Tablet PC Instruction improves undergraduate mathematics learning – Carla Romney – Boston University

Why are tablets good for Mathematics instruction?

• Easier to take notes on teachers PowerPoint slides without having to focus on copying from the board
• capturing of mathematical and Greek symbols is hard on computers – easy on Tablets!
• Fewer transcription errors, therefore less confusion
• Peer critiquing/collaborative problem solving and learning.  It doesn’t have to be teacher centred – the teachers way is one way, but there will be multiple ways within the class… why not share these?
• Saves paper and printing costs

Carla spoke about how immediately the resources can be made available to the students.  This has the benefits of ensuring equitable sharing/availability of the resources to students.  Because the class is engaging, interesting, fast paced – the students want to come, and come ready to learn.

The lessons are recorded in full – audio and video – this is made available on the elearning platform 10 minutes after class.

There was concern that students would not come or pay attention in class because everything was going to be made available.  However, attendance improved by 4%.  Also students who were sick were signing into the class and would participate in classes real time! 

Academic grades also improved by an average of 5%, significant at p<0.05, sitting the same exam.  I find this very interesting, given the preliminary results we have at BBC at year 7 are similar to this, and the design used was almost identical.  We all agree that there could be other impacts that are responsible for these improvements, but these are promising results nevertheless.

The student utilised the e-learning website by almost double.  They logged in multiple times per week, compared to previous years when it averaged once per week.  This is outside of class time and student centred – indicating that the students found value in what was available and really used it!

Whilst this is a study of University level courses, the class sizes in this case was similar to secondary.  The students choose to go to class (they don’t have to attend) so all of this needs to be considered – however, all things considered, this is just another data point that supports the use of Tablets.  The pen is the key – it allows easy interaction with the material delivered by the instructor, it is non linear, and coupled with replay stroke by stroke allows a level of data recording by and for students that has all the benefits of pen and paper combined with the power of a computer.