The Best of Both Worlds: Teaching with a Tablet PC

 

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2010, Volume 31

Goldstein, J. & S. Salm

Abstract

When teaching a lecture course, the instructor must make a choice between using the chalkboard, which generally creates a more interactive atmosphere, and using some type of presentation software (such as PowerPoint), which diminishes student interaction but allows for the presentation of complex text book figures. A solution to this problem is presented in this workshop -- the tablet PC. With a tablet PC, an instructor can combine the best aspects of chalkboard teaching with PowerPoint teaching. A tablet PC is essentially a laptop computer that has a touch-sensitive screen which allows the operation of the computer to be controlled by a digital pen or fingertip. This allows the user to annotate digital documents on screen, similar to writing on a piece of paper. For teaching purposes, this allows an instructor to annotate diagrams in his or her preferred presentation software, enhancing the educational experience for the student. A tablet PC may be purchased as a stand alone computer (~$1000 US), or a regular laptop can be converted into a tablet-like PC using tablet converter accessories (~$100 US). This workshop discussed information about the two tablets that the authors use: The Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet Computer and the Wacom Bamboo Tablet Converter Accessory. In this workshop, the features of each tablet and/or tablet accessory were demonstrated. Since using these tablets, both authors have had positive feedback from students about the use of these tablet PCs.

Keywords:  teaching tool, Tablet PC, technology, teaching with technology

University of Delaware (2009)