Baby steps

May 22, 2014 | 5 Comments

I was pretty skeptical that I could take my existing work habits and convert everything to a digital process.  Folks who’ve heard about my commitment are surprised and supportive, but no one has (yet) agreed to join me.  It seems everyone is dubious that it’s possible, or even should it be possible, that it’s advantageous.  At St. Edward’s University we want to prepare our students to operate in a globally and digitally connected world, and I think that means modeling these practices for students.

We’ve embarked on some iPad pilot projects with faculty, providing 20 faculty with iPads and encouraging these faculty to consider how technology and devices can foster active learning and support collaboration.  I also received an iPad, and my goal is to determine whether it can be my mobile device for use at meetings, while traveling, and to support collaboration.  In the week that I’ve been using the iPad, I’ve found that I can substitute some tasks: email use, bringing documents to meetings, and kludgy note-taking using Notes.  I’m ready to see what else it can do.  Several people have recommended EverNote, but my assistant Jill is pushing me to use OneNote.  Ultimately, I want to determine technology and the iPad can help me to rethink my work process.  Jill says OneNote will help me get there.

Tomorrow will be a guest blog from Jill on the “AWESOMENESS of OneNote.”



5 Comments so far

  1.    Tricia on May 22, 2014 7:01 pm      Reply

    Personally I love “Workflowy” – how can you argue with the tag line: “Organize your brain.” I even have used it with collaborators!
    http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2012/08/workflowy_the_note_taking_app_that_changed_the_way_i_organize_my_life_.html

  2.    Emily Salazar on May 22, 2014 7:47 pm      Reply

    I applaud you and your efforts! Today at my conference we were talking about how fortunate we are to work at a university with technology resources and support you wouldn’t find in any other work environment. I downloaded EverNote on my iPad and have a stylus. I tried it several times, but I haven’t been successful, i.e. I failed. I’ve learned many things about technology from students, but when it comes to the digital “professional world”, they aren’t very knowledgeable. You’re right about needing to model for them. Your blog is timely and I look forward to reading about OneNote.

  3.    Theresa on May 22, 2014 8:58 pm      Reply

    I find it intriguing that you are trying to go digital. It seems like we as a society think that paperless is the goal but we don’t seem to be there yet. It is good to know that people are still working towards totally digital.

    Good luck!

    http://www.book-keepingtraining.com/

  4.    carolg on May 22, 2014 9:57 pm      Reply

    I’ll be taking notes during your experiment! Looking forward to a review of OneNote; it looks nice on a win8 tablet, but after a quick tour today, it seems that you can’t handwrite on the iPad app?? I’ve already mentioned my love of Notability, but Workflowy sounds intriguing.

  5.    mboyd on May 23, 2014 11:32 am      Reply

    Carol – OneNote does allow handwriting on the iPad. See Jill’s post on the AWESOMENESS on OneNote. It also allows ink-to-text.

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