Is that a hologram of Bill Gates at School of the Future? No that's just OneNote 2007.

Seems like a strange question for some, but I've learned that many people come to visit the school thinking one of two things:

1. This is a Technology School

2. Bill Gates Funds it

Both are inaccurate, but interesting because the one thing that everyone thinks is the focus of the School is actually the the thing least talked about - Technology. I'm just finishing one of our scheduled public tours at the school and the conversation quickly turned to "I noticed there isn't a lot of technology". Might seem strange, but its true, you are not overwhelmed by technology nor will you be. You will be impressed by the way Educators integrate technology in multiple ways into their projects.

Mr. Gaffey, a Math and Technology Educator at the school demonstrated today his proficiency in using a Tablet PC, OneNote 2007, Projector, Audio Enhancement and a Whiteboard by quickly preparing for his next class as we watched. Effortlessly he navigates between windows and OneNote copying information into his notebook and then annotating directly within the notebook using the whiteboard pen. He then chooses to synch the OneNote notebook to the schools portal and share it out to his class by allowing them to download a copy - prep done.

Ms. Reber, a Humanities Educator posted her latest class notebook to the portal for Learners to download, as you can see it has a variety of tasks and to do's that need to be completed at the Learners pace.

 In this environment you'll find paper used for small things but larger projects and classwork are assigned by and through OneNote. It's probably one of the biggest successes here at the school, allowing the sharing of information and content, digital media and files all within one place. Every chance they get there are Educators asking how to use OneNote better in class, our foreign language educator recently created an entire Spanish lesson including worksheets, vocabulary, and homework for the first time using OneNote, she even included videos to assist learners with practicing their vocabulary.

 Maybe you want to take a look at a couple of examples of OneNote at the school, here's the student handbook done entirely in OneNote 2007. If your interested in learning more about OneNote or finding more examples of how OneNote is used please click here to download the Teacher Toolkit which has been designed specifically for Educators looking to understand how powerful OneNote is in the classroom. AND if you're really looking to learn more about OneNote check out my colleague, Mike Tholfsen's Blog on OneNote in Edcuation.

So although Bill Gates will not greet you when you visit the school, OneNote 2007 is a best practice here at the school.