to use it.

I decided to create a permanent page on this blog with an overview of what Evernote is, how to use it in education, and how to get started using it and find help.

Check out this page and share it with others.

http://educationaltechnologyguy.blogspot.com/p/evernote-for-education.html

Livebinders - organize materials in online binders

Livebinders is a site I've been playing with for a while. Livebinders acts as a virtual 3-ring binder for you to organize your materials in. Each item can be in a tab or sub-tab in the binder you create.

You can store webpages, PDF files, images, text, videos and more into the pages of the binder.

There is a "getting started binder" and example binders on the site that you can use to get ideas and get started.

I'm using Livebinders to organize all of my lesson materials, as well as professional development resources and my presentation materials. As a former engineer, I used lots of 3-ring binders to get organized. Now I can do it virtually.

Below is an example Livebinder for a physics class, showing the content and tabs. You can view the original binder here. 

Using Technology to Organize Your Lessons and Resources

Technology is a wonderful thing. I've been lucky in that my father, a chemist, and my mother, an elementary teacher, both realized that my siblings and I should be exposed to technology early on. I was using a TRS-80 computer in 7th grade (1986-87) and my parents bought us a Radio Shack Color Computer that same year. I took BASIC in high school, using Apple IIe's and then went off to college and majored in Engineering and was an Engineer for 10 years before becoming an educator. I used technology all the time. I started using a PDA in 2000 (Palm IIIxe) and continued on to other PDAs and now smartphones. This early and deep exposure to technology has made it very easy for me to integrate technology into my practice as an educator.


I rarely carry anything home from school because of these tech tools. Administrators ask to see my lesson plans and they are all on the computer. Another teacher asked me how I do this, so after showing them, I thought I'd share it with my readers.


I use a few different tech tools to organize my lessons and resources for school and use a variety of tech tools on a daily basis. Here is the list, with what I use them for. Click the hyperlinks for more information and details on the tool and how to use it.



1. Evernote - Evernote is my main lesson and resource organizational tool. I have notebooks setup for lesson plans and lesson resources, along with notebooks for things to do, things to research, and things to share. My lesson plan notes are set up by unit and have the objectives, links, resources, and attached files (like handouts and lab packets). I also have notes setup by week that I use to keep track of where each class is and to schedule my plans out. I can easily share resources and information with my students or colleagues.

2. Dropbox - I don't have every single file I use for my lessons on Evernote. Some of the materials, including videos and animations, are too big to upload to Evernote. I have all of my files on my home computer backed up to Dropbox, and then I sync the "School" folder to my school computer. This folder has resources, lecture materials, videos, and much more for each unit. I can also put files into a shared folder and share them with my students and colleagues. I also have students submit work to me to a Dropbox folder using Filestork and DropItToMe.



3. Google - Google is my other main organizational tool. I use iGoogle, Google Calendar, Gmail, Google Docs and Blogger to organize my lesson materials and other resources, including my calendar. I use Blogger to create class blogs where I post their lesson schedule, assignments, and due dates, along with resources and links. I can share my calendar with students also. I also have files uploaded to my Google Docs account and use Google Docs to create lesson resources. I can then share or publish these documents, presentations, or spreadsheets for my students or colleagues to use. I also use Google sites for a class site that includes resources, files and links for both the students and myself.

Google for Educators - Resources for using Google in school




4. PowerPoint - I started organizing my lessons with PowerPoints when I used more lecture in my classrooms. I've moved to about 75% student centered learning now with projects, labs, and activities but PowerPoint can be used to organize lessons. Objectives, lecture slides, links to labs and other resources, embedded videos, and much more. I could just mark in my calendar what slide a class was on. That slide may be lecture notes, an assignment, a lab, or a quiz. I don't use this much anymore because I have my lesson plans organized in Evernote.


These are just some ways to organize your lesson plans and resources.



Other tech tools to organize lessons:

Learnboost-online gradebook and lesson planner - announces lesson plan sharing

Discovery Education - lesson planner and integrated lesson planning in your account

Related Articles:

Unfettered by Stuff - or "Why I don't lug stuff home every night"

Evernote - Get Organized for Free on All Platforms

My History with Technology

What tools do you use to organize your lessons?

Graphic Organizers - for all different projects and needs

Holt has a huge number of Graphic Organizers for teachers and students to use. The graphic organizers are in PDF form and can be filled out and saved. They include web diagrams, spider maps, cluster diagrams, main ideas, flowcharts, cause and effect, decision charts, KWLs and many more.

Graphic organizers are a great way to get organized. Teachers can use them with their classes, for lesson planning and organizing, and students can use them to organize their thoughts and thinking process.

thinklinkr - collaborative, online outlines.

Thinklinkr is a site that allows you to create collaborative online outlines. It's a freemium site, meaning that there is a free version and there are fee-based versions that add more functionality. The free version offers unlimited outlines, but they are all public. You can not make any private. For most educational uses, this is probably ok.

It is very easy and simple to use. Use it to create outlines for projects, run meetings, do brainstorming, organize your thoughts and much more. Students, teachers, and administrators can all use it for different activities. Students can work on a project or paper together. Staff can work on meetings together. It is a very useful site.

Simplenote - easy to use note taking and list service and app

I just learned about Simplenote from Digitizd by David Pierce. In his article, he talks about why he switched from Evernote to Simplenote and I thought that many people may just need a simple note taking app like this and that I should share it with them. 


I use Evernote for everything from lesson plans to meeting notes to clipping articles from the web to storing attached files to notes to sharing notes with others and much more. Evernote has tons of apps and services that work with it. I need and use all these features, but not everyone needs all of this. 


Simplenote is exactly what it's name says - it's a free, simple note taking app. Notes are just text. However, it does have some great features. You can access it from any computer or web-enabled device. You can easily start and make a note and even share it with others. Your notes are searchable with tags and content search, and there are some extensions and add-ons that you can use with it. 

If you are looking for an easy to use, simple, basic, note taking app, Simplenote may be for you.




Related Articles
Springpad - Free notes and organizer software

Evernote - get organized - free and on all platforms

Evernote Trunk- hardware, apps & notebooks that make Evernote more awesome.

Evernote Updates Web app - great improvements

Evernote - some great ideas for using it in education

Livescribe Echo Smartpen - very cool and very useful

Livescribe Echo Smartpen - very cool and very useful

I recently acquired a Livescribe Echo Smartpen to use and found it to be very useful. The Livescribe smartpens are pretty cool. They record what you write, and hear, and then you can load this into your computer to keep a digital copy of your written notes and even share your notes with others. 

The ability to record your hand written notes is very useful in Math and Science, since it’s very hard to take notes in these areas with a keyboard or even a tablet/pad. It can also make an audio record of what you say or hear as you are writing and it timestamps and syncs the written notes with the audio notes. 

Your notes get synced to your computer using a mini-usb cable and the Livescribe desktop application. There is also an application that you can get that will transcribe your handwritten notes into digital typeset notes. You can even search for words in your notes. The desktop application allows you to organize your notes and shows a thumbnail of each notebook. You can then view each notebook page and page forward and backward.

The pen is controlled by tapping on certain symbols in the notebook, which is pretty cool. You use this to select other applications in the pen, start, stop, and playback audio recordings and more. Inside the front cover of the Livescribe notebooks is a “calculator” that allows you to use the pen as a calculator. There are also controls on each page that allow you to change the volume on the pen, jump around your recordings, and even bookmark a spot in your notes.


You can share your notes and recordings as a pencast, PDF, or audio file. The desktop application has one-click sharing with Evernote, Facebook, Google Docs and Email. This means you can always have your notes available to you. You can also sync your pen notes to multiple computers. During meetings, one person can be the official note-taker and then share the notes out with everyone else. 

There are apps available also that you can download to add more functionality to your pen, including dictionaries, translators, games, productivity tools and more.



There is a vibrant user community and support team as well as resources for using the Livescribe Pens in Education. These pens are great for taking notes and then sharing and saving them. I can see a lot of great uses for these in education. The site has some great tips and uses for using the pens in school and even has reports of how the pens have helped increase student achievement. The Livescribe help website is easy to use and understand and makes using these pens very easy. Set up only takes a couple of minutes.



I had seen an early model a few years ago, but wasn’t interested because you needed to buy special paper in order for it to work. While you can still order the special paper, you can now print out your own too (as long as your printer is an Adobe PostScript-compatible color laser printer with a print resolution of 600 dpi or greater, which, luckily, mine is.)



The model I have is an 8GB pen. You get the desktop software, stylus tip, two ink cartridges, the cable, a starter notebook, and 500MB of personal online storage. The 8GB Echo retails for $199 so it’s not cheap, but it is another tool that can be very useful in education, business, and even just for taking personal notes. The 2GB pen is only $99. There are discount prices available to educators, anyone interested can email educationsales@livescribe.com  for details.


UPDATED: You can get 15% off the price of a Livescribe Pen by using this link (directly to Livescribe, not secondary vendor)



The main reason that I see these as an essential tool for many people is the ability to record hand written notes. Many people, myself included, take notes very efficiently with pen and paper, using symbols, diagrams, arrows, and the like to make the notes more meaningful. It’s also great for people who have to take notes using math and science equations and symbols. Being able to easy capture, save and then share those notes is a great thing.

Taking organizing and planning lessons from Ben Franklin - great tips for educators too

I recently saw Ben Franklin’s daily schedule and planner on Larry Ferlazzo’s website (which is an awesome resource for educators). I was a long time user of Franklin Quest (now Franklin Covey) paper planners and used their planning software and methods on my first PDA and had heard that they had gotten some of their ideas for planning from Ben Franklin, but had never seen Ben’s planner. It was very cool seeing it. 

Ben Franklin was a prolific inventor and scientist and believed in being organized and on task. Many of his quotes and ideas are still in use today.

If you look at Ben’s schedule, you’ll see that he has two questions he asks himself and then some things he does every day. He asks himself “What good shall I do this day?” and then “What good have I done today?”. These are great questions to ask oneself when planning your day and then reflecting on your day, especially as an educator. Review your lesson plans for the day and get prepared. At the end of the day, review how the lessons went. Was there anything that should be changed or addressed next time? I also like how he has standard things he does everyday, like “taking the resolution of the day” and “prosecute the present study”. I take these as looking at what my goals are for the day and getting ready to do them. At the end of the day, he puts things away, relaxes, and reflects on his day.



This is something we all should do every day. Get up and get ready for the day. Think about what are tasks and goals are for the day, prepare ourselves for these goals, and then go and attain them. At the end of the day, we need to make sure everything is in it’s place, relax and reflect on the day. Putting everything away each night (or at end of school day) helps us to stay organized and on task. We need to relax and refresh our brain with music, entertainment and conversation. And then we need to reflect on our day. How did it go? Did I accomplish everything I wanted to? Is there anything I should change or do better?



Today’s apps allow us to stay more organized - calendars, to-do lists, notes, and more. We can have these apps email or text us with reminders so we don’t forget. We carry our smartphones with us everywhere, so we always have access to our data and apps. Heck, there are even apps that can use the GPS chip in your phone to remind you of a task or appointment if you go anywhere near that location (including your shopping list).



There are hundreds of paper planners, software and apps, and systems out there to help you get organized and plan your day. But, you are the main ingredient in the planning and execution of your plan.




Here are some tips and resources for planning and organizing your day:




Basic ideas from Franklin Quest:

1. Connect to Mission - what is your mission today, this week, in life?
2. Review roles - teacher, spouse, parent
3. Identify goals - daily, weekly, monthly, year
4. Organize weekly - and plan daily
5. Exercise integrity - integrity and values matter
6. Evaluate - your tasks, goals, values, and progress



Use some kind of planner - purchased or made yourself, paper or electronic, to keep organized and on schedule.



Have a daily task list, prioritized. Work on high priority 1st.



Have a daily, weekly, and monthly schedule with appointments and obligations.



Keep a daily record of events - commitments exchanged, journal entry, thoughts and ideas, agendas, conversations, notes, tasks, etc.






Related Articles and Resources:

Getting Students and Teachers Organized - tips and resources

Great tips, ideas, resources, links (including to paper and electronic planners)

Evernote - get organized - free and on all platforms

iGoogle as a educational/organizational tool - revisited

Thoughtboxes - organize everything you do - great resource for education

Wunderlist - free and easy to use task manager

Toodledo - An easy to use, free, powerful, online to-do list.

Thoughtboxes - organize everything you do - great resource for education

Thoughtboxes is a free site that allows you to get organized using boxes that act like sticky notes. You can create categories and then create "thoughtboxes" in each category. You can use the boxes for to-do lists, notes, lists, links, and more.

It is very easy to use and very versatile. Create a main topic or "train of thought" and then create boxes of your thoughts on that topic. You can see all of your lists on one screen. The format makes it easy to brainstorm and organize ideas. You can even share and collaborate with others.

The site has examples and help section to help you get started.

This would be a great tool for educators to use while planning lesson activities or keeping track of ideas and resources. Students could use it for homework lists, getting organized, and as a type of mind map when getting their thoughts organized for a project or paper. The sharing and collaboration feature allows teachers to work on ideas with other educators and even hold virtual meetings. Students can work on projects together from home. I see this as a very useful tool for education.

The free version allows 3 trains of thought (the main topic) and you can share with others. Unlimited trains of thought are only $15 per year.

Here's and example:

Wunderlist - free and easy to use task manager

In my previous life (before becoming an educator) I was an engineer and I'm still a type A personality and love anything that helps me stay organized. Wunderlist is a very cool task manager that I found out about last week. I've been playing with it and found it very easy to use and it works very well.

Wunderlist has a web app and downloads for PC, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android. No matter how you access and create your lists, they are sync'd across your account.

After you sign up for free and create your account, you can use the web app or download and start creating lists. Once the list is started, you can add tasks to each list. You can work offline and then sync the lists to their network for access from anywhere later. You can also create a list and tasks by sending an email to Wunderlist. You can set reminders and notifications for tasks, and even add notes to a task. You can email tasks and even print them out if needed.

You can even share lists with others and work on the list together, making it a great tool for teams and project groups to use. You can even share the lists on Facebook and Twitter.

It took me less than 5 min to get up and running and using Wunderlist. I really like the sharing of lists feature and think it would be great for teacher teams or students working on projects together.

Check it out.