OneNote and Education : Teacher

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.

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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

OneNote wishes you a happy Earth Day

Mike_Tholfsen — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 18:52:00 GMT

April 22nd is Earth Day, and in celebration we've put together some great OneNote resources to help you and your schools reduce your paper usage with OneNote. I've written about this previously, including our web page on how to reduce paper/processing usage with OneNote. Whether it's using the Send to OneNote printer or moving training and on-boarding materials into OneNote notebooks, we think that using OneNote is a great way to both help the environment and save yourself some other "green" (as is $$$ dollars :-) These days, printing is costly to both the environment and school budgets.

Michael Oldenburg, OneNote's top-notch writer, has a great blog post all about OneNote and earth day,

Including the new Green Living Ideas notebook template that is being released today.

The Green Living Ideas notebook is free to download from our Templates site and it works with all versions of OneNote 2007 — including the free trial version. You can download other, free OneNote 2007 templates — including full notebooks plus individual sections and pages — from the OneNote Templates catalog on the Office Online Web site.

For more great Earth Day ideas, check out the Office blog entry for today.

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.

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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.

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)

Creating Effective Communications with OneNote and Outlook webinar now posted

Mike_Tholfsen — Fri, 05 Dec 2008 21:51:00 GMT

My teacher tech talk "webinar" from last Tuesday has now posted. For those of you who were unable to attend in person, I encourage you to take a look. During this webinar, I cover both OneNote 2007 and Outlook 2007 and how teachers can use these two Microsoft Office tools to be more productive and communicate more effectively.

Click here to view the 12/2/08 webinar. Once you are on the page, click the "Watch Now" button - see the picture below:

Here was the outline of what I talked about:

Outlook demo

Basics

Ribbon
Calendaring
ToDo Bar, Follow Up and Categories

SharePoint Integration
Office Communicator, IM integration
RSS feeds in Outlook
OneNote integration (see below)

OneNote demo

Outlook integration

Tasks
Outlook Meetings, Contact and Email integration
Send to OneNote
Email your notes or save as a web page/PDF

Shared notebooks
Recording audio and video for podcasts with OneNote
Blogging from OneNote

If you are new to the Teacher Tech Tuesday site, you will have to register and then sign in. After signing in you'll be taken to a LiveMeeting page where you can then watch the video, or download a copy for yourself.

12/2/08 Webinar - Creating effective communications with OneNote & Outlook

Mike_Tholfsen — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 03:22:00 GMT

Next Tuesday, 12/2/08, I'll be doing another Teacher Tech Tuesday. This time I will be talking about both Outlook and OneNote in the context of teachers and communications. I worked on the Outlook team for 8 years so I have a reasonable background on Outlook, and as you know I currently work on the OneNote team. Click here to sign up for the 60 minute webinar. Here are some of the topics I plan on demoing during next Tuesday's webinar:

Outlook demo

Basics
- Ribbon
- Calendaring
- ToDo Bar, Follow Up and Categories
- Instant Search
SharePoint Integration
RSS feeds in Outlook
Office Communicator, IM integration
OneNote integration (see below)

OneNote demo

Outlook integration
- Tasks
- Outlook Meetings, Contact and Email integration
- Send to OneNote
- Email your notes or save as a web page/PDF
Shared notebooks
Recording audio and video for podcasts with OneNote
Blogging from OneNote (I uploaded this entry directly from OneNote :-)

Official Abstract

Live Dec 2 1:00PM-2:00PM Pacific Time

Learn how Microsoft tools can help you stay in touch with students, parents, fellow teachers and administration. From email to lesson podcasts to collaborative discussions and presentations — you can keep everyone informed and engaged.

Hope to see you next Tuesday and have a great thanksgiving holiday!

The OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers webinar now posted for your viewing pleasure

Mike_Tholfsen — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 19:59:00 GMT

My teacher tech talk "webinar" from last Tuesday has now posted. For those of you who were unable to attend in person, I encourage you to take a look. During this webinar, I cover all aspects of the OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers, including all of the tutorials, how to articles, videos, teacher-focused OneNote explanations, lesson plan examples and other resources to help get teachers started using OneNote in the classroom.

Click here to view the 11/11/08 webinar. Once you are on the page, click the "Watch Now" button - see the picture below:

If you are new to the site, you will have to register and then sign in. After signing in you'll be taken to a LiveMeeting page where you can then watch the video, or download a copy for yourself.

I've already received mail from a viewer who is showing OneNote and the Teacher Toolkit to others in her school district. That's great to hear - spread the word!

Get a free copy of OneNote 2007 - watch this Tuesday's Teacher Tech talk: OneNote 2007 Teacher Toolkit

Mike_Tholfsen — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 20:12:00 GMT

Join me this Tuesday at 1:00 pm PST for a late lunch webinar where I'll be covering the OneNote 2007 Toolkit for Teachers. This is a great resource to help teachers get up to speed on OneNote and how it can be used as an effective education resources. The toolkit is a OneNote notebook filled with templates, tutorials, how to articles, videos, teacher-focused OneNote explanations, lesson plan examples and other resources to help get teachers started using OneNote in the classroom. I've blogged about this toolkit in the past and this Tuesday I'll be showing it live.

Click here to sign up for this Tuesday's webinar

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! More details on how you get your free copy are listed below. So spread the word that teachers can get a free copy of OneNote if they watch this webinar on Tuesday.

Speaker: Mike Tholfsen—OneNote Product Team
When: Live Nov 11 1:00PM-2:00PM Pacific Time

*View the 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 November 30th, 2008. Offer expires at 11:59 PST on November 30th, 2008, 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).

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 Student ID Card
 Dated Faculty ID Card
 Dated, current class schedule
 Letter from school on school letterhead
 Recent faculty/staff payment stub (please black out salary information)

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!

OneNote curriculum project in Ireland

Mike_Tholfsen — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:10:00 GMT

Tom Jackson of Microsoft has been working with some Irish schools on a fascinating project using OneNote to develop and distribute curriculum to students. To understand the background of the project, read his initial blog entry from February.

Tom recently posted a new blog entry summarizing what they did. He will be adding more detailed blog entries regularly so be sure to check back. I cited a few parts of his entry below.

Supporting documents:

For site visitors on Tom's SkyDrive site here
If you're interested in the Curriculum Mapping piece that was a core part of the Northern Ireland solution, you can see a great video about it here

Quotes:

From Niall- Dunshaughlin CC Student: “I do believe that given the right training and equipment, - OneNote is the future for learning!"

Kevin Reilly- Dunshaughlin CC History Teacher:“Excellent software to facilitate organisation in a student’s learning.Inspires inquisitorial spirit e.g. students organised a guest speaker, Kari Rosvall” (See RTE video for her background)

OneNote and Learning Styles - I found the quote from Neil below to be particularly interesting as we have been talking about OneNote and learning styles as well. This seems to support the research that Dr. Ole Lauridsen has done with his "OneNote and Learning Styles - A Perfect Match." paper. If you haven't yet read his pamphlet or watched the video of Dr. Lauridsen, I would highly encourage you to take a browse.

Neil Armstrong-Wallace HS History Teacher: “More pleasing to note, is the improvement of a couple of pupils who have shown an improvement in their essay mark, compared to earlier work this term. This includes Student A, Student B, Student C, Student D and especially Student E. Student E has really shown the true merits of using OneNote and UMPC in the classroom. He was previously underachieving, yet with the pilot he really showed what he was capable of. I believe him to be a kinesthetic learner; therefore he needs to be focused on completing a task using his hands. Otherwise his attention wanders. During the pilot he was very focused and really put the largest amount of effort into the OneNote module that I have seen all year to date!!. This means that the OneNote has the potential of helping to improve the work and grades of underachieving males and kinesthetic learners. It may have a larger field in helping pupils with SEN with organisation and producing work."

Are other educators experimenting with OneNote and curriculum? Let us know - share you story!

-mike

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.