Math in Your Hands

Joshua Holden
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology

This poster is a preliminary report on a Fall 2008 project to explore the use of tablets in calculus classes in order to foster student engagement by incorporating active learning and collaborative activities. The use of tablets can make many improvements in a classroom, but mathematics classes pose special challenges which have not yet been system-atically explored at Rose-Hulman. The most di_cult of these from a technical perspective is the integration of Maple with other Tablet PC software. This project explores ways to achieve this integration as well as other pedagogical improvements which the use of Tablet PCs could bring to mathematics classrooms at Rose-Hulman.

Increasing Classroom Tablet PC Acceptance by Using Screen Capture

Pedro HB Almeida
Rodolfo J. Azevedo
Institute of Computing – University of Campinas (Unicamp)

Deploying Tablet PCs in classrooms is not only a fact of giving hardware to the instructor and the students; it is a matter of changing the way courses are being taught. We think that every change should be evaluated so that we can find the best teaching practices, which can vary according to the subject in question. We also believe that new technologies should maintain student’s mental models of learning. As they know how to use pen & paper and computers, the Tablet PC would be best used if we manage to model our applications that use it in both ways, not as a replacement for one of them. We have carried an experiment that compares Tablet PC usage in a conventional collaborative scenario with one that allows students to work with their preferred tool along with the collaborative facilities. Our test field was Software Engineering exercises lectures for three distinct classes, using two different versions of the UW Classroom Presenter software. One had no modifications and the other was augmented so it allowed students to make a screen capture of their work area and send to the instructor. We have found that this modification has improved Tablet PC acceptance in classroom, presenting a new usage scenario where the students can benefit from the existing collaborative features provided by Tablet PC software’s and use their preferred tool for solving the problems proposed to them

Assessing the Potential of a Mobile Tablet-PC Solution in a Freshman Computer Engineering Course

José-V. Benlloch-Dualde
Felix Buendía-García
Juan-Carlos Cano Escribá
Technical University of Valencia. DISCA-ETSIAp

In the framework of the European Higher Education Area, one of the key issues deals with transforming teaching and learning methodologies in such a way that students reach both transferable skills and subject related competences. Taking into account the low academic students’ performance obtained by the students enrolled on the first-year Computer Engineering courses, it seems essential to embrace a teaching methodology which moves from a teacher-centered strategy to a student-centered one. We believe that an interactive classroom environment, supported by a mobile Tablet-PC technology, definitely help to achieve our goal.

In the proposed classroom scenario, our students, either individually or in groups, are able to access both to the specifically designed learning objects (video sequences, animations, simulations, etc) and to the regular resources (CAD tools) to solve active learning exercises on the Tablet-PCs during class. The technological context also enables to integrate formative assessment (quizzes, exercises and problems) into classroom practices and to provide immediate feedback to students. By stimulating our student activity, it is expected a significant positive impact both on motivation as well as on learning outcomes. Based on our experience teaching in a Computer Engineering Degree, in a first step we plan to put into practice our proposed approach in a first-year Electronics experimental group and to compare the results with the rest of the students.

We also plan to integrate our interactive classroom within a Learning Management System called Poliformat which is based on the Sakai project.

Marking up the Score: Tablet PCs and Music Theory

Carlos Carrillo
Scott Spiegelberg
DePauw University

As part of the DePauw University Tablet PC Pilot program, funded by Hewlett-Packard, teachers in the undergraduate music theory program at the School of Music have used Tablet PCs to enhance classroom presentations. PDFs of musical scores are projected on a screen, and annotated with the tablet pen with graphical notations typical for music analysis. PDFs of harmony and counterpoint assignments were projected and annotated during class discussion, aiding in understanding. Projected blank staves are used to compose musical examples in real time. Microsoft Journal and Microsoft OneNote provide blank musical staff pages that can be easily used for standard music notation with the tablet pen . While the output is rough in format compared to music publishing software, it is quickly produced and can convey the musical information needed in a digital format that allows reproduction and further annotation Different colors can be used to portray various aspects of the music or alternate suggestions. All of these annotated files are saved to an online classroom environment for the students to examine later. We are able to discuss more pieces of music in the same period of time, because the students stay focused, and we are able to use an existing database of musical score PDFs to save course preparation time. Students have commented positively on their ability to study for exams and to use examples as models for their analytical papers.

Extended Video Application (EVA): A Microsoft OneNote® power toy Designed to Support the Evaluation of Digital Video-Based Student Performances

E. Joseph Derrick
Greg Sherman
Eric Ballance
Radford University

For the past year at Radford University (RU), we have been developing and evaluating a power toy for Microsoft Office OneNote® 2007 called EVA (Extended Video Application). The project is a collaborative multidisciplinary effort with the development being done by a team of faculty and students from the College of Science and Technology’s Department of Information Technology. In addition, the assessment is being undertaken by a team of faculty from the College of Education and Human Development and the Waldron College of Health and Human Services who are using EVA in their education, counseling, and social work courses. Previously, we have successfully used Tablet PCs and Microsoft Office OneNote® 2003 in these courses to capture and analyze video of clinical instructional sessions, but with limitations such as only supporting synchronous live feeds of web cameras for synchronized note taking, an inadequate number of supported video formats, and inability to make pen-based annotations on the video. The overall goal of this project is to design, implement, and evaluate EVA to overcome these limitations and substantially improve the effectiveness of specific clinical teaching and learning experiences. This poster discusses the background and motivation of this work-in-progress, describes EVA in sufficient detail to help readers understand its potential uses and pen-based benefits in a variety of academic settings, and presents preliminary results of the assessment component along with a mention of future work.

Teaching Technologically: Toward a 1-to-1 Tablet PC Pedagogy

James P. Foley
St. Luke’s School

This study describes a single teacher’s journey through an academic year in a 1-to-1 tablet pc environment, and the resulting pedagogy he developed. Teaching algebra and geometry to 9th and 10th graders in an independent school using a dedicated laptop cart, the author places his experience in the context of existing research on networked learning environments, classroom response systems, and digital ink. Pedagogical and technological breakdowns led to significant changes in the nature of student-teacher and student-student interaction, classroom routines, note-taking, homework, and assessment. Some outcomes confirmed prior research findings while others suggested new avenues of exploration for both small and large-scale deployment of wirelessly networked tablet classrooms, especially with regard to the use of OneNote and mesh networking possibilities.

A Student Driven Initiative to Increasing the Effectiveness of Tablet Based Learning Programs

Jared Hatfield
Jeff Hieb
University of Louisville

In 2007 the J.B. Speed School of Engineering began requiring all incoming freshmen to purchase Tablet PCs. One of the challenges faced by this widespread Tablet PC deployment is educating students in the use and adoption of their Tablet PC for general note taking and interactive content delivery. The traditional approach where faculty create informational handouts does not instill a greater use of technology, or make use of student experience and expertise. As an alternative approach, the Speed Tablet Users Group (STUG) was formed. STUG is a student group dedicated to serving as a resource for the general student population on the use of Tablet PCs. STUG quickly realized they could not address all of the issues and questions using traditional means of communicating with students. Through creative use of free services on the Internet, specifically YouTube and blip.tv, STUG has developed a series of short, student produced, instructional videos called Tablet Tips. Tablet tips are available to students and aimed at educating students about using Tablet PCs. Tablet Tips and have covered a variety of topics such as: setting up DyKnow® accounts, combined OneNote® and DyKnow® note taking strategies, organizational strategies, and backup solutions. To this point Tablet Tip series has been very successful. Beginning in January 2008, Tablet Tips has accumulated just over 15,000 views across the 22 published episodes. STUG plans on continuing to produce educational Table PC videos using ongoing student feedback as a foundation.

Lemon Sketch – A Collaborative Learning System for Small Groups

Jason Meistrich, Microsoft Corporation

Ananda Gunawardena. Carnegie Mellon University

Past studies have shown that educational methods that use collaborative learning techniques with small groups improve learning outcomes significantly. The collaboration can occur in a classroom setting or in a remote setting where a small number of users collaboratively solve a problem or participate in a discussion. In this paper we describe a system that facilitates a richer collaboration in a small group of users. The system supports three modes, a shared canvas, a demonstration mode and a monitoring mode. LemonSketch, is an ink-based software is developed by employing solid human computer interaction principles. The system consists of an ink-based client supported by a server based backend to facilitate synchronization of clients. The users login to a centralized server and join a session in progress or start a new one. The teacher can switch between three modes: a shared canvas to allow unrestricted real time collaboration, a demonstration mode where all students watch the teacher’s canvas, and a monitoring mode to watch all the students’ canvases and zoom in on an individual canvas for closer inspection. The purpose of this project is to design, deploy and measure outcomes in a classroom where small group collaboration is encouraged and facilitated. One of the potential areas of our research is to analyze the deployment of this tool in a Pittsburgh area high school where failure rate among students taking PSSA (Standardized Test in Pennsylvania) is quite high. This is due to their inability to understand Math problems that require drawing and measurement.

Learning Through the Eyes of a Web 2.0 Student with a Tablet PC

Stephanie Moore
Villa Duchesne Oak Hill School

Students at Villa Duchesne Oak Hill School integrate 1:1 Tablet PC and various classroom technologies to enhance the learning environment while promoting NETS for students, teachers, and administrators. Students and faculty engage e-mail, discussion boards, wikis, online quizzes, surveys, and forms, interactive assignments, web-based “homework hand-in,” Internet resources, Tablet PC tools, Inspiration, Geo-Sketchpad, e-textbooks, virtual calculators and simulations, video conferencing, etc. This engagement began in 2003 with two grade levels and has evolved into grades 6-12 over 5 years. New students receive their units during a summer session held one month prior to the beginning of school in attempts to diminish issues. Parent and student together learn from the Director of Instructional Technology through the hardware and software with enough information to send them off to independently engage while understanding the expectations for ethical use in good consumerism. Students then attend a “tech camp” offered for three days during two separate weeks. Initiating a 1:1 technology program brings about certain issues; infrastructure, faculty development and readiness, assessment, fears, tools, support, family acceptance, and student understanding. The provision of solutions and accomplishing continued learning for the community is the process. Students from Villa Duchesne Oak Hill provide student insights about the transformation of their own usage, their teachers, and their classroom colleagues with regard to 1:1 Tablet PC and other technology provided to the classroom teacher and students. The advancement of skills, behaviors, and attitudes toward technology and the levels of confidence as a consumer for females are attained.

Using Tablet PCs and Guidelines From Research on How People Learn to Design Learning Environments

E. Palou, L. Gazca López
J.A. Rojas Lobato
J.A. Díaz García
J.F. Tamborero Arnal
M.T. Jiménez Munguía
L.G. Guerrero Ojeda
A. López-Malo
J.M. Garibay
Universidad de las Américas Puebla

The How People Learn (HPL) framework was used to redesign the undergraduate course Introduction to Engineering Design (EI-100) to promote an interactive classroom while integrating multiple formative assessments by means of Tablet PC technologies.

We used InkSurvey to pose open-ended questions to students during class and receive real-time student responses. Furthermore we identified classroom assessment techniques appropriate to the course and adapted them into a Tablet PC-Classroom Presenter environment to gauge student learning and make real-time pedagogical adjustments as needed. Also we utilized WriteOn to draw on top of any application shown on a Tablet PC. Screen snapshots were captured and stored as class notes for later distribution through course website. WriteOn and Classroom Presenter broadcasted facilitators’ screen content to the entire class using wireless networking. In this mode, students were able to receive the application output and the facilitators’ annotations as well as add their own annotations to every course presentation.

EI-100 redesign significantly (p<0.05) increased student participation. Formative assessment and feedback were more common and rapid. Facilitators utilized information gained through real-time formative assessment to tailor instruction to meet student needs. Particularly important were opportunities to make students’ thinking visible and give them chances to revise, as well as opportunities for “what if” thinking. Attempts to help students reflect on their own processes as learners (to be metacognitive) were also emphasized.

Student understanding of the engineering design approach to problem solving and students’ abilities to solve “real world” engineering projects were enhanced when compared with previous course results.

A Non-Traditional Class Structure for Introductory Programming, Using Tablet Pc’s

Chad Peiper
Samuel N. Kamin
University of Illinois

Networked Tablet PCs can dramatically change the classroom environment. In Spring, 2007, we taught an introductory programming course using a unique classroom structure made possible by Tablet PCs. Introductory programming is challenging to teach due to the very different levels of preparation with which students begin. A self-paced approach to instruction naturally suggests itself; however, it possesses fatal practical difficulties. With all students using Tablet PCs, their progress can be easily monitored, and this turned out to be the key to overcoming those difficulties. The result was a partially self-paced class, where the teacher could intelligently choose, at each moment, whether to lecture, help a particular student, go on to a new topic, or even put two students together to solve a problem. We describe what we did in the class, give the results of a student survey, and discuss further avenues for research.