UA Faculty Choose HP2710p Tablet PC

Should be any day that we get our new HP 2710p Tablet PCs! This Fall all faculty will recieve

these sleek new computers. I can't wait to have something under 4 lbs after lugging around the Gateway M285E. I am ready for a format that is not wide screen as well. You can see specs on this at Gotta Be Mobile.

I anticipate a lot of our faculty have chosen the Tablet PC (over a regular laptop or mac book) since I have 90 faculty scheduled for 3 sessions of a workshop sponsored by our Institute for Teaching and Learning that I have called "Why Your Next Laptop Needs a Pen." The third session was added due to the demand and filled in less than a day.

Second WIPTE Research Book is published

Some really creative users of the Tablet PC have come together for two years now at the Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology on Education held at Purdue University.

In each of these two years a selection of papers are collected by Jane Prey, Robert Reed and Dave Berque and published in a rich little monograph. Last year it was blue and this year red. These two books are loaded with examples of scholarly teaching and the scholarship of teaching with Tablet PCs. One does not have to read many papers to see how either student learning is enhanced or instructors are made more efficient, or both.

Dixon, Pannell and Vallinski present "Can Pen-Based Computing Enhance Graph Construction and Comprehensive in the Introductory Economics and Classroom? The combination of DyKnow Vision and pen-based computing led to better grades and fewer graphic errors than the group that used pen and paper.

In all the book contains 15 contributed evaluations on pen-based computing and covered more than 2,200 students and 60 faculty. Other than economics, the courses studied computer science, engineering, physics, communications, mathematics, Agronomy and Chemistry disciplines. It is a good read and when combined with the results in the 2006 version of this book covers even more areas.

DyKnow User's Group meeting 2007

While the 2007 DyKnow User's Group meeting at DePauw is history, I want to post the PowerPoint version of my presentation here for your comments. The presentation called Problem Based Learning in Econometrics with Supporting Technology reports on my successful use of Problem Based Learning in econometrics in a 1:1 environment where each student had (for about 6 weeks) exclusive use of a Tablet PC and classes were conducted using DyKnow Vision software.

I would enjoy hearing your feedback directly to myers@uakron.edu since we will try this experiment again in the Fall 2007 term. And a public word of thanks to Laura Small, Dave Burque, Frank Gilbert and others who made the conference such a fun time. And yes Jim we are going to apply in your next round!

Notice the graphic in this post, while it's only 8 students, look at how their opinion of the cost of adopting a Tablet PC in class changed from before they knew they were getting one to after they had used one. I hope this convinces a few to shift to Tablet PCs if their reluctance is their fear of the learning curve.

Podcasting has no 'inherent' value, but no technology has 'inherent' value.

Campus Technology 2007 reports "Consensus: Podcasting Has No 'Inherent' Pedagogic Value." What is cited is a report by Ashley Deal from Carnegie Mellon: Podcasting: A Teaching with Technology White Paper, June 4, 2007. Reporter Paul McClosky states "Podcasting does not contain any inherent value. It is only valuable inasmuch as it helps the instructor and students reach their educational goals, by facilitating thoughtful, engaging learning activities that are designed to work in support of those goals." However, far from being negative and suggesting that all of us throw out our podcasts and give up, we are reminded that we need to first define our learning goals, then design technology to enhance or reach these goals.