Tablet PCs
Tablet PCs are very similar to laptops. They are portable, have memory and can come with keyboards. What makes them unique is their ink-enabled applications. Students can write on the screen with a stylus and have that information stored in the tablet's memory.
Tablets can help students who still need the control of the stylus. Many students are not adept at computer composing. As wonderful as concept-mapping software is, sometimes a pen (stylus) and paper (tablet) are exactly what a writer needs. Aside from that, the ability to write on a "paper" produced on a tablet and electronically send that data to the student is remarkable. As a Language Arts teacher, one of the most frustrating experiences is when a student works long and hard on a paper, I make suggestions on the paper, they revise and edit and then when it's time for the final copy, their work is nowhere to be found. Writing on tablet PCs minimizes this risk because students can save their handwritten notes and my handwritten comments as a file.
I?ve heard of other teachers having students submit their files to a Blackboard drop box. The teachers would then use their tablets to make comments on the student?s file and send it back. This is convenient and eliminates a the common teacher problem of bringing the papers home or, in the case of students, bringing the papers to school. It saves paper and makes giving feedback to students one step easier.
In Godsall?s, ?Exploring Tablet PCs? there was a lot of information for school districts interesting in purchasing tablets. There are many things to consider. For example, tablets without keyboards are cheaper, but tablets with keyboards can be more flexible for classroom use. Battery power and the size of memory available are also important features. Cost and features must be examined to see which tablets will be the best fit for a school system. Many tablets have capabilities similar to laptops which can be a selling point due to the fact that tablets have the ink-enabled applications that laptops do not. Aside from hardware considerations, software must also be examined. Currently, software on tablets is limited. As tablets grow in popularity and become more common in classrooms, there will most likely be more of a variety in available software.
Posted at 12:48AM Jun 20, 2006 by svfelder in General | Comments[0]