Screenshot of CamScanner app with text
Strategy

Note-taking Applications Part 4: Android

In the final post of the note-taking series, demonstrations of scanning and note-taking applications for the Android environment are provided.

This post is the fourth in a series on using tablet applications to scan or open files and make markups (annotations) on the documents. In Note-taking Applications for the iPad: Part 1, Note-taking Apps for the iPad: Part 2, and Note-taking Applications for the iPad: Part 3, I address the use of scanning and note-taking applications in the iOS environment (specifically, on the iPad) and also compare various types of styluses which can be used for interacting with the screen. Even if you or your students or clients are using Android devices, you may find the information in the first three posts helpful, so I would encourage the reader to read those first.

In researching options for scanning and note-taking in the Android environment (which I am admittedly not as familiar with as the iOS environment), I discovered that there are multiple options for completing these tasks. The applications discussed in this post are just a few possibilities for apps that are currently available, but the demonstrations will give the reader a good sense of how the Android apps work together. Unfortunately, in my professional opinion the Android apps fall far short of the iOS apps (specifically, PDF Expert and Noteshelf 2) in functionality and range of features, but they “get the job done” in terms of working with picture and PDF files on a tablet device and eliminating the need for enlarged hard copies of documents. It should be noted that I used only the free versions of these Android apps, and I cannot speak to how the advanced or “Pro” versions of the apps might provide more features that make them more comparable to the functionality of PDF Expert or Noteshelf.

In the first video demonstration below, I show the reader how to use the CamScanner and InNote apps to scan and annotate a document. The video takes the viewer through the entire process of using this app combination, as there are relatively few options for annotating in the InNote app.

In the next set of videos, I found it easiest for the filming process to first demonstrate the scanning process, then separately film the demonstration of marking up the documents.

In the following video, I demonstrate the use of the ScanBot app to scan a document. After trying a number of Android scanning apps, including a disappointing trial of the Adobe Scan app, I found that ScanBot consistently created the best scans and the smoothest interface with various note-taking apps.

In the next video, I show the viewer how to scan the document into the Google Keep Notes app using my device’s Camera app.

In the following video, I demonstrate the process of scanning the document into Google Keep Notes using the ScanBot app.

In the next video, I demonstrate the options for annotating the document in the Xodo PDF app.

In the final video, I provide a brief demonstration of annotating the scanned document in Google Keep Notes.

Below are links to the apps that are demonstrated in the videos in the Google Play Store:

CamScanner app

InNote app (No longer available?)

ScanBot app

Xodo app

By Luv2TeachAll

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