Tablet PCs for Architecture Students
This is a joint project between CLC and the College of Arts and Architecture, Summer/Fall 2004. The purpose is to use Tablet PC's as part of a design class (Loukas, what is the class), where 10 students are given the computers for a semester or half a semester, and to determine how the computers will be supported. Heretofore, the CLC has deployed only fixed-location computers that are on a network all the time and are available to all Penn State students, faculty, and staff. Managing computers that are put in the hands of individuals and that will not be network accessible at all times will be a large change in our methodologies.
Questions to be answered with this prototype:
- Does this "work"?
- How much staff time does it take?
- Is it scaleable to 30 students, 100?
- What problems did we have?
The Computers
Tablet PCs can be used as both a
regular laptop or as a digital pad to write or draw upon. The Gateway M275
Tablet PC was chosen for this project because of its large screen size,
convertible design, and memory capacity. The screen on the M275 opens like
a normal laptop, then swivels and lays back down, allowing a flat drawing
surface similar to a pad of paper. Because Tablet PCs allow input both by
drawing and regular typing, they are ideal for students in the arts and design
majors. With a mobile, wirelessly connected Tablet PC, students are free to
sketch, draw or take notes during class, group projects, while in the HUB, or at
home. Students no longer have to worry about transferring their paper sketches
to digital format, as sketching can be done digitally in the first place. With
additional collaboration software, students can share their designs with others
and “take control of a screen” during class critiques to make suggestions right
on the image itself. Faculty can also draw right on the students’ designs and
the student can save a digital record of the suggestions.
With the power to design digitally while remaining mobile, students will be able
to work in new ways, limited only by battery power and the presence of a wired
or wireless network. We imagine a student sketching a project during lunch,
taking it to the studio and showing some friends, getting feedback from the
professor, then presenting it during a critique by bringing in their assigned
Tablet PC, plugging into the Immersive Environments Lab and doing a three-screen
stereo walkthrough of their design.
More information about Tablet PCs can be found at:
CLC Tablet PC Reviews — reviews of some Tablet PCs and some more links
Microsoft Home — about Windows XP Tablet PC Edition
Anytime, Anywhere Learning — Tablet PCs in education
The Teaching Environment
The tablets were used by 14 2nd-year architecture students in a design studio class, Fall 2004, and this will be repeated with another section in the Spring 2004 semester.
Central Management
The computers are joined to the labs.win.psu.edu domain and managed via Active Directory and group policies. Application software is installed via software assignments in group policies. An initial image without application software (will be) (was) developed to provide a consistent platform for new computers and for refreshing computers that develop problems. Software revisions, OS patches, and virus definitions (will be) (are) delivered over the network when the computers are brought to campus and networked.
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This page was last modified: 12/14/2004 9:07:28 AM.