My Everyday Thing - OneNote

My transition from analog to digital

When was the last time you recalled writing something down and then forgetting where you put it?  It used to happen all the time, and much of the time it was a reference needed from a meeting you had a couple of weeks ago.  But which notebook was that? Is it in my desk, car, at home? #$%^&

​This scenario was typical pre-2014 for me.  I would bury writing in Moleskine notebooks, one after the other, and sometimes multiple ones for different needs. I would fill one up and throw it on the desk only to go back to it when I needed to reference something - search time = maximum effort. 

​Writing notes is not bad - I still do it, just differently.  It is how I retain knowledge more efficiently.  But having this analog process creates barriers.  Think about it, how hard is it to save this and carry it with you where ever you go and access it anytime? How easy is it to search fast when you need it?  And how can you share it in this ever social and connected society we have today?

​My transition from analog to digital was not overnight.  OneNote was not a part of that transition either. Nope, it was a green elephant called Evernote. Moleskine and Evernote had come up with this strategy of notetaking with stickers, that when snapped with your Evernote App, it would categorize your notes electronically like this: 

​When I wrote legibly, it was great. I could do a word search in Evernote, and it would pull up my handwritten notes, highlighted with the word.  If I was in a hurry or writing in Klingon - not really but kind of a scribbly version of shorthand, it was the best guess if I was going to see it in a search.  Eventually, I would move to Evernote and begin typing my notes from meetings.  There were efficiencies here - saving notes was great, searching notes was excellent, and sharing notes was available in simple ways. What I would soon realize was that I needed an ability to have written and typed notes co-exist while providing these requirements: Save, Search, Share.  

Enter OneNote into the mix

​The year was 2014, Obama was still president, Apple bought Beats headphones, and everyone was doing the ALS ice bucket challenge. I left Andover as an Apple follower: MacBook Pro, iPad, and iPhone somehow all in hand.  There were some decisions we would make in Omaha Public Schools that would change all of that.  In October 2014,  we transitioned to Office 365 for all our collaboration needs.  I won't go through that process, but you can read about it here: 

Extending Your Districts Collaboration Platform Into Purposeful Practice

In today's world, we operate as a society outside of the walls of our schools, our businesses, and our homes. The access to mobile devices has expanded our social and professional lives, many times blurring the lines between work and home. Technology has been front of state in the lives of students born between 1982 and 2002.

​After our implementation, I began to dabble in the Windows 10 world with a Surface Pro, but still keeping my MacBook Pro on my desk.  Through the next few months, I found myself shifting back to writing notes through the digital inking capabilities in OneNote rather than typing them.  I slowly began to transition to my Surface Pro, exclusively. Also, I would keep personal notes in Evernote and work in OneNote; but eventually, I migrated all of my notes using the OneNote Importer: 

Import content from Evernote to OneNote

OneNote and Evernote have a lot in common, but we think you're going to love OneNote's standout features. Dive into its free-form feel of pen to paper. You also get free offline note access and unlimited note creation.

​There is upper level management that I do miss with Evernote, but recently OneNote made their navigation much richer, allowing similar functionality.  Next, I will share how I use it for personal and work-related information.

Personal 

I love to learn, but it hasn't always been this way.  I blame technology.  I think there was a time when I started bringing technology "projects" home and I would tell my wife Amanda, this won't be in the kitchen area for long, promise.  It was sometime during my stint in the military that curiosity started some intrinsic motivation to learn.  Since then, it really hasn't stopped.  Now it is more organized, back and forth through reading books, articles, and blogs. Retaining and having access to what I learn always moves back to these attributes: save, search, share. That learning lives in a OneNote Notebook called BrainFuel.  

​Grocery lists.  We all have them, and in OneNote, you can make them into checklists.  Share them with your family, as you disperse through the store picking up items, each checking off the list, in real time.  Mind blown.  

Work

​At a district level, OneNote is foundational.  We use it to manage Executive Council meetings, project organization within Microsoft Project Online, and staff notebooks for multi-level collaboration. That model of collaboration - Content Library "broadcast" (one to many), one to one, and Collaboration Space (many to many) works at the district level and in the classroom. That experience, mixed with the flexibility of handwritten, audio, video, typed, clipped, tagged, linked in a white space, create an environment that anyone could use. ​

​For me, when I am out and about, quick notes are where it is at.  The ability to take a picture of a document with auto cropping was once a feature that was in OfficeLens only.  As much as I want us to move to paperless meetings entirely, I know that takes time. I love the ability to mark up a captured document to provide context to content.  Mix all of this with Microsoft Teams, and you have a media-rich environment with video capabilities and conversation channels with the occasional emoji thread or GIF share. 

​It is the ability to have my notes all in one place with linked Outlook.com accounts with my district's Office 365 account that brings significant efficiencies to my time.  I live where I work and work where I live, so this brings a natural workflow to my day.  Since adopting OneNote, I have been building my digital inking skills through sketchnotes.  It has brought a natural learning experience that bridges the analog and digital notetaking without the hassle of moving back and forth. 

A request.

​If there were ever one wish I had for the OneNote Team, it would be to be able to insert a drop-down selection box to be able to build a lesson plan template within a OneNote Notebook, specifically accessible from OneNote Web.