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    Five Questions with Carl Campion (educator, chemistry teacher and technology integrator) 

    Published on 03-09-2011 03:42 PM  Number of Views: 7253 

    1. When was the last time you used NoteShare?

    I use it daily as the current the Director of Technology and teach chemistry at Archmere Academy in Claymont, DE. I use NoteShare regularly to maintain a log of all my technology issues. This includes inventories, web clippings, and “to do” lists. For my AP chemistry class, I maintain a lab notebook with class resources. About 75% of our 475 students use NoteShare to record their laboratory work.


    2. Do you have a favorite NoteShare moment or project?

    My favorite NoteShare project is our current laboratory program where student working in pairs maintain digital lab notebooks. Each laboratory experiment is documented as a new section in their notebook. Pre-lab work is completed, data and observations recorded.

    This includes photos and videos captured via Photobooth and audio observations made using the NoteShare recording feature. Results, sources of error, and conclusions are completed after the lab is completed.     Teachers have easy access to the lab books which are password protected.

    3. What is your favorite feature in NoteShare?
    I have several favorite features about the product and the company:
    • Stable software
    • Affordable
    • Well supported
    • Easy to learn
    • Add anything: photos, videos, text, graphs, etc.
    • Integrates well with email
    4. Any tips or advice for new NoteShare users?
    Use the manual to learn the fundamentals. We use a dedicated Mac as a NoteShare Server system. Once you set it up, the network and notebooks are very, very stable.
    5. Got a NoteShare page or cover shot you can show us?

    Organizing a Collaborative Project Notebook - (Part 1 in a series) 

    by
    Scott
    Published on 03-09-2011 07:09 AM  Number of Views: 5744 


    Using NoteTaker and NoteShare can help you and your team manage the information flow of a project. For individual users, a personal notebook is an effective productivity tool for keeping project notes, organizing key documents and managing task and to-do lists.

    For workgroups and teams, a collaborative project notebook is like a turbo-charged inbox where essential project information can be organized, accessed and curated all in one place. By using either NoteShare Server or NoteShare Server Pro, the collaborative project notebook (CPN) can be accessed anywhere, anytime or all the time. Your CPN becomes your project knowledge hub as team members add their information, tasks and documents to the shared notebook.

    And because NoteShare Server and NoteShare Server Pro both support web browser access via our Express plug-in (Java applet), the collaborative project notebook can be integrated within existing business network platforms and Web 2.0 services.

    Once your CPN is hosted on NoteShare Server, you can then add an RSS feed to it as another mechanism for monitoring changes to the notebook as team members begin to collaborate on its contents. A project notebook can help capture and organize information while also serving as a project journal to record status, problem-solving and document the overall progress of the team.

    Using a collaborative project notebook enhances productivity in ways that are not easily reproduced using other technologies like wikis or blogs. The built-in indexing and tagging of information presents a dynamic view of the notebook (table of contents) while supporting more fluid knowledge capture and information retrieval tasks that are essential elements of good process.

    If you have a project notebook story and want to share your application ideas with other users in our community, please email us.



    A Terrific Site For Educators Using NoteShare 

    Published on 03-04-2011 12:27 PM  Number of Views: 1346 

    Maine's MLTI team has crafted some very clever and useful instructional videos for teachers or really anyone learning how to use NoteShare and other Mac OS X products like Keynote or Numbers. The video screencasts are fun, engaging and informative. Check them out at this link.

    Five Questions with Jack Russo and Chris Sargent (authors, attorneys and patent experts) 

    by
    Scott
    Published on 02-24-2011 10:08 AM  Number of Views: 1351 
    Article Preview

    Background: ComputerLaw Group LLP has a long and rich history, which has a different meaning in the information technology ...
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    Using NoteTaker and NoteShare as your Personal Knowledge Base 

    by
    Scott
    Published on 02-18-2011 07:18 AM  Number of Views: 1574 

    Managing and using information is a daily task. In a new series, we'll be exploring the use of NoteTaker and NoteShare for creating a personal knowledge base. Part 1 of the series will be devoted to project management and how to create a team notebook. Stay tuned.

    NoteShare Mobile Viewer Updated to Version 1.0.3 

    by
    Scott
    Published on 02-16-2011 10:58 AM  Number of Views: 1508 

    Five Questions with John Davidson (developer, engineer and author) 

    by
    Scott
    Published on 02-12-2011 12:27 AM  Number of Views: 1311 

    John M. Davidson, PhD, is an technology entrepreneur, turned investor. A protocol designer and software developer, John was the liaison from the University of Hawaii to the ARPANET Technical Working Group, helping to craft the underlying structure of today's Internet. He was a founder of Ungermann-Bass, the first local area networking (LAN) company, where he served as Chief Technology Officer and Vice President of R&D. John also was founder and CEO of Network TeleSystems, NTS, which supplied protocol software to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) worldwide. Today, he works with a number of technology startups both in Silicon Valley and in Hawaii, serving in various capacities as advisor, director, investor, and friend of the company. He has a AB in Mathematics from Middlebury College, and an MS and PhD in Computer Science from the University of Hawaii. John is the author of "An Introduction to TCP/IP" (Springer-Verlag), the first book on detailing the Internet's underlying protocols.

    I met John through our mutual friend David Jones (an AquaMinds advisor). For me personally, John is a very unique Silicon Valley member who has helped directly with the creation of the Internet from the early days of campus networking to what we have today, a vast and growing grid of connected users, communities and countries. It's been a pleasure getting to know John and to talk about his new work and passion, Maxwell's Equations.

    Since John was one of our earliest beta sites for our NoteShare Express - Desktop Edition software, we thought it would be a terrific idea to ask him about our new software for Windows and Linux. He kindly agreed to the five questions format and liked the idea of using NoteShare to collaborate with us. We then set up a shared notebook on our cloud for John to do this interview since he travels extensively throughout the year and needed to access to our notebook from multiple locations and different time zones. I think John liked the idea that we could write this article using NoteShare; we couldn't agree more and it worked great!

    Five Questions
    1. When was the last time you used NoteShare?

    Just a few minutes ago, to check on a new feature. I have been a user of the Windows version of NoteShare Express Desktop since before the formal beta program got underway, so I've seen it in varying stages of readiness and learned more and more about it as the feature set took hold. I find it to be a really superior piece of software. (Geek speaking!)

    2. Do you have a favorite NoteShare moment or project?

    My overall project is the creation of a technical book. I fully intend to create the book using NoteShare, though the actual publication for mass consumption (wish me luck) will probably have to be in a non-electronic form. I have experimented, though, with the use of NoteShare for code documentation, solar power project coordination, and tracking candidates through a CEO search process notebook. The sharing feature is a big help in the latter two especially.

    3. What is your favorite feature in NoteShare?

    There are many technical equations and diagrams I want to include in my book. I have found some marvelous video sources sponsored by MIT and Cal Tech, among other institutions, which provide graphics similar to those I want. The ability to snag video frames, paste them into NoteShare and then annotate their content has been a magnificient aid to the "capture" portion of my research undertaking.

    I suspect that before long, the sharing facilities of NoteShare will become the most valuable features of all. It seems to me that a small team, project or workgroup could beneficially use a beautiful NoteShare spiral notebook as a formal public-facing web site. The visiting public will have no problem understanding the navigation paradigm and the rich content, dynamically updateable by the NoteShare administrator, seems to serve the presentation needs of most any non-commerce site today!

    4. Any tips or advice for new NoteShare users?

    Get started! The feature set of NoteShare Express Desktop is enormous, but you can be very productive right off the bat with just the simple subset of keystrokes needed to create and move simple outline topics. Use graphics liberally - your collaborators will love you. Be willing to rearrange things -- your initial outlines, even your initial assignment of topics to notebooks, need not be procrustean beds into which you absolutely must fit your later findings. The software is very well written; it won't break if you tweak things; bend it to your will and make yourself happy!

    5. Got a NoteShare page or cover shot you can show us?

    I had to snag and crop four separate video frames for this "concepts" page:

    There's A Server For That Too 

    Published on 02-09-2011 03:09 PM  Number of Views: 1858 

    It's true, there's now a cross-platform server for deploying notebook documents, collaboration and sharing services to schools, research labs and enterprises. NoteShare Server Pro is a next-generation solution that runs on Mac, Windows and Linux servers. The server solution provides a powerful yet convenient way to deliver an integrated outliner, note-taking, information and knowledge management app to both individuals and teams.

    NoteShare Server Pro is a secure, on-premise solution that protects user data while managing access and privacy. For schools, it means they can provide access to every teacher and student with the productivity tools they need for organizing their daily work, their portfolios and team projects. And what about collaboration and sharing, they're built-in features you can use as needed. For more information about NoteShare Server Pro and how your organization can get started with a free trial, go to this product page.

    Five Questions with Elizabeth Sky-McIlvain (educator, essayist and explorer) 

    by
    Scott
    Published on 02-01-2011 01:04 PM  Number of Views: 1352 


    I've k    nown Betsy Sky-McIlvain (Mrs. Mac) for several years and she's one of the most creative, passionate teachers around especially when it comes to engaging her students through the use of digital tools like NoteShare. A keen observer of middle school students and their habits of mind, Betsy has put her teaching philosophy into action. I asked her to share her unique insights as well as her latest creations using NoteShare in the classroom.

    As a side note to this interview, the state of Maine is one of the most active 1:1 laptop programs in the world. Their groundbreaking MLTI program has reached nearly every Maine middle and high school student with their own Mac laptop and suite of software including NoteShare. As a result, Maine has pioneered many innovative applications in the classroom and continues to improve the integration of curriculum and technology through ongoing professional development courses and online resoures. Betsy is one of the many Maine educators showing us new and exciting ways to generate better outcomes and opportunities for learning.

    Five Questions

    1. When was the last time you used NoteShare?
    I use NoteShare all of the time. Today, for example, I sent my students to my online Class Notebook to find the definitions (that I have written) of the poetry terms they need to know. Why? Because dictionaries, online or print, do not really give students term definitions and examples in language they can use to learn. Then I went to the server-side version of the same notebook and made it better (I had not defined some of the terms). While there, I added the digital files of poems we are studying to the unit plan. For the teachers who come after me, this is 1-stop shopping.
    2. Do you have a favorite NoteShare moment or project?
    With this "digital baby" group, my favorite moment so far (we will go farther...) is their wide-eyed understanding of NoteShare sharing. We have been working on fluency recording - hugely successful - but the submission of their pages over the school network has been kind of like looking at all your favorite candy appearing in your hand as you think of it. It is also validating to see student effort appear projected on my screen. NoteShare + LCD is a powerful teaching tool. I think that it is more immediate, more compelling, than any of the "safety" lessons I have viewed, previewed, or taught.
    3. What is your favorite feature in NoteShare?
    Sharing is my #1. I like the folio feature as a sub-set of sharing - I use it to differentiate (students can share to a portable drive and not be embarrassed). I use it to distribute notebooks. I count the web notebook as part of sharing also - what a powerful communication resource! My students and principal are just discovering it. The link has been on my school homepage for 3 years, but it is just beginning to be used. #2 has to be the linking/annotating feature. I make so much use of this that I don't even think of it as a feature - it is a "have-to-use." #3 is the "embedding" capabilities. The ease with which documents, images, websites, sounds can be included in any page makes this a wide-open resource. And #4 is the voice memo - invaluable in the ELA classroom. We use it for fluency, podcasting, on-the-fly sound recording, pre-writing, creative expression. It is the most simple and least threatening recording device I have ever seen. Even my shy students will sit in the hall or library and record.

    4. Any tips or advice for new NoteShare users especially educators?
    Yes. First, planning is very important. I have gone back and forth with a large notebook for all students and separate small ones. Small ones work best for notebooks that will have multiple submissions, such as one dedicated to a research project or to a short story unit. Students can create their own notebooks for projects, but I like to create a "template" notebook and distribute it to all (e-mail is an easy way to do this). In fact, the more the teacher sets up, the less confusing the "how to" lessons will be. Second, learn about Templates! These save a huge amount of time and guarantee consistency from class to class. Large notebooks are more useful as resource files for a course.
    Which brings me to my 2nd suggestion - work with IT to get Noteshare Server Administrator on your laptop and learn how to use it (a snap, once you have it set up). Creating web notebooks opens up the world of the "e-text" to teachers. I don't understand why more teachers don't use this great opportunity to "publish" their coursework. It saves a lot of class time, paper, and repetition, and you are able to send students to the multimedia, multi-format information they need - your words and with your examples. I love to find students editing my work, contributing ideas and content. It changes the teacher-student dynamic. Last, a practical suggestion. Spend the time to establish a consistent toolbar - and make sure that it contains the "print current page" tool! The first time a student prints all 200 pages, you will thank me. Last, if you want to make use of the voice memo features, have students keep inexpensive ear buds in their laptop cases.

    5. Got a NoteShare page/site or cover shot you can show us?
    Mrs. Mac's Digital Text - Literary Terms Dictionar

    Five Questions with Laura Richter (educator, designer and author) 

    by
    Scott
    Published on 01-28-2011 07:11 PM  Number of Views: 1237 


    Five Questions with Laura Richter
    1. When was the last time you used NoteShare?
    Ten minutes ago I taught a Digital Citizen lesson and students dragged a page from my notebook to their notebook with a link to an online community.
    2. Do you have a favorite NoteShare moment or project?
    My favorite moment was when I was working on a curriculum for the graphic novel, The Undersea Adventures of Capt'n Eli. It was the first time I had posted a notebook on the NoteShare server and could access it, edit it and save so that those viewing on the web could see instant changes. I embedded the notebook in the website so that it could be viewed within the context of the language arts lesson.
    3. What is your favorite feature in NoteShare?
    My favorite feature would have to be the sharing aspect of NoteShare. I love to be able to open and share a notebook with teachers or students within our network. I have them open the shared notebook and with the page folio tool simply drag a page to their notebook. This works so well when I have lessons, forms, and links embedded in my notebook and I need to give them to students. I also like the metasearch feature.
    4. Any tips or advice for new NoteShare users?
    Think of the digital notebook as a three ring binder. I actually have a physical notebook with sections and pages when I teach students and teachers how NoteShare works. Practice making and deleting sections and pages to understand the structure. This is usually the most confusing part for those beginning to use NoteShare. Check out all the tools along the tool bar once you have mastered Sections, Pages and Entries.
    5. Got a NoteShare page or cover shot you can show us?
    I like this notebook because I can share a rich, placed-based learning project (Skowhegan, Maine) with educators far and wide.



    LAURA RICHTER is a middle school educator and technology integration specialist at the Skowhegan Area Middle School MSAD#54, where she has taught for the past 25 years. In addition, she teaches undergraduate courses at Thomas College in Waterville, Maine. Formerly a social studies teacher, Laura works as a technology integrationist, assisting teachers and students with the MLTI 1:1 laptop program. She also has been actively involved with students as the Civil Rights team leader. She currently helps train both middle and high school teachers across the state as they learn to integrate technology into their curricula and teaches online classes for The Maine Educators’ Consortium. In 2000 she received the Maine Public Broadcasting “Teacher of the Year” Award and in June 2003 the “Apple Distinguished Educator Award.” Laura has authored educational materials for a number of sources including Maine Public Broadcasting, the award-winning film, “There Ought to be a Law,” and the graphic novel, “The Undersea Adventures of Capt’n Eli.”

    NoteShare Mobile Viewer in iTunes App Store! 

    Published on 01-28-2011 06:53 AM  Number of Views: 1627 

    Notebook Content - Curating and Mashing Up Information 

    by
    Scott
    Published on 01-27-2011 11:35 PM  Number of Views: 1468 

    The enclosed notebook demonstrates how information from various sources can be curated and mashed up to create new content. An interesting meme is the idea of educator/teacher/mentor as content curator and author of personalized texts. In this example notebook, the content and information can be very visually rich as well as interactive. The age of the digital librarian has arrived. Link to the actual web notebook shown below.

    Beyond The Textbook - Using NoteShare To Deliver Digital Content 

    by
    Scott
    Published on 01-27-2011 12:28 PM  Number of Views: 1296 



    Our software company has had the privilege to work with the state of Maine as part of their groundbreaking 1:1 laptop program. NoteShare is a standard productivity-collaboration application included on every teacher and student Mac laptop system in the state. As a result, a lot of innovative classroom projects have been built around using NoteShare especially for delivering digital content authored by teachers.

    Content with Purpose
    More recently, we got an early sneak peek at an exciting project being developed around English Language Arts as well as Visual and Performing Arts standards called The Thousand Words Project. The project team has given us permission to show the technology companion NoteShare notebook that integrates art appreciation and writing instruction with a set of lesson plans and digital content designed from the perspective of outcomes. That is, learning aligned with outcomes based on core standards.

    Get Ready To Mobilize 

    by
    Scott
    Published on 01-23-2011 04:16 PM  Number of Views: 1519 

    We've submitted NoteShare Mobile Viewer to Apple and expect it will be available for download from the iTunes App Store by the end of this month. It works on both iPhones and iPads. NoteShare Mobile Viewer makes it both easy and convenient to access and view shared notebooks. It's the perfect way to browse information, scan personal notes and review documents while on the go. You can use NoteShare Mobile Viewer on any LAN or wireless network (WiFi) or connect via 3G or Edge.

    Leonardo - notetaker, artist, designer and inventor 

    by
    Scott
    Published on 01-01-2011 11:53 AM  Number of Views: 1748 

    Five Questions with Marc Gerstein (author, Fortune 500 consultant, business user) 

    Published on 12-25-2010 05:12 AM  Number of Views: 1601 


    Marc Gerstein holds a Masters and Ph.D. in Management from the Sloan School of Management, MIT. He has taught and held research positions at Columbia Business School, Sloan, and McGill University.     He currently heads Marc Gerstein Associates, Ltd., a management consulting firm, and is past President of the Organization Design Forum, a professional organization. Marc's consulting focuses on fostering innovation, risk management issues such as those discussed in his 2008 book, Flirting With Disaster, organization design of complex enterprises, and the strategic role and organizational impact of information technology. He is the author of three books, and his work on strategy and organizational dynamics has been published by the Sloan Management Review, the Journal of Business Strategy, People & Strategy, and Stanford University, among others.

    Five Questions

    When was the last time you used NoteShare?
    Ten minutes ago... maybe less. I use NoteShare all the time. Like email, it's always open, and I use it for many of the things for which other people probably use Word, PowerPoint, or their email.

    Do you have a favorite NoteShare moment or project?
    Sure, lots of moments. But my favorite is probably when I was working on my last book and the notebook really "felt like" a book. It had a table of contents, graphics, and all the usual elements. But it also had all the earlier drafts of my chapters and links to the background research, notes from my publisher, a to do list, etc.

    What is your favorite feature in NoteShare?
    Probably the ability to instantly share work with a colleague. I often use NoteShare like an electronic notepad when working on the phone. We both see the same page at the same time, and we can pass the pen so that either of us can edit. For me, NoteShare is a tool for getting work done and avoiding ambiguities and mistakes when working with others, especially at a distance.

    Any tips or advice for new NoteShare users?
    My main advice is to use the product for as many things as you can so that you become really comfortable with it. I think that there is a tendency to think that the work needs to be a "notebook" rather than a "document". Many of my notebooks start off as single pages that get added to as the work evolves. I also have a universal notebook -- a journal of sorts -- into which I put notes and items that I need to work on or are in their formative stages. It's easier to simply start new piece work in this notebook since it's always open on my desk. When I sense that the page needs to go off on its own, I simply drag out a page folio.

    Got a NoteShare page or cover shot you can show us?



    Here's a couple of notebook pages representing part of a talk I gave a couple of years ago that I needed to share with others on the team so they would know about my work so they could plan their own comments and slides. The talk was an application of what has now become known as "design thinking" to problems of organization design. This talk was the start of what is now becoming a new book and this notebook -- which has my notes, copies of the slides I created, and so on -- has become a great all-in-one-place reference even though I had no idea I would be doing a book on this topic when I did the work a few years ago.


    References to Marc Gerstein's books and projects

    Marc's website: http://flirtingwithdisaster.net

    Selected books and articles
    Daniel Ellsberg's foreword to Flirting With Disaster, "Learning From Past Disasters, Preventing Future Ones:
    As a Podcast read by Michael Ellsberg
    As text on Google Books)

    Roger Buzz King writes ... "It’s the metaphor that matters." 

    Published on 12-16-2010 03:17 PM  Number of Views: 1595 

    An excerpt from Roger "Buzz" King's insightful blog piece about using our recently (and newly) released NoteShare Express - Desktop Edition for Windows and Linux systems ....

    It’s the metaphor that matters.

    But it’s not their myriad of options that makes me like the Aquaminds note taking apps. It’s the metaphor that drives them. You use these products to create simulated paper notebooks. To me, this is the most natural way to organize the things I need for a project. You create a notebook with sections and pages, and put entries on each page. It builds an index and displays it next to the notebook, if you want. You can even create a colorful cover for your notebook - although I have never gone quite that far to live the metaphor.

    Sounds simple and obvious, right?. But I rooted around for years trying to find a similar product that runs on Windows machines. The closest I could find was Microsoft OneNote, but its interface is noisy and unintuitive, if you ask me. So I have been using a couple of the “bucket” note taking programs where the user interface consists of a master list of single page notes, with a list of buckets down the left size of the interface. You organize your notes by putting each note in a bucket. These programs are flat and don’t give you that feel of creating a top-down, organized notebook tied to a specific project or job.

    Finally, notebooks for Windows.

    Maybe I missed something. Maybe there is one out there. I never found one.

    But the folks at Aquaminds just came out with one! It’s called Express Desktop. It’s definitely a scaled down product compared to their others. But now I can make my notebooks on my Windows 7 box just like I do on my Mac. It displays a master list of notebooks and each one is a complete, top down pseudo-notebook, complete with a fake spiral down the side. I feel organized on my Windows machine, finally.

    New Preview Software Available 

    Published on 12-10-2010 04:15 PM

    We've released preview version 2.5.7 for NoteTaker, NoteShare and NoteShare Server today. Release notes available. The NoteShare and NoteShare Server versions include support for the pending release of NoteShare Mobile Viewer for iPhone/iPad users. The free iOS app is scheduled for availability in January. Beta testing continues. Stay tuned for more information about NoteShare Mobile Viewer.

    One notebook or many notebooks? That is the question. 

    by
    Scott
    Published on 11-23-2010 05:13 PM  Number of Views: 1331 

    Tell us what you think is a good way to get started. I tend to have multiple notebooks around. One that I use as a clipping ...
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