Week 7: OneNote Review

            After reviewing the video and exploring Microsoft OneNote, I was impressed with the capabilities that the program had.  A few of my colleagues described using this program as an interactive notebook that allows more freedom for note taking than Microsoft Word or other Office products.  Hearing their descriptions of the software I wanted to try this out and see if I could use OneNote as a place for my students and myself to take memorable notes where we could have the freedom to draw in or type notes.  While the software has the capabilities of doing this, I realized this program was so much more.  For the disorganized teacher who is constantly on the go to multiple schools, this software had the capabilities to become a hub for resources that I could carry around with me instead of carrying multiple paper copies.  This feature stood out to me the most because I could organize my weekly lesson plans and activities into one central location that I could access anywhere on any device.  It also would allow me share these resources with my students where they could draw their own notes or do paperless assignments that I could keep track of.

            Microsoft OneNote is arranged to have one more folders that can be accessed at anytime without closing out a window.  In each folder, notes and resources can be divided into organized tabs similar to plastic tab dividers.  In each tab, multiple pages of notes can be created.  I chose lay my OneNote folder out to have tabs that would contain schedules, lesson plans, resources for each grade level, a place for notes.  Honestly, there is no wrong way to organize each folder.  While the folder I created became more of an administrative folder, I can create and share folders that can be accessed by students.   I can also create folders that could be available to certain grade levels.   One of the tabs I created was to see how this program could be used for note taking.  The drawing tools can be used for easy note taking, however I recommend this feature to only be used on a tablet as the drawing tool with a computer mouse would not be neat.  In some cases I wonder if this could be a comparable tool for a whiteboard at a student’s fingertips if it was on the student’s tablet.  Though there are many positives with OneNote, one of my last minute experiences was negative as I was unable to sign on to an older version of OneNote from one of my school computers unless I had a Microsoft account, whereas the newer versions I was able to log on using my school e-mail address.

            Even though my research on OneNote was brief where I was allowed to play around with the program, I would like to take more time to explore OneNote.  Though I have experienced other note taking software and applications, this one showed it could be useful for my organization.  If I were to use this software, I would like to progress into using it as an administrative tool where I can organize my own classroom resources.  My band will be going on a trip this year and I can see this tool as a hub to hold multiple resources such as itineraries, files of receipts, and parental releases.   Once I get use to the software, I would like to introduce this to my school district as a way for our school to have a way to do paperless notes and assignments.