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Scaffolding equals success in teaching tablet PCs.

Article Excerpt
Introduction: Tablet PCs are an Emerging Tool in Technology and Engineering Education

After many years of using the mouse and keyboard as the primary means of computer input, we are seeing a strong surge into a new generation of input technologies such as tablet PCs. It is predicted that tablet PC sales will reach more than four million by 2010 (Communication Intelligence Corporation Press Release, 2007). These tools are becoming more prevalent in business and industry settings and are being chosen by workers who need the combination of power, mobility, and flexibility in the field (Moll, 2002). As more professionals adopt tablet PCs for use in the workplace, there is a subsequent increased demand for tablet PC instruction in the classroom.

Examples of curriculum integration efforts are wide in scope. Tablet PCs and other pen-based technologies are showing a rapid increase in campus use, especially in engineering, technology, and computer science courses. For example, the Virginia Tech College of Engineering recently required all 2006 incoming freshmen to own a Tablet PC (Tront & Scales, 2007). At Duke University, computer science and engineering programs are researching the utility and impact of tablet PCs, focusing on engaging classroom activities, illustration-based applications, and problem solving (Huettel, Forbes, Franzoni, Malkin, Nadeau, Nightingale, & Ybarra, 2007). At East Carolina University, the Department of Business and Information Technologies Education has integrated tablet PCs into its information technologies curriculum and has made tablet PCs a recommended purchase. Tablets PCs are also becoming part of Business and Technical Education curricula at the secondary level in states such as North Carolina (NC Standard Course of Study, Computer Applications I).

Standards for Technological Literacy

Not only are tablet PCs being integrated and studied in many technology, computer science, and engineering programs, their use can be aligned with several of the Grade 9-12 benchmarks of Standards for Technological Literacy: Content for the Study of Technology (STL) (ITEA, 2000/2002/2007). A review of STL reveals that tablet PC instruction has the potential to support many standards including the following;

STL 17L

Information and communication technologies include the inputs, processes, and outputs associated with sending and receiving information.

STL 17M

Information and communication systems allow information to be transferred from human to human, human to machine, machine to human, and machine to machine.

STL 17P

There are many ways to communicate information, such as graphic and electronic means.

STL 17Q

Technological knowledge and processes are communicated using symbols, measurement, conventions, icons, graphic images,...

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