Library Guides: Tech for Learning: Planning and Notetaking

Alternative ways to make notes and plan pieces of work.

Microsoft Lens for Mobile Devices

Office Lens is a great way to capture notes and information from whiteboards, menus, signs, handwritten memos, or anything with a lot of text. You don’t need to jot down notes, rely on blurry images, or worry about misplacing anything. It’s great for capturing sketches, drawings and equations too, and even images without text.

Office Lens gets rid of shadows and odd angles, so that images are easier to read. You can upload document and whiteboard images to Word, PowerPoint, OneNote, OneDrive, and you can save them as PDFs or send them in email.

Lens is a free mobile device app available for Android and iOS

Panopto Lecture Recordings

Panopto is a tool which teaching staff can use to capture their lectures and any kind of video for teaching.

You can access your lecture recordings in the Panopto block on the right side of your DLE module page. Teachers may also add Panopto activities within the module page itself which act like an embedded link to the video.

Some of the accessible features within Panopto include:

Captions: Captions are automatically enabled in Panopto. You can turn these off and back on by clicking on the CC button in the bottom right of the player.

Variable playback speeds: Learn at your own pace with variable playback speeds. You can either speed recordings up (2.0x) or slow down playback (0.5x) to match your personal preference. Change the speed by selecting the cog in the bottom right of the player.

Contents: The contents pane on the left side of the recording allows you to move to whichever section of the recording you wish to view.

Notes: You can add your own personal notes to recordings.

OneNote
Notetaking and organisation software from Microsoft. The program emulates a folder structure using notebooks, dividers and pages, which you can colour code and annotate. You can add pictures, photographs, organise your notes and add drawings. It is possible to add audio recordings and some versions of the software will record live into a OneNote notebook. Links with Word and is part of Office 365 which is available to all Plymouth students. The software also has a web clipper which works in most browsers. This allows you to clip and send useful information from the web direct to a OneNote notebook. Download from Microsoft.

Glean A note taking tool which is designed to improve your learning and productivity. It allows you to combine audio recordings with multimedia notes – you can:

Take notes in class with online learning
Capture audio, text and slides in one place
React in real-time with Quick Labels
Quickly navigate audio using speech bubbles

We hold a limited number of licences for Glean and grant access by application to those who have declared a disability to us – please contact studentservices@plymouth.ac.uk for more information. Download from Glean.co

Apple Notes
Apple's Notes app is already on your iPad, iPhone and Mac. A recent update has added several drawing tools and a ruler function.Links to web pages, maps and documents can also be added to notes. Photographs can be included as well as audio notes. This voice recognition function is available if there is an internet connection. The iPhone / iPad version uses Apple's online servers to convert your speech to text. The Mac version can use offline enhanced dictation to create text to speech in a note. Syncronises across devices using iCloud, although notes can be stored locally on the computer or device if preferred.

Cogi
Cogi is a little different to the usual audio recording app. While working, the software keeps the last few moments of audio (up to 45 seconds) in the memory of your phone. When someone says something you wish to capture, tap the highlight button and the program backs up to record and save what was just said. This way you don't miss important information, and you can also concentrate on listening to the speaker, or make other notes. You can also add notes and pictures to recordings afterwards. The software is primarily designed for phones, but can be used on iPads. Very basic features of app are free, but additional features can be paid for if required. From Apple App store.

Voice Memos, iPhone / iPod Touch
Apple's own voice recording app is included on your iPhone or iPod touch. It is not installed on iPads.The app can be used on its own or with an external microphone for better recordings. The length of recording is only limited by your device storage.

Planning

For PCs
For Phones

Xmind 8
A free and open source Mind Mapping program, Xmind has a good choice of templates to get you started.If you're familiar with other mind mapping programs such as MindView, which is on Plymouth student computers, this is very similar. )The free version has a good selection of features without the time limit of a trial version, so can be used for as long as you wish, however all the exported files will have a watermark of Xmind trial mode. Available via XMind site.

SimpleMind +
SimpleMind + is a colourful and easy to use mindmapping app. The free version enables you to create mindmaps, change colours and add notes to your map. There is a paid for version, which adds additional functionality, such as printing, add links to documents, and the ability to insert photos into your map. Requires: iOS 6 or later. There is also a desktop version for Mac, although this has a 30 day trial, rather than a free version. Free version via Apple App store.

Xmind 8
A free and open source Mind Mapping program, Xmind has a good choice of templates to get you started.If you're familiar with other mind mapping programs such as MindView, which is on Plymouth student computers, this is very similar. The free version has a good selection of features without the time limit of a trial version, so can be used for as long as you wish, however all the exported files will have a watermark of Xmind trial mode. Available via Apple App store.