Beyond “Chalk and Talk”: Using Tablet PCs to Engage Students and Improve Student Understanding

1. Beyond “Chalk and Talk”: Using Tablet PCs to Engage Students and Improve Student Understanding Change background to marine blue! ENABLE scrolling mylar Poll for interest/origins Steven A. Wolfman Computer Science University of British Columbia w/the Presenter teams at UW, UCSD, & UBC http://www.cs.ubc.ca/~wolf/work/

2. My Stated Goal Get you interested in Classroom Presenter and excited about the idea of (re)designing instructional technologies for your own needs.

3. My Secret Agenda Get you to develop the next great instructional technology (so I can use it for my students).

4. Talk Format • Quick overview of a developing technology • Classroom Presenter design discussion • Next steps for Classroom Presenter • Next steps for you Throughout this talk, I’ll be using Classroom Presenter.

5. Least Valuable Instructional Technology What is the least valuable technology for your students’ learning? (most frustrating, most overhyped, most useless, …) What went well/poorly from a pedagogical standpoint? Hammer home AT LEAST only a few people contribute Thus, only a few people REALLY have to think it through. Solicit suggestions for how to run the next exercise… think, pair, share.

6. Most Promising Technology What is the most promising, underutilized technology for your students’ learning? Have them write it down, then with their neighbour choose one. [If not everyone: comment on a problem of process. Discuss the "think for ink" deal? Force everyone.] Segue… discovered an AMAZING new technology!

7. Study of a Failing Technology: Textbooks My students don’t read the textbook.(Can you believe it?!) Meaning… …some of them never open it. …some of them just look at the words. …some of them “read” without thinking and responding! This is an underused technology in crisis!

8. Using Textbook Technology Effectively How do I use textbooks effectively?I interrogate them. How can I get students to use them effectively?Change the process so that students learn by practice to interrogate the book. Move students from a quiet disrespect of textbooks to…open skepticism of any fixed viewpoint.Force them to question the author (and make her answer the questions!)

9. Reclaiming Textbook Technology Every week, students submit a question, with no restrictions except that it must: be their own, be in their own handwriting, and include the referenced page # of the book.

10. Reclaiming Textbook Technology… continued Great idea! Now you have 80 questions… Instructional technologies develop with real use! Our solution: select a random subset of 10 (plus any I specifically want to answer); post answers to a new newsgroup dedicated to weekly reading questions. In a microexample, this is the development of Classroom Presenter…

11. How to Develop Classroom Presenter pain: Mike tech: Richard “tech looking for problem” obs: ethnography “found the right people” & “write like crazy” practice: PPT and posters related work: read and most importantly talk to people (at conferences like this!!) source of greatest pain prior and related work available technology innovations of practice structured observation

12. Early Presenter source of greatest pain prior and related work available technology innovations of practice structured observation

13. Source of Greatest Pain What’s wrong with PowerPoint? UW PMP even worse: Prepared deck well in advance Must go through in order. Must stand in one place. No inking on slides! Studies by UW OLT show PPT constrains style. Take your PowerPoint pain, add tablets, and…

14. Prehistoric Presenter (2002) Apologize for the shading and comments… early feedback system. Goal: combine strengths of PowerPoint projection and overhead transparencies, and more of course! FUTURE TODO: get CP-over-time presentation from old mail or from richard again

15. “Separation of Views” source of greatest pain prior and related work available technology innovations of practice structured observation

16. Prehistoric Projection View (2002) Clock on instructor screen story Distracting clutter from the audience Instructors “talking over” (and reporting talking over) slides

17. inking over slides • flexible slide navigation • synchronous, networked presentations • separate instructor, public, student views • simple interface • straightforward adoption path (Fairly) modern Presenter

18. (Re)Building the User Interface and Social Processes Discuss the evolution of one natural feature “scrolling mylar” Demo “scrolling in theory” source of greatest pain prior and related work available technology innovations of practice structured observation

19. Scrolling in Practice Based on logs of dozens of hours:Almost no intentional scrolling… MUCH accidental scrolling.

20. Explain-and-Erase • Se ville dere dago • Tousan buses inaro • Nojo dose id trux • Summit gesan summit dux Demo explain-and-erase style. Future work: move to snapshotting?If time, dev’mt of filmstrip + previews. Altered ink colours based on student feedback. (Mention instructor indifference to ink colour!) If MUCH time, ActiveClass virtual student + answers as questions.

21. Student Submissions[Simon, Anderson, Hoyer, Su, …] Instructor focus good for adoption path but… much related work & pedagogical lit. focuses on explicitly getting students active. Donahue-style involvement of students points the way… source of greatest pain prior and related work available technology innovations of practice structured observation

22. Supporting Pedagogical Goals: Breaking the Ice, Engagement

23. Why the Technology Is Key • Gives instructor instant access to content from a broad range of students • … not just from the few vocal students • Increases instructor’s awareness of student ideas • Enables instructor to immediately integrate student content into the lecture discussion • Using actual examples of student work improves feedback • Gives students a stake in constructing new knowledge • Public display becomes a medium for sharing ideas • Doing all this anonymously

24. Supporting Pedagogical Goals:Active Learning, Eliciting Misconceptions

25. Supporting Pedagogical Goals:Brainstorming, Diversity of Opinions

26. Ubiquitous P & P-on-Paper[Wilkerson, Griswold, Simon & Lim,…] How many of you have 10 tablets for your seminar? 50 for your lecture? source of greatest pain prior and related work available technology innovations of practice structured observation

27. Beth Simon University of California, San Diego Computer Science and Engineering

29. How to Develop Classroom Presenter Truth is much crossover… use filmstrip as example (stolen from PPT, help from Bederson, …) Next steps: student notetaking instructor slide export more observations/ practice innovations! flesh out camera phone idea (& digipens!) source of greatest pain prior and related work available technology innovations of practice structured observation

30. Developing your Technology How can you get involved in developing instructional technologies? Primarily aimed at non-CS folks. Download and use CP, UP, & other systems Engage in development of these systems Create social practices that solve technological problems Repurpose existing tech (wiki as in-class tool?) Learn to program 

31. References: • Contact info • Steve Wolfman (wolf@cs.ubc.ca) PoP, CP • Richard Anderson (anderson@cs.washington.edu) CP • Beth Simon(esimon@cs.ucsd.edu) UP • Classroom Presenter-related • Downloads:http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/dl/presenter/ • Papers:http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/dl/presenter/papers.html • Ubiquitous Presenter • http://up.ucsd.edu • Acknowledgements: • Thanks to the UW and UCSD educational technology teams. • Classroom Presenter is built on top of the ConferenceXP research platform. This work was supported in part by grants from External Research and Programs, Microsoft Research and from the Jade and NECTAR Projects. • Thanks to Jeff Forbes and Duke CS for bringing me and to Duke CIT for making this event happen!