What’s Your Favorite App and Why?

The #100percentdigital faculty-staff learning community got off to a great start last week with the Apps and Appetizer Mixer.  Thanks to all of you who joined us.  I learned a lot from both the full group discussion and smaller conversations about what the best apps are and why.  Below is a word cloud showing the results of our live poll using Poll Everywhere, which lets participants respond via text message or web page from any mobile device:

Once again it looks like the leading apps—Evernote and Notability—are for note taking.  In addition to a split in the room based on favorite note-taking app, we also saw a split between those who use a stylus vs. those who use a keyboard.  We’ll dive into this topic in more depth at our next meeting of this community on Wednesday, October 8: “Digital Note-Taking and Management” in JBWS 180 at 3:30 pm.

My biggest take-away from the mixer is that “What is your favorite app?” is a hard question to answer; I have many favorite apps because I use mobile apps in a variety of contexts including

• taking, organizing, and accessing meeting notes;
• managing my to do list;
• reading for work;
• tracking my calories and exercise;
• sharing files across multiple devices;
• managing my commute with traffic maps and voiceover to read to me while I drive;
• and entertainment through videos, games, reading, and music.

So to continue the conversation begun last Wednesday, please share a list of both your favorite apps but also your favorite categories or uses of apps.  Kim Garza, one of our innovation fellows got us started by revising and sharing a blog post, “Ramping Up,” she wrote this summer during the Innovation Institute. (Thanks Kim!)  Please share your answer in a blog post or by responding in a comment.