Digital Modelling Books in OneNote

Digital inking is enabling teachers to reimagine how they deliver their learning experiences in new and exciting ways. One of the ways inking transformed the way I taught was by allowing me to shift my modelling from a traditional paper modelling book to a digital notebook with unlimited pages… also known as OneNote!

Quick Lesson Prep

With a few clicks, you can have the reading text for the day inserted onto a OneNote page and use the OneNote Draw tools to highlight and annotate keywords, new vocabulary and record questions. Now when you find a relevant article you can simply print it to the OneNote page, ready to highlight and annotate. Alternatively, you can insert a printout of a PDF or document directly onto the page! Tip: Right click on the printout select 'Picture' and 'Set Picture as Background' to stop the printout from moving around and causing your annotations to lose their alignment with the text.

Student Engagement

Traditionally I would sit with a group of learners around a table, me, with modelling book and pen in hand and students, displaying varying levels of engagement as I recorded key ideas and questions. This dynamic changed when I shifted to digital modelling. Using wireless projection, my OneNote page would be displayed on the whiteboard allowing all students to view the content easily, no longer having to focus on a rectangular book in the hands of the teacher. From here, control of the ideas and content could easily be transferred to students simply by handing over the device and stylus. We know that students learn from their peers, what better way than to see their peers modelling the steps of solving an equation in real time, full screen, projected on to a whiteboard or TV.

Engagement and excitement were evident as students eagerly awaited their turn to share their ideas. Not to mention they could show ownership of their ideas by having their own pen colour, including rainbow and galaxy pens! This form of modelling meant that children who were completing independent work could 'tune in' to parts of the lesson they were interested in as the content was displayed for all to see and follow along with.

At the end of the lesson, all of the ideas explored were no longer hidden away in a book in the corner of the room rather they were now accessible for students anywhere, anytime, right within the OneNote Class Notebook Content Library. The feature of Ink Replay in OneNote was a game changer as students could replay the steps modelled for solving a math problem, as many times as they needed and in their own time.

Parent Involvement in Learning

A breakthrough 'teacher win' moment was when a student made an enthusiastic entrance into the classroom to announce they had worked through the Math problem from the previous day's lesson with mum and dad at home. With Office 365 and OneNote Class Notebook, the student had simply logged in at home and was able to share all of their in-class learning with their parents.

Please note, I am not advocating for all paper/traditional forms of modelling to move into a digital space (unless you want to!). Sometimes paper and pen are the best tools for the job!