Not to talk too big a game, but OneNote is one of the most useful programs in existence. It comes preloaded on the Microsoft Surface and can be downloaded for free on iOS, Android and MacOS.
In the classroom teachers can use it for many engaging activities. There are so many features of OneNote that I love, but my top 3 favourite features of OneNote are:
- Using the pen – I love drawing on the screen and taking notes
- Dictation
- Notebooks
Firstly, the Power of Inking. The pen can do so much on the Surface Pro. In OneNote in particular you can write or draw straight on the screen. This is great to take notes, draw diagrams and sketches – this opens up possibilities in learning areas such as Art, Maths & Science that are not possible with laptops.
Dictation – being able to have notes typed for you that you can read back later are useful so the learner can concentrate when a speaker is talking and have notes to refer to later. To use this function, click on the ‘dictate’ button at the top and you will see in OneNote it says ‘listening.’ What is heard will be typed in OneNote. This is a super useful tool in the classroom, or when watching a clip on YouTube or elsewhere.
Notebooks are excellent because you can create a separate section for each student in your class. It allows you to see all student’s work and the student to only see his / her work. The teacher can also edit and mark students work and it will appear in the student’s note book. I also like that the teacher can add text to a students notebook and then students can use that in other applications. For example, when coding, students can copy the code from their notebook into a coding application where they can modify and test the code.
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