How to start using OneNote Presenter: Kim Orr (5 April 2014, AMA Workshop) Find OneNote in your start menu (in Windows 8.1), select it and pin it to either your start menu or your taskbar.
Open OneNote and create a New Notebook – save it to your OneDrive (your cloud storage). Doing this allows you to have access to your OneNote on other devices (e.g. a smartphone or tablet and you can therefore access your OneNote planner/classes when away from your school laptop). Name your notebook and click Create Notebook.
Once the notebook opens, begin creating ‘chapters’ (the tabs along the top). OneNote notebooks are exactly like books, having chapters and pages. I create tabs that are my classes and the pages in each ‘chapter’/tab are the different topics or lessons taught for that class. How you organise your notebook is only limited to your imagination. It is always live and synchronises every few minutes.
I do my planning on it and am starting to use OneNote to record student details like homework checks, notes obtained through parental contact, notes from staff meetings, important reminders etc. I record these notes on my smartphone if I’m out and about or if circulating around the classroom doing a check. Due to the syncing nature of OneNote through OneDrive, my notes are always up-to-date.
One main reason to use OneNote is to capture your board notes using a digital pad / pen. I purchased a Bamboo small pad/stylus ($63) which I use to capture my notes on OneNote.
Being able to face the students and do board work through using OneNote such that they can view the notes as I’m writing them has been quite good in terms of gauging response and maintaining eye-contact.
Examples shown below:
tabs
Sharing
Sharing your OneNote with students is done by going to File and then Share. There are a couple of options in this menu. You can invite people or get a sharing link.
I used ‘Get a Sharing Link’. You need student emails for this option. When students click on the link in their email, it takes them to a website which allows them to access a limited version of OneNote online. You can allow them a ‘View Only’ link to your OneNote or a ‘Can Edit’ link. For students to edit the OneNote, they need Microsoft Office on their computer.
To ‘Get a Sharing Link’ see below:
Copy the relevant link (I used the ‘Can View’ link as I didn’t want students to be able to edit the notes) and email it to students.
Editing
There are numerous things you can do with OneNote. It has most of the features that we’ve come to know about and love when using Microsoft Office applications (fonts, inserting images, text, links etc). The best way to get to know OneNote is to ‘play’ around with it.
Following are some of the aspects of OneNote that I have used repeatedly.
Planner: Create your timetable on it or insert it from another application. I use my OneNote timetable as a teacher planner and also to display to the students at the beginning of each lesson so
Place student email addresses here
Click Share after each email address has been added
they can see what the lesson is about. You may use your planner to have the students copy the learning intention or attempt starter questions.
My Planning View (see below):
Student’s view of the same page (see below), viewed by the students during the first few minutes of the lesson. View / zoom to 190-200%, through your data projector.
Website link – copy the website address from the internet, highlight the word where you want the link to be, go to Insert on your Tool bar (very top of screen), click Link, then copy to the address bar.
You can link any of the following as well:
- A file (word document, pdf, Excel file, powerpoint etc) - Another notebook
- Another page from a notebook
Highlight word
Paste web address
here
Or select a
page from
another
notebook
Select the word
where you
want the link
Browse your local
drive for other files
to link
If you want to access a file on your OneNote which is on your smartphone or tablet or if you want students to access the file, you need to actually insert the file into OneNote rather than just link it. See below:
In the ‘Insert’ menu, there are several things you may find useful.
Saving pages as PDF files
You may choose to save a particular page that you have been working on as a PDF file in order to email or upload online or print out. To do this go to File and click on Export. See below:
Select word
Select File
Attachment
Search for and insert file
An attached PDF
file
Equation Editor
Images
Audio or video Recordings which are
extremely useful if you want to add
commentary to your lessons for
students to review.
Spreadsheets
tables
Resources - Links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T5X_iSRNueU Maths/Physics teacher explains how he uses OneNote
http://www.pil-network.com/ Microsoft Partners in Learning – you can join this network and be able to access a range of training videos in using technology in the classroom, 21st
century teaching and learning, windows in the classroom and more. Range of free online courses available.
As a ‘SideNote’ to OneNote – OneNote’s use in Flip Teaching
I use OneNote to produce Flip Videos (via http://screencastle.com/). The combination of OneNote’s ink drawing tools (found in the Draw menu) and the Bamboo pad produces very smooth digital writing which one can master after a few days practice. OneNote allows you to adjust pen thickness and viewing size of the screen in order to capture your teaching of concepts. You can then post your videos through a website that you may have created (I have found http://www.weebly.com/ to be sufficient), or through your school’s intranet or on youtube if you are able to convert your video files to an appropriate format.
