OneNote and Education : Education

OneNote will be part of the Office 2010 Professional Plus package!

Mike_Tholfsen — Wed, 13 May 2009 00:22:00 GMT

I'm excited to tell everyone that OneNote 2010 and SharePoint Workspace 2010 (formerly Groove) will be added to the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 release. We are not announcing any information about consumer SKU changes just now.

OneNote 2010 provides a comprehensive set of tools to accommodate how people and teams work today. With shared notebooks, organizations can gain even more from SharePoint investments - OneNote becomes the easiest place for teams, including teachers, students and faculty, to quickly swap information and stay on track. With this release, it offers new and improved ways to capture and share collective knowledge. OneNote 2010 facilitates collaborative editing in wiki-like ‘living documents.

So overall, we're really excited to see OneNote included in this upcoming Office 2010 SKU.

Another webcast with FreedomWriter Founder, Erin Gruwell - Tuesday, May 6th

Mike_Tholfsen — Fri, 01 May 2009 05:25:00 GMT

For those of you who missed the first webcast, you have another chance! If you've been reading my blog, you'll remember that last summer I had the opportunity to work with Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writer Teachers. For those of you who have never heard of former teacher, Erin Gruwell and the original Freedom Writers, check out the Freedom Writer Diaries book, the Freedom Writers Movie (2007 w/ Hillary Swank) or Erin Gruwell's excellent biography "Teach with your heart". There is also a foundation established with the same name - Freedom Writers Foundation.

Microsoft and HP donated a set of laptops and Office software to 150 Freedom Writer Teachers. These teachers have been chronicling their experiences with stories for an upcoming book, similar to the method used in the original Freedom Writer Diaries book. This book will be released by Double Day publishing later this year.

Erin Gruwell will be doing a Teacher Tech Tuesday on May 6th. I would encourage folks to sign up for either event and hear Erin speak. She is an amazing person and extremely passionate about what she does. Details on registration are below.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teacher Tech Tuesday: LIVE Webcast with Erin Gruwell, Founder and President of the Freedom Writers Foundation

Join Microsoft Education for a LIVE webcast with Erin Gruwell, Founder and President of the Freedom Writers Foundation, as she discusses her upcoming book Teaching Hope: Stories from the Freedom Writer Teachers launching later this year. Erin will discuss how she and 150 teachers across the US wrote and collaborated on the book using Microsoft and HP technology.

Teacher Tech Tuesday: LIVE webcast with Erin Gruwell

• Tuesday, May 6th, 2009 at 4:00 PM Eastern

Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writer Teachers

Mike_Tholfsen — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:14:00 GMT

Hi folks - we've been heads down working on OneNote14 so I haven't had the chance to blog very often. In the meantime, I wanted to share an upcoming event that many of you might be interested in.

For those of you following my blog, you'll remember that last summer I had the opportunity to work with Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writer Teachers. For those of you who have never heard of former teacher, Erin Gruwell and the original Freedom Writers, check out the Freedom Writer Diaries book, the Freedom Writers Movie (2007 w/ Hillary Swank) or Erin Gruwell's excellent biography "Teach with your heart". There is also a foundation established with the same name - Freedom Writers Foundation.

Erin Gruwell will be doing a Teacher Tech Tuesday on April 14th and May 5th. I would encourage folks to sign up for either event and hear Erin speak. She is an amazing person and extremely passionate about what she does. Details on registration are below.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Teacher Tech Tuesday: LIVE Webcast with Erin Gruwell, Founder and President of the Freedom Writers Foundation

Teacher Tech Tuesday: LIVE webcast with Erin Gruwell

• April 14th, 2009 at 4:00 PM Eastern

• May 5th, 2009 at 4:00 PM Eastern

Cool examples of teachers using OneNote in education

Mike_Tholfsen — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 20:47:00 GMT

I wanted to use this entry as an opportunity to point out examples of some cool things being done with OneNote and education. These examples come from both people I've been emailing with or just blogs I've seen. Each example shows a creative use of OneNote by a teacher using OneNote in a more advanced way than just "note-taking".

How have you using OneNote education? Feel free to send me a mail and share or leave a comment.

Efficiency and Collaboration with OneNote

This is a great entry describing three different education uses for Onenote:

The Digital Plan Book - I've seen many teachers use OneNote as a digital planning book. Another great sample with have of this is our 3rd Grade Math workbook.

Shared Tech Notebook - I also know of many different schools using OneNote shared notebooks in a similar way described here, including Forest Ridge School of the Sacred Heart.

Curriculum Notebook - I've pasted an excerpt from the blog for the curriculum notebook.

Perhaps the most ambitious ways we have used OneNote is to create a notebook that will be used to document the English curriculum in our building. After doing a department training on how to use OneNote, I created a department notebook to use for some basic function. But when we began the curriculum documentation process, we thought this provided the perfect platform for collaborating on curriculum development. As a result, are beginning to use the OneNote notebook to create unit plans, brainstorm assessments and activities, and, eventually, create lesson plans for each unit. We used tab sections to break up the grade levels and to separate Honors curriculum from the standard units. Tabs divide up the units and the pages contain all the pertinent information for each unit.

OneNote and the Count of Monte Cristo

Kelli Etheredge, a teacher at St. Paul’s Episcopal School in Mobile, Alabama, sent me this description of how she is using OneNote to teacher her World Literature class. Kelli gave me permission to post this on the blog:

I do not have a textbook in my class (World Literature) and so students either read paperbacks or I provide them with copies of excerpts from works. Because it is World Literature and we have an emphasis on the classics, I do not have a problem with copyright issues. I simply download the excerpts to OneNote and we share the texts on the class’s notebook. Any notes (notations about alliteration, figurative language, etc.) I make on the text with my tablet, are then saved to the notebook and the students have them at home. Recently, however, we moved to a more collaborative project where the students added information to the class’s notebook. After reading the Count of Monte Cristo, we conducted a mock trial of the Count for murder. Students were assigned roles and they were expected to work together to prepare the case. The witnesses all had to submit letters and character charts to OneNote, which served as affidavits for the trial. The prosecution and defense teams had private sections that were password protected so they could work together at school and at home. One group conducted a live session one night to work on the project. Additionally, I was in Mesa, Arizona at Peer Coaching Facilitator training for part of the trial preparation time, and while I was away I recorded instructions on the types of questions asked at trial and how to draft questions for the trial. The power of the program made all of this possible.

The Live Answer Key - My tablet, Camtasia, and OneNote

You don't get better thinking from a student then when they are taking a test. Even if they miss the problem - they probably thought hard about it and really made their best attempt. So after the test it is very beneficial to go over the exam with the students...but who has the time??? There is more material to cover and barely enough time for that. My solution - make a video of myself working the key. I always provide a copy of the key to my exams to the students - now I use my tablet, OneNote, and Camtasia to record myself working through the key so the students can see a step by step demonstration of each problem. After I have made the video I select "publish as pdf" under the file option in OneNote and wahlah the students have both a hard copy and a video copy of the key. I gave my college algebra students an extra credit opportunity where they had to watch the video and then email me 3 questions that they missed and describe what the did wrong - this was very beneficial...the students loved being able to hear and see me working the problems.

OneNote and Learning Styles - Dr. Ole Lauridsen

Mike_Tholfsen — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 18:59:00 GMT

I wanted to share a recent article from Dr. Ole Lauridsen. I met Ole over a year ago at the 2007 World Innovative Teachers Forum in Helsinki Finland. Since we both have a passion for OneNote and education, we hit it off quickly. Ole is a professor at the University of Aarhus in Denmark and director of the new learning styles lab. He has done great work with learning styles and also happens to be a OneNote fan, especially in terms of OneNote’s flexibility and adaptability to learning styles.

Ole visited the Redmond campus last year and met with the OneNote team and we recorded a video of his talk about learning styles and OneNote.

Ole has given me permission to post his article on my blog so here it is in it’s entirety.

Enjoy!

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Done with Style / Style with Dunn: MS-Office Applications and Learning Styles

Ole Lauridsen, Associate Professor

Director, Learning Styles Lab

Aarhus School of Business, University of Aarhus

Denmark

Abstract

There are many learners at all levels who know about their learning styles strengths, but are not familiar with an adequate ICT platform that supports these strengths. For these learners the Miscrosoft application OneNote is the solution. Conversely, there are OneNote users who tend to get lost in the many features and the flexibility of the program; their use of the program can be much more focused and efficient when they use their learning styles strengths as their points of departure.
This paper presents the learning styles model of Drs. Rita Dunn and Ken Dunn and shows how to implement the model by using OneNote.

Introduction

In a couple of booklets from 2006 and 2007 I have given an outline of the interaction between Learning Styles and two Microsoft Office applications: the so far relatively unknown program OneNote, and PowerPoint, which many people love or love to hate. The booklets OneNote and Learning Styles, a perfect match and PowerPoint and Learning Styles: A new and exciting approach are published by Microsoft in English, German, and Danish and are downloadable free of charge at www.learningstyles.net [Create an account and go to Community > Document Library > Research and Implementation].

In the case of OneNote, my reasons for writing the small study were firstly that learning communities are not aware of the enormous learning potential that is to be found in this “electronic notebook”; secondly, that many learners are simply not capable of choosing among the many features available in OneNote in a qualified way. They therefore get lost when trying to navigate among these features, and quite a few of them give up. In the case of PowerPoint, I wanted to oppose the widespread and rather unreflective criticism of a program that, used properly, represents one of the strongest presentation and learning tools today.

I would consider this a very unfortunate situation caused by ignorance of how these applications may be exploited in a learning context. This ignorance may be due to an unawareness of the central factors of learning, and thus unawareness of how deep learning in the sense of Biggs (2003) may be achieved. Admittedly, the concept of learning is exceedingly complex, and for most people, even professionals, it is not easy to define. Learning as conceptualized in the Dunn & Dunn learning styles theory (Dunn and Griggs 2003), however, constitutes a firm and easily manageable basis for understanding central factors in the learning process, cf. the section on Learning Styles below.

Of the two applications mentioned, OneNote is the one that embraces most learning styles elements and does it in the most direct way. In the following, OneNote therefore will be in focus. It will be shown how the Dunn & Dunn concept of learning styles can guide users so that they are able to exploit the many features in OneNote that support their learning and thereby contribute to making it as efficient as possible.

Learning Styles and Constructivism

What, then, is learning styles? According to the Dunns, learning styles can be defined as the way in which each individual learner

· begins to concentrate on,

· processes,

· absorbs, and

· retains new and difficult information.

(Dunn & Dunn 1999).

Basically there are around ten basic learning styles theories upon which 100⁺ models have been developed. The Dunn and Dunn theory is based on empirical studies in the class room. Approximately 1000 studies from all over the world, including 150 doctoral dissertations, have proven the efficiency of learning styles based activities and materials [www.learningstyles.net – go to Community > Document Library > References/Bibliography].

In addition to this, brain research and cognitive research have taken an interest in the theory in recent years, and the neurological and psychological processes behind are therefore being mapped. Essential knowledge about this has already been obtained and is reflected in e.g. Buli-Holmberg, Guldahl and Jensen 2007; Given 2002; and Thies 2001 and 2003.

Constructivism is the predominant learning theory today (Biggs 2003), and from a constructivist point of view, all learning implies the transformation of information into knowledge, and this goes for teaching, too, in the modern – i.e. constructivist – sense of the word: Creating an adequate environment for learning. This transformation takes place in an absolutely individual process based on the learner’s foreknowledge, experience, and cognitive potential (Lauridsen 2007). Knowledge, thus, is linked to the individual; encyclopedias, manuals, dictionaries, data bases, etc. contain information (of course based on other peoples’ knowledge), and the individual processes this information into knowledge.

Using this constructivist approach, the knowledge component can easily be integrated into the definition of learning styles. We will therefore now claim that learning styles may be defined as the methods we use when we

· begin to concentrate on new and difficult information,

· take in this information,

· process it into knowledge,

· absorb and store this knowledge, and

· retain and use this knowledge.

(Lauridsen 2007).

This might be considered an intellectual tour de force. However, the concept of knowledge, and the comprehension of knowledge and knowledge construction as aligned to the individual, is crucial to modern society with its demand for constant information processing, lifelong learning, and change, etc. If we as individuals do not realize that we ourselves are responsible for constructing the knowledge necessary for our professional and personal lives, our opportunities in the postmodern era will be limited.

In other words, we have to take ownership of our learning processes and to know our individual learning strengths. In this context it is worth noting that contrary to all other learning styles theories, Dunn & Dunn only work with the individual’s strengths. This means that the Dunns explicitly do not recommend that anybody take up his / her weak sides in order to widen his / her learning potential. Such a strategy very often leads to learner frustration and a lack of self-efficacy, and it therefore hampers the learning process. As a consequence of this, learning styles based teaching aims at making the students aware of their individual potential and at providing them with adequate strategies to exploit this potential. Furthermore, the diversity among the student group is taken into consideration when teaching and when preparing learning materials.

The Dunn & Dunn Learning Styles Model

The Dunn & Dunn definition of learning styles may be illustrated by a visual model, here shown in the version for adult learners (17+), BE (Building Excellence), developed by Rita Dunn and Susan Rundle.

[INSERT BE_engelsk]

As the above graphic shows, the model comprises 20 elements (with 28 variables altogether) that affect, or rather strengthen, the individual’s learning. These elements are grouped in 6 categories: Psychological Elements (orange color code), Perceptual Elements (pink color code), Environmental Elements (yellow color code), Physiological Elements (purple color code), Emotional Elements (green color code), and Sociological Elements (blue color code).

We cannot go into detail with all the elements of the Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles Model here; for an in-depth introduction, see Dunn & Griggs 2003 and Lauridsen 2007). Instead, we will briefly focus on those elements that are especially important when we use OneNote in our teaching and learning.

Psychological elements – information processing:

· Analytic Processing vs. Global Processing: Analytic learners prefer information presented step by step in logical sequences leading up to the whole concept. Global learners need to start with a preliminary overview of the whole concept in order to understand the details. Learners capable of using both ways are referred to as integrated.

Perceptual elements:

· Auditory: Auditory learners learn best by listening.

· Visual: Visual learners prefer learning through pictures and graphics of all kinds (visual picture) and / or through reading (visual text).

· Tactile: Tactile learners must involve their fine motor skills in their learning processes.

· Kinesthetic: Kinesthetic learners must use their whole bodies and / or themselves as persons in their learning processes (e.g. in cases or role plays).

· Verbalizing: Verbalizing learners need to talk (to others or to themselves) during the learning process.

Emotional elements:

Emotions are crucial to successful learning. Emotional problems hamper the cognitive learning system, and the system will therefore always try to solve such problems before focusing on the core cognitive process of constructing knowledge (Given 2002). Consequently, the learning outcome very much depends on the emotional state of the learner and on the emotional implications of the whole setting or learning atmosphere, i.e. the teacher’s attitude to the students and to the branch of learning leading to either positive or negative coding. Whereas the latter can be regulated by the teacher, the former cannot. Major human emotions like sadness and depression, happiness and contentment, are primarily rooted in the individual and his or her personal context, but there is one major emotion that can be taken into consideration in the teaching and learning process, viz. stress.

The emotional elements in the Dunn and Dunn model may thus be considered potential stress factors, and all of them can be addressed when we use OneNote:

· Motivation: Here understood as the need for or no need for feedback and not as the overall psychical energy applied in the learning process (Lauridsen 2007).

· Conformity: Conformists have no need for taking responsibility for the whole learning setup; they do not want choices as regards methods, do not want to have any influence on the objectives and anticipated learning outcomes, etc. Non-conformists, on the other hand, have these needs and, contrary to the conformists, they often initiate discussions on this topic.

· Structure: Some students need a given structure in the topics taught, other students want to create such a structure themselves.

· Persistence: This notion covers the contrast between single-taskers who need to complete one task before taking up another, and multi-taskers who learn more efficiently when addressing more tasks at a time.

Sociological elements:

Just like the emotional elements, social factors (working alone, in pairs, in peer groups, in teams, under an expert, varying constellations) are crucial to a successful learning process (Given 2002). Whereas only some of the many emotional stress factors can be taken into consideration in the teaching process, all sociological factors can be addressed.

OneNote and Learning Styles

Since it was launched in October 2003, the electronic notebook, OneNote, has been one of Microsoft’s best kept secrets. Fortunately, more and more people now seem to be introduced to the program – fortunately, for OneNote is a very strong learning tool that may be completely personalized in accordance with to the users’ needs, not least their learning styles needs. The comprehensive tutorials that come with the program very instructively show its immense possibilities and flexibility, and in order for the users to make qualified choices among the many features, they would be well advised to use their learning styles. As the above table shows, quite a few learning styles elements are directly addressed in OneNote and the rest of them are indirectly addressed.

The Analytic and the Global Learners

The OneNote interface (and the interface of other MS Office programs as well) supports both analytic and global processors. Analytic learners are often not visual-picture oriented, and they should therefore stick to the text based dropdown menus and remove the icons. Globals, on the other hand, tend to be strongly visual picture learners and should wallow in toolbars with icons, even if this makes the working screen somewhat smaller.

Both the notebook feature and the basic tab organization in OneNote make it possible for the analytic learners to organize their learning materials in great detail, according to their individual needs and wishes. Separate notebooks can be set up for e.g. separate projects, subjects, issues, or topics; and projects, subjects, issues, or topics can be broken down into small units through the tab facility: The main categories are organized in sections on the horizontal tab line at the top, and each section can be divided into subsections. Furthermore, each subsection can be analytically structured by means of traditional tools such as numbers or bullets.

Analytic learners can easily develop the very structure they need and prefer in order to build up knowledge. The flexible OneNote search feature prevents the analytic learners from getting lost in tiny details, and the use of hyperlinks between notebooks, sections, and subsections obviously has the same effect.

Global persons obviously need structure, too. Being global does not mean being disorganized, but global learners would typically not use as deep a structure (as many subsections) and as many bullet points or tables as would the analytic. Mind mapping, then, is a very strong tool for the globals, and mind maps are easily made in OneNote by means of the drawing tools (which, in fact, are better than those of the other Office programs). For those who prefer to regularly draw maps themselves, the use of a tablet pc would be the right solution. The possibility of increasing the pages beyond their normal sizes makes it easier to create a large mind map; the same applies to the full screen feature.

Perceptual Elements and OneNote

The Auditory Element

OneNote supports the auditory strength by allowing users to work with audio files. Whole lectures, group meetings, and also thoughts, ideas, brainwaves, can be recorded and stored for further processing, provided with relevant annotations (the latter as “sticky quotes” created through a mouse click on the OneNote icon in the notification area). A special feature makes it possible to search for words in audio (and video) files.
Beside this, text-to-speech programs such as the MS Narrator can be used for reading screen text; graphical text can be converted into text that may be read aloud via the OCR feature of MS Document Imaging (in the folder Microsoft Office Tools) or through other OCR programs.

Auditory learners are often non-tactile, and they therefore have difficulties taking notes. If that is the case, they can switch on the OneNote recorder during meetings, lectures, etc. and save the file in the right context afterwards.

The Visual Element

The use of text and all kinds of pictures obviously supports visual learners. OneNote contains many visual elements, and creative users can design their own as well. As mentioned above, it is very easy to draw mind maps by means of the drawing tool or by hand on a tablet pc, so altogether OneNote is a treasure chest in this respect.
Working with video files in One Note is very easy. Connecting a camera causes no problems within the program, and like pictures and audio files, video files can easily be integrated in sections and subsections with the annotations needed and perhaps linked to other notebooks, pages, subpages, or files. As for searching for words in videos, see above.

The Tactile and the Kinesthetic Elements

Tactile learners benefit from the mere use of a computer and thus of course from the mere use of OneNote. Drawing, making audio or video recordings, scrolling, following links, etc. are important activities for tactile learners and strongly support their focus and their learning process.

For the kinesthetic learners, it is most advantageous that audio and video files are stored in formats that can be played on mp3 players. Thus they are able to learn, go through their materials, or whatever while on the move.

The Element Verbalizing

Talking directly with others within OneNote is not possible; but via Microsoft Messenger, the learner who needs of verbalize may interact with fellow students.

Verbal learners often like to talk to themselves, and they may support this preference by using OneNote’s recording tool. Mentally, recording speech is more binding than saying words that just vanish into thin air; consequently, a recording has a much larger learning impact than mere speech that is not recorded.

Emotional Elements and OneNote

The emotional elements persistence (singletasking vs. multitasking) and structure are directly addressed in OneNote.

Of course singletaskers can always organize their work so that one task follows another, often so that they work with one application at a time. Before OneNote, multitaskers had to run various programs at the same time, constantly shifting between them or turning them on and off depending on the power of the computer. Therefore, OneNote is a gold mine for multitaskers. The smooth interaction with other Microsoft Office applications (first of all, Outlook and Explorer) makes it easy to switch between tasks; furthermore, the program as such with its notebooks, sections, subsections, and many features gives the multitaskers fantastic opportunities to meet their individual needs.

OneNote enables the individual learners to work on a structure provided by a teacher, for instance. Of course, this could be done in Word or other Microsoft Office applications as well, but the flexibility in OneNote surpasses the possibilities of the other programs – simply because the users can collect all their learning materials within one and only one application. A good example is working on a PowerPoint handout: Through the print option in PowerPoint, the handout may be exported to OneNote where the users can write their own comments or annotations on the keyboard or by hand on at tablet pc.

Sociological Elements and One Note

OneNote supports the learners’ preferences whether they want to work alone, in pairs, in a peer groups, or teams, and whether or not they need to consult a person of authority while working and, finally, whether or not they prefer variation between these options,.

The loner who wants to work on his own, can obviously just do so, and through OneNote’s share function, people who want to cooperate with others or under the guidance of an expert, may easily have their needs met; collaborative writing, (written) online discussions, etc. are only a mouse click away.

The direct interaction with Outlook and the blog-feature serve the same purpose; and online communication via Microsoft Messenger is an option as well, of course.

Other Learning Styles Elements and OneNote

As mentioned at the beginning, other Learning Styles elements are addressed through the use of OneNote, but in an indirect way. Here are a few examples:

For the learners who prefer a less formal seating (an environmental element), it is an advantage that the program comprises so many features and can hold all necessary materials. These learners do not need to switch between various files and applications and can work with only a few open windows (a fact that Windows Vista makes easier than before). It is therefore possible for them to work efficiently with their laptops on a sofa, in a bed or even on the floor – which quite a few learners actually prefer.

Since all learning materials or meeting documents may be stored in OneNote, learners have the opportunity to process the materials at the time of the day that suits them best; for asynchronous teaching or meetings, this is highly advantageous.

OneNote in a broader perspective

Obviously OneNote is a learning tool of major importance. It is very compatible with the concept of learning styles, but there is more to it than that. The authoritative Horizon Report (2008) states that grassroots video, mobile broadband, data mashups, collective intelligence, and social operating systems are “emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning, or creative expression within learning-focused organizations”.

OneNote delivers a perfect platform for these technologies, a platform that, due to its flexibility, brings together these “emerging technologies” under one hat. Perhaps OneNote needs some adjusting to meet the challenges of the years to come, but that would only be details. The whole basis is there. OneNote is a program of the future.

Concluding remarks

Learning styles put the learning potential of OneNote into words; and conversely, OneNote provide people who want to seriously work with learning styles, with some very strong tools.

The use of the applications would altogether be much more efficient if the users reflected on the important “Why and How”. If one understands why, one can easily cope with the how.

References

Biggs, J. 2003. Teaching For Quality Learning at University. Maidenhead: Society for Research into Higher Education/Open University Press.

Buli-Holmberg, J., Guldahl, T., and Jensen, R. 2007. Refleksjoner om opplæring - i et læringsstilperspektiv. Oslo: Cappelen Damm.

Dunn, R. S., and Dunn, K. J. 1999. The Complete Guide to the Learning Styles Inservice System. Needham Heights MA.: Allyn and Bacon.

Dunn, R. S., and Griggs, S. A, eds. 2003. Synthesis of the Dunn and Dunn Learning-Style Model Research. Who, What, When, Where, and So What? New York: St. John's University.

Given, B. K. 2002. The brain’s natural learning systems. Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.

Lauridsen, O. 2007. Fokus på Læring – Læringsstile i Dagligdagen, Professionelt og Privat. København: Akademisk Forlag.

The NEW MEDIA CONSORTIUM and the EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative. 2008. The Horizon Report. URL: http://www.nmc.ord/pdf/2008-Horizon- Report.pdf.

Thies, A. P. 2001. The Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles Model from a Neuropsychological Perspective. In Thies, A. P., Dunn, R. S., and Honigsfeld, A. 2001. Synthesis of the Dunn and Dunn Learning-Style Model Research: Analysis from a Neuropsychological Perspective, 49- 53. New York: St John's University, Center for the Study of Learning and Teaching Styles.

Thies, A. P. 2003. Implication of Neuroscience and Neuropsychology for the Dunn and Dunn Learning-Style Theory. In Synthesis of the Dunn and Dunn Learning-Style Model Research. Who, What, When, Where, and So What? Dunn, R. S., and Griggs, S. A., eds. 2003. 25-33. New York: St. John's University.

Get a Free Copy of OneNote 2007 - Tuesday, 1/20/09 Webinar - "Get connected and collaborate in your Classroom with OneNote"

Mike_Tholfsen — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 21:50:00 GMT

Hi folks - after an extended paternity/holiday break with my daughter, I'm back at work and back on the blog. I hope you all had a great holiday season.

Next Tuesday, (January 20th, 2009 from 1:00 pm - 2:30 pm PST) Microsoft Solution Specialist Tony Franklin will be presenting a Teacher Tech Tuesday webinar on OneNote 2007 in the classroom. I've had the opportunity to work with Tony a few different times, including the Philadelphia School of the Future and the Freedom Writer Teacher event. Tony works extensively with the Philadelphia School of the Future and has been a proponent of OneNote and education for many years. I highly encourage you to sign up for this free webinar and engage with Tony for his presentation.

Microsoft will also be giving a free a copy of OneNote 2007 for any teacher that views the webinar and completes the survey at the end! If you missed the last one, now's you're chance to get a copy of OneNote. More details on how you get your free copy are listed below.

So round up as many teachers as you can and watch this webinar on Tuesday.

Click here to sign up for the 60 minute webinar.

Official Abstract

Teacher Tech Tuesdays - Get connected and collaborate in your Classroom with Office OneNote

Live Jan 20 1:00PM-2:30PM Pacific Time

Get tips on how OneNote can help you organize class materials and class work, create collaborative work environments, and share workspaces. In this webinar we will cover:

- Getting Started with OneNote
- How to get organized with OneNote
- Organizing class materials & class work
- Creating collaborative work environments

*FOR THOSE WHO ATTEND THE LIVE SESSION WE WILL SEND YOU A FREE COPY OF ONENOTE

*View the LIVE webinar and complete the survey at the end to receive a FREE copy of Microsoft Office OneNote!

*Offer good only to legal residents of the 50 United States or the District of Columbia actively employed as K-20 teachers/faculty members at accredited educational institutions in the US. Limit one (1) copy of Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 per teacher / faculty member. All proof of academic status must be received by February 15th, 2009. Offer expires at 11:59 PST on February 15th, 2009, while supplies last, and is not redeemable for cash. Offer is non-transferable except as otherwise provided herein. Taxes, if any, are the sole responsibility of the recipient. Any Award(s) returned as non-deliverable will not be re-sent. Please allow 6 - 8 weeks for shipment of your Award(s).

Before we can send you a copy of Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 you will need to provide proof of your academic status. No order will be shipped until a valid academic ID is received.. We will place your order on "hold" until we receive your valid academic ID. Upon receipt of your academic ID, we will ship out your order. You can send your academic proof one of the following ways:

1. Fax a signed copy of the letter to 425-708-6649, ATTN: TeacherTech
2. Mail a signed copy of the letter to: Microsoft, One Microsoft Way, Attn: TeacherTech Lincoln Square/20257, Redmond, WA 98052.
3. Email a signed copy/PDF of the letter to Teachtec@microsoft.com

Acceptable Forms of Academic Proof: (Any one of the following)

- Dated Faculty ID Card

- Dated, current class schedule

- Letter from school on school letterhead

- Recent faculty/staff payment stub (please black out salary information)

"Take OneNote to Class" and light blogging in December

Mike_Tholfsen — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 03:27:00 GMT

Hi folks - I'm currently taking my "official" paternity leave for my daughter's birth back in August. Thus, December will be light for blogging. I have been having a great time off though! Claire went out into her first ever snow this morning :-)

In the meantime, here's a great recent post from Michael Oldenburg, the OneNote tech writer. His blog is called "Nota Bene" and he's written a great entry called "Take OneNote to Class" .

Have a great holiday season and I'll see you next year!

Today's Teacher Tech Tuesday (10/21/08) - Free Tools and Resources from Microsoft

Mike_Tholfsen — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:40:00 GMT

Hi folks - a quick reminder for today's "Teacher Tech Tuesday". Today's session details are listed below. I personally know today's speaker, Scott Thompson, and he is excellent. He is a former teacher so he has a great background to draw from, as well as an in-depth knowledge of technology in the classroom and what problems software can help solve. Scott has also had the opportunity to travel around the country and meet many teachers, students, and faculty. And he also happens to be a huge proponent of OneNote in education J

Live Oct 21 1:00PM-2:00PM Pacific Time
Teacher Tech Tuesdays - Free Tools and Resources from Microsoft

Explore both the latest and recently released technologies from Microsoft and see their potential for the classroom. Dive into connected images from land-based and off-world satellites in a highly engaging and interactive environment. Learn about the new Surface computing. Learn about how you can view panoramic gigapixel images and learn about a technology that could connect the world's images into a three dimensional environment.

Speaker:

Scott Thompson—Solution Specialist

Here is the schedule for upcoming Teacher Tech events

Live Oct 27 10:30AM-11:30AM Pacific Time
Overview of Microsoft Expression Studio 2
Microsoft Expression Studio takes your creative possibilities to a new level. The... (learn more)
Live Oct 28 1:00PM-2:00PM Pacific Time
Teacher Tech Tuesdays - Live Service Solutions for K12 (S+S)
Create a collaborative academic community that extends beyond classroom walls. Enhance the... (learn more)
Live Nov 3 1:00PM-2:00PM Pacific Time
21st Century Leadership
What are the key characteristics of an effective, technology-rich leadership development program... (learn more)
Live Nov 11 1:00PM-2:00PM Pacific Time
Teacher Tech Tuesdays - Microsoft Office OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers
The perfect resource to help teachers get more organized. The toolkit is... (learn more)
Live Nov 18 1:00PM-2:00PM Pacific Time
Teacher Tech Tuesdays - Building/Creating/Leveraging Communities — Blogging & Web 2.0 fundamentals
Learn how to safely support & encourage new media in your organization... (learn more)
Live Dec 2 11:00AM-12:30PM Pacific Time
Tech Talk Tuesdays: MSDNAA/IT Academy
Microsoft presents the MSDN Academic Alliance (MSDN AA) Program. MSDN AA is... (learn more)
Live Dec 2 1:00PM-2:00PM Pacific Time
Teacher Tech Tuesdays - Creating effective communications with OneNote & Outlook

Learn how Microsoft tools can help you stay in touch with students... (learn more)
Live Dec 9 11:00AM-12:30PM Pacific Time
Tech Talk Tuesdays: Introduction to the 2007 Microsoft Office System
The 2007 Microsoft Office System is a complete set of desktop and... (learn more)
Live Dec 9 1:00PM-2:00PM Pacific Time
Teacher Tech Tuesdays - Everyone can be an astronaut with World Wide Telescope
Take your class on a journey with the World Wide Telescope (WWT)... (learn more)
Live Dec 16 1:00PM-2:00PM Pacific Time
Teacher Tech Tuesdays - Introduction to Photosynth
Imagine being able to share the places and things you love using... (learn more)

OneNote as an ePortfolio

Mike_Tholfsen — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 05:54:00 GMT

Something I wanted to call out was a great TechLearning online article written about Forest Ridge teacher Palie Cantu and her use of OneNote as a digital ePortfolio tool. The article is titled "How to Build Better ePortfolios"

I've had the honor to work with Palie a few different times over the past year and a half and she is one of the top teachers I've come across in terms of her use of technology and learning, especially when it comes to OneNote. To see Palie in action, watch this short video. If you want to see a more in-depth video of how Forest Ridge Teachers (including Palie) use OneNote, watch this 40 minute video.

Palie structures her student "ePortfolios" all inside of one big notebook. She creates a template section group for each student containing an individual section for "Homework", "Quizzes" and "Tests". Palie keeps a portfolio for every student she has, in every class she has. The entire structure is captured in one large OneNote notebook that she keeps. Here's a screen shot example of a very simple ePortfolio for a fictitious student named Emily.

Because Forest Ridge is a 1:1 computing school and all of the students have OneNote, Palie distributes all homework, quizzes and tests using OneNote pages. Students complete their homework in OneNote and mail them back to Palie. Palie then grades the assignments and sends a copy back to each student. She also keeps a copy in the section group she has for each student. For example, Palie might have an ePortfolio built up for Jane. Over time, the homework, quiz and test sections for little Jane will be filled with all of the work for the year. Palie can also store group projects within Jane's portfolio. When it comes time for parent/teacher conference, Palie can flip to Jane's section group and quickly show the parents all of the work that Jane has been doing for the class, including the grades and scores she has received. At the end of the year, Palie has the entire set of work captured in one place.

For those of you who want to see this in action, download this sample ePortfolio.

Has anyone else out there experimented with OneNote as an ePortfolio tool?

Partners in Learning and a field trip to Forest Ridge

Mike_Tholfsen — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 18:16:00 GMT

In early September, Microsoft hosted a Partners in Learning (PIL) advisory summit for a diverse group of people involved with education. These people hailed from around the world and many continents were represented, including Asia, Europe, Africa , South America, and North America. The goal of this summit was for the Microsoft Partners in Learning team to have a dialogue with this group of education experts as well as share some of the technologies and plans Microsoft has moving forward.

I joined them for a "field trip" lunch to the Forest Ridge School in Bellevue, WA. Forest Ridge is a technologically advanced school and they are a 1:1 computing school. Forest Ridge uses tablets, and in addition, as I referred to on this blog previously, they use OneNote extensively. The Partners in Learning advisory group had the chance to observe OneNote in action for portion of a middle school math class, and they also had the chance to see OneNote live sharing and shared notebooks in action. Additionally, the students were given a math problem that involved inking, drawing and the use of color. After the class was finished, the visitors had the chance to talk with the students and ask them about their experiences.

I also had the chance to talk with a few of the students and I got some great feedback for the OneNote product. Things they liked best were the ease of use, the sharing capabilities the use of colors, and they ability to store everything in one place. I also learned that these were some of the students who had been doing a little bit of LiveSharing personal sessions in the library during lunch (Instant Messaging is banned) It's always great to hear how creative the kids can get with software :-)

In terms of areas for improvement, the two students told me about the problems they experienced when attempting to have a large number of students (e.g. - entire class) join into a LiveSharing session on Vista simultaneously on the wireless network. Sometimes people would get dropped. This is an area that the OneNote team is working on improving for O14.

After the class finished, we all ate lunch and had an interesting discussion between some Forest Ridge faculty and teachers. There were many interesting topics that came up around 1:1 computing environments, lessons learned, challenges. There was also quite a bit of discussion around whether or not technology had enabled better learning for the students over the last decade. That's the million dollar question at the end of the day. There were many great view points and I believe Forest Ridge teachers and faculty can point to some real benefits their students have accrued using technology in the classroom. There were examples discussed of students ability to not only adapting more quickly to technology, but in particular how technology and software has helped accommodate a wider array of learning styles that was previously not possible. There were numerous examples of students engaging the lessons in better ways than they had previously been able to. This aspect reminded me of the similar work and findings of Dr. Ole Lauridsen and his research at the learning styles lab at the University of Aarhus, Denmark. There was also discussions around curriculum being delivered digitially at Forest Ridge, whether via CD, email or in OneNote. During the digital curriculum discussion, envinromental benefits came up, as this is a particular area that students are very concerned about these days. The "green" aspect of digital curriculum has been a net plus for the students. After lunch, we all returned back to the main Redmond campus and I parted ways with the PIL advisory group. All in all, a great lunch and interesting discussion of technology in the classroom.

Back to School with OneNote!

Mike_Tholfsen — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 23:20:00 GMT

Hey folks - it's that time of year again. Reading, Riting and 'Rithmatic :-) I hope everyone has their pencils, erasers, books, lesson plans and a copy of OneNote handy!

I know that many teachers and professors out there are starting to experiment with OneNote for the first time this school year. Have you joined the Innovative Teachers Network yet? This is a great place to find other innovative and passionate teachers from around the world. I know there are many new students who will also be experimenting with the back to school tech gear their parents may have bought. I've also had the chance to speak with some lucky schools who are trying out 1:1 computing this year. I would love to hear from any or all of you on this blog. I had a great comment this morning on my old blog entry title "New OneNote resources for teachers - Come git' em' while they're hot!" In the comment, Nancy claims that "I am currently doing the 'happy dance' in front of my monitor!" I hope that many of you out there get a chance to try out the OneNote education resources that Nancy has discovered and do your own happy dance!

For those of you looking for examples of educators and schools using OneNote in interesting ways, I'll republish the list:

Examples of educators and schools using OneNote

Share with us what new things you are trying out this year with OneNote and technology. Tell us about your own happy dance!

The Freedom Writer Teachers, OneNote and the Long Beach Airport

Mike_Tholfsen — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 23:02:00 GMT

Last night I was sitting in the Long Beach, CA airport waiting for my Seattle return flight that was delayed four hours. Great excuse to write a new blog entry! For those of you who have never "experienced" the pleasure of the Long Beach airport, it probably wouldn't be high on my sightseeing lists.

Why was I in Long Beach you ask? Well this weekend Erin Gruwell and the Freedom Writer Teachers had a multi-day conference getting together to prepare to write their next book . For those of you who have never heard of the former teacher, Erin Gruwell and the original Freedom Writers, check out the Freedom Writer Diaries book, the Freedom Writers Movie (2007 w/ Hillary Swank) or Erin Gruwell's excellent biography "Teach with your heart". There is also a foundation established with the same name - Freedom Writers Foundation.

I had the chance to meet the amazing Erin Gruwell a few months ago through a Microsoft Public Sector Education employee named Karla. Erin and her group of Freedom Writer Teachers hail from states across the country and have a diverse set of backgrounds and experiences. These teachers are going to chronicle their teaching experiences with stories, similar to the method used in the original Freedom Writer Diaries book. This book will be released by Double Day publishing next August in 2009. And the tool they are going to use to collaboratively write this new book? You guessed it - OneNote! Karla had been working with Erin and her foundation to coordinate this event, amongst other partnerships with the Freedom Writer Teachers and Microsoft over the next year.

The Freedom Writer Teachers had a four day conference from Friday-Tuesday at the Newport Beach, CA Marriott. HP donated 150 Mini-Note laptops to the group of teachers and Microsoft donated 150 copies of Office 2007 Ultimate, MS Student 2009, and Windows Live tools. The teachers were surprised with a Friday night “Oprah” moment where Erin made the announcement about the free HP Mini-Notes + MS Software to the entire group.

I was invited to the Newport Beach Marriott on Sunday to do a 4 hour workshop on using OneNote. I was also accompanied by Sara, a 7th Grade Forest Teacher and Tony Franklin, the Philadelphia School of the Future SSP. I hopped on a plane on Sunday morning and flew in for the day. The workshop covered everything from the basics of OneNote, to OneNote education scenarios, and all the way to shared notebooks and collaboration. Sara and Tony were my "Teacher's aides" as we went through the exercises with the teachers.

It was an amazing experience and the group of teachers are very tight knit and passionate about the work they do. I also observed a lot of teachers having a blast using OneNote in both personal and collaborative ways. We started out with OneNote basics including organization and the flexible page surface. We also covered embedded files, search, audio/video recording, screen clipping, tagging, and drawing tools as well as other education-focused scenarios. Towards the end of the day, we did a test run of the entire room using a deeply structured shared notebook where each teacher had his/her own section. For the most part it worked well, although we quickly sucked up all the bandwidth in the conference room and things slowed to a crawl by the end of the exercise :-) It was great to see the level of spontaneous creativity that quickly appeared across the entire notebook.

Here's me on the right with a Freedom Writer Teacher.

I felt honored to be able to work with this inspirational group and I look forward to helping them with their journey. I'll be posting updates on this blog as the Freedom Writer Teachers move forward with their book and how OneNote helps the process.

OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers – Part 1

Mike_Tholfsen — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 17:44:00 GMT

Last week we launched a bunch of new OneNote education resources on the new OneNote site for educators. This site contains great resources for OneNote and teachers so make sure to bookmark it and check back regularly. I also want to give a shout-out to the new Office Back to School site, which has a bunch of great materials around Office and education, including Parents and Teachers.

Today I want to talk more about the OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers. If you haven’t yet downloaded this toolkit DO IT NOW!!! I promise you won’t be disappointed. This toolkit is a OneNote notebook with training, how-to articles, teacher-focused OneNote feature explanations, videos, lesson plan examples, and other resources to help teachers start and then master the use of OneNote in the classroom.

I’ll repeat my recommendation from last week to:

Download and go through the toolkit
Share it with other teachers
Put in on your school's internal network for others to use
Tell your faculty and principal about it
Tell your administrators about it

What’s in the toolkit?

There are 8 sections in the toolkit, and I will be covering two of them in greater detail today. Here are the 8:

Welcome
Great Education Features
Lesson Plans
Collaboration
Distribution
Examples
Common Questions
OneNote Add-ins

Section #1 - Welcome

The first section of this notebook contains a lot of basic materials around what is OneNote, why you might want to use it, and how to get started. If you’re like most people, you will usually skip introductions, how-to videos, and explanations of what the product is. I fully understand that- it’s human nature. But for those of you who actually look through this type of information, you will get a huge head start on the people who skip everything in this section. But don’t tell those folks (sshhhh) – they will just wonder how you became a OneNote Ninja so quickly and why they are still at 100-level OneNote learning :-)

In this Welcome section, you’ll also find things like OneNote and learning styles information, Training videos, How-to articles, case studies about OneNote and education.

And last but not least, a OneNote Toolkit is never complete without the OneNote song!

Section #2 – Great Education Features

The next section of the Teacher toolkit covers many specific OneNote features. Not only do we have content from the OneNote Guide, but we’ve also added and enhanced existing content with education-focused materials. You will find pages such as:

Managing Teacher Schedules
Organizing Planning Materials, Class Work, Answer Keys, and Research
Using OneNote for Day to Day Tasks
Posting a OneNote "Class" package to SharePoint
Attaching Files to Your Lessons
Turning On Rule and Graph Lines
Creating and Modifying Templates

That’s it for today. I’ll be covering the other sections of the Toolkit in future blog entries.

Technorati Profile

New OneNote resources for teachers - Come git' em' while they're hot!

Mike_Tholfsen — Mon, 07 Jul 2008 02:54:00 GMT

As I mentioned a few posts ago, Microsoft released a bunch of new OneNote resources for teachers at the NECC 2008 conference in San Antonio. Without further ado, I'm going to point everyone to them in this post.

First, off, here is the new OneNote Teacher resources on the Microsoft.com Education Site. This will contain lots of great resources for OneNote and teachers so make sure to bookmark it and check back regularly. I'll be sure to let people know when new things appear here as well.

Second, for those educators or administrators or IT folks who want to understand at a high level, what "OneNote NextGen Learning" is all about, watch this new Flash video about OneNote in the digital classroom.

Over the next week or two I hope to cover more of these in detail in this blog, but today I'll mainly be posting the links.

Introducing the OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers

Click here to download the OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers: If there's only one resource that you start out with, make sure it's this one. The toolkit is a OneNote notebook with templates, how-to articles, teacher-focused OneNote feature explanations, training videos, lesson plan examples, and other resources to help teachers start and then master the use of OneNote in the classroom. My recommendation is to:

Download and go through it
Share it with other teachers
Put in on your school's internal network for others to use
Tell your faculty and principal about it
Tell your administrators about it

OneNote "How-to" training videos for teachers

Next up, we have a new set of OneNote training videos created specifically for teachers. Each video is just a few minutes long and there are a range of topics starting with the basics and moving into screen clippings, Outlook integration and all the way up to shared notebooks and collaboration. There are 29 short videos in all to choose from. Just go to the OneNote Teacher resources page and scroll down towards the bottom and you'll see all of the videos.

Try sample notebooks

Check out these OneNote notebooks to get some ideas of how to use OneNote in school and in your personal life.

Teacher math workbook: Example of how teachers can store their workbook information for math classes in OneNote.

Digital portfolio: Sample digital portfolio of a teacher that contains multiple sets of student work, stored and organized within OneNote. Includes homework, quizzes, tests and projects.

3rd grade teacher's mathbook: Sample of a teacher’s workbook for a 3rd grade math class.

Student school workbook: Sample notebook for a university student.

Shared notebook for a group project: Example notebook to manage shared project information.

Student personal workbook: Sample personal notebook for a student.

Student's semester notebook: Example notebook of how a student could organize their work and activities.

New employee handbook: Example of a new employee handbook for a company. This could easily be tailored for new students or new teachers.

That should be enough to keep everyone busy for a while :-) I'll keep posting over the next week or so and go through the OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers in more detail on a section-by-section basis.

Have fun!

How are you using OneNote in education?

Mike_Tholfsen — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 20:31:00 GMT

One thing I want to do on this blog is understand how other teachers, students and schools are using OneNote. We are often surprised by the creativity in which people use our software. I have some examples below of OneNote in education, and we also have many case studies with OneNote in education, but I know there are more. BTW, eLearning, training and on-boarding OneNote stories are welcome too. It's also great for the product team to understand how our customers are using OneNote, as this feedback can help influence decisions in the next version of OneNote, which we are working on now.

How are you using OneNote in education? Share with the community…

Examples of educators and schools using OneNote

Innovative Teachers visiting Microsoft in Redmond this week

This week Microsoft is hosting some of the winners of last years "World Innovative Teachers Forum" from Helsinki, Finland. For those of you who may not be familiar with this forum is, here's the definition:

“Innovative Teachers Forums are part of the Innovative Teachers program, a global community of educators sponsored by Microsoft Partners in Learning. The forums are annual events that recognize and reward innovative teachers who practice the elements of 21st century learning in their own classrooms, and then incorporate these skills into the student learning environment.”

I had the chance to go to the forum last year and co-present "OneNote in the Classroom" with Palie Cantu, an amazing teacher from Forest Ridge. I also had the chance to meet many of the innovative teachers from countries around the world and the great work they are doing. Imagine a United Nations for teachers and you'll get a sense of what the event is like. It was truly impressed by the diversity of innovation that is happening in schools around the world.

In particular, I had the chance to get to know quite a few of the teachers, including Kumaras Pillay from South Africa and Erik Westrum from Norway. Both Kumaras and Erik will be traveling to Redmond this week. I've also learned that OneNote is now being used in schools all the way up in Svalbard archipelago in the town of Longyearbyen,Norway, one of the farthest points on earth where towns exist. The teachers say they are using "OneNote at the top of the world. My wife and I actually are having Erik over to our house for dinner tonight. I'm part Norwegian myself so we'll have some Lefse prepared for him ;-)

The World Innovative Teachers Forum is part of the broader Microsoft Innovative Teachers program. If you've never heard of this program, I strongly encourage you to check it out. You can join the Innovative Teachers Network and collaborate with great teachers from around the world in a community. You can also submit your own work and you too might be able to go to a future World Innovative Teachers Forum. This year it's in Thailand. And of course you can also get the latest and greatest OneNote education materials from the network. We'll be adding a bunch more soon so keep your eyes peeled!

New beta version of PowerPoint 2007 "Producer" available

BTW, separate from OneNote, be sure to check out the beta version of Microsoft Producer for Microsoft Office PowerPoint 2007. Great for classrooms - both students and teachers.