TeacherTabletPC

From GottaBeMobile.com:

Gateway is offering their CX210X Tablet PC for only $899.99 on their website now. Not a bad deal if you are looking to get into the Tablet PC arena without having to shell out a lot of money. … Thanks for the tip on the CX210 Josh.

This is undeniably a good deal for anyone looking to get started in the tablet world. This machine, however, is not one of my favorites. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I think it’s one of the few using an active digitizer that isn’t Wacom’s.

Spec highlights:

• Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2350 (1.86GHz, 533MHz FSB, 2MB L2 Cache)
• Genuine Windows Vista™ Home Premium (32-bit)
• 1024MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2-512MB modules)
• 80GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
• 14.0″ WXGA TFT Active Matrix (1280 x 768 max. resolution) w/ Gateway Executive Stylus w/ Continuous Sensing Technology
• 24x/10x/24x CD-RW / 8x DVD Combo Drive
• Integrated Intel® 3945 802.11a/b/g wireless networking
• Primary 8-Cell Lithium Ion battery w/ 1 Yr. limited battery warranty
• One type II PC card slot
• (3) USB 2.0, VGA, IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
• 7-in-1 media card reader (Memory Stick®, MemoryStick Pro®, MultiMediaCard™, Secure Digital™, xD-Picture Card, Mini Secure Digital®, RS-Multimedia Card™)
• Integrated V.92 56K modem
• Integrated Intel® 10/100/1000 Ethernet Adapter

From jkOnTheRun:

Inking in Instant Messaging is not just for Messenger anymore as Trillian has released the long-awaited ink support. Now you can draw and ink to your heart’s content with the popular IM program. Note that it is in alpha so if you try it let us know what you think about the ink. Thanks to jkOTR reader Steve Moser for the tip!

Unfortunately, it’s not clear to me what kind of support is needed on the other end.  Now if only there were ink in Gaim (across half a dozen different IM services and nearly every major OS, all but a small handful of the people with whom I IM are using Gaim or a derivative thereof as their client).

I’ve been trying to figure out how to get other people who’d just gotten their hands on a convertible tablet to really use it as a tablet. Craig Pringle’s “10 Things to do with your new tablet” is exactly the list of ideas I’d been looking for (see his post for the descriptions that go along with the 10 things):

[H]ere are 10 tips – things you can do with your new tablet to get you started.

1. Install Vista …
2. Make a Mind Map …
3. Ink on a PDF …
4. Take some notes …
5. Do some drawing …
6. Read a book …
7. Ink in Word …
8. Ink on PowerPoint Slides …
9. Ink Instant Messages …
10. Most importantly of all – Have fun!

At school, there’s been a lot of talk about what can be done differently with an online course management system (particularly Moodle, since one new faculty member has extensive experience with it) and to what end.  Having heard what some of my colleagues have done with asynchronous discussion online outside of class, Jim Vanides’s experiences with online instruction seemed to fit right in:

In my “spare” time (not related to my work at HP), I teach an online science course designed for elementary teachers.  … I have previously taught the same content in the form of face-to-face workshops offered through an NSF-sponsored “local systemic change initiative” grant that funded teacher professional development in the Silicon Valley (California). Converting these workshops into an online (asynchronous) instructor-led 6-week course has been a fascinating experience. The content was identical, but I had to entirely redesign the learning experience. What was more surprising was the difference in discourse – in some ways, the discussions were BETTER than when I taught the same material face-to-face.
If you’re interested, check out the May issue of ISTE’s “Learning and Leading with Technology” magazine. My article, “Online Learning that Works“, is a free PDF download until September.

As I play more and more with my review X60, I am increasingly concerned that my reviews will turn into I-hate-Vista notes rather than actual assessment of Lenovo’s hardware offerings. Especially given that I was only given one 8-cell battery and one AC adapter with the X60 (versus the two 8-cell and one 4-cell batteries, stand-alone battery charger, and 2 AC adapters I use with my X41 to consistently achieve all-day and often two-day computing), battery life is high on my list of Vista concerns. So, here are a variety of relatively recent Vista Battery Life links:

• Sneaking Suspicion Dept.: Vista Battery Life Sucks kizo interesting info (May 4)
• Humor: Microsoft Vista Laptop Battery Enhancement Kit – In Stock : Meandering Passage (May 5)
• TechBlog: Vista, Aero, battery life . . . and Doom (May 5)
• nullstream weblog – UMPC Vista Battery Life Comparison Summary (May 9)
• jkOnTheRun: Microsoft weighs in on Vista battery life issue (May 15)
• Incremental Blogger: Aero consumes 1-4% of battery life (May 15)
• jkOnTheRun: Freeware of the Moment- Vista Battery Saver (May 15)
• jkOnTheRun: Vista Battery Saver first impressions (May 16)
• GottaBeMobile.com – The Vista Battery Conversation Continues, an App Comes to Our Aid (May 16)
• jkOnTheRun: Battery life in XP: 4 hours. Same battery in Vista: 3.5 hours (May 16)
• Save Your Windows Vista Battery (May 18)
• Techlogg.com – Five easy ways to improve Windows Vista battery life (May 19)

Since I’ve been asked and I thought it might be generally useful for people to know…  Near as I can tell, this requires OneNote 2007 and Word 2007, but I haven’t tried it extensively since I’ve only got the 2007 trials on my review X60 (my own X41 is running 2003).

In OneNote 2007, create the blog entry on a single page.

If you want handwritten stuff to stay handwritten, select it and go to Tools > Treat Selected Ink As > Drawing (otherwise it tends to turn into plain text, which isn’t so good if your handwriting is as illegible as mine can be sometimes).

Go to File > Send To > Blog.  This will send you off to Word 2007, where you configure your blog settings, do any final editing, and actually post the thing.

From The Tablet PC Education Blog:

Tom Farrell uses PowerPoint slides to summarize how faculty use Tablet PCs for 1:1 computing in the College of Business and Information at Dakota State University.Farrell described the tablet PC as a “smartboard on steroids” while speaking to faculty at Arkansas Central University.

Dakota State University students are issued tablet PCs (convertible laptops).

As I’d posted a bit ago, Steve Myers finished the Econometrics class in which he was experimenting with 1:1 computing.  Since then, he collected and reprocessed comments from the students about the experience:

So the question posed in DyKnow was …Describe how the use of the Tablet PC has assisted your learning of econometrics.

I received many different statements in four broad categories: (1) about the lecture, (2) about reviewing notes, (3) about mobile computing, and (4) a couple of general comments. I have quoted them closely, but changed the writing to be of one style to help you read through this list.

The actual list of comments from the students is definitely worth reading.

Given the rash of instructors banning laptops in classrooms, it is good to see an article in a mainstream source like Yahoo! News encouraging people to rethink the use of technology and to make good/appropriate use of it:

So what does a classroom look like when laptops have been successfully integrated?Students are working individually or in small teams to solve engaging problems or answer compelling questions. They are synthesizing their own experience, ideas from the professor, and sources that they can find on the Web. They are talking with classmates, but they are also collaborating with people outside the classroom walls by e-mailing experts, posting to blogs, or editing pages on wikis (websites that allow users to add, remove, or edit content). The teacher has come down from the lectern and is moving throughout the room, watching what students are doing, asking questions, posing challenges, and brushing shoulders with the student who just checked the scores on ESPN.com.

Periodically the action is stopped. The teacher instructs the class to close their laptops, except perhaps one designated scribe. They talk. They share their insights, their solutions, and their obstacles. The Socratic exchange is fueled by the insights developed through electronic inquiry. The powerful face-to-face questioning isn’t competing with the laptops; instead, it depends on it. When the dialogue ends, the teacher encourages students to reopen their notebook computers and summarize the important points of the conversation. Sometimes the instructor is delivering content, but more often the teacher is helping students learn how to learn.

[as seen on Working in Ed Tech]

I originally noticed this on Teachers Using Technology, but Warner Crocker summarized it very well, so here’s GottaBeMobile.com’s post about it:

Over at the Teachers Using Technology site there is a great video of KellyC making a presentation in front of the local school board. Not just any presentation, he’s using a Tablet PC to demonstrate how Tablet PCs can be an effective tool in education.

[Direct link to the referenced entry on Teachers Using Technology]