Tablet PCs: Levers for Improving Learning

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Tablet PCs Levers for Improving Learning?

• Steve Ehrmann
• http//www.tltgroup.org/VT-FDI-2007.htm

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Thanks!

• 150 institutional subscribers to TLT Group
  services
• Annenberg/CPB and AAHE
• Washington State Univ., U of Nebraska, Oregon
  State, MIT, IUPUI,
• AACU, ACRL, EDUCAUSE, HBCU Faculty Development
  Network, League for Innovation, MERLOT, NISOD,
  POD, SCUP...
• TLT Group Founding Sponsors
• Blackboard, Compaq, Microsoft, SCT, WebCT

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My Background, Role

• 20 years as funder (FIPSE, Annenberg/CPB) and 10
  years at non-profit working with 100s of
  institutions, many new technologies and teaching
  techniques
• Evaluation, professional development
• Agnostic about tablet PCs
• Learn with you about how to use them to improve
  learning, by asking you questions

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Most Important Thing Ive Learned

• Pay attention to what people (especially
  students) do with the technology, and why they do
  it, if you want to improve student learning
• So what TL activities do tablets enable, or make
  easier?

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Triads

• Triad an activity using a technology to help
  produce an outcome

Who learns, What they learn How well they learn it
Tablet PC
Activity

• You need to consider at least these three
  elements in order to predict or evaluate whether
  technology can foster a learning outcome

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Valuable Activities Based on These Uses of
Tablets?

• Analogy
• Action using spreadsheet to calculate equations
  (in economics)
• Activity role playing simulation in economics,
  using a spreadsheet to calculate consequences of
  player decisions

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Triads

• Kimberly Koile, MIT Classroom Learning Partner
  project

Tablet PC
Students draw flow chart software recognizes
patterns
Group conscious of thinking, misconceptions
Who learns, What they learn How well they learn it
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Triads
Who learns, What they learn How well they learn it
Tablet PC
Actions
TL Activity

• You need to consider at least these three
  elements in order to predict or evaluate whether
  technology can foster a learning outcome

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Outline

• Start with examples
• Build a conceptual model what kinds of things
  are tablet PCs best for
• If the faculty member begins with little
  experience in using them for teaching
• If the faculty member has more experience
• What kinds of feedback (evaluation on the fly)
  might help the course avoid problems and uncover
  opportunities for that activity?

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Low Threshold

• Use of technology that is, for the faculty member
  about to try it
• Easy enough to appreciate (do I pay any further
  attention to this notion?)
• Promising of improvement that the person wants
• Easy and low-risk enough to try
• Easy, afterward, to appreciate whether it worked

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Low Threshold Uses of Tablets?

• Alone or in pairs whats the most useful or
  exciting low threshold use of tablet PC(s) youve
  seen? Actions? TL activities? Outcomes?
• Low threshold for what? For whom?

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Examples of LTAs?

• Faculty freed from lectern, while still being
  able to advance slides, go to web pages, draw,
  jot annotations, etc.
• Is that important? How?
• Students jotting, drawing notes on downloaded
  slides
• Notes are searchable

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Feedback to Improve This Use?

• What could go wrong?
• What could go (invisibly) better than expected?
• What sort of feedback could provide early warning
  about both, so that you could avoid the problem
  or exploit the opportunity?

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Next Level Uses?

• Whats something youve done, or heard about,
  that a more experienced faculty member using
  tablets might want to try?
• Again, take a moment alone or with your neighbor,
  to think about this
• Action, Activity, Outcome?

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Your Thoughts on Tablets

• So far?
• What actions/activities is this an obvious
  winner?
• What actions/activities might be huge winner (but
  investigation/ RD needed)?
• Unconvinced?

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Resources

• http//www.tltgroup.org/VT-FDI-2007.htm