OneNote

I have selected to explore OneNote as a new E-Learning tool. As it offers such a range of uses in the classroom, I have broken my reflection into two categories- benefits for teachers, and benefits for students.

Benefits for Teachers

OneNote allows teachers to easily create organized digital binders of their materials. For instance, teachers can compile all of their lesson plans, assignments, worksheets, quizzes and answer keys in neatly tabbed sections rather than having to keep a hard copy of all of their master copies. Teachers can maintain records of conversations and emails, as OneNote and Outlook can be directly linked together. There are easy search features that allow teachers to find key words and assignments without searching through the entirety of their collection manually. The system also has a clear and easy to follow help screen where teachers can follow the web tutorials to learn how to start their own classroom notebooks. It can be accessed at: http://www.onenoteforteachers.com/

Benefits for Students

Through OneNote, students can access quizzes, handouts, class notes, homework, and any other material from their classes. Rather than printing the material, students can fill it in online (which can help schools become more environmentally friendly). Teachers can access individual student work and provide direct feedback and annotate their work as needed. This works particularly well if teachers have access to a tablet where they can actually handwrite and draw on the assignment to indicate changes or suggestions. Students are then able to adjust and edit their work throughout the writing process, in English for instance, rather than having to wait until they have handed it in to receive feedback. Teachers can monitor student progress and understanding and provide clear and descriptive feedback through the OneNote program which can be accessed through a variety of different technological devices. As students collect their assignments online, they can begin to form a digital portfolio and no longer have to worry about losing their assessments. Teachers can also create individualized and differentiated lessons for students and by providing audio, video and text supports for students to learn from. Likewise, students can submit their work through audio, video or text provided they have the correct technology. This allows students of various needs and abilities to submit work which is reflective of their understanding, rather than solely being expected to submit assignments using the traditional paper and pen format. Students can also collaborate with one another through classroom notebooks, or the teacher can change the settings so that students have an individual workspace. This flexibility allows teachers to assign a variety of different assessments and interactive lessons which can be catered to the needs of the students or class. Finally, teachers can easily email the work to parents/students if they are absent to keep everyone informed.


Here is a great video which explains and clearly illustrates some of the features of the program.