Simple Addition To BYOD Laptop: A Retractable Handle On Spine

Posted on June 7, 2017 by Sam McNeill

I’m seeing a wide range of devices aimed at the education market these days in my job with Microsoft and BYOD in particular is getting increasing choice of really good hardware designs.

One option that has stood out the most to me as a real benefit for students was a laptop with a built in handle that retracted into the spine of the laptop. I actually did not notice this for over a week after I received the laptop but now I use it all the time when moving the device around. Here are a few pictures of it:

View from underneath the laptop with the handle fully retracted, it is flush in line with the spine of the laptop.

Viewed from above, the handle is pulled out.

Viewed from “behind” the device with the screen closed. The handle automatically retracts into place when released.

Holding the laptop naturally with the handle taking the full weight of the device.

The other neat feature of this device is that it actually has a loop for the stylus attached to the keyboard side of the laptop (not the screen) as well as a lanyard tie to the loop on the laptop so the pen is always attached and can not be lost:

It’s small design features like this that can add significant value to students in the BYOD market and it’s great to see innovations like this happening.

If you have seen a great feature on a device recently, leave a note in the comments explaining what it was and why you think it added real value to the device.

A Digitally Mediated Conversation

Posted on June 2, 2017 by Sam McNeill

I came across an article in the Australian Independent Schools magazine today that highlighted the value of Microsoft OneNote and the evolution of interaction between teachers and students in the areas of marking, feedback and feed-forward. Technology has been a massive enabler in this process and the article references a significant amount of research highlighting the value of this feedback loop and how staff at All Hallows School in Queensland, Australia have used this. Of particular emphasis is the flexibility that OneNote provided in terms of:

Digital Inking – hand writing feedback directly onto student work in their Class Notebooks
Audio feedback – recording voice notes for students (and students in turn providing “thinking aloud” on their work for their teachers to listen to)
Video / Screen recording – teachers recording their computer screen as they’re marking the work and talking, providing students the next best experience to being present with the teacher when marking is taking place
Typed Feedback – traditional typed notes alongside student work.

Click the image above to read the article on the original website.

(click here to read the entire article if the above link does not work)

A teacher in the English department at All Hallows even created a short YouTube video showing the progression of feedback over the years at the school, starting with the humble “insert comment” option in Microsoft Word right through to recording audio and the screen in OneNote whilst handwriting feedback directly on student work. It’s worth watching the two minute video below:

What I love about this article is that it finishes by noting that teachers at All Hallows have been active in sharing at various professional development conferences for teachers on the changes to their digital feedback processes and the impact of technology on their pedagogical practices. Being part of a wider community that is continually adapting and learning and sharing the journey is a key strength and indicator of a healthy institute, especially when it has been based on solid research as evidenced in the above article.

Thanks to the awesome Mike Tholfsen from the Microsoft OneNote team for sharing this article with me via Twitter so I became aware of it!

NEW! "Feedback anywhere, anytime" – Powerful Australian article on #OneNote via @anfield1974 https://t.co/4J3eMNfW2l #mieexpert #edchat pic.twitter.com/3fW2CnDleD

— Mike Tholfsen (@mtholfsen) June 1, 2017

Microsoft Release New Surface Pro

Posted on May 24, 2017 by Sam McNeill

Overnight Microsoft announced the new Surface Pro device, replacing the previous model Surface Pro 4. With this new model it appears that the numbering has gone, i.e. this is not a Surface Pro 5, rather it is simply known as a Surface Pro.

These are available for pre-order today from as low as NZ$1214,10 including GST for the entry level unit with student/educational pricing and this gets you an Intel Core M3 CPU, 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD. Here are some details from the ordering website:

Description

• Transforms from PC to tablet to Studio Mode

• Powerful Intel Core processor

• Create, study, work, and play virtually anywhere

• High-resolution PixelSense Display touchscreen

• Up to 13.5 hours of battery life²

• Ships by 15/6/2017

I know that a lot of schools were looking to replace the aging Surface 3 device and the above could be a great option for that. I’m particularly excited to see the 13.5hr battery life as that is something that students/teachers are demanding now in any device – all day battery life.

There has also been a focus on getting the device even flatter with the kick stand going to a “Surface Studio-like” degree for easier writing/drawing on the Surface Pro’s screen.

You can read the full release from Microsoft here

New Surface Pro Pen Video

Additional announcements relating to Office365 and tight integration with digital inking and touch, especially the Surface Pro range of devices, were announced in a separate blog that you can read here.

Digital Inking – Improves Teaching & Learning

Posted on May 9, 2017 by Sam McNeill

I have visited a number of schools recently and demonstrated many of the natural hand gestures for editing and Ink Replay available in Office365 and the response is always very positive from teachers and students alike.

I have recently found the above infographic showing independent research from Sharon Oviatt, an expert in human centered and multi-modal interfaces and use of pen inputs on computers. I find that the numbers in the infographic resonate with teachers that I’ve been working with who are using Digital Inking to prepare student work, provide feedback and mark assessment.

When I was still at St Andrew’s College I recorded an interview with the Head of English and she explained how she marks English assignments using her Surface Pro 3 and digital ink:

There are many and varied compelling reasons to try Digital Inking and with a wider range of devices now supporting this, from entry level OEM offerings through to the newly announced Surface Laptop, there is bound to be a device that meets your budget and requirements.

If you are interested in further research and information from Sharon Oviatt on the “power of the pen” then I encourage you to check out this blog from the Microsoft In Education team where it goes into more depth about the impact of computer interfaces on learning.

You can read the full blog post here.

Student Note Taking: Typing or Hand Writing?

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Sam McNeill

I’ve written a few posts lately about the power of Digital Inking and ways to “Think in Ink” and I am more convinced than ever that equipping students with devices that allow them to doodle, draw, annotate and just straight hand write notes and ideas is a necessity.

I know there is also the following quote from Microsoft promotional material:

Studies indicate that diagraming thinking before solving a science problem leads to a 25%-36% higher score

A quick search on the web reveals people doubt this but a link to the research findings can be found here. Tonight I read an article on LinkedIn titled:

What is a more effective way of taking notes – laptop or notepad?

As usual, I encourage you to read the entire thing yourself, it’s only a 3 minute read after all, and it talks about research completed in 2014 showing that students that hand wrote notes had far better conceptual comprehension of the content they had been taught compared to students who typed their notes up. Even when students who had typed their notes were given ten minutes to revise them before a test a week later, they still scored worse than those that had handwritten their notes in some way.

I’ve seen similar tests completed elsewhere so this finding is not new to me, however it certainly highlights the value of digital inking and usefulness of the basic “ruled lines” in OneNote:

I find it interesting that when testing for factual recall, students scored the same whether they handwrote their notes or typed them, but only when testing for conceptual understanding did the differences emerge:

Again, do take time to read the original article and ponder how you record information in your daily life and if you’re a decision maker in a school, what devices are you recommending to your students to bring along.

Digital Inking – Get Graphing In OneNote!

Posted on March 17, 2017 by Sam McNeill

It’s awesome to see the pace of new features coming out for Microsoft OneNote. It was only earlier this week that I was blogging about using Desmos for graphing and then with OneNote Clipping tool bringing the graph into OneNote.

Well, now this functionality exists in the OneNote Universal app natively!

Read the full blog post here from Microsoft

I decided to give this a test myself and see if works, and it did immediately:

As per the blog, there are five steps to digitally inking graphs in OneNote:

Five steps to graph an equation in OneNote

Begin by writing your equation. For example: y=x+3 or y=sin(x)+cos(2x).
Next, use Lasso tool to select the equation and then, on the Draw tab, click the Math button.
From the drop-down menu in Math pane, select the option to Graph in 2D. You can play with the interactive graph of your equation—use a single finger to move the graph position or two fingers to change the zoom level.
Use + and – buttons to change the values of the parameters in your equation.
Finally, click the Insert on Page button to add a screenshot of the graph to your page.

For now, this is only available in the Universal OneNote app, not in the OneNote 2016 application that comes with Office 2016. This is a great new feature further highlighting the power of digital inking as well as the speed of evolution of the educational products in OneNote.

Think In Ink – Examples Of Digital Inking

Video

This is a good video showing the various ways that Digital Inking can be used in schools. These examples are taken from the Tanglin Trust School in Singapore and include ideas from:

Automatic citations using the OneNote Clipper and then annotating the content directly in OneNote.
Sketching scientific diagrams in OneNote to reinforce learning and ideas (in this example, around erosion).
Language features in English – highlighting verbs/adjectives in poetry.
Using the Learning Tools (Immersive Reader) to support literacy in all subjects.
Maths annotations by clipping graphs made in Desmos and then inking over the top of the graph in OneNote.
Ink Replay – learning the correct stroke order of Chinese characters by using Ink Replay and then attempting to replicate this in OneNote.

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