Bialik High School
Microsoft® Office OneNote® 2003 brings interactive learning environment to Montreal high school
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Company Overview
Founded in 1972, Bialik High School carries on the distinct pluralistic Jewish tradition of its founders and offers a first-class education enriched with many extra-curricular and co-curricular programs. Bialik High School is a private Jewish co-ed school and member of the Jewish People’s Schools and Peretz Schools system. Located in Montreal, Quebec it has over 500 students in grades seven through to 11 and a staff of 60. As a member of Canada’s Network of Innovative Schools, Bialik High School is committed to using information and communication technology to improve learning for each individual student’s needs.
Business Challenge
With each student concurrently carrying 12 courses, teachers wanted to find a simpler way for them to keep their notes organized and in one place. Students complained about the number of binders and textbooks they had to carry and teachers were frustrated with the endless hours of photocopying. As a way to engage tech-savvy students, the school initiated a one-to-one laptop program beginning with grade 9, whereby all students have a laptop in class and at home.
To move beyond having just typed notes in a Microsoft® Word document, the school sought appropriate note-taking software that would assist students in taking more effective, efficient notes. “We sought a program with strong pedagogical benefits,” says Brenda Fayerman, Director of information technology, Bialik High School. “This generation of students is apt at multi-tasking and processing large amounts of information. Our teachers want to provide more vibrant digital notes complete with hyperlinks, images and different fonts and colours. We needed note-taking technology that moves the classroom away from a lecture format to something more student-centered.”
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Solution
Fayerman was introduced to OneNote through a beta testing program demonstrated at the National Educational Computing Conference, and soon recognized that students could benefit from the software.
OneNote is a note-taking program that enables users to electronically capture, organize and reuse typed or handwritten notes on a computer. With OneNote 2003, text and Web content come together in one program that offers flexibility for searching text notes and diagrams, charts, graphics and drawings. The software provides a single place to gather and organize information, making note-taking easier than ever and providing students a solution to information overload.
The grade nine biology course, for example, is image-rich and teachers wanted students to have important diagrams and videos embedded in their notes. Typically these diagrams were viewed in slide shows and DVDs, leaving students to frantically scramble to piece together notes that they could review later when studying for exams. Students absent from class missed these visuals altogether, leaving teachers to photocopy handouts. Teachers also became concerned that traditional means of note-taking address only one type of learner, and ignore those who are more visual or kinesthetic. Teachers now use OneNote to assemble the outline of the entire unit, along with hyperlinks to videos, relevant Web pages and diagrams. Several teachers also provide information in the OneNote format because they recognize its compatibility with students.
Each student at Bialik is equipped with OneNote software that they use on their laptops in each class. Students create a folder for each course and tabs for each unit, similar to how they would set-up a binder. OneNote helps students simplify note-taking and note storage, enabling more comprehensive course information and reduced stress during exams.
“At the beginning of each unit, we use OneNote to send the entire unit outline to our students,” says Andrea Mendell, integrated science and biology teacher, Bialik High School. “I’ve saved about an hour a day in planning and this unit agenda gives our students an idea of what will be completed and lets us work together to fill in the blanks during class. We can provide them with an animation to watch via a hyperlink and from that we can create flow charts and diagrams to further explain what we have learned. OneNote has been extremely helpful for students of all levels and has made class very interactive. We don’t want to dictate. We want our students to be actively finding information.”
Business Benefits
Teachers and students using Microsoft Office OneNote 2003 found it to be a feature-rich, easy to use and affordable note-taking software that answers the needs of teachers and students alike. With OneNote 2003, students have all of their notes and research in one place – making it easy to prepare for class, exams and study sessions. OneNote also facilitates research and note sharing between teachers and their classes, as students proactively send teachers and peers interesting links to include in the day’s notes.
More Comprehensive Notes
Getting students to actively participate in class and take comprehensive, organized notes is critical to their success. Incomplete and illegible notes cause tremendous stress during exam periods and can lead to academic challenges. A laptop equipped with OneNote 2003 combines the freedom and flexibility of paper notes with the efficiency and power of digital organizational tools.
“When it comes to exam time, our students have all the bases covered. With the outlines we create in OneNote, they know exactly what we’re expecting of them, there’s no guessing,” says Mendell.
Prepared outlines for the entire unit are provided by teachers, including diagrams, hyperlinks and videos. Students now have all their notes in one, easy to manage location—eliminating endless piles of paper and numerous binders. Some classes even stopped using text books, because the notes created with OneNote are thorough, interactive and use more current information sourced from Canadian Web sites and government resources.
“With OneNote we have so many more resources now. A text book doesn’t give you as much variety,” says Mendell. “Our students are learning to filter through the various sources to take what’s good and leave what’s ineffective. They are learning not to take down every piece of information they find, but rather to sort through it and understand what it means.”
Because teachers provide visuals embedded in the notes, students can pay attention to the teacher’s explanation of a diagram, rather than frantically trying to recreate it. Providing hyperlinks to videos allows the students to review material at home to prepare for tests.
Adaptable Teaching Tool
Bialik High School’s philosophy is to meet individual student needs. The school knows first-hand the importance of catering to different types of learners, particularly visual learners who don’t excel with written notes. With OneNote, teachers can successfully interact with all students, leveraging notes in written, audio and visual formats such as embedded diagrams, videos and charts.
“With OneNote you can easily change colours, fonts and cut and paste pictures. It is a lot more efficient than going to a book and photocopying endless handouts for your students. By including videos, students’ notes are moving, interactive and appealing to them. They see the videos in class and actually enjoy going back and reading them again at home to help prepare for exams,” says Samara Hutkins, math and biology teacher, Bialik High School.
Changing the classroom from a lecture format to an interactive, student-centered learning environment has assisted students of all levels and engaged those who previously didn’t participate.
“We are trying to teach different types of kids with different types of learning. With OneNote you catch their attention and put all learners on the same scale versus standing there while students write notes. Paper notes address one type of student and those who can’t take [paper] notes very well definitely suffer.”
Affordable Software
With the rising costs of education, it was important to Bialik High School to offer its students and parents an affordable solution that meets their needs. Working with the school’s IT department, Microsoft Canada Co. was able to provide OneNote to the school at a low price.
“You can’t put a price on education. We see tremendous return through our students’ success. Our focus this school year is on leveraging technology to help put different learners on the same scale. To understand concepts kids need multimedia, they need colour and they need to be making decisions,” says Fayerman.
Affordability, coupled with the clear benefits of the software – for teachers, parents and students alike – made the choice to bring OneNote into the classroom a simple one. With educational tools such as OneNote, Microsoft is helping to groom information workers of the future.
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For more information about Bialik High School products and services, call 514 481-2736 or visit the Web site at: www.bialik.netaxis.qc.ca
