The Old Adage Is True!

They say, “If you want something done, give it to a busy person.” I have to admit this seems to be my predicament lately. Overwhelmed with activities and I manage to get most done, except for this blog which has been on the ‘To Do List’ for some time. Perhaps the prodding from my coaches is the trigger to steal a few minutes from school work to get some things down…Thanks Celeste :). Unfortunately this is the second time because the time previously invested in the product somehow got lost in cyberspace…yes, I did save but apparently something went wrong.

Looking at the Cohort21 Project Plan, I discovered I, as well as my students, learned a great deal this year in regards to the OneNote classroom. Our process looked something like this:

Step 1: Create a OneNote Classroom using www.onenote.ca/classnotebook, add students/teachers, organize my tabs to set up the course. This presents a link that sends automatically to your students email accounts (our students names and emails were created in One Drive which allowed this to happen) If you want how to instructions I created, I’m happy to email the file ([email protected])

Step 2: Start class by having the students download the free desktop* version to their laptops (we just went one-to-one this year). Take away the fear of the connection to the classnotebook–telling them we’ll experiment together and I don’t really know all the answers, but we’ll problem solve together….afterall, that what’s good business leaders do on a daily basis (I teach Business if you haven’t figured it out). Students went back to the email and selected the link to open the Online Classnotebook version, then went to the desktop version and opened RECENT to get the new book. Once this happened, they were synced to the online creating a backup. This also meant they didn’t have to do it again, they can now work directly from the desktop version. (This was the toughest component of the set up for most.)

Step 3: Go over the features of OneNote–levels–the teacher level–this is where I post homework, handouts, assignments, presentations, use collaboration pages etc. and their book level–where they create their own notes (or copy mine over to their book), do their homework, see their marked assignments, etc. The best part is they never have to hit SAVE—something I suggest frequently, especially given this blog experience! They also can research and the links they take remain active allowing them to easily retrace their steps back to the original sources. They can add images, presentations, graphs, templates, etc. If the student has a tablet, they virtually have a notebook, but no paper, which is amazing!

Step 4: Now we started using the tool and certainly there was some reluctance on the part of the students (they tend to avoid change, even more than I am used to here in our area), many have teachers who force them to close their laptops and write (they believe this is the only way to learn) which makes my life a bit more difficult here. Nonetheless, I persevered and got the students more comfortable by structuring lessons that incorporated the use of the tool. For example, I pasted a link to an article about a local video store that refused to close, stating his competitive advantages of having a knowledgeable staff and a wide selection of videos from many genres. I was teaching the basic concept of “Obsolete Goods” so this seemed to be relevant. I added some questions and had students working together to respond and record their answers in the OneNote. This taught the students how easy it is to work with. I didn’t stop there, I had presentations on various leadership theories in my other course so I had students prepare presentations, then upload to the collaboration pages.  As well, I had the students give constructive feedback on their presentations. The nice thing is the comments are separated by a tiny line and the student’s initials so you can tell who wrote the comment. All the students then have access to the powerpoint long after the unit is over.

We have used the tool throughout the course and some I have had to prod more frequently than others. Those with outdated computers preferred the online option, although I don’t recommend it, as it is slower and more frustrating to work with. Overall, we had a great deal activity with the tool and I am planning on using it more next year, in a more structured manner perhaps, as I’m considering creating an online course book for my class. I’m a little scared I won’t finish, but I know if I pack my agenda solid, I’m likely to manage somehow to get it done because the old adage of being busy and accomplishing more, always seems to work for me.