Putting Tablet PCs to the Test

LIKE MANY EDUCATORS, MY colleagues (five faculty members and two IT techs) and I in the department of Media Communications and Technology at East Stroudsburg University in Pennsylvania were interested to find out the status of tablet PCs in education. Microsoft listed 10 manufacturers of tablet PCs following two forms: the slate and the convertible. The tablet PC operating system was the same full Windows XP system found on standard computers with the addition of tablet features such as handwriting recognition and notation. This was common to all tablets. The difference between tablets was their hardware, configurations and accessories. We would consider the hardware and software, but our first interest was to see what applications of tablet computing were taking place in today's classrooms. My colleagues and I easily found 23 schools in both K--12 and higher education that had incorporated tablets into their curricula. Through their Web sites, presentations and published papers, we found that tablets were used success fully in similar ways. We also found some common ways that the schools designed their programs and facilities to accommodate tablets. Preparing for Tablet PCs Making a commitment to tablet PCs was often part of a larger promise to a high-tech educational environment. Untethered tablets were most useful, so wireless networking and wireless projectors were key components in many tablet classroom designs. Students were often provided with or asked to purchase two batteries (with a normal life of about four hours each), while some schools created charging stations to counter the power limitations. As might be expected, we found some schools where every student had a tablet and other programs where only a few classes had implemented the computers. In both cases, students were usually given network access to storage space for backing up their work. However, some programs required students to provide their own external storage devices such as USB flash drives. Most classes using tablets developed special Web resources for their users such as courseware, portals or course Web sites where classroom materials, multimedia examples and teacher notes could be stored for download. Training and support were provided for teachers and students in large rollouts of tablets. There also was no doubt that cost was a critical factor in implementing a tablet PC program. Tablets in the Classroom Students and teachers sometimes used tablets in the same ways that they had used desktops or notebooks. For instance, there were certain classes where the tablet was configured with a keyboard and mouse, and students simply typed. This flexibility to adapt text input was probably one reason tablets worked well in schools or with programs that made a big commitment to tablet computing. Students and teachers with tablet PCs in well-planned environments, and with the appropriate curriculum and resources, also could do things that they could not with desktops or laptops. The most common application of tablets was the teacher using it as a slate with a wireless projector to deliver a presentation. This use mimicked blackboards or overhead transparencies when teachers drew on their slates or blank slides, annotated PowerPoint slides or other documents, or drew models or math equations. Students watched and participated with software that shared access to the projected image. In classrooms where only the teacher had a tablet, it was often passed to students to participate in an activity. The images created in class were then saved and stored on the network in order for students to review later on or when they were absent. In addition, group work was most successful in classrooms where every student had a tablet. Students collaborated on writing or graphics work, passed documents electronically for revision, and posted or presented them for the class to discuss. …