Using (and testing) OneNote in a classroom
I was wondering aloud the other day about how students use OneNote in a class environment. I've heard a little bit of feedback through our newsgroup and from a few other websites like www.tabletpc.com. Nothing compares to first hand use, though, so I decided to try it out myself in a classroom setting.
I went to the MIT open courseware site (https://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/home/home/index.htm) and downloaded a complete course on Ordinary Differential Equations. I figured this would be sufficient to keep me from trying to type and force me to use my pen. It did.
Here are the lessons I (re)learned:
1. Instructors do not pause for me to take notes. Admittedly, since I had recorded video, I could go back any time to get the information I missed. Since I was trying to simulate a classroom setting, though, I did not pause and just kept the video playing.
2. Practice switching pen colors! I enabled the pens toolbar, but spent a few precious minutes of class time trying to move it to a spot on screen in which it felt comfortable for me to quickly change pen colors. After that was settled, it worked for me much better (I put it on the left hand side of the screen).
3. The control to add more space at the bottom is small - very small. My pen is fairly well calibrated, but it's still hard to click the control. Needs to be bigger and more discoverable.
4. I always need to add more space.
5. Handwriting recognition does not work well for formulas.
6. Erasing takes too long in class. This is the same thing I experienced when using a pencil and paper when I went to school, so it may be me more than anything else.
7. You still need to go back after class and clean up your notes.
8. Almost all ODEs can't be solved <g>.
Now to apply this to testing. First, I'll keep in mind for scenario testing the needs of the student now that I understand them better. Having an option to perform a needed task is the first step (like inserting extra space at the bottom of the page). Insert | Extra Writing Space as a menu item is the first step, but clicking it, then resizing the page takes too much time in a classroom environment. The control at the bottom right is much faster, but is too small, so I can recommend enlarging it.
Second, I'll need to think about erasing. The Lenovo I had had an "eraser" at the end of the stylus. Flip it upside down, and the eraser worked (albeit slowly). The Gateway doesn't have that functionality, so I have to click the eraser toolbar icon. This is too slow for classroom use - I'll make my scenarios weighted to simply scribbling over mistakes instead of erasing them in class.
Third, I wanted to use the drawing tools for making graphs. It was quicker just to draw the XY axis myself. I'll call this a personal preference, but still make sure my student scenarios include cases for students who want to use the tools for drawing graphs.
Questions, comments, concerns and criticisms always welcome,
John
Comments
Anonymous
October 01, 2007
PingBack from http://www.artofbam.com/wordpress/?p=4314Anonymous
October 01, 2007
Kudos for testing OneNote in the classroom! Next, try to print out one lecture's worth of notes. Some have been told in other forums (by someone from MS or a MS MVP) that "Insert Page Break" options didn't fit into essence of OneNote. After spending 5-10 minutes to get one "Auto" page in OneNote to print well (but adding more space to "bump" things to a new page), one would think otherwise. While I would love to keep everything electronic/digital, I still have to print out and turn-in homework, as well as print to PDF to send notes to friends.Anonymous
October 01, 2007
Good call. I'll print them out and see what they look like. Still, though, I'm convinced the best thing to do is re-write the notes after class. It helps learning and in my case, the typed notes I take would be infinitely more legible than my handwritten notes. I'll let you know what it looks like, JohnAnonymous
October 02, 2007
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October 02, 2007
One note is good in some cases in the classroom yet I find it almost imposable to use in classes where graphing is part of the notes or flow charts are part of the notes it is better to use word over OneNote It does not make since to me that the same type of options in word are not in OneNote like flow charts.Anonymous
October 02, 2007
and speaking of graphs I think the ability to atleast draw dotted lines is really essential... I don't this can be done in one-note, can it?Anonymous
October 02, 2007
Some misc comments: For Anirudh, #2: Yep, I agree. For this reason (and many others, including using a printer which costs up to $140 per printout to use) I always do a Print Preview first. I'm not saying page breaks aren't a good idea, only that print previews pay for themselves in the long run. #1 is a good suggestion. #3 seems out of place - just type where you want amplifying info... Maybe I don't understand the comment. Terris: Math in general is a tough problem. Consider 2 users: the teacher, who is willing to invest time into getting a great looking page of math symbols and equations, drawings, graphs, tables and such. Then the student, who is trying to rapidly jot notes in a form that may or may not be pretty so long as it is useful to the student. Currently, Word (and maybe Visio) are designed for the teacher. OneNote, as I have found, works for the student, with paper and pencil being a strong competitor. Dotted lines: good idea. I've been manually using my pen to draw dashes, which works pretty well, especially considering the curves ODEs normally fit. Lastly, in general, I'm pushing the limits of OneNote to take notes in a relatively specialized math class. Another tester (Irina) pointed out that higher level math classes are ultimately nothing but equations. She's correct, of course, and equations are tough enough to display correctly when you have plenty of time to lay out the formula (in Word, Maple, Mathmatica, etc...) much less in a scribbled drawing on a computer screen. Still, I'll keep plugging away. Expect some more "lessons learned." And if anyone has any tips to help, please share! JohnAnonymous
October 02, 2007
hi, want I meant by the sticky note thingy is that a lot of the times I dont want to mess up my class notes by scribbling all over the place(typed notes look cleaner, but handwritten ones is a different story I guess). I could try outlining(which has the collapse feature) but its really difficult to do that in tablet mode. If I could have a collapsible sticky note, i just scribble extra info and then it collapses ( something i don't want to see everytime I look at my notes). Its really helpful while reviewing stuff for test etc as I can make notes on top of my notes. Another use could be as flashcard sort of thing, where the answers are on the collapsible note so they arn't visible by default. Its sort of like having a footnote feature, where you don't have to actually go anywhere to find it. This is one of the features I sorely miss while taking notes. Does it sort of make sense?...Anonymous
October 03, 2007
Good Evening, I am a 6th grade teacher in a rather large school district in Dallastown, Pennsylvania. I teach on a 4 person team and am about to venture on a pilot program with OneNote 2007. Now, it is different than what you have written about here, we are testing it with the 4 Team Teachers, Administration, Guidance Staff, Support Teachers, etc. We are working on coordinating our information, IEP information, and planning data. I am hoping this is the 1st step, on the way to having the kids use OneNote in my Portable Lab. I have 30 notebook computers in my room plus a SMART Board. I am very fortunate with this situation! I would love any and all feedback/networking connections as possible! Thanks, Eric Verno 6th Grade Educator Dallastown Middle School Dallastown, PA 17313Anonymous
October 20, 2007
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October 27, 2007
Thanks for the feedback about drawing tools. I'll pass it on to the designers. JohnAnonymous
December 15, 2007
I formerly used the eraser in class until sometime last year. The scribble out feature seems to work faster, especially if I'm a klutz and drop the pen. My new HP almost requires it since they made the eraser flat greatly reducing the accuracy of the eraser.Anonymous
December 15, 2007
I'm itching for an HP tablet - I just can't find an excuse to buy one... I like the scratch out better than the eraser just because it is slightly faster to complete the action. Oh, and here is a video of the school that got me thinking about this: http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/casestudy.aspx?casestudyid=4000001117 JohnAnonymous
January 06, 2008
How is your One Note project progressing?Anonymous
January 07, 2008
Hi Kathy, Well, I entered a few design suggestion based on my use and we're seeing what we can do. As usual, no promises since we don't want to overpromise and underdeliver. Most of the problems I encountered started to go away after practice. Using a tablet is still not as simple to use to enter data as paper, but once you get used to it, is usable and much more powerful. I hope I answered your question. If not, let me know. JohnAnonymous
March 31, 2008
Over in the newsgroups a few days ago there was this post . In it, Dave asks about using OneNote in aAnonymous
May 02, 2008
A few months ago I "took" a class in ordinary differential equations by enrolling MIT's open coursewareAnonymous
January 19, 2010
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January 19, 2010
Good ideas - I'll pass them on.