Teaching Electronic Penmanship and OneNote in Your Digitools Class

Speaking Solutions © 2004

After seriously considering the articles in last quarter's newsletter (Is Cursive Dead? and Penmanship's Storied Past), I decided it was time to take definitive action!

This semester, as I introduced Chapter 1 in DigiTools, I had students complete the exercises with their digital pens instead of with the mouse. (We have a Wacom Graphire tablet on every station in the lab.) I figure they already know how to use mouse and they needed to work on their hand-eye coordination to prepare them for handwriting recognition.

Here is how the plan proceeded:

1. As we completed Activities 1-1 through 1-6 in the DigiTools text with the digital pen, we took about 20 minutes at the end of each class to complete the Nifty 50 Lessons 3-18. This taught them just enough about hand-typing to turn their good penmanship into typed text.

2. Students completed Activity 1-7 in DigiTools using printed characters.

3. Students completed Activity 1-8 in DigiTools using only cursive characters.

Note: I learned that most of my students have some idea of how to write in cursive but they're not encouraged to practice it much, so their skills are less than stellar. Most would rather avoid cursive. This plan attempts to change that attitude.

4. Then I introduced OneNote along with "Chapter 2 Internet and Intranet Basics." I wanted students to start doing as much of their work as possible with the pen. Students create a Chapter 2 Section and a New Concepts OneNote page. All the new terms in the book need to be recorded on a New Concepts page created for that Chapter. OneNote is truly a great study aid and encourages reading comprehension.

5. Even their typing practice in "Chapter 3 Keyboarding: Alphabetic Keys" is now recorded in Microsoft OneNote. Students create a section called Keyboarding and a new page for every lesson they complete.

OneNote has already improved reading, penmanship and study skills in my classroom. OneNote is now an indispensable part of my program.

Note: "Chapter 6 Handwriting Recognition" in DigiTools is also dedicated to handwriting recognition. I deliberately hold this chapter in reserve and use the Nifty 50 to initiate instruction. Why? First of all, in those first few weeks of school, many students are coming and going. Chapter 6 gives those latecomers a chance to catch up. Also, this is where I actually give a grade for good penmanship. Students are already comfortable with the handwriting tools before they reach Chapter 6, so it is a positive experience. I then assign the remaining Nifty 50 lessons as extra credit for students who complete their DigiTools work early. This helps keeps those superstars busy doing something worthwhile and fun.