Module 3 – Using OneNote for Literacy

[Pat Brennan]

Use the Notebook to collate the resources intended for use for the lesson/series oflessons and include Learning Intentions and a Checklist.
Continue your OneNote journey with OneNote Class Notebook on the Microsoft Learn Education Centre.

Consider how OneNote and OneNote Learning Tools could support and expand deeper learning opportunities for students. Post a reflective piece (150 words minimum)as a reply to this post.

[Niall Quinn]

OneNote and OneNote learning tools could support and expand deeper learning opportunities for students in a variety of ways. First of all, from a lesson planning perspective, OneNote if utilised correctly can make lessons richer and provide better learner outcomes. It is also an excellent collaborative tool and could be used to enrich the planning and teaching of coteaching lessons. I feel it could work very well in middle and upper primary for homework and project work. It has wonderful language possibilities – for EAL pupils as well as students with AEN. The immersive reader is a very useful tool and be used to differntiate work effectively. Take the I wandered lonely poem as an example. A whole spectrum of ability could be catered for using the immersive reader – translation for the pupil with EAL, individual reading for the pupil with AEN, identifying verbs and nouns for other children, and maybe identifying adverbs and adjectives for more able pupils. All done , quite quickly and efficiently and ideal for a joint plenary session at the end of the lesson – with everyone bringing the results of their activities to make for an engaging plenary session.

[Deirdre Maye]

Hi Niall

You can use OneNote to collect and organise a wide range of content,

OneNote can go further, allowing you to clip content from websites, add audio notes and link to videos.  Like you said its could work well for homework and project work. Especially with the older classes.  Might be an idea to have junior classes work with the senior class so they can get an idea of how it works.

I like the idea of using poetry with One note and One Note Learning, it will make for a great collaborative lesson.

 

[Laura Craig]

I will be making suggestions to SLT about implementing OneNote into the school. OneNote can be used to collect and organise a wide range of content, whereas your paper notebook can only cope with text, drawings, and perhaps glued-in pictures.  I really like OneNote because it allows you to clip content from websites and link to videos. Another useful feature of OneNote is the ability to share notes or notebooks with other people. This could be great for collecting material for a group project. I also agree that OneNote would work well in upper primary and could be used for a range of activities. Differentiation can be demonstrated and used effectively. I am excited to use OneNote in my class! Laura Craig

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Laura Craig.

[Deirdre Tully]

One of the schools I work in for PRD is a Microsoft showcase school who use OneNote as their main teaching and learning tool.

The first day I saw it in use I couldn’t get over the incredible opportunities for creativity from both a teaching and learning perspective. The lessons certainly do come to life with the colourful text, backgrounds, images, videos and audio content and Microsoft have considered every type of learner as the tools included in OneNote enhance the literacy and numeracy objective of the lessons.

Since then, I’ve seen its benefits in terms of homework, group work, projects and also as an effective planning tool in schools. Absolutely everything is stored in one place and can be accessed by everyone who needs it.

It is also another means to reduce the needless printing of pages as PDF’s are seamlessly added to sections that can be accessed and edited by all the children. Huge issue I see in most schools is paper waste.

 

 

[Niamh Ní Dhúill]

I started using one note last year as part of a college course. We were encouraged to record our assignments, review lectures and use it to keep a record of our learning. I found it difficult to use in the beginning and couldn’t see its value but now one year later I have a record of everything all in one place.

For school, I would like to use one note for my own class. I will use the files for each subject and links to video clips , audio clips or different resources. At the moment I am saving them in my documents but I feel one note will help me be more organised.

Can you sign out of your one note and create a new one note  and still have access to your old one? I’m afraid to sign out of the college file!

[Deirdre Maye]

Hi Niamh,

When you first start OneNote for Windows 10, you’re prompted to sign in with your preferred Microsoft account. You can add additional accounts at any time and then open notebooks from these accounts.

I’m glad you are seeing the benefits of One Note.

[Margaret O Neill]

Even though we are an Microsoft Office 365 school I haven’t used One note much yet. However after seeing it demonstrated in this course I can really see how beneficial it would be to be as a teacher to create content for all my classes. It would take a bit of planning and organizing to get all the lessons laid out but once this initial work is completed it will make my classes more structured for both myself and my students. I also take some classes of Learning Support where some of my students are dyslexic. Straight away I can see an enormous benefit of using the Immersive Reader facility through One note. It will make text a lot more accessible to these students and will also benefit other students in the class who may not be dyslexic but who may find it difficult to understand a topic from just reading it in its original text form. I think this facility will be a game changer for these students going forward. Likewise it will benefit students where English isn’t their first language.

[Deirdre Maye]

Hi Margaret,

Immersive Reader can improve reading comprehension and increase fluency for English language learners. It can help build confidence for emerging readers learning to read at higher levels, and offer text decoding solutions for students with learning differences such as dyslexia.  I can imagine your students will love it.

 

[Jane Conlon]

I never really understood One Note until this module. I have to say I really like it now. As I work in a special class I love the immersive reader tool. It offers so much flexibility to one piece of text, making it accessible for diverse student abilities. And it is so easy to do. I will be using this tool in the future. I see so many possibilities for using one note in my setting. We collaborate among year groups for planning and preparation. Using one note for planning means all plans can be streamlined and each contributor can access and work on the same document. I also think the layout with chapters and sections is so clear and easy to navigate both for students and staff. In terms of preparation of lessons, the exemplars  demonstrate the value of creating a template using the same colour codes for Learning objectives etc and then using the template across the school. I think this makes total sense and is only going to benefit students when the same layout and system

is used school wide. It will also save on needless printing!

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Jane,

One Note really is a fantastic tool. In terms of comparing Google Workspace and Office 365, there is little difference in the functionality of most apps (e.g. Docs v Word, Slides v PowerPoint). However, OneNote is something that Google have yet to find a competitor for and gives Microsoft a huge advantage. You have mentioned a number of ways in which it could be incorporated into staff planning. In addition to this, uploading class content, exemplars and videos can be hugely beneficial for students to refresh their learning, and also for teachers when they cover a similar topic in subsequent years.

[Mary Callaghan]

<div class=”OutlineElement Ltr SCXO82869923 BCX0″ style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; color: #000000; font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, ‘Segoe UI Web’, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>
<p class=”Paragraph SCXO82869923 BCX0″ lang=”EN-US” style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;” xml:lang=”EN-US”><span class=”TextRun SCXO82869923 BCX0″ lang=”EN-IE” style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;” xml:lang=”EN-IE” data-contrast=”auto”><span class=”NormalTextRun SCXO82869923 BCX0″ style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;”>One </span><span class=”SpellingError SCXO82869923 BCX0″ style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: url(‘data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAJECAP////8AAAAAAAAAACH5BAEAAAIALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIIlGAXCCHrTCgAOw==’); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; background-color: inherit;”>NOte</span><span class=”NormalTextRun SCXO82869923 BCX0″ style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;”> and One </span><span class=”SpellingError SCXO82869923 BCX0″ style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: left bottom; background-image: url(‘data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhBQAEAJECAP////8AAAAAAAAAACH5BAEAAAIALAAAAAAFAAQAAAIIlGAXCCHrTCgAOw==’); border-bottom: 1px solid transparent; background-color: inherit;”>NOte</span><span class=”NormalTextRun SCXO82869923 BCX0″ style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; background-color: inherit;”> tools are a valuable in teaching and learning. This platform can deliver all teaching and learning needs. It also gives teachers more opportunities / choice to use different methodologies, especially in Special Education/ school /class support students. When creating content teachers can use a variety of media to explain certain aspects of any topic. Some pupils may only need text, some need a pictorial description, some may find a video or an audio valuable in understanding and consolidating a topic. Different learner types need this variety of media, especially pupils with dyslexia or dyscalculia or EAL students for example. </span></span><span class=”EOP SCXO82869923 BCX0″ style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; color: windowtext;”> </span></p>

</div>
<div class=”OutlineElement Ltr SCXO82869923 BCX0″ style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; color: #000000; font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, ‘Segoe UI Web’, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>
<p class=”Paragraph SCXO82869923 BCX0″ lang=”EN-US” style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;” xml:lang=”EN-US”><span class=”EOP SCXO82869923 BCX0″ style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-size: 11pt; line-height: 18px; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; color: windowtext;”> </span></p>

</div>
<div class=”OutlineElement Ltr SCXO82869923 BCX0″ style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow: visible; cursor: text; clear: both; position: relative; direction: ltr; color: #000000; font-family: ‘Segoe UI’, ‘Segoe UI Web’, Arial, Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>
<p class=”Paragraph SCXO82869923 BCX0″ lang=”EN-US” style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; overflow-wrap: break-word; vertical-align: baseline; font-kerning: none; background-color: transparent; color: windowtext;” xml:lang=”EN-US”><span class=”TextRun SCXO82869923 BCX0″ lang=”EN-IE” style=”margin: 0px; padding: 0px; user-select: text; -webkit-user-drag: none; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; font-variant-ligatures: none !important; color: windowtext; font-size: 11pt; font-family: Calibri, Calibri_MSFontService, sans-serif; line-height: 18px;” xml:lang=”EN-IE” data-contrast=”auto”>The highlighting, the shading and use of the template make everything so much more accessible and visually appealing for all students. This in turn make learning more enjoyable and practical. Collaboration will also bring ‘work’ to life – making changes and seeing them in real time. I love the idea Laura gave of a shared project. This idea encourages the pupils to work collaboratively, assigning roles and discussing findings/ display/ use of different media etc.</span></p>

</div>

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Mary Callaghan.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Mary Callaghan.

[Mary Callaghan]

One NOte and One NOte tools are a valuable in teaching and learning. This platform can deliver all teaching and learning needs. It also gives teachers more opportunities / choice to use different methodologies, especially in Special Education/ school /class support students. When creating content teachers can use a variety of media to explain certain aspects of any topic. Some pupils may only need text, some need a pictorial description, some may find a video or an audio valuable in understanding and consolidating a topic. Different learner types need this variety of media, especially pupils with dyslexia or dyscalculia or EAL students for example.

 

The highlighting, the shading and use of the template make everything so much more accessible and visually appealing for all students. This in turn make learning more enjoyable and practical. Collaboration will also bring ‘work’ to life – making changes and seeing them in real time. I love the idea Laura gave of a shared project. This idea encourages the pupils to work collaboratively, assigning roles and discussing findings/ display/ use of different media etc.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 7 months ago by Mary Callaghan.

[Deirdre Maye]

Hi Mary,

I’m glad to hear all the positive feedback about One Note.  The benefits of One Note are it has secure storage of information and it is easy access from any device.  This will help with the shared project idea other participants were talking about.

 

[Deborah Watson]

I think One Note would be good for all learners but particularly visual learners. The layout of a page given in the course notes was a good idea and if the same colours were kept as pupils progressed through school, would again be good for all learners and special needs. I was particularly interested in the Immersive Reader function and feel it would be very helpful to my students with dyslexia and also the EAL students.
The teacher can use one note for their own notes, resources and content development and for the teacher, it is also a visually friendly way of keeping plans. The functions were easy to use and were great for inserting audio, video, pictures and text. Also I think being able to give feedback using audio was a nice personal touch. The teacher can create a notebook in One Note, which is suitable for class or in Teams, which would be suitable for professional content. In One Note, a template can be created for pupils, e.g. containing, learning intentions, keywords and homework. I liked the feature which allows teachers to personalise content for distribution and were pupils can work privately on assignments. It will also be useful for the teacher to be able to lock pupils work so that it can be assessed.

[Deirdre Maye]

Hi Deborah,

One Note is an excellent resource.  It helps students to develop visual thinking, which helps the learner to come better to understand and retain information better by associating ideas, words and concepts with images.

I have to agree with your point about giving feedback using audio, it is a very nice personal touch.  One which most pupils will like.

[Carina Byrne]

One Note expands and deepens learner experiences as it fosters clarity and cohesion for students. The design aspects such as the navigation bar in One Note, facilitate user accessibility and meet good UI criteria which support student learning. The students’ learning potential is further bolstered through colour coding which creates a visual schema which creates familiarity for students and consequentially bolsters learning opportunities. Additionally, the potential for annotations, video input etc supports visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic learners, thus being more inclusive by design.
Hyperlexia is a challenge for some students with AS, equally, comprehension can challenge neurotypical children too, but the One Note learning tools certainly offer support for this. The capacity to foster comprehension of a text is increased by using these learning tools. For example, by including visual images and keyword boxes aid comprehension. Additionally, the keyword boxes could be pre-taught or linked to external sources that support the understanding of key concepts. I also like the inclusive nature of the customisable settings that support inclusion for all learners. As a SEN teacher,
I also think One Note has the potential to facilitate the onboarding of new staff members as it offers a central location for sharing school policies, information, whole-school planning documentation, and planning material.

[Deirdre Maye]

Hi Carina,

You have made some great point here, especially the benefits of the One Note learning tool to support children with Hyperlexia.

OneNote notebooks can be used to keep projects organised, share notes with your team, share the highlights and action items from meetings.  Very useful for a whole staff.

[Andreu Darcy]

<span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>I have mainly used OneNote as a place where Croke Park meeting notes, School policies are discussed etc. After this module, I am looking forward in using it as a lesson planner.

OneNote and OneNote learning tools could support and expand deeper learning opportunities for students in a variety of ways. I think the use of OneNote for the creation of Lesson plans will give the teacher and students a clearer indication of what is being taught and the expectations of the outcomes. The use of checklists, especially with the new primary language curriculum being a step outcome, will enable the teacher to keep and up to date record of how a student is progressing.
I found the immersive reader a very useful tool as teaching the like of verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs can be confusing due to the number of different parts of speech. Setting the children group tasks in identifying these parts and then using the immersive reader to create a whole class discussion only has a benefit to the children.

The use of the colours to help students with dyslexia was something i was unaware of and will definitely incorporate it into my lessons. </span>

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Andreu,

You have given a few good examples of how OneNote can support and deepen learning experiences. Using it as a hub of checklists and a way of setting expectations is a very practical idea. It is also an excellent tool for promoting staff collaboration. Immersive Reader is such a fantastic tool and is wonderful for making content more accessible for struggling readers. This feature has been extended to the Google platform and can be accessed through a Chrome extension called ‘Helperbird’.

[Gail Stafford]

I like the way you can organise your lessons with OneNote.  In the example that we worked with the user had organised lessons by subject and then chapters within these.  The teacher can choose their style, for example organising by week or by term.  The resource also allows to add in pictures, links and videos to back up the lesson being taught.  Also, the teacher can type and handwrite notes, as in the example with the microscope.  I like the fact that once you have created the notes, they can be called upon again and again and also new content can be added easily.  You can keep your notebook private or share it.  This allows for teacher collaboration and also work can be shared with students so they can access it at home.  I am looking forward to experimenting with OneNote as this is the only way to become au fait and confident bringing it into the classroom as a resource.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Gail Stafford. Reason: fomatting not right

[Laura Meehan]

There are lots of ways that OneNote and the learning tools can support and expand deeper learning opportunities for students. For starters, OneNote can be used for the planning stages of lessons and this can serve to make the content of lessons richer and if used collaboratively with teachers in the same year group, the more people that work on it, the stronger the content will be.

I like specific tools such as the colour coding for the poem in the example slides. This would cater for visual learners, EAL learners and learners with additional needs. I think it really all lends into the concept of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) which is a concept that is becoming more and more current in modern teaching.

What I also like is the idea that using OneNote for planning/note taking means that they will be there in the future to look back on. Using handwritten notes means that the majority of them get thrown out or lost over time. Moving to a digital platform has lots of benefits.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Laura,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts here. The colour coding can be an effective accessibility tool. Another effective tool to assist dyslexic learners is to change the background colour of the document to yellow. This can be easily done through the page setup settings. While it is proven to help those with specific learning difficulties, it does no harm to any learner and is generally well received by all pupils.

[Amanda Hayes]

After completing this module and the OneNote Class Notebook course on the Microsoft Learn Education Centre, I can’t wait to utilise the app to support teaching and learning in the future. At the moment, I have lesson content and related resources, e.g. videos, images, powerpoints, etc. stored on different folders on the laptop or uploaded to my OneDrive. This means navigating between folders and uploading and downloading material, which can be quite time consuming and it can be difficult to even find what I’m looking for! OneNote offers the facility to store lessons, resources, plans, whole school policies, etc. in the one place, but in a very systematic way, under chapters, tabs and pages and with content colour coded for easier use. Through time, a bank of lessons and resources and plans can all be stored in the one place and added to and built on over time. The material can then be distributed among staff members and pupils, with everyone being able to avail of the added tools such as a digital whiteboard, adding text, digital ink, highlighting, annotating, etc. Also, it is a great platform for assigning work to pupils and giving feedback to pupils. The teacher has control over how pupils can use and edit the material and what material can be shared and with whom, either individually or collectively,  which is very useful. Being able to insert files, videos, audio, links, etc. means that all necessary content can be stored and accessed easily. The Immersive Reader feature will be invaluable to me as a Special Education Teacher, ensuring that all learning styles are catered for.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Amanda Hayes.

[Elaine Angland]

One Note is a revelation!

I have now started to create a staff Onenote on Teams incorporating; plans, policies, protocols, procedures, shared resources, IT links, meeting information, initiative info… I have setup a place for each teacher and this is going to be brilliant for Droichead too! All information can be found in one place rather than the constant emails and scrolling through to find updates etc. I really like that everything is going to be in one place and I love that PDFs can be seen and there is no need to print anything! Just going to need to encourage staff to keep an eye on it!

For pupils this is going to be a brilliant way to develop resources. Each child can have their own learning path and has the ability to go back on work too. The immersive reader is brilliant to enable pupils to hear the activities rather than just read them. I also like the way you can highlight different parts of language in a paragraph through immersive reader – there is so many activities that can be developed through this. Students can upload photos and pictures to create language experience pages that can be worked on with the parents, child and staff. Videos of Lámh signs can be incorporated so that each child has their own specific language pathway. Social Stories can be added specific to the child’s needs and these can be read to the pupil through the immersive reader tool. The pupils can also record their own speech, reading, counting for assessment purposes. Everything is in one place…

 

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Elaine,

You have certainly outlined the main benefits of OneNote and highlight the ‘utopia’ for its use within a school. It is an amazing resource with so many amazing features and it really lends itself to becoming a ‘digital staffroom’. The challenge lies in getting buy-in and ensuring that all staff view it as the ‘go to’ for information and for sharing relevant content.

[Linda Gilligan]

OneNote is a great way to engage students in a fun and interactive way, using both visual, audio and text based learning. I had never used this app until today but I can see the support it would give students, especially those in SEN. Having worked as part of the SET team this year I spent a lot of time differentiating work and creating individualised resources. For next year I will definitely recommend to our team to use OneNote to create chapters based on literacy topics such as grammar, vocabulary and genres to keep all the documents stored in one place that is easily accessible. I like the idea of the children being aware of their learning outcome when shown topic work, where they are aware of what the focus of their learning is.

I also love the idea of the immersive reasons option as a learning tool in OneNote viewing where children who need additional support in literacy could be given a variety of options such as text to speech and pictionary for unfamiliar words. Children with EAL could listen to the audio to hear instructions from the teacher or feedback on their work, whilst also developing a range of language and vocabulary in an engaging way.

[Eimear Ní Fhlatharta]

I can imagine One Note and it’s learning tools can support and expand deeper learning opportunities for students and staff members alike. Being able to plan and construct lesson in a collaborative fashion with your colleagues is very useful especially in a multi-tier school setting. For students they can share and collaborate with their peer
I can imagine One Note and it’s learning tools can support and expand deeper learning opportunities for students and staff members alike. Being able to plan and construct lesson in a collaborative fashion with your colleagues is very useful especially in a multi-tier school setting. For students they can share and collaborate with their peers, not just in their own classroom but with other classrooms throughout the school. For children with additional needs such as dyslexia or who don’t speak English as their first language, I can see how beneficial the immersive reader facility is. This is just another tool we can use to make our classrooms a more assessable place for all students. Being able to share class content and lesson videos also aids children to recap on what has been covered in class at a pace or setting which suits them. It also helps teachers keep track of what they themselves have covered.
s, not just in their own classroom but with other classrooms throughout the school. For children with additional needs such as dyslexia or who don’t speak English as their first language, I can see how beneficial the immersive reader facility is. This is just another tool we can use to make our classrooms a more assessable place for all students. Being able to share class content and lesson videos also aids children to recap on what has been covered in class at a pace or setting which suits them. It also helps teachers keep track of what they themselves have covered.

[Eamonn Power]

<span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>I think that OneNote and OneNote Learning Tools can definitely support and expand deeper learning opportunities for students in our school. I have to say I had little to no knowledge of OneNote before this course. I think that several features stand out for me. The Immersive reader is a powerful tool to have. In our school we have many EAL students and I see Immersive Reader as something that can aid fluency and decoding. We also have children with dyslexia and I think that they will also benefit from using Immersive reader.</span>

From a teaching & learning point of view (in a Primary context), we can create lesson plans through OneNote. It will involve a bit more prep work but the learning outcomes will be far better. In particular, the use of checklists will be a big help as we seek to engage further with the new primary language curriculum.

 

[Emer Maher]

I really enjoyed this module I thought the presentation on using one note and all the scope you have within the programme to enhance learning was excellent. The classroom notebook, the use of maths pages, inserting links allows such scope for learning. As I am based in the senior end of the school, I personally feel that this is a brilliant resource and allows for huge learning opportunities. I really feel that students would be empowered to take control of their own learning. Setting clear objectives would be easily done and being able to include the like of YouTube videos to further support learning. As a teacher being able to annotate over the content makes it really easily to review work. I think it provides great opportunities who might have handwriting difficulties, dyspraxia etc. Being able to change appearance as well would really appeal to some of our students. It is incredible that it is able to highlight the different areas of text: noun, verbs, adjectives etc. Really enjoyed this module think it is a brilliant skill to use in the classroom.

[Emma Maher]

I have never used OneNote before and if I am quite frank my initial impression was that the vast array of possible uses for this tool is slightly overwhelming. Primarily, I envisaged using OneNote as a far more efficient collaborative planning tool as our streams currently co-plan using Word and sharing in a drive however this is truly just the tip of the iceberg with regards to the potential use of this tool. OneNote is a truly remarkable educational tool that has the potential for significantly enhancing the educational experience for students, teachers and parents alike.
OneNote appears to be an effective tool which caters for the vast array of learning styles that are present in every single classroom. Visual, verbal, aural, solitary, social and even kinaesthetic learners could benefit greatly from using each of the components available to record learning experiences and share knowledge attained. The Immersive Reader tool in particular is an incredibly useful, inclusive tool that could provide the necessary scaffolding to students with EAL or specific literacy related SEN to access the same learning content as their peers. OneNote is a tool which provides such wonderful opportunities for the maintenance of a truly inclusive educational experience.
Due to the size of our school, we experience an ever evolving staff which often of new personnel such as student teachers, substitute teachers, visiting teachers, new staff members to name but a few. I foresee easing this initial introduction to our school by making use of OneNote to create a welcome notebook containing all policies, practices, procedures and calendars of events to assist their transition to our school. Until this point, this information was provided to staff in quite a cumbersome ring binder folder. OneNote is a far more accessible means of providing this information and could truly enhance the learning experience in our school for staff.

Finally, I foresee OneNote being utilised in my school context to further strengthen the link between home and school. Collating the work product of each student using an interactive, multimodal tool which can be accessed on a variety of devices provides more opportunities for parents to truly engage with their child’s learning process.
I thoroughly enjoyed this introduction to using OneNote and will continue to develop my confidence when using the tool by engaging with the Education Centre lessons

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Emma,

I like your really practical idea of having a OneNote as an information notebook for new and visiting teachers. I remember having a similar ring binder welcome pack that you envisage OneNote replacing, in my last school which just sat on a shelf gathering dust and was never updated. Having a digital OneNote available instead will be much more accessible and a far more inviting prospect for new staff. Also, as it will be a collaborative digital file, there’s a much better chance it will be regularly updated so will be significantly more effective than its ring binder equivalent.

 

[Brendan Duignan]

Hi all,

I have to say I was not an avid user of OneNote before, however it looks the definitive version of an e-Portfolio. It has an absolute plethora of uses for pupils and teachers across the educational spectrum from primary to tertiary education. Firstly, I thought it would be an amazing way to organise yourself as a teacher: lesson plans, termly plans, resources, weblinks, Symbaloo links to wider Bookmarking sites. Additionally, it would also be a great way to supplement a blended learning approach, or even the flipped classroom method, assigning and sharing tasks and activities with/among pupils in order to complete work on a given topic. Annotation can be done, inserting photos, videos etc and other elements of interactivity for the learner. This would be a fantastic and interactive way of developing learner autonomy for the pupils, developing what are essentially Learning Paths for the pupils to follow. I love the massive potential for collaboration that One Note also offers, again whether that is teacher/pupil, pupil/pupil or teacher/teacher. I agree with one of the participants earlier, that this links to Universal Design for Learning, providing an excellent framework for learning for all of the pupils.

 

[Cathy O’Dwyer]

At the moment I am using Activ Inspire software for the interactive whiteboard because I wasn’t aware of how useful OneNote can be. My teaching content is on Activ Inspire and I store supporting PPTs, video links or documents etc. in the flipchart, or what usually happens is they are just stored in a folder on SharePoint. It is tricky to manage what content and resources are there because there is no clear layout like in OneNote.  I like the way all different topics can be stored within the Class Notebook and given different chapter and page names. It is great how students can be given access to the content without being able to edit it, this gives them opportunity to access the material again if necessary or to facilitate flipped learning.
The way OneNote allows the use of many different apps to be embedded within the class notebook will cater to the various different learning styles within a class. I particularly like the feature that allows videos to be viewed without leaving the notebook. The immersive reader is fantastic. The way it can break words into syllables is extremely useful for helping students to decode as is the picture dictionary to help with comprehension.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Cathy,

It’s great that this module has highlighted the multitude of ways in which OneNote can be used by teachers. A few years ago, Promethean came to the decision to move away from ActivInspire, and place all their attention on the roll-out of their new ActivPanels. However, they rowed back on this after many teachers raised objections.

Promethean are still putting all their energy into the new ActivPanels (which are fantastic resources) and therefore, ActivInspire is not as relevant as it once was. OneNote has far greater potential for use in both teaching and learning, and admin contexts.

[Mary Walker]

Throughout my career I have encountered many different types of students, ones who learn visually, aurally and ones who learn orally. I know that one teaching method cannot fit every child but we as teachers must learn to overcome that difficulty using tools. Going through this module I sat in awe. When I started teaching we didn’t have these resources available yet through the years everything has changed. With OneNote there are so many options and ways to expand and deepen the learning opportunities of todays students.

With OneNote I think I would find myself more confident in my teaching, I could store notes and lesson records and trust that my students could access them with ease. With options to organize and categorize chapters and pages its nothing but simple to locate these resources.

With the option of an immersive reader students who may not be able to use visual notes would be able to receive the same education as any other student and be able to study and revise with ease.

I also find it brilliant how I  could insert links for websites and more which my students could access and use to assist their learning ensuring they understand and know chapters and subjects.

Therefore that is how I consider One Note and One note learning tools and how they can support and expand a student’s learning. In turn I would absolutely consider using One Note  upon returning to school in September .

[Clodagh O Donoghue]

Even though our school uses Office 365. I haven’t used One Note before. In completing this module, I can now really see the benefits. As a teacher it would be very useful to create content for all my lessons.  I think this facility will be a game changer for children with additional needs and children with various learning styles, as well as EAL children.

For students it is a fantastic way to develop resources. Each child can have their own learning path, work at their own place and has the ability to go back on work too. The immersive reader is brilliant aspect which enables children to listen and hear the activities. It is beneficial, the way you can highlight different parts of the text through immersive reader. There is various activities that can be developed through the use of this platform.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Clodagh,

You mentioned in your module 2 post about how Teams is the centre of all staff communication and collaboration and that it had also been trialled with a number of classes with the view to roll it out further this September. Whilst, beyond the scope of this module, it’s important to highlight for a senior school like your own that Teams and OneNote integrate seamlessly through OneNote Class Notebook and by utilising both together, you’ll get a powerful learning management system and eportfolio tool in one. For more on integrating the two see Use OneNote Class Notebook in Teams …

[Kathryn Mc Manus]

From studying One Note and One Note Learning tools in this module it is clear to see they it can be used very effectively in the classroom. I was pleasantly surprised to see the wide range of resources and tools One Notes offers. I think it will be very effective for class projects, particularly for the Senior Classes. The tool to insert clips and videos from various websites is excellent and I also think sharing the Notepad between others is very effective and will be great for project work. I really liked the tool that allows you to write and label the images on the notepad, this is great for solving Maths problems or labeling diagrams.

I look forward to using this in my classroom in the future.

The Immersive Reader is an excellent tool that will assist children particularly  SEN as it makes the text , but also make the text more exciting to look at and engage in for other learners. It really brings the text to life and attends to the various needs of all children.

[John Ledwith]

One Note is a valuable resource. Through the use of digital notebook and e-portfolio its offers a central location for notes, resources and content development. It has a good layout to follow and through the use of chapters and pages offers an ease of access. I particularly like the use of a standard template across all subjects. Backgrounds through the use of tables can be colour co-ordinated and learning intentions can be highlighted. This is important as I feel children would like routine and structure of the layout. The learning tool are also very beneficial. I really like the immersive reader tab as it caters for all levels of difficulties with tools such as the picture dictionary and breaking the words up in various categories to help comprehension skills. I looking forward to using and experimenting with One Note in the next school year.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi John,

I agree, OneNote  is a great tool for digital notebooks and ePortfolios. In fact, I would liken OneNote to a Swiss Army Knife in digital terms. It is so flexible and adaptable and it can be put to work on a whole host of different learning tasks and works across all devices and platforms. Planning organisation, research, annotation (inking), collaboration and sharing, the list goes on…

On Immersive reader, I think it’s a game changer in assistive technology for inclusion and accessibility, it is so easy to use and integrates across the 365 suite.

[Susanne Austin]

I have never used one note before now but it looks to provide so many opportunities for both lesson planning and active and collaborative lessons. From a lesson planning and presentation viewpoint, OneNote is clear and easily navigable. Lessons can be laid out in an organised and easy to understand way. This is positive for both teacher and learner.

I really like the active and collaborative aspects of OneNote. One could assign pictures and diagrams for students to annotate and label, poetry and text for them to identify different aspects of language in. Also, OneNote lends itself well to differentiation; colour coding to make things easier to follow for those with limited organisational skills, text to speech for those who may struggle to read large amounts of text.

 

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Suzanne,

As already mooted many times on this forum, I’m very much a OneNote convert, primarily because of its remarkable versatility, it has so many uses in the classroom. You’ve mentioned differentiation and the inbuilt colour coding to improve organisational skills. In fact, OneNote offers so much for SEN teaching and not just the tools Immersive Reader provides. OneNote is ideal for student portfolios offering multi-modal recording options like audio, video and inking (For pen enabled tablet devices) giving pupils who struggle with text input options when it comes to recording their work allowing them to focus on the content.

[Alana O Donnell]

I envisage one note could be used in many ways to enhance the learning of the pupils in our school. While working in a special class setting you work collaboratively with a variety of professionals. These include, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers, Psychologists, Play therapists, Liaison nurses, etc. A great use for one note might be to create a multidisciplinary file on each pupil(data protection in mind) and this is where ideas and useful resources could be shared and suggested. Feedback could then be given to all stakeholders on the relevance of the above going forward.

[Mary Jo McDonnell]

I must admit to being really impressed by the wide range of functions that are provided by One Note. I have heard about OneNote from a colleague, but had not had the opportunity to really learn about it until I had completed this module.
I spent seven years as a SET teacher and can see how much the immersive reader would add to literacy classes. I can see how it can tailor a lesson so easily to suit the needs of different children. For EAL children, the descriptive picture is brilliant. For children with dyslexia there is the option to change background colour and fonts. And for struggling readers, the read aloud function and the segmenting of words would be so so helpful. The fact that ALL of this is available in one space for the teacher to employ during lessons is just wonderful. And the best bit is that it can be saved, shared and used in the future among staff if needed.
I would also love to see children use the two themselves to create their own content. The could use some of the interactive featured to produce their own reports, projects, creative writing etc. The possibilities are really endless.

[Celine Glynn]

One Note is a fantastic tool for use in schools. I have never used this application before and already I can think of many ways that I could utilise it in my teaching. I also believe that it is a great tool for teachers to use in order to improve their collaborative planning.

One Note could be particularly useful in SET. I am thinking of a particular child that I taught last year with dyslexia who would greatly benefit from the different media forms that can be included by using One Note. Even the simplicity of the highlighting features would ensure that the lesson is much more appealing and accessible to many learners, not only those with dyslexia. I am really looking forward to using One Note in September with my second class students.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Celine Glynn.

[Orla Hoban]

From this module, I can see that there are many benefits to OneNote and OneNote learning tools  which could support learning for students in the classroom. I found the functions of OneNote easy to use and the Immersive Reader is a fantastic tool to support comprehension. I think OneNote gives lots of opportunities to enhance learning in the classroom. It offers a variety of tools that would be very useful for Literacy and I am looking forward to using OneNote in the classroom next year. Having the many options to add links, pictures, colors and themes can provide great support for visual learning and I think students would really engage with this resource. I think it would be extremely useful for homework and project work. As a whole school approach, it would be very beneficial for planning as it can be easily accessed by all staff and stored in the one place.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Orla,

Immersive Reader is a fabulous resource to support learners of all abilities. As you have said, it is an effective tool to support comprehension. However, it can also help with fluency for struggling or emergent readers, as they can hear a sentence/passage aloud and then read it.

In terms of a whole school approach, OneNote and OneDrive would be hugely beneficial. However, the caveat here is ensuring that there is buy-in and that all staff members are using it. From my own experience, monitoring what (if anything) is being shared is an important role to assign to somebody.

[val lynch]

Hi all,

I heard of One Note before as a colleague recommended it for my pupils whom have Autism. It appears to be particularly useful for visual learners and can be individualized to meet the needs of your cohort of pupils. I look forward to incorporating in to my lessons. I think that One Note is really well structured and it’s great that you can choose style, color, resources such as pictures, videos and links to support the learning in the classroom. It’s also advantageous that you can easily store the lesson and use it over and over again. Also it enables you to edit as needed based on the evolving needs of the class. This ensures that you have a strong foundation of lessons and plans and that the resources can be shared with staff for the purposes of collaborative practice. It is also a very useful platform for teachers to engage with pupils and to provide relevant feedback.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by val lynch.

[Claire Doyle]

I found out a lot I didn’t know during this module. I have heard of OneNote in the past & thought I had an idea of its functions but I really didn’t. It is a super helpful resource & I love anything new ways of incorporating ICT into Literacy.

I think it is definitely something that would be useful to teachers & students. I think it would be great tool for the children to use to record work/make e portfolios’s/collobarate with their peers. What I particularly liked about OneNote it is applicable/user friendly for children of differing needs and abilities.

My final thought on OneNote is that it could be very useful in SET to collobarate information/data on different children such as mainstream class teacher/SET etc.

[Chloe Gorman]

The immersive reader tool allows a lot of flexibility and makes it accessible to those of different abilities. OneNote would be great for visual learners and the colour coding throughout is a great idea, especially the colour coding for the poem. The option of changing the background colour is great and will greatly assist those with dyslexia, for example, changing the background colour to yellow. I have never used OneNote before and it is definitely a tool I will use in the coming academic year to help organise my plans. It is also a great way to work collaboratively alongside teachers in the same class level as you can share your notebook. Aswell as teachers working collaboratively, students have the opportunity to work collaboratively as they can also share their notebooks and take control of their own learning, developing student autonomy. I teach in the senior end and really think my class would enjoy this!

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Chloe,

The Immersive Reader is probably my favourite tool for inclusion and accessibility. The ‘Helperbird’ Chrome extension also means that it is now available on Google products too. The colour coding of the background is very useful for all learners, not just those with dyslexia. I change the background of my word documents to yellow in ‘page setup’ for this reason. The ‘Helperbird’ extension also allows for this within Immersive Reader, which is particularly beneficial when it is reading the text aloud.

[Laura Allen]

I found this module very useful. I have never used One Note before and it gave a good step by step instruction on how to set it up on a classroom basis. I think it is a fantastic way of bringing ICT and learning together. I especially like the way lessons can be divided into different ‘chapters’ and are easily accessible. I also like the feature of adding in external links, audio clips and printouts. The ‘immersive reader’ is very helpful for children that may need extra support. It is very adaptable and allows the teacher to differentiate documents by changing font size, highlighting parts of speech and emphasizing the syllables. The picture dictionary will help EAL students while reading. One Note is also useful to locate school policies and documents and a great way for teachers to share resources. We use Microsoft 365 in our school but mainly for emails. The One Note application would be very valuable resource.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Laura,

As you have referred to, OneNote really can become your ‘hub’ of learning and school activity due to its functionality. The ability to divide work up helps both teachers and students from an organisational point of view. Immersive Reader is one of my favourite tools to use, and it makes learning so accessible to those who struggling with literacy.

The use of Office 365 / Google for email is almost always the first step schools take. Experiment a little with the O365 tools, and gradually attempt to bring them into your practice, both individually and as a school.

[Seán Devlin]

I really liked the immersive reader tool. For children with SEN or difficulties with literacy, it can be difficult to find resources that allow for effective differentiation without dumbing the content down. I really liked the example used of Wordsworth’s poem. It was the same poem with the same learning intentions but with accessible differentiation for the children who need it. It would be excellent for children with EAL as well. I look forward to using it in the coming year. Even though it was a simple tip, I really liked the colour coding tip. This was such a simple but effective tip to improve differentiation as well. The OneNote user face is also very easy to use. Sometimes with these apps, they’re not very user friendly, and making even a basic resource is a waste of time. I really liked the opportunity to get to know OneNote better, considering it’s been sitting there in my 365 all this time and I had no idea!

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Seán,

As you have said, very often accessibility apps can often be counter-intuitive and very difficult to use. There are a number of Chrome extensions like this, and it can be quite frustrating. However, the majority of the in-built Microsoft tools are very easy to use and designed specifically to meet the needs of struggling learners. Immersive Reader and OneNote are perfect examples of this. The ability to split OneNote work into folders and label/colour code everything can be hugely beneficial to visual learners and those who struggle with organisation.

[Claire Doyle]

I found out a lot I didn’t know during this module. I have heard of OneNote in the past & thought I had an idea of its functions but I really didn’t. It is a super helpful resource & I love any new ways of incorporating ICT into Literacy. I think it is definitely something that would be useful to teachers & students. I think it would be great tool for the children to use to record work/make e portfolio’s/collaborate with their peers. What I particularly liked about OneNote it is applicable/user friendly for children of differing needs and abilities. My final thought on OneNote is that it could be very useful in SET to collaborate information/data on different children such as mainstream class teacher/SET etc. The immersive reader tool is one I am excited to use. I think it would be particularly useful in the area of SEN, I would use it as a support for fluency for my students who have English as an additional language. I think it would assist in building the confidence of all struggling readers.

[Celine Glynn]

One Note is a fantastic tool for use in schools. While I have never used this application before today and already I can think of many ways that I could utilise it in my teaching. I also believe that it is a great tool for teachers to use in order to improve their collaborative planning. In my school we have three of each class group and the teachers often plan together throughout the year. One note would make this much easier and accessible.

 

One Note could be particularly useful in SET. I am thinking of a particular child that I taught last year with dyslexia who would greatly benefit from the different media forms that can be included by using One Note. Even the simplicity of the highlighting features would ensure that the lesson is much more appealing and accessible to many learners, not only those with dyslexia. I am really looking forward to using One Note in September with my second class students.

[Niamh Donovan]

The idea that OneNote is the ideal resource for ePortfolios really appeals to me. I think that technology is coming into our secondary education system more and more each year. We as Primary Teachers need to help our students to get used to using technology and becoming very proficient in making ePortfolios in particular as this skill will stay with them right through secondary and third level education.

The UCD Digital Leaders Notebook example was fascinating. The idea that children could have all their project work/homework etc in the same place and it is so easily accessible and so easy to give them feedback is very appealing to me. I have just moved to the senior end of the school so once I survey the children’s access to internet/technology this is something I really hope I can implement. I would start small with a one page project on their hopes for this year and then hope we could increase the usage over the course of the year. Wouldn’t it be fantastic to be able to show the parents an ePortfolio of everything we completed and achieved throughout the year. Looking through the tutorial on how to create the notebook I would have every confidence that my class and I would be able to achieve this.

[Tomás Kennedy]

I really enjoyed this module. One Note provides great clarity; it is very well-presented and provides ample opportunity for visual learners and pupils who may have special educational needs.

Moreover, One Note looks very user-friendly for both the student and the teacher. It has quite a simple interface, which cannot always be said for other similar programmes.

I used the ‘picture dictionary’ function last year with two both with EAL. They found it very enjoyable and interactive. I will continue to use this feature next year, as I have a new Ukrainian boy in my class. This will undoubtedly be a very useful tool, enabling him to settle and begin having meaningful interactions with his peers.

[Julie Nolan]

I have zero experience of One Note so I am amazed at what can be achieved using it.  I’d image it would be beneficial for children in primary school to begin to use this or be exposed to it on some level (senior end of school perhaps) as so many secondary schools use for example ipads only and no books.  I could see how using One Note would be great for project work – linking websites and clips; sharing information on joint projects or ideas from the likes of the Students Union or Green School committees.  I think the immersive reader looks great and I’ll be trialling that in September in SET.  There’s great scope for versatility which is what I need when working with SEN kids.  I like the use of different colours for dyslexic readers and I think One Note will work great with our new spelling programme we are starting this year  -Brendan Culligan.   It’s also another great way of sharing plans and lessons.  As a job share teacher it’s great to be able to access the plans etc at home rather than waiting until my days back in school on the class PC.  It will also help with handovers  -being able to read notes in advance will further help with prep.  I really enjoyed the into to this tool and hope I can put it to good use!!!

 

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by Julie Nolan.

[Arlene Mc Cole]

I will be suggesting OneNote to my colleagues in school on our return in September. OneNote can be used to collect and organise a wide range of content, whereas your paper notebook can only cope with text, drawings, and perhaps glued-in pictures.  I enjoyed OneNote because it allows you to clip content from websites and link to videos. This is very modern and a useful feature when creating resources for teaching in the classroom. Another useful feature of OneNote is the ability to share notes or notebooks with other people. This could be great for collecting material for a group project. I feel this would really push children in the older classes and give them the chance to really optimize their learning collaboratively. I also agree that OneNote would work well in upper primary and could be used for a range of activities. Differentiation can be demonstrated and used effectively. I am excited to use OneNote in my class!

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Arlene,

As you have pointed out, OneNote is a really useful and effective tool for staff collaboration and for use with the children in senior classes. It could be a really effective tool for a ‘flipped classroom’ approach where content is shared and gone through at home, before coming to school ready to engage in some interactive activities based on what they studied. Pen and paper is very limited, and OneNote demonstrates just how effective  a ‘digital notebook’ can be.

[Elaine Maxwell]

Really impressed with one note. The ability to create lesson content and use different colours for learning outcomes, key words, add pictures and label them, YouTube videos etc. As at SEN teacher I really love the idea of immersing the page and being able to change the font and background colour, especially helpful for dyslexia students. Also it would be great for English lessons to identify verbs, adverbs, nouns and adjectives. Again the ability to listen to the text will be useful. The picture dictionary will be invaluable to EAL learners and I can see this being used with Ukrainian students and other EAL students.  One note will be useful for keeping resources together, policies, schemes, lesson plans, behavior code etc. I am looking forward to using this tool this year. I found the tutorial video really good and with step by step instructions easy to follow!

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Elaine,

Thanks for your post. As an SEN teacher, OneNote would be an excellent aid for the distribution and organisation of content. The ability to label and colour-code content has huge benefits for all children, especially those with SEN. The ability to use yellow backgrounds is beneficial for dyslexic students, and the ‘Immersive Reader’ is a real game-changer for those with specific learning difficulties.

You have also highlighted many of the ‘admin’ features that OneNote could be used for. It really could form the basis of a ‘digital staffroom’, where resources are stored, worked on and monitored.

[Tanya O brien]

I have used One Note in the past but not too often. I really hope to get used to using it more especially because again I believe it’s like a hub for all of your notes, which can be organised into separate notebooks, and individual sections within notebooks. It would be great for a staff and students. I feel working in a senior school it would be particularly useful. My favourite thing about Office 365 is the fact it’s cloud-based, you can share a OneNote file with other people to enable a real-time, collaborative workbook. I have learned the hard way more than once when I have lost valuable data using other methods like a USB. I think it would be great for staff meetings also as Notebooks can be shared for viewing or editing, and as OneNote automatically saves as you work, multiple users can collaborate at the same time. Students could also do a lot of group work and research using OneNote for taking down important information and all working on the same document to avoid crossovers. From experience I have had some issues arise with this, during staff collaboration as someone may edit your work but luckily you can view past revisions to track changes and restore file versions.

[Thomas Moloney]

Having never used OneNote before, I found the tutorial in Module 3 and the Microsoft Learning Centre Courses formative and informative! The possibilities that OneNote present for supporting pupils’ learning experiences seems to be endless. I am deeply passionate about supporting pupils with AEN and OneNote seems to tick all of the boxes: read-aloud functions in various languages, the fact that text can be colour-coded for nouns/adjectives etc. will greatly help in terms of incidental learning of sentence structure, clickable words to support with pictures e.g. from the daffodils in the exemplar, the option to insert supportive videos and voice notes – I have used ‘loom’ in the past to give feedback to pupils/parents over lockdown but the fact that you can leave voice messages on the same page is fantastic. I think that a huge advantage here as well is the organisation – the option to add pages/chapters with clear labels and instructions for pupils and parents leaves no doubt as to sourcing materials and this in turn will reduce anxiety. All of the bits and pieces mentioned here will benefit pupils learning experiences and, given an initial investment in time in creating resources, will benefit schools/teachers administration in terms of having a bank of reusable resources saved on OneNote from year to year, allowing greater scope on supporting and tailoring supports for pupils needs.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Thomas,

While Loom and many other digital tools are excellent educational resources, there is little doubt that OneNote is very close to being the ‘complete package’. It takes the positive aspects of a number of digital tools and moulds them into one powerful digital tool. When used properly, OneNote can guide parents and children in their learning seamlessly. As you said in your post, this can play a significant role in reducing anxiety. However, both parents and children need training and practice navigating the features before being left to discover content independently. If used consistently over a number of years, a school can really cut down on its workload.

[Michelle McDermott]

The use of colour coded boxes for learning outcomes, key words and activities across all subjects would be a great way for children to visually decipher between the different pieces of information being presented to them. This would be fantastic for visual learners. Using a template like this would also remind me as a teacher to include WALT/WILF in my lessons. I wonder if using the same concept of colour coding could promote differentiation. Could the various content and tasks for ‘most-some-all’ students could be presented in a similar format, thus allowing the students to have some accountability and scope in their learning, allowing them more responsibility for their own learning? OneNote could be used to ensure that all learning styles are catered for through the inclusion of text, images, video clips and audio clips.

By creating a Form quiz on each chapter/page of the One Note lesson, students could independently work through a OneNote lesson and complete the corresponding Form quiz. This could be a very useful activity for early finishers to promote further learning on topics covered in class or on new topics.

OneNote could be used by students to record their own learning. This would be a great way for children to present project work either individually or group work.

In our school, we do guided reading. Planning and organising work for each novel is challenging. Going forward, I think One Note would be a fantastic way for teachers to organise guided reading lessons and keep them in a very organised way for future use. Vocabulary, grammar points, comprehension strategies and activities for each chapter/section of a novel could easily be complied in OneNote pages.

The learning tools such as immersive reader outlined in this module would be a fantastic support for children with SENS and EAL. The method by which the poem has been presented allows for differentiation in a way which would be invaluable for assisting students of all levels in accessing the poem as appropriate for them. If parents had access to this at home it would help them in supporting their children’s learning too, especially in homes where English is not the first language.

[Cliona Ni Dhuill]

One note is a great tool to use – it can be used to collect and organise content in any language and form. It can be viewed as a folder with sections in it to organsie data. I used one note as part of a college course but didn’t really understand it’s advantages until I completed this module.

It is a great tool for storing information in an organised fashion as well as helping collaboration between colleagues. The tools within one note ca be easily used to create and deliver all teaching and learning needs. I learned in this module how to shade and highlight things which will help visually.

I look forward to organising my and enhancing the one note I have created.

[Cliona Ni Dhuill]

One note is a great tool to use – it can be used to collect and organise content in any language and form. It can be viewed as a folder with sections in it to organsie data. I used one note as part of a college course but didn’t really understand it’s advantages until I completed this module. It is a great tool for storing information in an organised fashion as well as helping collaboration between colleagues. The tools within one note can be easily used to create and deliver all teaching and learning needs. I learned in this module how to shade and highlight things which will help visually. The lessons can be made more interactive by adding audio and video clips. One note provides deeper learning oppurtunities overall. I look forward to organising and enhancing the one note I have created on this course during the next academic year.

[Louise Kennedy]

I believe One Note and One Note Learning Tools could expand deeper learning opportunities for pupils as it is a great tool for collaboration with other teachers and professionals when planning and prepping learning outcomes. It would also be great for differentiation between pupils as they could respond to different assignments in a variety of different ways. It is a means for pupils to gather their work in one place using an portfolio which allows them to assess and develop further from previous assignments. You can make the lessons more interactive for the pupils by adding audio and video clips. I think the immersive reader would be great for younger readers and EAL students as it can help them to decode larger pieces of text using images for words they may be struggling with. I believe that One Note and One Note Learning Tools would be an overall beneficial tool to use in the classroom.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Louise,

I think the key word term you have mentioned here is that of ‘deeper learning opportunities’. This is what we are always striving to provide, and is something that the skilled use of digital technologies can provide. OneNote has huge potential in this regard. It can be used to both challenge higher-achievers and make learning more accessible for learners with SEN. Immersive Reader is huge for helping those with literacy difficulties. Indeed, the ability to pick out different parts of speech within a passage is of benefit to all learners.

[Laura Fennelly]

<span style=”caret-color: #163c42; color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>Consider how OneNote and OneNote Learning Tools could support and expand deeper learning opportunities for students. Post a reflective piece (150 words minimum)as a reply to this post.</span>

I think OneNote and One note learning tool can expand deeper learning opportunities for children  from the classroom perspective it allows them to take initiative for their own learning and to be as creative as they would like. It would give the topic more of a personal outlook for example if they were to get a task creating their own profile. I think they would enjoy finding the different images and playing around with the different colours.

From the teachers perspective, once one resource is complete it is there forever and easy to access.  It also allows teachers to collaborate on teaching notes and would help student teachers also. It is great for differentiation as you can make it as easy or as hard as you want, very versatile for the classroom which is definitely needed. I think adding videos and images makes the lesson more interesting and interactive for the children. It also breaks up the lesson by adding different questions and drawing activities.

[Laura Fennelly]

Here is the link, sorry I tried to copy and paste what I had originally posted and add it to this then I realised I could add it to the comments.

My Notebook

[Laura Fennelly]

 
<p style=”box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: #163c42; color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif;”>I think OneNote and One note learning tool can expand deeper learning opportunities for children  from the classroom perspective it allows them to take initiative for their own learning and to be as creative as they would like. It would give the topic more of a personal outlook for example if they were to get a task creating their own profile. I think they would enjoy finding the different images and playing around with the different colours.</p>
<p style=”box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; caret-color: #163c42; color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif;”>From the teachers perspective, once one resource is complete it is there forever and easy to access.  It also allows teachers to collaborate on teaching notes and would help student teachers also. It is great for differentiation as you can make it as easy or as hard as you want, very versatile for the classroom which is definitely needed. I think adding videos and images makes the lesson more interesting and interactive for the children. It also breaks up the lesson by adding different questions and drawing activities.</p>
Link to my Onenote lesson:

My Notebook

[Jean Callaghan]

I really like the notion of OneNote being adopted and used as a digital staffroom on school staff. As teacher, DP and PST member for Droichead, I know moving forward for myself I will use it as a platform to store all of my files relevant to each of my roles in school that can be shared with other members of ISM, my team teacher, my SET teacher linked to my class, my Droichead NQT, as appropriate. From an organisational and management point of view, I can absolutely see the benefits of it for efficiency.

From a classroom teacher perspective, I love the visual impact of One Note for creating lessons for the classroom. The Learning Tools encourage thinking outside the box and give plenty of options to reach each type of learner. I think from my senior class point of view, Collaboration Space is probably going to be one of most beneficial options available to the class, so that they can work on projects etc together in customised groups on specific topics.

I can absolutely see the Immersive Reader tool being something I will avail of with some children in my class this year for explicit differentiation of the lesson, without being obvious to the rest of the class. I will have to remind myself to make sure I’ve used the the accessibility checker beforehand but it’s a small price to pay to create a more inclusive classroom and curriculum and lesson.

[Aisling Butler]

There are many ways that OneNote and ON learning tools can support learning for students in the classroom. One note offers opportunities to challenge higher achievers whilst also being very accessible to those with SEN. I particularly like the immersive reader resource as it is so accessible to those with reading difficulties, emerging readers and EAL children. I like the feature where you can divide one note into colour-coded sections and it will be very beneficial to visual learners and children that have organisational difficulties in my classroom. This is a fantastic resource and one I will use in the future. I will also be using OneNote to store information and hopefully use it with my class when doing projects, sharing notes, giving feedback, assessment and compiling information.

[Robert Cheevers]

OneNote and OneNote learning tools can support and expand deeper learning opportunities and be used to create an active learning environment in the classroom.
It is a digital notebook for gathering and storing information – notes, emails, digital handwriting, audio and video recordings, research materials and links.
OneNote’s powerful search capabilities would be great for literacy and project work as students can find information from a single location – great for assignments. Students doing projects can quickly find content based on keywords, jump to a page based on a text within the pictures and even find handwritten notes. OneNote’s tools allows students to share notes and information with others for easy and effective collaboration.
OneNote allows students to create, view and edit. The class could enter text and sketches, record audio and video directly into any section of the application’s page. Texts and graphics can be gathered, organised, searched and shared such as notes, ideas, references, instructions and brainstormijg ideas.
Onenote allows students to store digital sticky notes so they have a clutter free desktop, great for executive functioning and especially benefits children with ADHD. Organising notes and materials are vital skills for lerarning.

One can have many OneNote notebooks.
Children can put information on a page and decide later if it belongs to another.
Children working on a project could take notes together on the same page at the same time with a spiral bound note book.
It can be used for tracking projects – with a project notebook, students could have a single document to capture information such as background, meeting notes, team contacts, and task lists.

The teacher is supported with this free resource by inserting expectations
and giving instructions. Its a great resource for planning and teaching of lessons. It can be used to differentiate work effectively.
There are many language possibilities: EAL pupils and students with AEN can benefit from its use.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Robert,

It’s clear that you have a good grasp and understanding of the functionality of OneNote. The ‘class notebook’ is such a great feature for being able to distribute content to all students in the class. This can benefit their learning at home and assist them with homework, as it allows them to recap on work covered in class in their own time and at their own speed. The ability to type, write and provide audio feedback on work submitted is also a huge benefit of OneNote. Audio feedback has been a real game-changer since Covid and I find that my students respond much better to this than typed or written feedback.

[Tomás Kennedy]

<p class=”p1″ style=”margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;”><span class=”s1″ style=”font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;”>I really enjoyed this module. One Note provides great clarity; it is very well-presented and provides ample opportunity for visual learners and pupils who may have special educational needs. There are so many facets to the program, whether inserting a mathematical equation, a video / picture or a voice note, it provides ample opportunity to support one’s teaching.</span></p>
<p class=”p2″ style=”margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; min-height: 21px; caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;”></p>
<p class=”p1″ style=”margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;”><span class=”s1″ style=”font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;”>Moreover, One Note looks very user-friendly for both the student and the teacher. It has quite a simple interface, which cannot always be said for other similar programmes such as ‘Pro Wise’. </span><span style=”font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 16px;”>I used the ‘picture dictionary’ function last year with two both with EAL. They found it very enjoyable and interactive, and their new vocabulary was extended into games and story-telling. I will continue to use this feature next year, as I have a new Ukrainian boy in my class. This will undoubtedly be a very useful tool, enabling him to settle and begin having meaningful interactions with his peers.</span></p>
<p class=”p2″ style=”margin: 0px; font-stretch: normal; font-size: medium; line-height: normal; min-height: 21px; caret-color: #000000; color: #000000; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;”></p>

[Therese Marren]

<span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>I think One Note would be a great tool to use in school for teachers but indeed for children alike. It would be a great tool to use for particularly differentiation in the classroom. I have never used One note before and didn’t know of all the features it had. I really like the way it can be divided into different sections like chapters which makes it very easily accessible and easily made. I will be teaching 6th class again this year and I have taken so much from this module particularly that I will bring into my classroom.</span><br style=”box-sizing: inherit; color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;” /><span style=”color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif; font-size: 12px;”>One note really appeals to me as a teacher in a professional manner as I like the layout of it and feel it looks really appealing to use. One thing that caught my eye was the ‘picture dictionary’. I know there are many EAL children coming into my class so I feel this will be a very useful tool in my classroom. This module has certainly given me a lot to think about and also implement as I start the school year in a few weeks.</span>

[Patricia O Brien]

One Note allows all lessons, plans, policies etc.  to be in one place for students/ teachers which instantly saves time and makes it hugely effective.

It helps creates wonderful lesson content that is very organised and visual for students. For lessons its format allows the learning objectives clear and easy to comprehend. It is also useful across all subjects from Gaeilge to science with various features to support cross curricular learning. Content that already exists on line can be added to the lesson easily including videos, links and audio. Lessons look well presented, engaging and organised. I also like that it has an e portfolio which would be handy for assessment, as students could store pieces of work there.

Immersive reader is a brilliant feature for children with SEN or reading difficulties. As a teacher in an ASD class and previously mainstream, I feel like it might be a game changer for me going forward teaching, especially in literacy and emerging literacy. It enables me to colour code words, break words into syllables, show words through symbols etc. all features which are extremely helpful when breaking down elements of literacy.

 

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Patricia,

Immersive Reader is a fantastic tool for any SEN (or mainstream) setting. Whilst the needs of the children in your ASD class will be so varied and unique, Immersive Reader really hits on all bases that are needed for emergent literacy. Reading the text aloud to the children may benefit auditory learners, while the varied backgrounds might provide a calming effect when reading for others. Being able to pick out parts of speech and represent them through colour could help those with developing literacy skills.

[Patrick Butler]

One note strikes me as being a very easy way for teachers to gather and maintain their resources from year to year. It can be difficult to hold onto a log of your resources with the traditional method of print and file. Generally what can tend to happen is they get dumped at the end of the academic year. One note delivers a clever way of containing multiple chapters and pages of various forms of media with an engaging design. Trying to gain the attention of students in today’s modern classrooms is proving challenging as the majority have constant access to a multitude of content. Black and white pages printed out before a lesson are slowly becoming obsolete. Teachers need ways to provide engagement for students with a wide range of abilities. The immersive reader is an excellent way to do this and I found the detailed video toward the end of the presentation straightforward, easy to follow and hopefully easy to replicate.

[Patrice Murray]

It is clear and evident from this module that one note and one note learning are very useful tools and resources in the class. As of yet we do not use them in our school but I look forward to showing other teachers how they work. Our school is a multicultural school and one note has great uses for EAL pupils. Use of the immersive reader for differentiated work could prove very advantageous to school. One note can also be used to add audio notes and links to videos. It also could be used for homework. It is also a very effective planning tool for teachers as everything is stored in the same place. However for it to work effectively it would be better if it was a whole school approach. It also is green and good for the environment as it reduces the amount of printing required. I look forward to trying it in September.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Patrice,

You’ve outlined here some of the key features of OneNote in the classroom particularly for EAL students and Immersive Reader but also for paperless teacher planning. As I’ve alluded to many times on this forum, I see OneNote as the digital version of a Swiss Army knife, it can be put to so many different uses. However, you are right to point out that for it to work effectively, it’s use needs to be planned for on a whole-school basis and a certain degree of up-skilling will need to be provided in advance, so all teachers are familiar and comfortable with OneNote. This is something that you should raise with your Digital learning coordinator or DL team in school. I would suggest, a couple of Croke Park hours designated for same would be a good place to start…

[Donnacha De Condúin]

This module really caught me by surprise. I had heard of OneNote but had never really looked into its uses before.

It really is a Jack of all trades piece of Software, that can be used all throughout the school. We have had difficulty in the past few years keeping a digital log of our School Policies as we have been updating school computers. School management have been going around with a USB key and a list of the policies that should be on each desktop, when a OneNote document with all the policies included could save so much time. That file could be easily shared through Teams at the beginning of the year and everyone would be up to date.

The immersive reader is something that will help me from day one, when I return to the classroom. It will be a vital differentiation tool, as well as bring an incredible teaching aid when it comes to grammar lessons. The fact that it can scan text from different sources means that a quick screenshot of ebooks can be made and added to OneNote in minutes, saving time on having to type text out.

[Pat Brennan]

Hi Donnacha,

OneNote’s versatility is what makes it such a powerful tool for teaching and learning and your example of using it to share school policies is one of a myriad of educational tasks it can be put to. If teacher and whole school planning is something you plan using OneNote for in your school I would strongly advise installing the free Class Notebook Add-in and use same to create a OneNote Staff Notebook which provides a personal workspace for every teacher, a content library for shared information, and a collaboration space. Alternatively, you can create the notebook within a Microsoft Team. For more information on OneNote and Class Notebook see onenoteforteachers.com

[Donnacha De Condúin]

Pat, that is really helpful. Thank you for passing that on.

[Shirley Kerr]

One Note, I cannot wait to use this as I can see so much potential. Straight away I think the option of being able to write on a picture will be so helpful. Often we teach children using visual aids eg naming parts of plants, names of planets but they can’t write on the picture where as they can now label each part of the items so easily.The other part I am excited about is the different colours and changing and I know it is available in other settings but it looks easier on this platform. Some children find black text on white background difficult to process so to be able to edit everything use the one note tools in such a way to make it more accessible to those children in my class will be ideal. Being able to add clips from youtube etc and not having to open it in separate screen and several tabs open and going back and forth means it is all accessible. I will be sharing the ideas with other staff members and using it to create more lessons and being able to log in to on anyone’s computer means if visiting parents or wanting to do something and I have no laptop I can access it on someone elses and edit.

[Deirdre Maye]

Hi Shirley,

I love the enthusiasm about One Note, it’s what we want to hear!!

One Note is a very useful tool and a great resource to have in the classroom.  It is highly efficient.  I love your idea about the children being able to label a picture.  One Note has a great visual impact and is fantastic for creating lessons.

[Sabrina Courage]

One note is another element of office 365 which is very new to me. This module has made me aware of a wide variety of learning tools which I can not wait to utilise this year. At first I found this module a little daunting but I found the slide which had a desktop recording of how to make a template and how to build on this template using shading etc to be very informative. One note has tools to help children of all abilities to access the primary curriculum. The immersive reader is a very impressive tool. The fact that Audio clips, pictures, documents and many different links can be added makes for enriched learning. I love the idea of being able to add a picture dictionary, syllables and other colour coding in order to highlight nouns etc. This allows for a great amount of differentiation. One note is a very valuable tool which I will have to spend some time researching further in order to get the best out of it, but I feel that the time spent would be very worth while.

[Claire Greene]

I am a newbie to OneNote so today was a steep learning curve! Initially I like that OneNote makes organisation simple and in a way that makes sense to you. I also like that if I used OneNote for teaching and learning, I am giving the children in my class access to learn long after class time is over. The most important factor for me in choosing to use a tool like OneNote is the ability to appeal to all styles of learning. I found I could easily add text, images, audio, video and digital ink to any page and it afforded me multiple methods for formative feedback. I feel that OneNote supports the continuity of learning for students and would lead to deeper and more meaningful learning opportunities. I was particularly taken by the digital ink aspect as I feel my students would benefit from this feature and make meaning from this form of new thinking.

[Sarah Rockett]

OneNote and OneNote Learning Tools have huge potential in supporting and expanding deeper learning opportunities for students. Creating a template which is colour coded and used for all lessons in this format would be hugely beneficial for all students specifically those with learning difficulties as the format is familiar and predictable. The facility to add Online Video, Links and Audio creates an attractive and interactive learning medium and would serve to both motivate the children to learn and expand deeper learning opportunities for them. Given that these lessons are saved and can be revisited in the future provides for revision and consolidation of topics (which may have otherwise been lost once wiped from the whiteboard). Saved lessons could also be pre-taught ahead of time by the SET teacher to support struggling learners. The audio feature could be used to model appropriate pace, tone, pronunciation and intonation for the class when reading aloud or giving presentations. The ‘draw’ feature would be a great tool for labelling drawings during lessons/teaching or used as an assessment tool if used by the students. The Immersive Reader feature is a game changer for providing differentiated text in a discrete and inclusive manner particularly the text to speech, syllable and picture dictionary features. I am looking forward to using this in the coming school year.

[Alan Barrett]

This module has showed me some great examples of how beneficial OneNote can be in the classroom.

From a planning and collaboration prospective it can be a huge help to teachers at the same class level with sharing content and working their way through different topics. They can differentiate at their own class level easily if a common topic is being followed. In our school we are fortunate to have resource teachers to assist in team teaching on our timetables. OneNote can be hugely beneficial in this instances as it can sometimes be difficult to make time in everyone’s schedules for effective meetings and collaboration.

In the classroom context the immersive reader is the area that jumped out to me straight away with huge possibilities. In our school we would have a large number of students who wouldn’t speak English as their first language at home and this could be a huge help to them.

[Shane Dolan]

<p style=”box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif;”>Use the Notebook to collate the resources intended for use for the lesson/series oflessons and include Learning Intentions and a Checklist.<br style=”box-sizing: inherit;” />Continue your OneNote journey with OneNote Class Notebook on the Microsoft Learn Education Centre.</p>
<p style=”box-sizing: inherit; border: 0px; font-size: 12px; margin: 0px 0px 1.6em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; color: #163c42; font-family: ‘Hind Madurai’, sans-serif;”>Consider how OneNote and OneNote Learning Tools could support and expand deeper learning opportunities for students. Post a reflective piece (150 words minimum)as a reply to this post</p>
This is my first time using OneNote. From a teaching perspective, I see great benefit for children in using this tool. Many children in my classes have some form of difficulty with literacy. The use of the colour coded function to highlight different sylllables, verbs etc would be of huge benefit to such children. The hover over function that displays a picture beside a word is amazing too. I often find that children will get lost easily in such a big body of text. Allowing for such useful tools to help with their learning really gives a more indiviudalised plan for each child’s needs. Obviously, not all children need all of these features but for those that do, it is a game changer for how they can access the curriculum and to feel more confident in reading and with the concepts of print that they may struggle with.

The OneNote can also be used to further stretch children’s creativity and literacy skills who may be at a more advanced level. I feel that they using such tools as the immersive reader would be a great means for children to access more advanced and complex texts to what they are used to.

I will be spending more time on OneNote to get utilize it’s features more so I can use them correctly in the classroom.

[Róisin Coyle]

Hi All,

Prior to this summer course, I haven’t previously used One Note or One Note Learning Tools. In my school, we predominantly use Google Applications therefore I have found this course really helpful and practical for showcasing a huge variety of ways One Note and it’s learning tools can be implemented in the classroom. It’s always beneficial to learn about other platforms and new resources.

From looking at One Note during this module it’s clear it has a large range of resources that are very practical  for classroom use. I think it would be very group projects such as class projects or presentations. I think to introduce One Note in the classroom with children it would take a lot of background work to ensure children have the skills set to access and navigate the platform with ease. I think it would be well suited to the Senior Classes. I also like the Notepad would be a great way to facilitate online collaboration among children in the class, particularly during project work. I think Notepad could be a good feature for homework activities also, particularly for solving problems or labelling diagrams.

 

[Ciara Kennedy]

I have no experience with OneNote but after viewing this module I am excited to try it out as I feel it would be a great tool to support and expand deeper learning opportunities for students. Having access to lesson content alone would be very useful for students completing assignments, projects or studying for a test. The ability to add links to websites, audio and videos to the content ensures the lesson is interactive and therefore engages the children more whilst also giving them access to more information in a variety of ways. The use of OneNote allows for may opportunities for collaboration. Teachers school wide can share resources, teachers in the same class level can do the same but to a higher extent and the children themselves could use the OneNote to share resources for a group project. The immersive reader is very impressive and the benefits to it are plenty. It would be great for children with dyslexia and EAL students. It would also be hugely beneficial to all children when learning grammar and phonics.

[Mary Kelly]

OneNote is a learning tool which I was not overly familiar with. Besides hearing the name, I had never used it before. It is great to have the opportunity and time to familiarise myself with this resource as I can now see how beneficial it is and I forward to using it in my classroom in September. it will help to improve my organisational skills and allow me to keep my plans in one, easy to access, place.

I think it would be a great teaching tool for primary teachers as it is easy to navigate and it would be an excellent tool for children in the senior end to use to record their work and collaborate to create and present their own projects on different topics. I have previously used PowerPoint presentations with fourth and fifth class and they loved creating and presenting with their classmates. This is a step up from that, as I know the children will enjoy exploring the different learning tools (Font, Size, Colour, Syllables, Nouns, Verbs, Adjectives, Adverbs, Text to Speech, Pictionary) One Note has to offer and they can take pride when showcasing their projects with their peers. It will also encourage the children to explore and research topics which they find interesting as an Early Finisher Activity.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Mary Kelly.

[Brendan Coyle]

Onenote is not an app I have used before in the classroom but this module outlines a number of ways I can use it to support learning going forward. I like the way that the app allows you to create a digital notebook. This would be very useful for creating useful information booklets for the pupils. Each year I get my pupils to take down a brief notes on new concepts we have learned in maths. The OneNote app would allow me to do this and save valuable class time. OneNote would allow me to organise this information into chapters and to colour code and highlight important information. Another advantage of creating the notebook digitally is that I could create hyperlinks to relevant websites or to YouTube or Microsoft Stream. The annotation tool is also very beneficial as it allows me to label pictures and highlight important information from a particular page.

Once the pupils are familiar with OneNote they could begin to make their own digital notebooks. These could be created in any number of curricular areas.

 

[Claire Rourke]

Both OneNote and OneNote learning tools are avenues to scaffold, strengthen and enlarge deeper learning opportunities for students in a variety of ways.

Firstly, it has excellent language possibilities for all pupils. The immersive reader is a very useful tool and be used to differentiate work effectively and easily within the classroom. For any poem, story, paragraph use it in the classroom during differentiated group work/co teaching/ literacy groups. A vast range of ability could be looked after using the immersive reader. This could be in the form of translation for the pupils with EAL, individual reading for pupils with additional learning needs,  it can be used for identifying verbs and nouns for some pupils, and maybe identifying adverbs and adjectives for more able pupils.

Secondly, OneNote if administered correctly from a planning perspective can make teaching and learning lessons affluent and therefore administer better learner outcomes within the classroom. On top of that, it is a wonderful tool for collaboration and could be utilised to enhance the planning, teaching, assessment and evaluation of coteaching lessons.

 

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Claire Rourke.

[Laura Heavey]

Really impressed with one note I never realized how useful it could be. After working in SET last year and with many EAL children I see how useful it is. I will definitely be using this in September. I think it will work really well particularly the immersive reader this is fantastic for comprehension. I think one note would be very effective for keeping students engaged and focused as we move forward away from paper- with it being so easy to access all topics and key information on one digital notebook. I am looking forward to using this in September. I also agree it would need to be looked at on a whole school basis with to ensure staff understand how to use one note.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Laura,

As you have said, there are a multitude of uses for OneNote in an SEN setting. The ability to colour code sections and pages greatly assists  a child who may struggle with organisation. Having a numbering system for pages (1.1, 1.2, etc.) may also help children find material in their ‘content library’ easier. The in-built use of Immersive Reader is also a huge tool for use in an SEN setting or with EAL pupils. The ‘ease of use’ of the tool within OneNote is one of the primary benefits.

[Marie McCormack]

I think its a great tool for comprehension. Often a  full text is very off putting and can be daunting for someone with learning needs.

Just to recap can the Onenote read text to pupils??

[Megan Doheny]

I am teaching 6th class next year and it is important to teach the children the skills they need in secondary school. One note is perfect for teaching children how to take notes. I would first do this as a whole class; we would read about a topic, in history for example, and then show them how to create headings and subheadings and how to find and record important info. I would then share this with them. I would give them one to do on their own and they could then compare with each other how theirs differed; they could easily see if they left out too much info/ included too much info. They could compare organisation etc.

I would also use one note for collaboration. Children could create project work through one note and be able to see and edit each other’s work in real time. This means children could work on the project both in and out of school.

We could also use it as a whole class to create stories/poems adding one line each. Or using it as a KWL chart where children can add what they know, want to know and what they learned about a topic.

 

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Megan Doheny.

[Michelle Mc Keown]

The exemplars that were used during this module really shows exactly how much can be done with OneNote. Chapters, pages, content, learning outcomes, blooms taxonomy, keywords etc! I love the way that everything was colour-coded and that it can be used for any given subject. As a member of the PST (Professional Support Team) in my school, I really liked the exemplar showing the different sections pertaining to a particular school including information about the school, our code of behaviour, all the different policies and procedures etc. I think this use of OneNote would be an invaluable resource to be able to share with NQTs that start in our school, as well as long-term subs.

I particularly love the tool to draw or annotate which I think would be invaluable for Maths especially. I’ve found so many times that my students can do the Maths problem in class, but then when they get home, they have forgotten the steps they need to take in completing the Maths problem. I think the way you can write how to do the sun and highlight the answer in yellow, exactly like you would do in class, would not only be a great help to the struggling student, but also to the parent who is trying to explain how to do a given sum. The immersive reader has so many tools with Ennis as well. I particularly liked the picture dictionary and think it would work really well for my EAL students. it also lens itself so well to differentiation. The whole class could be working on the same poem, but be doing a variety of different things within the lesson. Simply reading the poem and understanding it to highlighting all the nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives within the poem. These exemplars were really excellent, well done and thank you.

[Kevin Gillen]

I have the one note app on my mobile.  I had found it useful for taking notes and lists etc.  I had no idea that so much could be done with one note!

The potential for planning as an individual and sharing your lesson plans is huge.  The ability to create a “folder” with chapters and pages allows for a great way to store plans, policies and resources that can be shared.

 

In terms of helping with literacy, i thought the learning tools were brilliant.  The immersive reader function was great.  High lighting text and applying different fonts and backgrounds is very effective when helping those with reading diffculities.  Also being able to break words into syllables is a great help.  Not only is it good for those struggling with reading, but also great for translations and challenging strong readers by being able to high light the nounds, verbs, adverbs etc.

 

You can plan for and reach many different levels and learning outcomes all using the one piece of text with this resource.

 

 

[Marie McCormack]

I am delighted with the course and how one note can do so many things that benefit students and teachers.

As a infant teacher i think that using it for lessons with infants may not be needed. Its certainly a tool that would be helpful for parent and staff. I think htat even at staff meetings the tools in learning tools would be good to highlight in different what to do, most important or dates to note in another colour.

I am a visual persona love the fact the colour changes and highlights aspects. I think it shows the important info.  It would be great idea for parent information nights or even as a template for newsletter or class info. Again people are so busy and just look at dates or what to do not and dont read a reem of writing.

As someone who has previously taught in SEN I think the tools available here are invaluable.

they are great to make a revision pack for older students. Can be easily accessed for handy revision or checking back over a topic. I think aswell the fact that the learning tools allow the student to write over and edit documents this could be very helpful for those with technology. Many students now have access to technology and they could use these type of documents/programme to complete work. It makes it more appealing, mistakes can be ighlighted and revisited. its very visual to show step by step question and brings the likes of boring long division to life. HA!

 

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Marie,

OneNote is an amazing educational tool, but as you said it is not overly suitable for use in lessons with an infant class. It is much more suited to the senior class and second-level students. There is some potential for using it to share content with parents that can be revised at home. This could specifically relate to phonics and early mathematical activities. Given your experience as an SET, it’s great that you have identified the benefit of the colour-coding of pages and topics for students who may lack organisational skills.

[Karen Kerins]

Module Three
I found this module really informative. I can see how One Note can be beneficial for collaboration as a staff and as a tool to help students. Working in SET One Note would be especially good as it would allow me to work with my student’s class teacher by joining the class team and having accesses to the work my student is doing and give them individual help. At primary level middle and senior classes would really benefit from One Note as it allows them to see information in a very structured way. It also allows for differentiation which can be so difficult in a classroom. Students with specific learning difficulties are so sensitive to being treated differently to their peers. Their confidence and self-esteem can be affected by having to doing work that is different to that of their peers. One Note allow students a private space to work at their own level and pace.

[Declan Hogan]

I hadn’t heard of or used OneNote before undertaking this course but it is now something I plan on using immediately once the new school year begins.  The way in which I can personalise my lessons and resources, add colours, images etc to my work really helps me bring my lessons to life.  Not only do I hope this will help spark the interests of my pupils but I hope it will inspire them to create their own resources and content using OneNote too.

The fact that all of the resources are stored in the one place makes it vert easy to access and ensures that no time is wasted locating different resources needed for a lesson.

Furthermore, I really like the way OneNote can be used to facilitate collaborative learning and group work.  Children/Students can use the app to create and design original pieces of work as well as edit and comment on the work of their peers.

[Owen Teagle]

With the use of text, visual, and audio-based learning, OneNote is a fantastic tool for involving kids in learning in a fun and dynamic way. Before today, I had never used this software, but I can understand how it would help pupils, especially those with specific needs. This year, I spent a lot of effort distinguishing tasks and making personalized resources as a member of the SET team. For the upcoming school year, I will unquestionably advise our staff to use OneNote to organize all of the documents into easily accessible chapters based on literacy areas like grammar, vocabulary, and genres. When students are shown topic work, I enjoy the idea that they are aware of their learning objectives and what their learning is focused on.

I particularly like the concept of using OneNote’s immersive reasoning feature as a learning tool, where kids who need extra help with reading may be given options like text-to-speech for unfamiliar words. Children with English as an additional language could listen to the audio to hear teacher instructions or comments on their work while also engagingly learning a variety of language and vocabulary.

[Ellen Daly]

I see one note essentially as a digital space that can be used to create individual student portfolios, which can easily be accessed online; can be edited and transformed in lots of different ways; is controlled by students with opportunities for teacher input and peer review if appropriate. OneNote learning tools also provide a variety of opportunities for collaboration, project work, sharing resources and provide students with alternative ways of presenting their work. As a teacher,  it will also afford me the opportunity to address different learning styles through the content available.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Ellen,

OneNote can certainly be used as a space for the creation of student portfolios – these can be multimodal and incorporate embedded documents, images of written work, audio files, etc. It also offers the potential for teacher feedback to be provided and acted upon in a meaningful manner and allows for collaboration and co-operation with other students in the class. Learning material can also be made more accessible through built-in features such as colour coding and Immersive Reader.

[Kathleen Murphy]

Module 3

One Note for Literacy

I have found this module very helpful as I have shied away from Onenote as it is new to me, after this module I feel more informed and ready to use it. The uses that Onenote has is excellent. To be able to create resources and store all in a concise way is such a help and will allow more time for lesson planning and indeed better prepared lessons.

I teach junior infants so at times it can be difficult to get resources that are suited to the age levels and wide range of abilities in the class. Some children are graspoong phonics/ sight words etc while others are still on prereading skills. I find the fact that by using Onenote I can snip clips where I want and also the feature of adding audio will be very useful in my classroom. I will be able create lessons that will hopefully keep children interested and engaged throughout while most importantly succeeding in delivering the learning objectives/ outcomes of the lesson.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Kathleen,

A number of years ago, I had the same reservations about One Note. While I was proficient with the other Microsoft apps, I was reluctant to try OneNote as it was different and outside my comfort zone. However, it is a really fantastic tool. While it is too advanced for junior infants to use and navigate, it could be used by teachers for the creation of resources, some of which could be distributed to parents for revision purposes.

[Orla Blaney]

I can see how OneNote and its learning tools will be able to support and expand deeper learning opportunities for both students and teachers alike.  With OneNote we will be able to create, save, and access a wide variety of content on any device. We will be able to create sections and pages where pages contain our actual notes whereas sections contain collections of related pages.  This will allow us to organise and share our content, files, tables, videos, and class resources with students and colleagues.

This is my first year in learning support so it will take a while to get lessons organised for the different pupils who are learning at different speeds, but it will also make it easier to share these plans with other teachers and then be able to refer back to them in future years too to compare and assess progress an develop new learning plans. It is great that OneNote saves all the material as you go along so nothing will get lost. I can see how beneficial the immersive reader will be for my new students in learning support and also for children from different nationalities such as our new Ukrainian students.

I can see how Staff notebook will be able to help our staff and admin staff be more organised, save time, and collaborate together in our school.

 

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Orla,

Certainly as it is your first year working in SET, there will be lots of things that are new to you. Digital technologies can be really useful in supporting children with additional needs, but you will need time to pick out the ones that will work for you. OneNote could be really useful in helping to organise work for those with DCD – the colour coded files could match coloured stickers on the books and copies for that subject, etc. In addition, Immersive Reader really would be a ‘go to’ tool for work with EAL students. The picture dictionary and translate feature would greatly assist their language acquisition and development.

[Peter McNevin]

Having explored the module on One Note I can see how great it can as a resource for storing and organising documents in an easy and accessible way. It can also be used as a great interactive resource to spark interest when starting a new topic, allowing children to become familiar with their learning outcomes and key vocabulary which would be essential to the topic.

It is an excellent resource for collaboration and group projects, promoting research, communication and presentation skills. Each member of the group can be allocated roles which would allow them to become responsible in creating One Note presentations, such as designing the layout, choosing vocabulary which is specific to the topic and finding links to various websites and media files.

One Note Immersive Reader Tool would be great in my role in SET next year. It would allow the children to identify grammar in their reading in an engaging way from the colour coding technique. The picture aid feature would be extremely beneficial for reader comprehension and fluency.
 

• This reply was modified 3 years, 5 months ago by Peter McNevin. Reason: copy and paste problem

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Peter,

Given that you will be working in SET next year, I would agree that the Immersive Reader is a tool you could get a lot of use out of. It can be of huge benefit to EAL learners and those with a specific learning difficulty like dyslexia. Even for fluent readers, the ability to pick out different parts of speech may assist those who are struggling with the writing process. As you have also said, it is a great collaborative tool. If you were taking a literacy or numeracy group from a senior class, you could certainly incorporate it into a collaborative venture.

[Robert Breen]

One note has a great many uses in the modern primary school. The opportunities for collaboration, differentiation and accessibility are endless. Again I am new to the platform and would have to do a good bit of playing around with the platform to become proficient.

Distribution has great scope for differentiation within classes and/or smaller groups of children. Classmates won’t see each others work but the teacher has many options to help the students with their work, including audio notes, online ink notes or typed reactions.

The immersive reader and accessibility checker will hopefully be of good use to me next year working in the SET in our school, Alt text, translator and audio for accessibility seem like very good tools to help EAL students or children with reading difficulties,

Other applications in one note such as Researcher offer great scope for project work. It allows students to focus on the important areas of gathering information from trusted sources and stops them from becoming distracted. The collaboration space is a great space for children to work on projects, It is open to all and everything can be edited unless permissions are changed by the teacher. It is great for brainstorming, lists and glossaries of important terms . The teacher can view who has contributed what and can add corrections in audio, pen or text form.

The read only content library will also be a great reference area for students.

I hope to get my head around the software this year and bring it into my classroom

[Michelle Meaney]

Firstly, the immersive reader… Wow! How did I not know this existed before? This tool is a wonderful way to ensure that all children can access a text. Working with syllables, picture dictionary, line highlight, sounds etc is wonderful way to bring an emergent reader or a dyslexic pupil into the text, as well as allowing for deeper learning of that text.
Setting up templates that can be reused will help set a format for the pupils learning so that they become used to seeing their outcomes and language, and automatically look for it for each lesson. Also, adding a homework focus for the pupils to see is a super way for them to focus on the lesson, and look out for what will be needed later on at home. I love that my pupils will be able to go back over the lesson content in the classnotebook.
From a planning perspective, I love how you can collate all your information and resources together. I’m so used to bookmarking my online resources for the next day or emailing content to myself and then try to find it the next day. This is such a great way to store and have those resources ready in the same place and always ready. This morning, while I was at an appointment, I was in the waiting room. I had already created my notebook last night and downloaded OneNote to my phone at the suggestion of a colleague. So while I was sitting in the waiting room, I was looking up activities for “Mé Féin” for September and realised I could save these straight to my notebook on my phone ready for teaching. I thought about all the times that I usually search for resources or find something accidently and send it to myself or screenshot it to find it later. (Normally while waiting during my son’s training or at swimming!) Having the option to just add it to the notebook and work on it from my phone will really save time and frustration while trying to find that great video I saved somewhere for tomorrows lesson. A bit of a long answer, but I am truly excited about this!
Also, being able to share a Notebook with my partner teacher will really save time on planning and aid or collaborative approach. This year I am teaching a split 4th/5th class and my partner is also teaching the same split next door. We could use the Notebook to add content for one part of the split each or work on a lesson together. I also like that a SET teacher could access it to help with supporting their pupils with the upcoming topics.

[Alana O Donnell]

I envisage one note could be used in many ways to enhance the learning of the pupils in our school. While working in a special class setting you work collaboratively with a variety of professionals. These include, Speech and Language Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers, Psychologists, Play therapists, Liaison nurses, etc. A great use for one note might be to create a multidisciplinary file on each pupil(data protection in mind) and this is where ideas and useful resources could be shared and suggested. Feedback could then be given to all stakeholders on the relevance of the above going forward. This would be especially helpful as i am currently working with pupils who are at increased medical vulnerability and the less contacts they have the better. We could remotely engage in therapy sessions and get advice and input from many professionals. They could also complete observations on the children without being there in person, which can limit disruption in class also.

[Garrett O’Donnell]

One Note really is a fantastic tool. In terms of comparing Google Workspace an, there d competitor for and gives Microsoft a huge advantage. One Note expands and deepens learner experiences as it fosters clarity and cohesion for students. The design aspects such as the navigation bar in One Note, facilitate user accessibility and meet good UI criteria which support student learning. The students’ learning potential is further bolstered through colour coding which creates a visual schema which creates familiarity for students and consequentially bolsters learning opportunities. I like the fact that once you have created the notes, they can be called upon again and again and also new content can be added easily. You can keep your notebook private or share it. This allows for teacher collaboration and also work can be shared with students so they can access it at home. I am looking forward to experimenting with OneNote as this is the only way to become au fait and confident bringing it into the classroom as a resource.

[Eoghan O’Neill]

Hi Garrett,

I am more adept with the Google products, but would have to concede that OneNote is far superior to what Google can offer. There is no Google alternative at present, and if a school is in limbo over what platform to choose, the availability of One Note may be the deciding factor. The ability to store notes in the ‘content library’, embed PDFs, videos, Forms quizzes, etc. means that students would rarely have a reason to leave OneNote. The built-in Immersive Reader feature is also crucial in making lessons and content more accessible.

[Sandra McGrath]

I used OneNote in a post primary school setting where we as a department designed our own book/workbook for the year. It was a whole school initiative with all students and all staff using Microsoft surface. This allowed using OneNote as a subject book for the year much more accessible and also more successful. When designing our book for the year each department collaborated together to design a chapter following a template that everyone used. The whole school also used this template across each subject department. As designers we could include checklists at the end of each chapter, learning checks throughout the chapter, include learning objectives at the start, video/ website links, highlight key words and definitions and include specific questions at the end of the chapter. Each student had the same copy on their OneNote and when they made changes to answer assessment pieces of questions teachers had direct access to them to correct and to give immediate feedback. Although setting up a subject textbook as mentioned above is time consuming, it is a valuable tool in any department. OneNote can be continued from one year to the next and is easily editable.

[Lisa Healy]

I think One Note is a great resource for teacher planning. I think this is particularly true for SET. Teachers can share common learning targets. I think One Note will enable teachers to focus on the content and objectives at hand and in turn allow pupils to access and reach the learning targets intended in the lesson. The checklist function is effective and makes it visually clear to users. Team teaching, job sharers or class teachers and SETs could really benefit from utilising this tool. I do feel it would take some organisation and possibly peer tutoring amongst staff to et this up and running at a whole school level but I feel without a doubt it would be forward thinking and progressive as a staff. Again the opportunities for forward planning or to support teacher absences through One Note is immense and would really help to enrich learning and make the most of a substitute teacher’s time.

[Caolan Kelly]

If there is one thing that I will be taking from this course it is One Note.

Currently I have plans, PowerPoints, resources, photos, videos etc. all saved in a variety of different fodders on my desktop, email, OneDrive, memory key etc. So as you can imagine there is a lot of navigating, frustration and time spent preparing for certain lessons. But not anymore thanks to this module! Over the next few weeks I intend to explore OneNote even further and to store all of my lessons, resources, plans etc. in the one place, but in a very systematic way, under chapters, tabs and pages and with content colour coded for easier use. Getting other members of staff on board will also be so beneficial as it will enable us to share ideas and resources as well as being able to educate each other on the vast amount of tools available i.e., digital ink, digital whiteboard, annotating etc. Activities can be assigned to students individually or collectively with the teacher having control at all times. I’m excited to add this valuable resource to my everyday teaching life.

 

[Caoimhe Uí Mhuirgheasa]

I can see huge potential for the use of one note for my own planning and the organisation of resources and information.

My students have a Dialann Machnaimh every year in which they record Irish grammar rules and examples and reflect on their use.  This is usually kept in an A4/A5 hardback.  However I definitely think that it would be far more useful and appealing in One Note form as an ongoing tool that could be kept up to date by the students even after they leave my class.  The huge benefit is obviously the ability to edit their entries, move them around and colour code in whatever manner is appropriate and useful to each individual child.

I also think that to have this skill leaving primary school would be very useful in terms of revision for exams in Secondary School whereby the students could use one note as an ongoing personal record and revision resource.

[Jen Leacy]

I have not used One note.  I can see the value in using it.  Particularly to organise my plans and lessons.

The Immersive Reader looks like a very valuable tool to use for struggling readers or children struggling with fluency.  I an see that the children I teach with additional needs would like to hear themselves read and it may be an incentive for reading at certain times of the day.  The disadvantage however is that many of the children become extremely distracted with any device as they see it as a tool to use You Tube or gaming apps that they have at home.

As behaviour can be a big factor in the classroom, introducing new systems can be challenging for staff and pupils.  I can see a lot of good uses for using this but it will also take time to implement.

[Brid O’Callaghan]

I was most impressed with one note. I feel it is an ideal platform for organising teaching notes. I personally would use it as a diary categorising according to weeks rather than chapter. Being able to sync notes to any device means that your pupils can download all notes for reference at any time which would be helpful to our pupils with broadband accessibility issues. Being able to zoom in on content draws attention to a particular topic and being able to save screenshots ad hoc means that you can compare and contrast topics as you go through live lessons. I imagine this would be very useful for maths lessons.finally i think that being able to tag your notes is going to make retrieving info so much more accessible. One note has been an excellent discovery for me as a teacher as my teacher’s hardback diary may be replaced by One note going forward.

[Fearghal Duffy]

I have never used OneNote before. It is an excellent platform that can be very beneficial for the students. The way I would potentially use it, would be for the student’s to have a revision notebook. Each week I would pick a topic/subject and get the student’s to write up their own notes and summary. They could add pictures and videos to help them if needs be. I would have my own template and learning objectives done out for the student’s to base their OneNote off. Having the organisation of the sections and pages will allow them to look back and revise them with great ease.

For my own teaching, I will be able to keep my own notes in order and I will be able to distribute the with greater ease online. At the moment I only have my notes saved in a folder and backed up online.

[Author]

Posts