learning tool 2 : Microsoft OneNote

• Description of Microsoft OneNote.

OneNote can be a powerful way to organize projects and ideas. Many students use OneNote for academics and also for work and personal projects. Microsoft OneNote is like a digital version of a physical notebook. Users can capture digital notes and keep them organized. Users can add images, diagrams, audio, video and more. 

OneNote designed to function as an electronic version of a notebook. Microsoft OneNote is a note-taking and personal information management (PIM) application for collecting, organizing and sharing digital information. By storing notes, photos, audio and video snippets, handwriting and similar content, Microsoft OneNote collects and organizes the information, making it available for searching as well as sharing with others. 

Microsoft OneNote is included with the Microsoft Office suite, and it also syncs OneNote data between computers and mobile devices through Microsoft's Skydrive cloud storage service.

• Features of Microsoft OneNote.

The best thing about OneNote is that it is pack with features and it offers everything for free. 

1. Quick notes.

OneNote is pretty good when it comes to taking impromptu notes. Typically, users just have to pick a notebook, pick a section and create a new page using the provided button. But if user need to jot a throwaway note, users should turn to the Quick Notes feature.

2. Images and handwritten notes can be imported by using Optical Character Recognition (OCR).

One of the greatest and smartest OneNote features is OCR Technology. Users can use the technology to automatically import text from images or even handwritten notes into your notebook.

3. Page templates.

Another one of those features that should be using all the time in OneNote is the page template. They'd come in handy. For example, users would like to organize their notes into text-based and equations-based. Instead of recreating the layouts of those notes every time, users can set up a Page Template that users can invoke when creating new notes, which can save a lot of time and energy.

4. Custom Tags.

OneNote's system of organization without a doubt is already really good with its notebook/section/page approach to notes, but users can get even more granularity by using tags. Tags are good for relating notes that exist across different sections or notebooks. For example, i have a shopping list with a section for make up, skincare and groceries. I also have tags for Setting Powder, Face Cleanser and Vegetables and Fruits which i can apply to notes in those sections and these tags come in handy when i need to search. OneNote comes with a bunch of default tags but users can create as many Custom Tags as they want.

5.  Quick Access Toolbar.

At the very top of the OneNote window along the title bar, there is a handful of shortcut buttons on the left. These make up the Quick Access Toolbar, and users can customize which buttons show up on it. Users can add pretty much any action that can make in OneNote.

 Everything from tagging notes to inserting meeting details, from changing font sizes to clearing all formatting.

• Benefit of OneNote in teaching. 

The more you learn about OneNote, the more likely you are to embrace it as one of the best teaching and learning tools available today.

1. Organizing.

As an educator, it is crucial to keep you on track. OneNote is versatile and adapts to anyone's note-taking preferences. Teachers or lecturers can organize digital notebooks by sections and pages in a way that makes sense to them. some like to organize information based on time, by content or simply just throw everything together in a pile with little or no organization at all.

2. Allowing flexible teaching styles.

There are many things to manage in the classroom and OneNote lets the teachers/lecturers decide upon the best pedagogy to use for a given situation. OneNote allows for easy review of older material and provides multiple methods for formative feedback in the moment that it is most effective. Adding new content is just as easy and a teacher can individualize instruction based upon any student's needs and interests.

3. Searching and tagging.

The true value of note-taking is being able to retrieve that information, at will, when and where you need it. With OneNote, your notes are searchable. Users can tag their notes with the default tags or create custom tags. OneNote will search the text within images (OCR) and within handwritten notes.

• Benefit of OneNote in learning. 

1. Getting messy with digital ink.

Learning is messy and OneNote provides the free-form tools to help students think through it. when we first learn something new, we do not yet have all the pieces required to make sense of a topic. We often collect and gather article for learning but we must also process new learning by combining, re-combining and assimilating new information. 

2.  Presenting content.

Presentations and student is like a match made in heaven. Oftentimes text is not enough to get your point across. With OneNote, students can easily ad text, images, audio, video and digital ink to any page. OneNote also uses an infinite canvas that let you expand and add more notes as you need. When presenting live, you can pinch and zoom to enlarge areas of the screen you want the audience to pay attention to. 

3. Accessing, collaborating and sharing content. 

Note-taking no longer needs to be a fleeting or lonely experience. Notes persist over time and can be referred to often for review and deeper understanding. Students can access notes easily and share them with other students to contribute together in near real-time through peer collaboration. Notes can be automatically synced to OneDrive and accessed from laptop, tablet or even a mobile phone. 

• Guidelines on getting started on OneNote.

This is OneNote interface. 

The three main parts to OneNote are notebooks, sections and pages. 

Notebooks let you collect related information in one central place, just like with a paper notebook. Switch between notebooks using the dropdown arrow. 

Sections help you group information in each notebook with colourful tabs running across the top of the app. each sections holds one or more notes which are fittingly called pages, to carry the notebook analogy further. Sections can be grouped together that comes in handy when you have too many section tabs to fit in one screen.

You can also password protect them by right-clicking on the tab. select "Password Protection". 

Pages are listed in the right-hand navigation pane (or the left if you change the settings in the Windows program). On OneNote's pages, you can place and drag content around anywhere on the page. 

The uniqueness of OneNote is it's freeform pages.

This freeform layout helps you create versatile notes with different kind of contents and aids in the creative and learning process. You can paste in reference material or questions to the side of the pages.