Clemsons LAPTOP PROGRAM

1
Clemsons LAPTOP PROGRAM

• Bill Moss
• http//www.math.clemson.edu/bmoss

2
Why Laptops?To build a better product

• Laptop students have better
• Communication skills
• Technology skills
• Team building skills
• Life-long learning skills

3
Why Laptops?To enhance the classroom

• Laptop course characteristics
• Studio courses
• Integrated lab and lecture
• On-line quizzes and exams
• Hybrid exams

4
Why Laptops?To slow the growth of IT costs

• Where are the IT dollars going?
• Keeping labs up-to-date
• Printing costs
• Storage costs
• Support of multiple platforms

5
Why Laptops?Convenience, professional practice

• Students see advantages to the laptop even when
  they have no laptop courses.
• Mobility
• Small foot-print
• Laptops are becoming standard in business, law,
  medicine, and engineering practice.

6
Laptop Program Best Practices

• Student mandate, faculty opportunity.
• Provide for faculty development.
• Early adopter faculty should offer best fit
  courses first.
• Not all courses have to be laptop enhanced.

7
Faculty FAQ

• Is the laptop a distraction? When does the
  technology detract from the teaching of content?
• What are the potential classroom logistical
  problems?
• Can technology encourage students to be more
  independent, exploratory learners?

8
Research Base

• How People Learn, Brain, Mind, Experience,
  School, National Research Council, National
  Academy Press, 2000.

9
Studio Calculus III The Calculus of the 3D World

• Visualization is a strand that runs through the
  entire course.
• Students build 3D solids by constructing their
  bounding surfaces, one surface at a time.
• This course is more technically advanced than the
  traditional pencil and
• paper course.

10
Characteristics

• Reduced lecture 10-15 mini-lectures
• Course journal and Maple tutorials (TA graded)
• Tutorials submitted via the WebCT dropbox
• Low-stakes quizzes, individual and team
• Team projects (peer instruction)
• Coaching by instructor
• Practice exams

11
Maple Tutorials Include

• Instructional Objectives with suggested problems
  for each objective
• Main mathematical points with examples worked by
  hand and with Maple
• Course journal homework assignments
• Maple problems to be worked at the end of the
  tutorial

12
Pedagogy

• Students take responsibility for learning.
• Coaching enhances formative assessment.
• Taking attendance and learning names is easy,
  e-mail absentees during studio time.
• Frequent quizzes increase engagement.
• Peer instruction is a goal of team projects.
• Studio time mixes individual and cooperative
  learning.