Tablet PC-Enabled Active Learning in Mathematics: A First Study

Too often freshmen fail and fall behind early in our large-enrollment math courses, calculus for engineers or liberal arts math, because they do not engage in the classroom and their questions remain unanswered. Bringing tablet PCs and a projector, obtained through a 2006 Hewlett-Packard teaching-for-technology grant, into multiple sections of these courses, allows each student or small group of students to use the pen/digital-ink feature to submit problem solutions anonymously to the instructor via Web-based classroom-interaction software, such as MessageGrid or ubiquitous presenter. The instructor projects, discusses, annotates, and saves individual submissions. Communication now occurs with a subset of students who would rarely participate in class, and active learning is achieved across the classroom because all students are primed for instructor feedback. We compare performance on common exams in the sections using tablet PCs, web-based software, and projectors with our traditional sections. We query students (and instructors) on their impressions of this technology.