OneNote and Education : Innovative Teachers Network

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!

Erik meets Bill, and a cross-continental OneNote Project

Mike_Tholfsen — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 18:12:00 GMT

Erik meets Bill

For those of you who read my last blog entry, you'll know that my wife and I had Erik Westrum, a innovative teacher from Drammen, Norway over to our house for dinner last week (he liked the lefse, as well as the copper river salmon:-). Erik was one of the award winning teachers from Norway that was flown over by Microsoft last week. He had a chance to show me the cool things he's been doing in his class with video, OneNote, and other ICT applications. Erik is one of those guys who truly loves what he does and it shows. Microsoft hosted these Innovative Teachers from around the world in Redmond and they had a chance to meet with various groups and people. On Monday, I brought Erik by "Building 36" , where I work. I introduced him to some OneNote team members, some MS Word team members, as well as the General Manager of Outlook.

On Tuesday, Microsoft had a little surprise for the teachers. At the close of one of the meetings with the teachers, they brought out Bill Gates! Erik had the chance to meet Bill and get his photo taken with Bill and the other 10 or so teachers. Erik also asked Bill a question during the Q&A period that partially had to do with OneNote :-) Needless to say, I think Erik had a great trip out to Redmond.

Cross-continental OneNote

While Erik was out visiting, he had an idea around a collaborative project in OneNote with teachers from other countries. Erik and his students use OneNote regularly and he thought it would be an interesting project to collaborate with students from other countries. Based on some thoughts he had, I suggested that he talk with Forest Ridge from Bellevue, since they are also very active with OneNote and shared notebooks. I also suggested that the Islay School in Scotland might be interested and Ian Stuart has confirmed that they are. So that makes Norway, the US and Scotland. The teachers will be deciding the what and how in the near future so we'll be sure to keep you posted on how this collaborative project between schools unfolds.

BTW, Congrats to Ian and the Islay School for their recent LTS Ambition award!

NECC

Hi folks - for those of you who are aware of or going to NECC 2008 (National Education Computing Conference) this year, be on the look out for Microsoft and OneNote, in particular. Microsoft has some great materials that have been put together and the OneNote team has a bunch of excellent new resources that are targeted towards educators and faculty. Using these materials, my bet is that any teacher or faculty member, young or old, can quickly become a OneNote education master. I can't share all of the details yet, but I can give you a little taste of good stuff coming out. This will include:

Teacher Toolkit
Samples
Training
Videos

So make sure to swing by the Microsoft booth and find ht e education materials if you're going to be in San Antonio at NECC later this month. If you aren't going to NECC, rest assured that we'll be posting all of the materials online so any teacher on earth can benefit.

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.