Facilitating Active Learning Engineering Courses With Tablet Pc Note Taking Technology

This paper describes an investigation of a means to use technology to help students construct meaning through the use of the dimensions of Learning (DOL) pedagogical frame work. We use the tablet PC and specialized note taking software to facilitate the three minute pause technique and summarizing. This is done in an active learning environment and serves as a formative assessment for the class section being taught. These activities are done during the delivery of the performance tasks presented to a lower level pre-calculus course section. Details of the performance tasks, assessments and are discussed as well as the resulting impact of using tablet PCs as compared to laptops and conventional writing for note taking are discussed. Our results indicate although handwritten notes are generally preferred by most students, the tablet PC does have some advantages. Furthermore the users of the tablet PCs appeared to take better notes and benefit more from the summary exercise.