The first TabletPCs, three Compaq tc1100, were donated by Microsoft Research back in 2002. The initial usage model was to share the equipment between the professors interested in learn the new technology. Almost no classes have been taugth using them. Microsoft Research donated the TabletPCs as part of a sponsored laboratory (LMS) in the Institute of Computing. At the same time, several other devices were donated: PocketPCs, desktop, servers, access points and software tools to use them. Professor Rodolfo became the administrator of the LMS in the middle of 2003.
Some time latter, in the first semester of 2004, one TabletPC was used for Computer Architecture classes. At this time, only the professor had access to the TabletPC. Although Classroom Presenter was used, no interaction between the students and the professors happen since only two computers were used (the TabletPC as Instructor and one desktop linked to the projector). The students liked very much the way of teaching circuits used inside the processor, since the TabletPC usage allowed the professor to mark using different colors the values and paths they passes.
At the end of 2004, Microsoft Research donated 10 more TabletPCs and the second phase of TabletPC usage started. At this time, Tablets were given to 10 different professors to use them in classroom. Several disciplines were taught using these equipments but without syncronization. The most used tool was Microsoft PowerPoint since the professors had all their slides prepared in this way. The drawback of this lack of communication between the professors could be described by the fact that one of the professors mentioned that he used the TabletPC as a notebook, whitout even using the pen. This was an isolated case but helped us to try to enhance the usage model and the tools.
The undergraduate Computer Architecture classes have been taught using TabletPCs since 2004, by prof. Rodolfo, mixing Classroom Presenter and Microsoft PowerPoint. Some other courses on Theory, Programming, Logic Circuits, Human Computer Interface, Computer Graphics, and Database also used TabletPCs in some of their instances.
In 2006, the HP invited UNICAMP to submit a proposal for the Technology for Teaching grant. This was the time to enhance student interaction by providing TabletPCs for one full classroom. The project "An annotation-based tool for collaborative learning using mobile technology" was accepted and 21 TabletPCs plus wireless infrastructure were donated by january 2007.
The first semester of 2007, from March to June, is the first oportunity to have a TabletPC-enabled class with both students and professors having the same equipment. At this time, a new course, focused on Multicore Computer Architecture, was designed using TabletPCs and Classroom Presenter. From the course webpage (in Portuguese, you can go to the notes following the link "anotações"), the students can get the Classroom Presenter annotated slides (mixed Portuguese and English slides from class to class) for all the interactive classes (seminars and programming laboratories are not using TabletPCs).
Also, in the same semester, three exercise classes of Software Engineering used TabletPCs and Classroom Presenter as the infrastructure. We selected a course and professor not involved in any previous TabletPC project to try to get an unbiased result and evaluation. You can see the preliminary evaluation of that semester (this is being mixed with the second evaluation of the same experiment, done in 2008).
The Technology for Teaching grant had the support of the Dean of
Undergraduate Studies at UNICAMP. We have now one classroom where
TabletPC classes take place. It was a very nice oportunity do study and
analyse new contents and methodology for courses.
In the first semester of 2008, we used the TabletPC in the Human
Computer Interface discipline and got some feedback on the student
participation in class and also we evaluated our visualisation tool
(see paper WIPTE 2009).In the second semester of 2008, we recorded the
Computer Architecture classes and also used the TabletPCs for active
learning activities during the semester. The video were posted on the
web (in Portuguese, see the links to Video at the bottom of the discipline page).
After that time, we realised that the best way to afect more
students, considering our restricted number of TabletPCs, was to record
video from classes. Based on that, we looked for disciplines that could
impact a large number of students. In 2009 (first semester), we
selected first semester disciplines: F128 - Physics I and MC102 -
Introduction to Programming (generally speaking, equivalent to CS101).
For these two disciplines, we had:
Before the end of the semester, some other professors listened about
the technology and asked to record their own classes. At the end of the
semester, we got 13 different classesof 9 different disciplines, a total of more than 160 lectures recorded.
For the second semester, we are going to record even more
disciplines, the total number is not yet defined. We also expect to
have the software integrated with Moodle.
In the meantime, we got the second place on the Imagine Cup 2009 - TabletPC Accessibility Award.