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11 Reasons Why a Tablet PC is Better
by Jim Vanides

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The full title should have been “Eleven Reasons Why a Tablet PC + Digital Projector is Better Than a Whiteboard or Overhead Projector… and Sometimes Smarter Than a Smartboard”. My primary point is this: People are still “discovering” what a Tablet PC can do. Once educators realize that they do everything a laptop does PLUS you can draw in the screen, then the next obvious question becomes, “How does this help me in class?” I have some practical examples to share...

While many of the examples I blog about are 1-to-1 settings where all the students and the teacher are interacting through their own tablet pc, there are many examples of what can be done with ONE tablet in a classroom. In fact, most of the original HP Technology for Teaching grants (2004-2008) supported teams of teachers, each with one tablet pc. I even heard the descriptor, “The One Tablet Classroom” first from Dr. Ricky Cox at Murray State, the site of another HP Technology for Teaching grant.

So why all the excitement about one tablet pc in a classroom?

Below is my list of 11 examples, gathered from the innovations and comments from HP grant recipients. These are not ideas – these are real examples from real classrooms where real differences in student learning are being reported.

Why a Tablet PC + Digital Projector is Better Than a Whiteboard or Overhead Projector

• I don’t need to erase to keep going – With a whiteboard, when it fills up, out comes the eraser. If you’re a student who is not a fast note taker, game over. Infinite digital space is so much nicer, because you don’t interrupt the train of thought.
   

• I can go BACKWARD and answer dangling questions – This example came from a high school geometry teacher in Georgia who uses the infinite pad of digital “paper” in MS Journal to present from. She used to use an overhead projector with a somewhat infinite roll of acetate. She explained that because her presentation annotations were easily accessible, she had a student (for the first time ever) ask her to go BACK 3 pages to where she was five minutes ago. Students don’t stop thinking after you erase your whiteboard!
   

• I can archive and share my presentation after class – Many teachers report that they create a “master file” of their lesson plans, and present from a copy so they can annotate and save it for post-class distribution. This has an interesting effect of changing student note-taking – they start to shift from “transcribers” to “thinkers”.
   

• I can easily incorporate rich media into my classroom – Why limit our teaching to words scrawled on a whiteboard? Back in the day, videos (or even farther back in the dark ages with movies and film strips!) were run on a separate system requiring more equipment, more hassle, and sometimes a “film monitor” (am I dating myself?). Today, with a tablet pc and an internet connection, we can bring video, audio, web-content, even live polling and videoconferencing with guest speakers, into our classrooms to support presentations – and more importantly – the discussions and questions that follow.
   

• I can more easily overlay annotations on images – This is nearly impossible on a whiteboard, and only possible-but-a-hassle on an overhead projector. Heaven forbid you should want to ERASE an annotation to make another point. What a mess!
   

• I have a million colors at my fingertips – not ON my fingertips. I don’t miss the days of chalk (three colors, if you can find them) and erasable pens (a packet of 6 colors, if you were really hip)

But there are more reasons to consider a Tablet PC. The following examples are specific to why a Tablet PC + Digital Projector can be smarter than a SmartBoard:
 

• I can make the image HUGE so everyone can see – In one classroom I visited, the projector was in the back of the classroom and the image took up the entire cinderblock wall up front. Needless to say, all the students could see just fine. In fact, they seemed to be GLUED to the content.
   

• I can face my students – Teachers know that learning is social, and eye contact can tell you a LOT (and help you manage your classrooms). Besides, it’s simply more friendly to have a face-to-face interaction with our students!
   

• I can present from the BACK of the room so students focus more on the content – This turns out to be an advantage for students, too. One student I spoke to, when asked what’s different in his “one tablet classroom”, said, “I like to come up and work the problems”. I asked him why that was different than coming up to the whiteboard, and he said, “No one is looking at me!” This turns out to be extremely important for many students, and it was made possible because his teacher had the tablet in the back of the classroom.
   

• I can take it home or on a field trip – Who doesn’t prepare lesson plans at home or at a local café? Plus, if your projector isn’t mounted to the ceiling, you can bring your presentation system anywhere that learning is liable to be happening…
   

• I can create video podcasts before (or during) class – A tablet pc and a Bluetooth microphone turn out to make a terrific podcast platform when combined with screencast software like Camtasia (see my Tablet PC Tip #5). I am particularly intrigued by the increasing interest in pre-recording presentations and assigning them as homework. This has two benefits: You never have to give that talk again (it’s saved for posterity), and more importantly, you can use the time you save in class for more class discussion

I know that this is not a static list - there are many more great examples of tablet pc use. So if you’ve made the switch from overhead projector, whiteboard, or even SmartBoard to a Tablet PC, please post a comment (or post a note to me on Twitter @jgvanides) to share your thoughts and experiences.