IMPLEMENTATION OF A LAPTOP PROGRAM

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IMPLEMENTATION OF A LAPTOP PROGRAM

• http//laptop.clemson.edu

Dr. Bill Moss bmoss_at_clemson.edu Mrs. Laurie
Sherrod laurie_at_clemson.edu
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Preparation for a pilot

• A champion at a dean/provost level
• A laptop committee for planning
• Laptop courses
• Laptop instructors/training
• Classroom prep
• Technical support
• Program management

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Classroom Preparation

• Instructor Podiums
• Laptop plugin to projector/ethernet
• Student tables
• Ethernet port
• Electricity
• Wireless
• Turns any location
• into a laptop classroom

http//wireless.clemson.edu
http//dcit.clemson.edu/train/studenttrain/smrtcls
/classrm.htm
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A common laptop!
The key to top notch support is to require or
strongly recommend a common laptop. Here are the
things a common laptop facilitates

• Spare parts
• A software image --- software issues are 90 of
  support issues.
• We partition drives into C (windows/
• programs) and D (data) and offer
• refresh of C without affecting D
• Loaner laptops with student hard drive
• Sharing of parts among users

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Vendor selection

• Decide on approximate specifications
• Invite several vendors to bid
• Compare all aspects of each bid
• Hardware
• Prices
• Support options
• Delivery issues
• Extras
• Free spare laptops?
• Paid warranty repairs?

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Student notification

• Send letters to accepted students in the early
  spring
• Presentation at summer orientation
• Web page/
• phone ordering

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Student preparation

• August workshop
• Put software image on laptops
• Put in students settings
• Instruct on use
• of email, CU
• network, and
• laptop

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Advantages for the university

• Less need for labs
• Save on new computers
• Save on lab support
• Frees space for other use
• Save on printing costs!
• Common hardware
• simplified/better
• support for students
• Equal access for all
• Any class can be turned
• into an instant lab when
• all have laptops

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What is support is needed?

• A laptop helpdesk
• Hardware support (10)
• Software support (90)
• Someone to
• coordinate laptop
• selection,
• communications,
• training,
• support
• A web page

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Do your homework!

• Research what other schools have learned
• We visited Wake Forest and UNC many times
• We attended conferences and spoke with
  representatives from 25-50 other schools
• Prepare your
• infrastructure
• Classrooms
• Wireless
• Prepare your faculty

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Cost to students?

• Most students were already spending at least
  1000 on a computer so 1500 for a laptop is a
  500 (125/year) additional cost
• 60 of those not required to have laptops are
  buying them anyway
• They generally say the
• portability is well worth
• the additional cost

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Software Licensing at Clemson

• One of our biggest hurdles was software
  licensing! Here are a few things we learned

• We believe that universities need to work
  together for good group options
• Some vendors were convinced to allow the use of
  their software on student owned laptops
• MS licensing is key to
• keeping laptop costs
• down

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Links

• Clemson http//laptop.clemson.edu
• UNC - http//www.unc.edu/cci/relatedlinks.html
• Wake Forest - http//www.wfu.edu/technology/thinkp
  ad/
• NC State - http//www.eos.ncsu.edu/soc/

• Clemson
• Wireless http//wireless.clemson.edu
• Faculty laptop - http//laptopfaculty.clemson.edu/
  
• Bill Moss http//www.clemson.edu/bmoss
• Laurie Sherrod http//www.clemson.edu/laurie

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Clemson Laptop ProgramFaculty Perspective
William F. Moss College of Engineering and
Science Clemson University Clemson, South
Carolina USA

• http//www.math.clemson.edu/bmoss/laptop_pedagogy
  /

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Why Laptops?To build a better product

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

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Why Laptops?To enhance the classroom

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

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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

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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.

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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.
• Build smart classrooms with wired and wireless
  network access as needed.

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Engineering Laptop Programs

• Clemson - http//laptop.clemson.edu
• Oklahoma - http//coe.ou.edu/advising/laptop/index
  .htm
• Vanderbilt - http//frontweb.vuse.vanderbilt.edu/v
  use_web/transit/dean.asp
• Tennessee - http//www.engr.utk.edu/coe/compreq.ht
  m
• Mississippi State - http//www.msoe.edu/notebook/
• RPI - http//www.rpi.edu/laptops/

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Faculty Development

• Inventory the training needs of the participants.
• Laptop nuts and bolts, care and feeding.
• Software application training including a course
  management system like WebCT.
• Smart classroom training.

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Faculty Development

• Good teaching practices lead to good technology
  practices.
• Provide a good teaching effectiveness workshop.
  See Richard Felders SUCCEED Workshops
  http//www.ncsu.edu/effective_teaching/
• Modeling by laptop faculty.
• http//laptopfaculty.clemson.edu/

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Laptops in Humanities, Engineering

• History, Chemistry, English Composition
• MBA Program
• General Freshman Engineering
• Introduction to Computing
• Mathematical Sciences

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Laptop Learning Activities

• Individual Quizzes online and paper
• Team Quizzes
• Polling
• Survey / Minute Paper
• Think-Pair-Share
• Courseware Sessions

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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?

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Research Base

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

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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.

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Characteristics

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

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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 homework assignments to be worked at the
  end of the tutorial

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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.