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OneNote, Learning, and Learning Styles
By Professor Dr Ole Lauridsen, Aarhus, Denmark
Table of Contents
OneNote – a learning tool of the 21st century 4
OneNote and learning from a general perspective 5
Activity – controlled and independent activity, the fuel of learning 6
A global outlook – step one in all learning 6
Firm patterns – an important basis of learning 7
Structure – the learner’s structure 7
Existing knowledge – the foundation of new knowledge 8
Various media and various sensory channels – important prerequisites for remembering and understanding. 8
OneNote and Learning Styles 9
Learning Styles 10
The Dunn and Dunn Model 11
Learning Styles Elements and OneNote 13
Directly addressed Learning Styles elements 14
Analytic Versus Global Information Processing 15
Analytics and OneNote 16
Globals and OneNote 18
Perceptional Elements and OneNote 20
The Auditory Element and OneNote 21
The Visual Element and OneNote 22
The Tactile Element and OneNote 23
The Kinesthetic Element and OneNote 24
The Verbal Element and OneNote 25
Emotional Elements and OneNote 26
Task Persistence and OneNote 26
Structure and OneNote 27
Sociological Elements and OneNote 28
Other Learning Styles Elements and OneNote 29
Smartphones, Tablets, OneNote and Learning Styles 30
Last but not least 32
OneNote – a learning tool of the 21st century
Learning takes place through the active behavior of the student:
it is what he does that he learns, not what the teacher does.
(Tyler, R. W. (1949). Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction.
Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press)
As research has confirmed over and over again, this 65 year old statement holds true: the student learns only when he or she is active. A teacher cannot teach anybody anything at all. But he or she can deliver information in a well thought-through way, initiate a learning process amongst the students and support this process. But the student has to actively cooperate: only he or she can learn.
Furthermore, learning is an entirely individual process based on the learner’s capabilities, experiences, prior knowledge, interests, motivation – and learning styles.
OneNote supports student activity in a way that corresponds to the needs and requirements of today’s learners and also to important knowledge on how the brain learns. OneNote delivers a strong, intuitive, and easy-to-use framework for all types of learning and it makes it possible for the individual student to learn in his or her own way. OneNote is a learning tool of the 21st century, perhaps the learning tool.
OneNote and learning from a general perspective
We all learn in different ways because our brains are different. Of course all human brains have the same basic structure, but there are individual differences but – just as we all have faces with two ears and eyes, a nose, and a mouth and still are very different.
This means that there are no one-size-fits-all solutions when it comes to teaching and learning. Teachers cannot accommodate to the needs of all students, and therefore it is important that the students get tools they can utilize in accordance with their wants and wishes. During the last decade research within the field of Mind, Brain and Education has established some very central facts about how the brain learns best, and thanks to its intuitivity and easy-to-use feature OneNote supports quite a few of them.
Having to be an active learner, having one’s learning experiences collected in one place, easily getting global overviews of academic areas, being able to structure a topic in one’s individual way, getting hold on and reactivating one’s existing knowledge without problems, using various media and thus various sensory channels: all this is in accordance with the way the brain leans best, and all this directly and efficiently supported by OneNote.
Let us briefly look at all this without into technical details.
Activity – controlled and independent activity, the fuel of learning
When a student works actively, that is when he or she constructs new knowledge through his or her own activity, motivation and engagement will increase.
OneNote lets the teacher create activities for the students (controlled activities), and the students themselves can invent and form activities in accordance with the way the way they structure the subject (see below), and the way they altogether prefer to work on their own (independent activities).
A global outlook – step one in all learning
Nothing is more important for the students than having a global overview of the field they are working before they go into the details. Opening a OneNote folder with its well-defined main categories and subcategories, perhaps supported by a mind map gives the learner this important spring board into the field they are going work within. The teacher can define the first structure and the student can then develop the structure. When the student later is to revisit the subject he or she has the best possible point of departure in just one click.
Firm patterns – an important basis of learning
The human brain seeks patterns to predict results, outcomes, consequences, etc. These patters must be revisited again and again for them to be stored and easily reused. OneNote’s makes it very simple to distill the core patters of a given subject and reactivate them. This can be done by the teacher or by the students themselves through controlled or independent activities.
Structure – the learner’s structure
We all build up knowledge in our own ways. One student’s structure of a certain field differs from another’s, or to put it in another way: there are not two individuals that know the same in the same way. Knowing and using one’s individual structure is paramount in all academic work, and cultivating a subject in OneNote makes it possible for the individual student to immediately see, evaluate, and develop his or her structure.
Here is must be stated, too, that the brain does not learn in a linear and logical way. The flexibility of OneNote accommodates this fact: the program allows the individual student to work as – apparently – chaotic as he or she wants, but in the end, OneNote delivers a firm basis and a solid overview.
Existing knowledge – the foundation of new knowledge
We always connect new information – what, we see, hear, read, etc. – with existing knowledge. OneNote makes it possible for the student to go back to prior learning experiences and gather or reactivate his or her prior knowledge. In a few clicks the student is prompted and he or she will take in the new information and process it smoothly and effectively.
Various media and various sensory channels – important prerequisites for remembering and understanding.
It is of great importance that we take in information through as many sensory channels and media as possible. Thus our knowledge will be stored in many different ways, and thus it is much easier to recall the knowledge: we develop much more stimuli to reactivate our knowledge. Learning new things gets easier, and this goes for understanding as well.
Collaboration
We are gregarious creatures. Since the beginning of times, we have lived together in groups: We hunted in groups, we cultivated the soil in groups, we harvested in groups - we learnt how to do this in groups, and we still learn in groups.
Presumably laid down in our genes collaborative learning is the most important and efficient way of learning we have. Research shows that teaching others leads to the best understanding and retention, and this is the core matter of collaborative learning: teach others – get inspired by others – learn yourself.
OneNote is collaborative learning, so to speak. The basic idea of the program is that the learners not only store information, but also exchange information in a seamless and natural way and thus learn together. And the advantage that a program like OneNote offers is that the joint learning process takes place on one and only one platform; we don’t face the compatibility problems that so often occur when various programs run together.
OneNote and Learning Styles
In many respects simply using OneNote supports the way the brain learns. But there are other things to learning than the ones listed above, not least when it comes to the way people prefer to work when they are to learn new and difficult things, and this leads us to the concept of Learning Styles.
Often, it is difficult to put ones preferences into words, to pinpoint where and how to begin. Here Learning Styles comes in handy: the concept can be looked on as a language that describes some important factors of learning in a way that everybody can understand and relate to.
So let us delve into Learning Styles and how some of its important factors are supported by OneNote. The learning styles model chosen here is the one of Dunn and Dunn. Developed from the sixties and onward it is very popular and widely used all over the world.
Learning Styles
Based on the concept developed by Drs. Rita Dunn and Ken Dunn, Learning Styles may be defined as the methods each person uses to
· concentrate on new and difficult information;
· internalize this information;
· process this information into knowledge and/or adjust prior knowledge;
· retain this knowledge, and
· use this knowledge.
This understanding of Learning Styles comprises important steps of any learning process.
The Dunn and Dunn Model
The Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles Model applies to all age groups and it has been thoroughly researched.
As the illustration at the top of the opposite page shows, the model operates with 20 elements that are fundamental to learning. These elements are grouped in 6 categories: Environmental Elements (yellow color code), Emotional Elements (green color code), Sociological Elements (blue color code), Physiological Elements (purple color code: perceptual elements; lilac color code: bodily needs), and Physiological Elements (purple color code), and Psychological Elements (orange color code).
Building Excellence, a variant of the model designed for adult learners shown at the bottom of the opposite page, organizes the elements in another way and places the perceptual elements in a strand of its own. This view stresses the difference between pure bodily needs and perception.
Actually the model at the top accommodates so called analytics whereas Building Excellence caters to globals (cp. p. X).
Learning Styles Elements and OneNote
We cannot go into detail with the Dunn and Dunn Learning Styles Model here. Instead we will focus on the elements that are especially important when we use OneNote in our learning.
In order for you to have your Learning Styles preferences determined take a profile at www.learningstyles.net; here you find assessments for K-12 and adults. Use your profile as a point of departure: stick to your preferences when you are to start a new learning process: a new subject, an assignment, a project, etc. When you feel secure, then take up other ways of working. Our brain is a cornucopia of possibilities, and the more ways of learning we can use the better we learn, understand and remember.
Directly addressed Learning Styles elements
From the perspective of individual preferences, OneNote offers numerous supportive tools.
The elements directly addressed in OneNote are:
· psychological elements: analytic versus global;
· all perceptual elements;
· emotional elements: task persistence (multi-tasking versus single tasking), structure;
· sociological elements: alone, pair, peer group, team, expert, variation.
Most of the remaining elements of the model are also integrated in the program, but in a less direct manner. The interaction of OneNote and the above elements will therefore be the main focus in the following; the interaction between OneNote and the remaining elements will be briefly touched upon at the end of this booklet.
Analytic Versus Global Information Processing
As mentioned above all learners need a global overview before going further into a subject.
But some people learn best when they are allowed to work step by step in a logical sequence with the new information presented to them after having got the overview; they are called analytics.
Others learn best when they work with large chunks of information on the basis of which they can then investigate the details themselves; they are called globals.
Finally, there is a group of people, called the integrated, who do not prefer one way rather than the other; they can approach new and difficult information both analytically and globally.
For instance, when going from one place to another, analytics prefer to have a detailed route description, whereas globals prefer a map. The integrated learners do not care whether they have a route description or a map.
Analytics and OneNote
The OneNote interface – like the other Office interfaces – meets the needs of the analytic learners.
Since analytics are often less visual picture oriented (cf. p. X), they tend to prefer text to icons; thus they should consider removing the icon bar(s) and stick to the drop down menus:
On the whole, a leading principle for analytics is KISS: Keep It Simple, Stupid. Thus analytics should avoid all types of layout extras that tend to distract them; very often this applies to colors as well. Thus they should consider working only with black text on a white background as shown on the next page.
Both the notebook feature and the basic tab organization of OneNote make it possible for the analytics to organize their learning materials in great detail, exactly as they need it.
Separate notebooks can be set up for e.g. separate projects, subjects, issues, or topics; and projects, subjects, issues, or topics can be broken down into small units through the tab facility: The main categories are organized in sections on the horizontal tabs line at the top, and each section can be divided into subsections. Furthermore, each subsection can be analytically structured by means of traditional tools such as numbers and/or bullets.
The analytics can easily develop the very structure they need and prefer in order to build up knowledge. The flexible OneNote search feature prevents the analytic learners from getting lost in tiny details, and the use of hyperlinks between notebooks, sections, and subsections obviously has the same effect.
Globals and OneNote
Globals tend to prefer icons to text as they are often strongly visual picture oriented (cp. p. X). They should therefore consider using as many tool bars as possible even though it reduces the working screen to a certain degree.
The leading principle for globals is F&C: fun and Color. To that end, OneNote offers a lot of possibilities to the global users: a variety of fonts and templates. The global learners should experiment with these fonts and templates in order to find the ones that support and motivate them (of course the global users can create their own templates if they so wish).
Most of the prefab One Note templates have pictures and decorations, and they therefore support the global learners’ frequent need for visuals (more on visuals on p. X).