OneNote for Classroom Notetaking: Amazing!

If you have Microsoft Office Suite, you already have OneNote.  I had not even looked at it until today, but I am glad I did.  This is an amazing tool that keeps notes (and more) in a format that looks like a 3 ring binder (similar to LiveBinders). You can save multiple notebooks, with tabbed sections and pages within the sections.  It allows you to share and collaborate on a notebook and color codes changes by user (like Google Drive).  But it has many features that these free products do not have.  

The most important feature (I think) for assisting students' note-taking, is the audio recording feature.  You can record a lecture while writing notes, and the audio syncs with the written notes, so the student can hear what the teacher was saying when the selected text was written, to verify what the notes mean. This is similar to the iPad app called Noteability, if you've seen that.  But, for me, the interface on OneNote is more intuitive. 

But wait, there's more!

You can type, or use a mouse, or a stylus or your finger on a touchscreen to handwrite notes and draw diagrams. The notes can be converted to digital text later.  Notes can be added anywhere on the page just by clicking and typing. It automatically creates a text box wherever you begin typing!

Image of the drawing function, where you can see the layout - Notebooks on the left, tabs on the top and pages on the right margin.  

Image credit: http://techyjunction.wordpress.com/category/install-office-2013/

You can also import video or images, and OneNote automatically adds a reference for the source of the image if imported from the web.  You can insert tables, Excel spreadsheets or almost any computer file.  You can draw diagrams as well. It even has a built in calculator. 

You can also share your notes with others and collaborate on a note or notebook together (like Google Drive or Wiki).

It is also available as an iPad app or Android app and on the web, so you can access your notes anywhere, even on a computer that does not have OneNote installed.  You need MS Skydrive for sharing and syncing.

Watch this quick video to see how to set up a notebook on OneNote.  This will link you to several other YouTube videos and tutorials for more info on how to use OneNote.




OneNote is a Microsoft application and comes bundled with Office, or can be purchased separately, but you can also get a free one month trial online at OneNote.com.   

OneNote has been available since Office 2003, with Service Pack 1, but may not have all the features noted here (I am reviewing OneNote 2010, there is a 2013 version as well)

CS Ed Week

I've been away from this blog for a while.  Actually, I have been working on another blog for my latest masters program technology integration class. Although that blog is for class assignments and discussions, there are a lot of good ideas and discussions from the class.  If you'd like to check it out, it's here. The blog roll on that one is a list of my classmate's blogs. 

But big happenings last week, in addition to finishing up my latest grad course, it was CS Ed Week  which coincided with the week of the birthday of former navy rear admiral and one of the first female programmers, Grace Hopper.  "Amazing Grace" was credited with coining the phrase "debugging a program" after having to literally remove a moth from a computer she was programming.  She worked on the original Cobol programming language release and is also credited with the quote, "It's easier to beg for forgiveness, than to ask for permission."  Computer science educators realize that girls shy away from technology fields, especially programming, and Grace could be an inspiration to them.  Here she is at 80 years old on Letterman:

Video of Grace Hopper on Letterman

Scratch Interactive Card 

Anyway, CS Ed Week, part of Code.org, sponsored the Hour of Code project.  It was their goal to get 1 billion kids to participate in an hour of coding tutorials.  The school I work in is strictly for special needs kids, some severely delayed, so a lot of them wouldn't be able to participate in the computer tutorials, although some did with assistance and alternative technology.  I do teach a programming class to a few of the students, currently using Scratch, but will be exploring some others later. But I wanted all of the students to at least have an understanding of how coding works and what makes their electronics work.  

Binary Mosaics

So I put together a "Programming Faire" which was held on December 13th (as part of our Fun {but educational} Friday program) which lasted for the 2 hours after lunch, with many activities for the kids to participate in. In addition to the Hour of Code tutorials, we did a lot of "unplugged" activities (some which were from csunplugged.org), as the pictures show.  I also have a Makey Makey which was used to demonstrate how we program the banana piano and the Playdough controller using Scratch.  

Nxt Robot

We also used our iPads to play games that walk them through the programming process, like LightBot, Daisy the Dinosaur and Fix the Factory and we created interactive Scratch holiday cards using the IWB.  In addition, I had a Lego Mindstorms NxT robot programming demonstration and we had a visit from the Nao Robots, which was probably the most attended activity, thanks to our communications disorders department, after they saw the video I shared with them, because of its asknao program for autistic kids.  

MakeyMakey Playdough
Controller

All in all it was very well attended and it was great that our kids could participate in a program that was worldwide.  I put it all together, but also had help from a few teachers, our library media specialist and a former technology integrator who volunteered her time to come help run the activities.  I am very grateful for their help.  It was a lot of work, but it was fun, and I hope we can do it again next year!

Secret Codes

Piktochart

Want to create your own infographic?  Check out Piktochart.

Here's an infographic I made today for my class on technology integration. It was a little bit of a learning curve, but once I got the idea, it was pretty easy.  I am using the free account, so the themes are limited, but I think it would be just as easy to start with a blank canvas.  

This is also a good alternative to other presentation tools. Click on tools and chart and enter your data, then choose the chart type, then add text and images if desired.  Click and drag to move charts around, but be careful of overlapping charts.  I would recommend grouping all elements of a graphic once they are organized, then you can move them simultaneously.  To do this just highlight all of the elements and click the group icon, which is to the left of the delete icon in the top toolbar.  There are tutorial videos under resources, or go to /piktochart.com/demo/.

After your Piktochart is saved and published, it can be viewed as a presentation, printed, embedded on an HTML website or shared on social media sites.  Here's the link to my infographic to view it online. Note this is best viewed on Chrome or Firefox.

Time Toast

I am taking another technology integration class and this week I had to create a timeline using TimeToast.com.  This is a really cool tool for creating animated, interactive timelines.  This would be a great tool to use for history class or even tracking the plot of a novel that spans time.

It is pretty easy to get started. There is a free account or you can sign up for one of the two paid plans for a few dollars a month if you want to have a classroom account.  Teacher moderation is included in the paid plans.

Once you create a timeline, by entering the name and a category if you choose, you click on Add Event, enter a date and name of the event.  Then you can also add more info and a link as well as a photo all on the same form.  You must have photos saved on your computer ahead of time so you can upload it to your gallery, however. Then click create event and the form will close and a tag will be posted on your timeline.  Just repeat for as many events as you have and then your timeline will be done.  It is automatically saved to your dashboard.

Your visually enhanced timeline can be viewed in full screen.  Just click on any event and a page will open with the additional information about the event.  It can also be viewed in text view, just by clicking on Text View at the top of the page.  You will see a table with all of the information in chronological order.

Here is an example of a timeline, the one I created for my technology class on the history of communication technology devices. It can be embedded in your HTML sites as well! Enjoy.

Scratch Halloween Cards

Happy Halloween from Scratchers!

I haven't been posting as much here because I am posting on my other blog which is for another grad class, but thought I'd share this one. I love Scratch.  Here are some multimedia Halloween "cards" made by some of my students using Scratch.  Scratch is a program that teaches kids how to code using blocks or puzzle pieces to string together commands to create a script.   It was developed by the Lifelong Kindergarten Project at MIT.

You may have to click on the flag to start the script. But it should start by itself.






 Happy Halloween!

My First Maker Faire

What is MakerFaire?  Basically it's a grassroots movement where DIY aficionados get together to display their projects and inventions.  It consists of both low tech and high tech projects.  I discovered the MakerFaire and MakerCamp concepts recently. After having learned programming with Scratch and Makey Makey, I started seeing other uses for this programming language.  One was Raspberry Pi, which is a mini computer used to teach computer science to kids.

I saw that there was going to be a mini MakerFaire on August 24th, about an hour and a half away in Dover, NH, so I decided to go.   I was interested to learn more about Raspberry Pi and robotics projects, but there were a lot of other interesting exhibits, like felting, jewelry making, and old fashioned ice cream maker and digital music. One of the exhibits at the Dover Mini Faire was a demonstration of the Raspberry Pi.  A professor of programming at SNHU, Don Norris, was demonstrating how Pi could be used to program a robot.  I was excited to learn about his book Raspberry Pi for the Evil Genius.  It has a lot of good information and programs to get you started.

But I also enjoyed seeing a new invention by a young man which can be used to type with one hand.  It's called Jester Type and here is a video of it in action.

I was also interested to see demos of 3D printers.  This one was built from a kit by an Exeter, NH high school student:

All in all it was a great Faire.  They plan to do it again next year, so I'm hoping it's even bigger and better!  Check out the MakerFaire site to find one near you!

Teaching Kids "Real Math", and Writing and Social Studies and...

Conrad Wolfram's TED Talk addresses the problems with decreasing math proficiency in schools today and suggests that the cure to the problem is to use computers to teach math.  He claims that schools put too much emphasis on calculating by hand.  He says that computers were created to do calculations and that doing hand calculations is an ancient subject.  His argument is that in the real world engineers and others use computers to do mathematical calculations.

We should be teaching students to do things they way they are done in real life. They need to learn skills that they will utilize in their future. As Wolfram says, the best way to solve a problem is to use the right tool for the job.  I think what he says about math can apply to any subject.  When teaching writing, whether it be creative or persuasive writing, why make kids use paper and pen instead of using a computer.  When they get out of school, if they get a job working in an environment where communication is done by computer, they are going to need to be able to communicate electronically, and I don't mean via texting.  Computers can do the menial tasks, like spell checking, so that the students can focus on the task of formulating their ideas and getting their point across to the reader.  With applications like Dragon, Kurzweil, or Text Help, students can work on getting to the point of their writing, rather than the mechanics of spelling the words. Most mobile devices have built in spelling and reading assistance as well.

Yes, these are assistive technologies, but some people need assistance.  I like to compare the use of technology to assist people with difficulties to wearing glasses to see.  Would you say that the person wearing glasses has an advantage or is cheating?  Maybe in Ben Franklin's day that might have been the discussion, but we are living in the 21st century now.

The same could be said for social studies, or science or economics.  Why learn about other countries from a book, when you could connect and collaborate with students from another country via Skype?  There are lots of sites with economics information (like the US Debt Clock) or science simulations. This is authentic learning!