Spring 2004

Moving toward the paperless classroom

By Dale Long

Walk into Alfred Carlson’s thermodynamics classroom or Sudipa Kirtley’s physics laboratory at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and you’ll notice the changing landscape of undergraduate science and engineering education.  High-tech tablet personal computers and plastic handwriting jotters are replacing spiral notebooks, ink pens and pencils.

In effect, a paperless classroom has been created.

Technology-adept students and faculty are utilizing Compaq TC1000 tablet personal computers, donated by Hewlett-Packard Company through a $220,500 advanced mobile technology grant.  The tablets are used to access classroom materials and homework assignments, collect data from laboratory experiments and write down classroom notes through the college’s wireless computer network.  Students and professors are also using iPAQ H5450 pocket personal computers in academic settings where traditional computers are impractical.  Thirteen 13 faculty and over 400 students used the tablets and iPAQs during the 2003-2004 school year.

Compact (8.3” long by 10.8” wide by 0.8” high) and lightweight (approximately 3 pounds), the tablet PCs offer unprecedented mobility and versatility.  They also boast the following features: A 10.4-inch screen, 40 gigabyte SMART hard disk drive storage, a removable keyboard that provides easy ability to change from tablet mode to notebook PC mode, four hours of battery life, integrated 10/100Base-T Ethernet LAN and 802.1 1b wireless card, a multibay docking station, a Transmeta processor and state-of-the-art graphics package.

The system helps illustrate the breadth of technology available for Rose-Hulman students and professors, according to Arthur Western, dean of faculty and vice president of academic affairs.  Earlier this year, the college was ranked fifth on a list of the nation's "Top 25 Most Connected Campuses," by The Princeton Review, and tied with Carnegie Mellon University as the most tech-savvy schools in Kaplan/Newsweek’s “Hot Colleges” list.

"At Rose-Hulman, we’re always experimenting with emerging technologies so that when new capabilities -- ones that make a real difference in student learning -- become sufficiently powerful and cost effective, we are poised to implement them," Western states.

This spring, junior chemical engineering students are taking the personal tablet computers outside Carlson’s classroom in the Olin Advanced Learning Center to the unit operations laboratory in nearby Olin Hall to operate experiments on thermodynamic analysis.  Students use styluses to write lab notes and Carlson’s laboratory comments are handwritten across the touch pad computer screen.  Later, the comments are converted into a text file and downloaded into a student’s personal file for retrieval while completing a lab assignment or studying for an exam.

Meanwhile, in a physics lab on the first floor of Moench Hall, Kirtley’s physics students are using tablets, with LabPro computer software, to collect and analyze data collected for electricity and modern physics experiments.  For an experiment on Malus Law, students use the tablets outside of the laboratory, in an open-air setting, along with solar detectors and calibrated polarizers, to gather data.  They could analyze data on the spot using Excel software, and then share the results with other classmates.  This spring, Physics III students are taking the tablets to the Sports and Recreation Center to better understand the concepts of tangential and radial acceleration.

“The possibilities are endless.  We’re just touching the tip of this new technology,” states Natalie Morand, a junior chemical engineering major who utilized the tablets during Carlson’s fall class.  She favors the tablet’s note-taking feature, through the Microsoft Journal program, that enables students to draw pictures and sketches, and to write chemical equations onto the tablet screen.  The text file version of these notes can be sent, through e-mail, to students in a course workgroup.

Student Jason Osborn is another fan of the “digital ink” technology, stating: “I can’t believe the tablet can convert MY handwriting, as bad as it is, into text that I can read.” 

The junior chemical engineering major noted another important tool of the tablets: Instead of having to flip through spiral notebook pages looking for one simple word or topic, the tablets’ word search capabilities allow for quick retrieval of such information.

“It can be a real lifesaver when studying for a test or completing a classroom assignment.  And, anything that can save time is invaluable around Rose-Hulman,” Osborn said.

A recent assessment and evaluation study of students using the tablet PCs and iPAQs, conducted by the Office of Institutional Research Planning and Assessment (IRPA), revealed an overwhelming majority of those students utilizing the handheld technology liked the devices.  Forty-one percent stated they would like to use the PCs in other courses.

“The convenience of the tablets, because of their portability, is a real asset in the laboratory setting,” states Crystal Landreth, a junior chemical engineering major.  “I could take the tablet places where my laptop computer can’t go, and I could write notes on the screen that can be retrieved later.”

Carlson placed all course materials on a class Web site, linked to a master syllabus.  The students can access daily objectives, the lecture schedule, blank notes outlines, slideshows, problem assignments, goals, and hints in the class.

“Having tablets in the class is like having the world’s biggest encyclopedia with you at all times.  Students can search databases and access the Internet easily, right in class, to get background materials on topics being discussed in class or the laboratory,” Carlson said.  “This experience allows us to discuss the quality of the information on the Internet.”

Kirtley noticed that the tablets allowed for more student interaction during lab experiments, a better understanding of physics concepts and more familiarity with new technology.  Rose-Hulman became one of the first colleges to require laptop computers for all students in 1995.

“They favor being somewhat more mobile in the laboratory environment with their experimental data that even the laptops did not make happen. Also, possibilities outside the laboratory room open up with the tablet,” Kirtley noted.

One Rose-Hulman professor dubbed the new “take it with you” learning style “m-learning (mobile-learning)” to complement the old way of thinking of “e-learning (electronic-learning).”

In terms of improvement in student learning, IRPA’s assessment report revealed that faculty indicated students would be able to enter more data, explore more options on how to learn to use new technology, engage in more sophisticated analysis, learn to cope with difficult or unfamiliar environments, and become better communicators.

“This technology makes it easier for me to use problem-based learning as the primary classroom mode, since students can get things done in class that they would only have been able to do at home without the wireless tablets,” states Carlson, who adjusts his class syllabus to match the students' capability, rather than sticking to the original schedule.

Computer science students used the iPAQ personal PCs to file reports and research topics during a senior design course this year, and the handheld units were used as a resource in technical communications courses during the winter quarter.  The hand-held technology was also examined by electrical and computer engineering faculty for future classroom educational projects.

Faculty are already planning on ways to integrate tablet and iPAQ PCs in other courses for next year.  And, Rose-Hulman has requested for an extensive of the HP mobile technology grant.

“We imagine an educational environment where all faculty and students are intimately interconnected via mobile technologies,” Western states.  “This environment will enable us to transcend our existing concepts of faculty and student interaction and realize benefits that have been previously unthinkable.”