Technology is enticing, especially to students who are have come to expect everything to be multimedia and immediate. If we really care about using technology to enhance teaching and learning, we must challenge one another by continually asking, “Is this better than paper and pencil?” Let’s admit it – the battery life of paper is hard to beat. That’s why I took careful notes when I listened to Professor Mark Manone at Northern Arizona University talk about how Tablet PCs are changing Geology instruction in significant ways.

In introductory geology classes, Professor Manone and colleagues provide a Tablet PC to each student (or group of students working as a team) to capture and annotate images ranging from aerial views of geologic formations to microscopic images captured from a digital microscope. Is this any better than paper? Yes – and here’s why I think it’s making a difference:

• LEARNER-CENTRIC INQUIRY - With paper, students would have been given a static image selected by the professor for analysis; with the Tablet PCs running Google Earth, students can go “exploring” various geologic features of interest. This supports the pedagogy of “guided inquiry” while raising the contextual understanding of the material.
  
• GRAPHICAL ANNOTATION SUPPORTS SCIENTIFIC THINKING – Having found images of interest, students can quickly bring the images into their electronic binders (MS OneNote – import from desktop) and annotate the image. Having an inkable laptop makes the process as easy as paper and pencil, but the image is from their own inquiry and there’s no shortage of colored pencils to clearly describe what is being learned. Inquiry, immediately followed by reflection and analysis.
  
• ENHANCED SHARING AND COLLABORATION – Unlike paper, which in a large classroom can become a management nightmare, the digital notebook entries can be created collaboratively (shared MS OneNote pages) and immediately shared and discussed in class (using monitoring software like NetSupport School). Everyone is participating, everyone is thinking, everyone is engaged – and a richer classroom dialog is now possible.

Out in the field, the advantages of Tablet vs. Paper become even more obvious. I’m no geologist, so I asked Professor Manone what his students did in the past when they went out to the field. Basically, they used paper and pencil, bringing hardcopy topographic maps and satellite images, if available. Plotting identified features was something that happened AFTER.

Now, students with ruggedized tablets, equipped with GPS devices, can do the following, while in the field:

• automatically plot their location in arcGIS software
• record features as they find them
• make measurements on the electronic map, and then immediately compare to measurements they are making in the field
• With a wireless network set up in the field, students can communicate with each other by voice, and let the team leader know where they are automatically (a nice safety measure)

Not only is their work more efficient, but questions while in the field can be answered immediately, further supporting scientific inquiry. Professor Manone also reports that some students are specifically coming to Northern Arizona University because of their high-tech approach to field science.

I’ve yet to see a piece of paper have the same impact…

For more information, visit the NAU HP Technology for Teaching project page online at http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=16346468884821.

In addition, you may also be interested in the field science project at Vassar, also funded in part by the HP Technology for Teaching program. Visit http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=71791110627159 for more information.

If you know of other projects using Tablets in the field (science or other disciplines), please post a comment and let us know!