Library and Computing at Bucknell

Nine faculty members are using clickers (or personal response devices) this semester, with 10 courses taking part in our continued pilot exploration of the use of clickers to enhance student learning. A clicker is an "audience polling" device. It allows faculty members to test how well students understand key concepts by asking questions in the middle of a lecture. Students indicate their answer by pressing a response on their clicker, and software running on the instructor's computer records all the student answers and then displays a summary of how many students chose each possible response. The clickers help faculty members address common misunderstandings, and students get immediate feedback about how well they and their peers understand the lecture topics. Because the results are anonymous - in other words, the chart indicates what percent of students chose each answer, without identifying particular student responses - clickers can also be used for in-class surveys, to get a sense of the range of student beliefs about a topic.

Faculty members should contact itec@bucknell.edu if they are interested in using clickers in their courses.

ISR now has available a pool of 16 Tablet PCs for course-related use. These computers are all loaded on a cart, and they can be wheeled anywhere on campus.

What is a tablet PC?
A tablet PC is essentially a notebook computer with a touchscreen. You can use it just like a conventional computer, or you can operate it with a stylus or digital pen. The touchscreen functionality makes it easy to write notes, draw sketches, or annotate documents, for example.

Why would I want to use the tablet pool?
Any place on campus can now be an electronic classroom. If you need your students to have access to a computer but can't book a computer lab for a particular session of a class, the tablet pool might be just what you need. If your students need to collect data on campus or on a field trip, the tablet PC can be a device for collecting data anywhere.

The tablet PC also offers some interesting opportunities for sharing and collaboration. Perhaps your students need to work together on a document. A shared document via OneNote may be the solution. Or maybe they need to annotate your Powerpoint slides. The tablet and stylus make it easy to write on this type of document, and you can save your annotations as well.

If you would like additional information on tablet PCs in education, try these links:

Tablet Search at EDUCAUSE.

Wikipedia

The tablet PCs are available as a complete pool, and not individually. (ISR Equipment Services has other options for individual needs.) For additional information on the tablet pool, contact itec@bucknell.edu.