OneNote Review

Microsoft One Note - Tardy to the Party?

For the last assignment for Technology in Music Education at Kent State University, I have been asked to provide a brief review of Microsoft's OneNote. The videos and interactive tutorials on Microsoft's website are impressive and exciting. Students collaborating, an integrated workspace for assignments, classwork, learning tools, even collecting and returning homework assignments. It looks truly dazzling. I happily downloaded the app for my iPad and started exploring.

As a digital notebook, OneNote is serviceable. Typing is quick and easy and drawing, even with just a finger - not a stylus, was accurate and smooth. Adding links, photos, videos, audio is easy and seamless. The download was rather large however and I've had a couple of instances of glitchy performance - the keyboard appeared half off screen making me restart the app to get rid of it - and other bizarre performance issues that I chalked up to Microsoft's continuing feud with Apple. Without students signed into the system though, I couldn't imagine how I would use it in my classroom as I already have other programs that I happily use to fulfill the digital notebook role, and as a Google Classroom school, I don't see my IT department hopping on board with OneNote (no matter how enamored with Microsoft they may be.) Like the sadly underutilized Google+, collaborative software is only as powerful as the number of people willing to use it, and while Google couldn't conquer facebook for social networking, I don't see Microsoft toppling Google Docs domination in the collaborative workflow department.

For now, I imagine I'll stick with Google Classroom which allows me much of the classroom management and student collaboration aspects of OneNote, and penultimate for my digital notebook needs. While OneNote certainly looks slick, I can't see convincing everyone around me to make the switch - which is what would need to happen to truly use the program to its greatest effect.

I think my desk is under there... How technology can help productivity.

Productivity!

Aah, productivity... that dirty little buzz word that somehow always makes me feel inadequate. If only I were more efficient, if I just had a better color coding system, if I could just... find. that. darned. paper! (I KNOW I put it RIGHT HERE!!!)

I am not, by nature, the world's most organized or neatest person. My house is always a little out of control (especially with a toddler, an infant, and a puppy running about!) there are always piles of mail on most horizontal surfaces in my kitchen. I'm a bit of a messy-nessy and unfortunately, my husband isn't much better... so no one would confuse our house for Martha Stewart's.

Martha is not impressed

Not surprisingly, my desk at work is similarly in a bit of a shamble. In April when I found out on the day my Long Term Sub was supposed to start to shadow me for 2 weeks before April break that I would instead be having my son 3 weeks early (my poor sub didn't even get to shadow me for a day... we had a snow day that day!) my biggest concern was what an utter disaster my desk was! I had planned on cleaning it on the Friday before, but I rushed out for an emergency doctor's appointment and didn't get a chance. I never went back... oops! I always wish that my classroom, especially my desk, could be pinterest worthy... and someday maybe I'll get there. That day is not today.

Distinctly not pinterest worthy

The one thing that I am pretty successful at is using technology to help my digital life stay organized. I stopped taking notes at conference with paper and pencil a few years ago after switching to an iPad and Penultimate. I love that I can take snapshots of aspects of a presentation and write comments on/around it... I love the zoomed writing screen so I can fit more than 6 words on a page... I love the autoscroll so that I can just write in one place and have the ipad automatically move the writing window. I really love that I can easily send copies of my notes to colleagues! 

Another organizational win is through Google. While I'm an Apple girl through and through, I absolutely adore the Google suite of productivity tools. I wouldn't call myself a power user yet, but the level of organization capable through Google tools is astounding. My district just became a Google Classroom district and I look forward to digging into that software when I return from Maternity leave. Previously, I've used Google forms for students to submit concert reflections (no more struggling to read terrible handwriting, or having to lug a giant stack of papers home to grade!) and even set up a google form for my Drama Club parents to arrange carpools for pickups after rehearsal - just put in sections for names and contact information, schedule needs, and what section of town they lived in, then I gave the parents access to the resulting spreadsheet so they could coordinate their own ride sharing. I didn't have to deal with angry parents who felt they didn't have any way to get their kids home without the bus and parents were happy to be able to work together and help each other out.

I still need to unpack it all!

You can even make quizzes through Google that grade themselves. (Wish I had that when I was still giving quizzes! ) As much as I love Google Apps, I've only just scratched the surface of what they're capable of.

With so many options for amazing technology productivity tools it's easy to feel overwhelmed by the possibilities, but if you try a few things and keep what works for you you might just be able to find a way to clear the clutter from your digital desk too!

When is technology not Technology?

When is technology (small "t") no longer Technology (capital "T")?

As I sat down to write this blog post I intended my topic to be about how the simplest and most transparent types of technology could sometimes be the most effective uses of technology in our classrooms. Using a stereo to play a song, or a DVD to show a film, or a simple graphics program to create a listening map are all sited by Bauer (2014) as ways to incorporate technology in regard to "Responding to Music" standards. But then I realized... I don't really, in my heart of hearts, truly consider any of that to be using technology. DVDs are being replaced by Blu-ray, a stereo is as essential in a classroom as paper and pencils, and even the most curmudgeonly of colleagues has at least a working knowledge of how to create decent looking documents using Word or Pages.

All this got me thinking... at what point does technology stop being technology? Even things that don't fall out of favor and usage (*coughcough* eight-tracks *coughcough* fax machines *coughcough* AOL *coughcough*) reach a point that even though they are used daily they just aren't thought of as technology - think landline telephones, the light bulb. A quick Google Images search of "Thomas Edison lightbulb" turns up a whole host of pictures of Edison with his greatest invention (side note.. most of which if recreated would look really silly today... ) but when you really think about it, would you list the light bulb when asked about technology that you know how to use?

Edison and his greatest invention

Johnson looking like a lunatic.

(double note... should I be worried that my husband didn't ask why I wanted him to take a picture of me holding a lightbulb? )

Even cell phones, which have become mini computers that we store in our pockets, started as technology that is laughable today.

Zack Morris - Have giant cell phone, will travel.

... and even I remember a time when anyone who called you while driving for some reason had to start the conversation with "I'm calling you from my car phone!"

Do I sound more important on this car phone?

So at what point does technology stop being technology? Who decides? And is it the same for everyone? Douglas Adams (of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame) said:

     1) everything that’s already in the world when you’re born is just normal;

     2) anything that gets invented between then and before you turn thirty is incredibly exciting and 

     creative and with any luck you can make a career out of it;

     3) anything that gets invented after you’re thirty is against the natural order of things and the 

     beginning of the end of civilisation as we know it until it’s been around for about ten years when it 

     gradually turns out to be alright really.

     Apply this list to movies, rock music, word processors and mobile phones to work out how old 

     you are. 

So by Adams' definition, what is or isn't technology can be vastly different depending on who is talking. In terms of educational technology, it means that what we as teachers consider to be technology will almost certainly not be the same as what our students consider to be technology. I saw this as an "Age Test" on social media and thought it was funny so I asked my students if they knew what the connection between the two objects was... and they didn't even know what the cassette was never mind how they went together. (sigh.) 

I guess the point is, technology (or Technology) is a moving target which means in order to give the best we can to our students we should focus on those things that help us do our job better, and those things that help our students connect with our material in the best way possible. Otherwise we're just calling from the carphone just to say that we're on the carphone.


References

Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and    responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

DNA/How to Stop Worrying and Learn to Love the Internet. (1999). Douglasadams.com. Retrieved 12 August 2016, from http://www.douglasadams.com/dna/19990901-00-a.html

Project Based Learning! I... don't... do that.

PBL... ?

"What do you notice is missing from the grade scale that you might be used to seeing?" I ask my General Music students on day 1 of class. They look at the "Welcome" sheet I've handed out with my classroom rules and basic rundown of what we'll be doing this term. "Participation - 30%, Classwork/Homework - 30%, Projects - 40%" They look back at me, eyes wide... "how much are tests?" they ask. "I don't do tests. No tests, no quizzes." I calmly reply. I love to watch their faces as they try to figure out if I'm kidding. Between tests and quizzes as assessments in other classes, and the bevvy of standardized assessments they take each year, these kids are tested to death and they've been conditioned to believe that the only way that they can "get" a grade in a class is by taking a test at the end of each unit. I respond to their chorus of "Seriously? Is this a trick? So what are we graded on?" by explaining to them that I stopped believing in tests in my classroom. For years I would give tests and quizzes, my first year I insisted that they study and memorize - all books and notebooks must be clear off their desks at test time. Students did pretty well, but by the time they left my room whatever they had been tested on was already gone - on the paper, out of their minds. So I switched to open-notes tests and told them at the beginning of the term that all tests and quizzes would be open notes so if they wrote it down, they would have all the answers. I hoped that if I could get them to focus on good note taking techniques they would retain more of the information for a longer-term. I told myself that I didn't need them to remember all this stuff, I just needed them to know how to find the information when they needed it. Grades were even better... and retention was still abysmal. Then finally it came to me... I didn't actually care if they could spit back the information to me at all! Their ability to name different time signatures, or list 4 bands of the British Invasion, or describe the parts of Sonata Form wasn't what I was really aiming for. What I really wanted was for them to be able to use that information in a new way. I started giving them projects so that they could demonstrate their learning, and their retention soared, by creating something new, they were understanding the information in a whole new way, a way that didn't fall out of their heads the moment they went on to their next class. I did away with the tests that weren't really telling me anything anyway so I could spend even more time on projects in my classroom.

I proudly told people that I had implemented Project Based Learning (PBL) in my classroom and felt proud of my cutting-edge-ness. My students were happy and learning more than ever, I was pleased with how smoothly my classroom was running and the ease of grading. Everything was going swimmingly! Then I read Bauer's (2014) description of PBL... and while I was hitting some of the points he described, I was definitely missing some others. I started digging deeper online about what PBL really is and it seems I have a ways more to go. While I'm having my students work on projects, it doesn't always cross the bridge into PBL. 

Far from being discouraged however, I am more excited about implementing a real PBL model in my classroom. Many of my current projects need just a few tweaks to really improve them and push them to true PBL. I have spoken several times on this blog about the importance of imparting 21st century skills to our students, and PBL can really help students learn how to collaboratively solve problems - a 21st century skill if I've ever heard one. I am more than willing to put in a little extra effort for such a huge payout!

References:
Bauer, W. I. (2014). Music learning today: Digital pedagogy for creating, performing, and    responding to music. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.