Day 25 –Introduction to the OneNote 2013 Desktop Application

10/17/2014

30 Days with Office 365 for Educators - Day 25

Yesterday I mentioned that OneNote actually has three levels of functionality and that this can be very confusing to a new user. I provided a demo of creating an Earth Science Notebook using the 100 percent browser-based OneNote Online.

This online access is a great advantage for teachers and students in that it allows anyone with an Office 365 account and Internet connection to view, create, edit, and share OneNote Notebooks. What is missing in the browser version however is some of the advanced functionality that the full-blown OneNote 2013 Desktop application provides.

Microsoft has added this “extra” functionality within the Office 365 Suite by providing a way to “escalate” an online editing session to use the full-featured desktop application if it is installed locally on your computer. This is a very handy feature for teachers that need advanced functionality from time to time.

The embedded YouTube video below walks you through an example of using the Earth Science OneNote Notebook we created yesterday using OneNote Online. The online version does fine with the basics of adding sections, pages, inserting a screenshot snipit, and copying and pasting a URL for future reference.

However, the browser-based OneNote Online program does not support adding digital ink to annotate over pictures or create freehand drawings. Teachers often rely upon sketching and handwritten notes when presenting content to students. The video demo below shows how you can “escalate” an online editing session to use the full desktop OneNote 2013 application. You MUST have the full OneNote 2013 Desktop application installed on your computer for this to work.

OneNote 2013 Desktop application for Windows 8.1 provides the premiere experience for OneNote users and also features the ability to record audio/video along with digital inking capabilities if you device supports inking. The flexibility of adding text, pictures, sound, video, and freehand sketches is extremely valuable for a digital note-taking tool.

I have chosen the Surface Pro 2 tablet for this very reason as it provides the best of the PC world and also provides a touch and digital inking experience that I use every day for illustrating concepts while taking notes in OneNote.

To the cloud!

Keep on Learning,
Tom Grissom, Ph.D.

Twitter: @tomgrissom

http://eiu.edu/itc