Classroom Laptop Use By Students

Our university now requires that all incoming freshmen have laptops. Faculty have been encouraged to develop uses for laptops in class. This paper describes three examples of student laptop use developed by a faculty member. The first example covers the use of Powerpoint to create simple drawings (not a Powerpoint presentation), the second covers the use of Excel to create stress-strain curves, and the third covers the use of a data base program to select engineering materials with certain properties. Students are required to complete all these assignments and submit a hard copy of their work. These assignments are all begun in class, with the instructor starting the assignment and projecting the work on a screen for all to see while the students work on their individual laptops. The assignments are too long to be completed in class so the students must finish them outside of class. In spite of the increased computer literacy of our students, it has been observed that all of these exercises introduce students to new computer skills.