ProfessorTOSA Blog

The other day I visited Fisler Elementary, in Fullerton California.  The school is touted by Apple as the shining example of a 1 to 1 (computers to students) school. That’s right, in 2nd through 8 grade every student has a laptop and, from what I could see, instruction utilized this often.  Thankfully for me, after a day of observation, Fisler was in many ways, everything it is cracked up to be.  I’ll post later on the school, as I am currently working to get more details from a teacher at Fisler, but one great tool I learned about that day was this notebooking software, NoteTaker.

The teacher that was using NoteTaker, was Mrs. Round, an middle school science teacher who easily used this tool as a resource, teaching aid, and digital worksheet, of sorts.  NoteTaker, in brief, is essentially like Word or Pages or another word processing application, but NoteTaker allows so much more than simple text and shapes.  NoteTaker is a simple digital version of what you might wish to accomplish with pencil, paper, scissors, markers, and so forth.  It allows the user to type, draw, paste in images, color, and then goes further to record voice, allow audio files, movies, and much more.  The interface is like that of a bound notebook and acts as such when you turn pages or even rip pages out to deposit in your teachers drop-box (if you’re doing that sort of paperless work).  Really it’s the combination that is so fascinating and exciting.  To be able to have kids type, doodle and take images or movies of inquiry, or really anything, takes pressure off of the teacher to manage multiple applications with the kids and embeds technology further within the curriculum.  That’s a good thing.

I can imagine using this application in a 1 to 1 setting or in other ratios where students need to do research, document work or ….?  Really, because of the variety of uses and the intuitive use, I can see this tool used well beyond science.  Consequently, it’s this sort of tool that makes me wish I was teaching students again.  Researching tech tools, and teaching teachers to use them is fun, but sometimes actually getting to play with some of the toys I promote might be refreshing and easier than reaching students through a teacher.