PC Tablet/Wireless Project

Ten years ago Apple were selling the 'Newton' handheld machine - a precursor of the personal digital assistant that everyone seems to have today. The Newton claimed to recognise handwriting and convert it to on screen text. It didn't work very well and was soon dropped from the product range - but it was a good idea. The keyboard has always been a barrier to most ordinary computer users and the prospect of bypassing it with handwriting or speech recognition the hope of many of us. Well at last we have something that seems to work. The PC tablets that are now widely available have good, reliable handwriting recognition and are quite good with speech too. We have also seen great developments in networks recently with wireless networking providing higher connection speeds and improved reliability. So what might this mean for learners and their learning? The IT industry are keen to find answers to this question and in Learning Services we are working with some leading IT companies over the next twelve months to address this question.

The Learning Services project involves Hewlett Packard, Microsoft, Research Machines, Cisco, and Scottish Enterprise Glasgow and aims to find out how the use of tablet PCs and wireless technology can add to the learning experiences of our students. The project has 30 tablet PCs available for loan to students in the Learning Café and Library. We will also be providing a wireless network in the building so that students can collaborate on group projects and assignments and have access to the resources they need from anywhere in the building. Students will also be able to move around the building whilst still connected. Ubiquitous (i.e. wireless) computing environments are relatively rare at the moment and their contribution to student learning is largely unknown although one or two institutions in the U.S. have been experimenting with them for a number of years. This is a one-year project and is important to the University in exploring what learners can achieve when given greater access to mobile technologies. What we learn from the project will be of use to us in deciding how we might use technology in the new Learning Centre.