Teaching with Tablet Pc's

Tablet PC's are traditional notebook computers with the ability to process digital ink by writing with a stylus. They have recently attracted attention as a potential tool for educational use. This paper describes the author’s experience using the Tablet PC to conduct a CS1 course and a software engineering (SWE) course. The SWE course consisted primarily of PowerPoint lectures while the CS1 course consisted primarily of hand-written material. For both courses the Tablet PC was used in the classroom as a digital whiteboard by connecting it to a data projector. The lecture material was archived and accessed electronically for future reference by the students. To capture real-time gesturing and audio commentary, the CS1 course was recorded using screen capture technology. Outside of the classroom, the Tablet PC is also a useful tool for grading, creating lecture material, and capturing meeting notes. Student feedback regarding use of the Tablet PC has been extremely positive.