Educating the Tablet PC

I was talking with my brother (who teaches high school) about Tablet PCs and schools. He uses an FIC SlateVision in his class from time to time, but wasn’t too sure that many teachers “get” the Tablet PC idea. I told him I’d be the same way. The problem is that it’s not about the Tablet PC; it’s about the applications that the teacher would use. And quite frankly, there’s not that much Tablet PC-focused software for them yet.

Yeah, there’s OneNote and Journal and the upcoming Office 2003 inking features, but I mean education-tuned software.

And yes, you can run any standard Windows app on the Tablet PC too, but this isn’t the same. I’m talking about apps designed for the Tablet PC. If I was a teacher, I’d want apps designed to use while I’m standing up. I’d want apps that avoid right clicks. I’d want apps where I can get to almost everything by tapping, spinning, or inking.

My brother could install a copy of the grade book/attendance program on his Tablet PC that his school uses, but he doesn’t. Why? The application is tuned for the keyboard. The software designers assumed he’s going to use it while sitting and typing. As a result, he might as well use it on his desktop, since it’s faster and has a bigger screen. He’s thinking about installing the program on his Tablet PC since it would give him mobility, but he knows he’s more likely to use his desktop for the reasons just mentioned. Plus, by installing it on two machines, now he would have a data synchronization problem.

In talking with him we began to realize how much the assumption with classroom management programs is that you’re going to do use them “out of class.” (I imagine you could use a notebook loaded with the software during class, but quite frankly it’s clunky. I’m not sure students would appreciate the teacher dunking behind the screen every few seconds to enter data or resize a window.)

OK. So now we’re getting somewhere. So potentially a Tablet PC might avoid the Berlin Wall-effect of a desktop or notebook display. But still, this isn’t going to be a reason for a teacher to voluntarily run out and purchase a Tablet PC.

What’s missing? Software. Software that saves them time. Software that can remove a step. Software that gives them more free time. Software that eliminates the need to sit in front of the desktop at night and transcribe attendance and grades.

After some more discussion he sketched out a seating chart/attendance program for the Tablet PC that he could use while he’s in his classroom. Then he wouldn’t have to jot down attendance on paper during the day and transcribe it into the computer at night. It has to be an application that is absolutely trivial to use with a minimum of pen strokes–as close to paper speed as possible.

We came up with some more stuff, but gradually the ideas became so grandiose that they were useless. Such is the way of brainstorming. I’m not sure by the end if my brother was more motivated or not. He definitely began to see the potential he’s had in his hands all along.

One interesting idea that I walked away with deserves a separate mention. We thought about the issues of grading papers and came up with something that might help. It’s worth a try. The first step in this futuristic journey is to suspend disbelief and imagine that students are able to submit their handwritten or form-based work electronically. The teacher would then be able to view the work products on a Tablet PC where they could mark them up. The one twist would be a templatized layer (which the teacher would be writing on), that would have a cell for the grade. When the teacher writes the grade in the layer’s cell, it’s automatically entered into the class grade book, thereby saving one step. It sounds small, but it’s the type of thing that teachers would voluntarily gravitate towards using.