TeacherTabletPC

Steve Myers (Teaching and Learning Economics with Technology) has posted a Comparison of Digital Ink Products, including OneNote and Journal as well as SMART Notebook and others.

Jim Vanides (see this comment), a program manager for HP Corporate Philanthropy, has an interesting ed tech blog (you might also be interested in information about the HP Technology for Teaching grant program). Jim has posted about the same Dr. Cox that I mentioned last week:

One example comes from an HP Technology for Teaching grant recipient team at Murray State University, in Murray, Kentucky (USA). Dr. Terry Derting (Bio Sciences) and Dr. Ricky Cox (Chemistry) have been using HP Tablet PCs since 2004, and were recently awarded an HP Technology for Teaching Leadership award to continue and expand their work.

He also has good list of reasons why teachers should pay attention to the idea of Tablet PCs in the classroom in which he says:

Even one Tablet PC in a classroom can make a difference.

I’m really hoping that at least a few of the many (I hope) people who are reading this have some experience with Tablet PCs in the classroom and are willing to share. If you fit the bill and want to help write for this site, please email me.

I like using OneNote for Scribbling during meetings and making organizing notes to myself. I’m still stuck in the dark ages of OneNote 2003, but here are some sites that are more about OneNote 2007.

• The Unknown OneNote Guy’s Blog
• OneNote PowerToys
• OneNote Extensibility & More..

(As an aside, this is the first post I’ve made using only pen input.)

The Mobile PC Wiki, formerly the Tablet PC Wiki, is full of good stuff.  The name change reflects the inclusion of UMPCs, I think.  Hindsight Tablet PC is a nifty article that’s more or less things to think about before you buy that you probably wouldn’t have thought to think of until after you’d already had a tablet.

Silly though it may be, one of my favorite things about the tablet outside of the classroom is ink blogging and/or chatting with Windows Messenger where I can intersperse doodles and whatnot with the text.

I haven’t taken advantage of it (yet?), but Allegiance Technology Partners has a 48 hour demo period.

Our 48-hour Tablet demo program has the following requirements of participants:

1. Sign the 48-hour Tablet demo program agreement
2. Provide credit card information in case unit is lost, stolen or damaged (credit card will not be charged except as stated in agreement)
3. Pay for shipping and insurance charges in both directions (usually $59-$95)

This is almost certainly the route I’d go if I were considering buying a tablet they carry (Motion LE1600 with View Anywhere Screen, Motion LS800 with View Anywhere Screen, Fujitsu ST5112 with Indoor/Outdoor Screen, Fujitsu ST5111 with backlit outdoor screen, Toshiba Tecra M7 Duo Core, Toshiba Portege M400 Duo Core, Fujitsu P1610, Tablet Kiosk UMPC eo 7110, Coming soon – IBM/Lenovo X60 with Multiview/Multitouch screen).

Ed Holloway’s Ink Blog Plugin for Windows Live Writer is very cool. I finally got around to upgrading both of them and I’m even happier with how well they work. Just beware that WLW still seems unable to recognize a title inserted with the ink-recognition modes of the tablet input panel (it’s only happy when I use the real or tap-on keyboards to put in the title).

InkBlogger at oneof.us looks really promising but development is currently stalled.

A post at The Student Tablet PC gave some tips for using Journal–stuff I hadn’t discovered yet. The two that I’m most likely to remember and use are that you can tap-hold-drag to lasso while in ink/highlighter mode and that scratchouts work best if it’s about five times as wide as high and covers at least half of the ink to be erased.

The EdHolloway.com entry on SizeEasy has this image, which I think shows the size difference between the X60 and the M400 that I mention when I talk to people about what tablet I’d recommend and why I like the X41/X60.

Mind you, that slight size difference means a lot more when you’ve got the thing in your hands all the time. Yes, the pictured UMPC is much smaller, but the X60 has what I’d consider a usable keyboard, which is also a big advantage for me, and the screen on that UMPC is smaller than I’d be willing to go (I might consider a 10″ screen, but right now I’d tend to say that 12″ is the bare minimum for usability).