Our latest article on program assessment is out in the latest issue of Journal of Economic Education 42 (2).

Assessment of the Undergraduate Economics Major: A National Survey (co-authored with Drs. Nelson and Stratton) "reveals that nearly two-thirds of the departments have a formal assessment plan. There is substantial agreement on the most important student-learning outcomes, which are consistent with the Hansen proficiencies. The most common approaches that departments employ to measure learning outcomes are course-embedded assessments and senior exit surveys. Capstone courses and senior projects as program assessment methods are most common in departments that are not in business schools and are without doctoral programs. Finally, more than half of the departments have adjusted their curriculum based on the results of their own assessment plans."

I think one of the most important lines in the abstract above is : "There is substantial agreement on the most important student-learning outcomes ... consistent with the Hansen proficiencies."

iPads for College Classrooms? Not So Fast, Some Professors Say. - Technology - The Chronicle of Higher Education

iPads for College Classrooms? Not So Fast, Some Professors Say. - The Chronicle of Higher Education

Best paragraph damning with faint praise:
For some professors, an older, less-hyped model of tablet computer offers far more advantages. That device is the tablet PC. It's clunkier than the iPad—and so uncool that it runs Windows—but it allows instructors and students to write precisely because it uses a penlike stylus, and to type quickly on its attached keyboard.

I remain a fervent advocate of the Tablet PC. I use it every day and every day that I am teaching class. I would enjoy an iPad or Moto Zoom for reading and browsing and reference work, but for serious work in the econometrics classroom nothing can touch a Tablet PC. For me I need a very good way to do writing with digital ink, drawing graphs and writing complex equations. Until a tablet can do that I will be supporting the Tablet PC.

New Tablet: Is the Revised Galaxy Tab 10.1 an iPad 2 Killer? More importantly is that "digital ink" I see?

New Tablet: Is the Revised Galaxy Tab 10.1 an iPad 2 Killer? [GALLERY]

This one got my attention. In image 6 of 9 of the original story is an on screen image of "PenMemo" with pen ink control and an illustration of a drawing having been made on the screen. While I don't see evidence of a stylus in the article, the ability to write on the screen is the right direction.

(image grabbed from linked page)


Anyone who knows me and the way I use my HP2710p Tablet PC in the classroom will know that a device that offers ink capabilities will be high on my list of things to have. Using DyKnow Vision with the Tablet PC in a 1:1 computing environment has been a great experience, but the entry price for students is they must purchase a Tablet PC (a harder and harder to find item) and not what students show up to class with. For $499 -- if this could support the wireless capability of a powerhouse like Dyknow (and I know I am dreaming) I would be in line the day it comes out.

I do like "For business users, the new Tabs both include Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync support, and Quickoffice HD Editor for managing office documents via Android." (source: pcadvisor.co.uk)

Apparently no USB or SD card slot, but the Moto Zoom has at least the USB. (source: engadget).

So after some searching I can find nothing about "PenMemo" that excites me and nothing about a stylus being able to be used on these new Tablet PC's. (I really hate that the real Tablet PC's have lost the branding war with the Tablets that are out now.)

Someone find me a good digital ink solution in these new fangled Tablets. (Hey APple if you get there first I could jump ship...)

Motorola's Xoom Is iPad's First Real Rival - WSJ.com

Motorola's Xoom Is iPad's First Real Rival - WSJ.com

Is this the one for you? Or do you prefer the iPad. And what about full funcion Tablet PCs. How do they rate with you?