Enhanced classroom presentations with a Tablet PC
Our Help section includes a number of tutorials on specific ways to use tablet PCs and associated software.
If you would like to save the notes you write on the board, or draw or write on your illustrations, a tablet PC may facilitate your teaching and help you easily share your lecture notes and annotations with your class via your Blackboard course space.
How Duke faculty are using Tablets
Several Duke faculty have begun to use tablet PCs in the classroom as part of pilot initiatives and grant-funded programs. Some of their experiences are highlighted below.
Claudia Karagoz (Romance Studies) uses a tablet PC in her third-semester Italian course to provide an interactive, multimedia digital blackboard. She uses Power Point presentations with images, audio and video content to further explore the course cultural content, and to reinforce students’ speaking, writing, and reading skills. Students in the class describe, comment and "draw" on (annotate) images related to course topics, and complete such activities as filling in missing words in paragraphs and exercises. Professor Karagoz also has students use her Tablet PC during group writing activities, in which they use Windows Journal to complete short exercises. At the completion of the task, the student work can be displayed to the rest of the class for peer review and discussion.
Collen Fullenkamp (Economics) used a tablet PC to teach introductory economics. Instead of using an overhead projector with transparencies, he used the computer to annotate slides and charts, marking the screen up in different colors to highlight key points or data as needed. By using the computer, he was able to build charts from data during the class session, allowing students to see the process being followed as the chart was constructed. This live note-taking feature combined with easier access to and display of multimedia course content made the tablet PC a natural for his teaching.
Alyssa Perz-Edwards (Biology) has used a tablet PC to teach Cell Biology. The tablet PC allowed her to be more flexible during class. She used team-based learning, which increased student engagement and revealed student difficulties during class. She was able to immediately address student requests for more explanation and context because she was able to sketch and label during class. She could then distribute these notes after class to her students.
