TABLET PC-IS IT WORTH IT? A PRELIMINARY COMPARISON OF SEVERAL APPROACHES TO USING TABLET PC IN AN ENGINEERING CLASSROOM

摘要

Tablet PCs are the latest technology in portable computing, but is it worth it for engineering faculty to make the investment of their time to change their course content development and delivery method to include a Tablet PC? In this paper, we will address a range of options that faculty have for course development and utilization of the Tablet PC. We will compare various lecture methods of using the Tablet PC including writing on it directly, using PowerPoint, and using Classroom Presenter. Student assessment of the various presentation methods will be shared as well. Faculty might have a range of motivations for moving to incorporating a Tablet PC in their classrooms from capturing content for faculty review, providing handouts for students, increasing active learning, and even distributed learning. Course content development can be a daunting and time consuming task for many engineering faculty. Making a gradual change from their current mode of delivery might be most comfortable and beneficial. The authors will discuss their experiences and lessons learned in moving from using a blackboard, transparencies made using WORD, and computer projection of PowerPoint to using a Tablet PC. We hope that this work will be helpful to other engineering educators as they strive to improve their teaching effectiveness. A Tablet PC is not a substitute for effective teaching. However, it might serve as a useful tool for our current students who are comfortable with technology and expect it to be part of their daily lives.