PHILIPPINE ACADEME SEES POTENTIAL DIGITISED CLASSROOMS WITH ONE NOTE CLASS NOTEBOOK

It is the start of the school year, and here’s something that you may like to consider especially as everything around us becomes digitised. When I was still in M.A. Theater Arts laptops where the thing for students like me. It is easier to just connect your presentation onto the projector of the school’s laptop and that’s it. Now, things have become more practical and convenient as phablets like the Lumia 640 XL or smaller smartphones like the Lumia 532 helps relieve students of the bulk of carrying their laptops to schools.

Truly the digital age has come and I personally have seen the major changes in terms of techie school related stuff where classrooms have evolved a lot from PCs to laptops and tablets to phablets and smartphones. Nowadays, schools have stopped using chalkboards and floppy disks, and started using digital screens, flash drives and cloud storages such as One Drive to store, present and gather data in a more fast-paced manner. Through the years we’ve seen great innovations such as OneNote (http://www.onenote.com), that allows people to also bring classrooms into the digital age..

OFFICE 365 101

In this ever changing and fast-paced world where technological advancements keeps coming up here and there, some members of the Philippine academe are now seeing the potential, and looking forward to having digitised classrooms with OneNote Class Notebook . This app for Office 365 allows teachers create a digital notebook for each student and distribute their personalised lesson materials and homework, which their students can access anywhere, anytime, and even offline. It’s a great way for me, as this  will be more eco-friendly as it makes people use paper less and save more trees! Prior to class, students may download the notes they need. As their teacher discusses the lesson that’s projected on the screen, they can edit and write their own notes right on their own copies. They can also manage their notes and tasks as OneNote carries with it a built-in to-do list feature, a camera and a recorder, productive tools a student can use for academic purposes.

“With OneNote, students will be extra-organized. Everything we need—notes, announcements, syllabus, handouts—can already be accessed through one device in just a few taps. Plus, there’s easy and sure connection with us and our professor,” says Daniella Montiel, a Mass Communication student at Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. Benedict Gracilla, an Accountancy student from Imus Institute adds, “There is no chance that Microsoft OneNote cannot help in one way or another both the students and instructors. It will benefit not just schools but also other firms who intend to adapt such great technology.” 

CLASSROOM SAVVINESS

In classrooms, such devices like the Lumia 640 XL are useful to replace their paper notebooks. At home, they can use the same device or may have the more affordable Lumia models, like Lumia 535 or 432, to allow them to complete their requirements for the next day. They can edit their work, and even ask for their teacher’s input.

For educators, there is the OneNote Staff Notebook. In this app for Office 365, it allows the academe heads to set up a personal workspace for each teacher and manage educator collaboration in an entire school or district rather than just individual classes.

“I believe this technology is very efficient for us, teachers. The tools catered in OneNote would be of great help for us because it will manage our work in the easiest way possible.” says Aljohn Emmanuel Cruz, Science Teacher from Sapang Palay National High School. Beulah Joy Lejano, Assistant Professorial Lecturer 1 at the De La Salle University-Dasmariñas—Communication and Journalism Department sees some of the practical applications of One Note: “outline lectures, record audio notes from conversations, and easily sketch away any presentation which is best for visual learners in school. OneNote makes it so much easier to manage your life.” she added.

Its understandable that some parents maybe hesitant of this additional expenses for school, however one does not lose hope especially if they can see how promising digitisation of classroom can be. Through OneNote, this app provides parents another avenue for parents to engage their kids to conversations with their teachers while they are at home. Teachers can hear their students from home, and they can respond by typing their comments or recording their voices. They can even monitor and give special attention to students who need it more.