Work in progress - can the Tablet PC provide “new opportunities to learn?”

With the advent of the information age, engineering educators have struggled to change pedagogical practice to prepare students for the pace and complexity of the world ahead. Constructivist instructional methods are particularly promising because they explicitly promote active evaluation of information and higher-order thinking, and encourage faculty to act as a facilitator of student learning. The Tablet PC is a potentially valuable tool in this instructional environment because of its wide-ranging functionality. In the present study, we examine the unfolding effects of a large-scale tablet-based deployment at a R1 college of Engineering. We employ pre and post measures to evaluate studentspsila: (1) attitudes toward technology, (2) technology use, and (3) metacognitive strategies and motivation. Initial results also show some significant cognitive effects in courses using the Tablet. With course implementations underway that make fuller use of Tablet capacities we anticipate more positive learning outcomes.