07 Feb 08 My Tablet Experiences
For the sake of disclosure let it be noted that I love technology.
That being said, My experience using the tablet in Calculus was a mixed bag. The ability to dynamically modify and save work and telecommunicate my thoughts and ideas effectively was fantastic. However, there were some major issues that I found while using the tablet.
- You can’t comfortably use it on the desk. The writing angle just doesn’t work.
- The only comfortable place to put it is on your lap. (see next point)
- It gets ridiculously hot (see next point)
- I think this speaks for itself.
- The weird shape battery makes resting it anywhere a pain because the angle of the tablet has to be adjusted.
- The rope attaching the pen to the tablet was so troublesome I had to disconnect it.
- Running the tablet in portrait instead of landscape while taking notes, I found that you run out of screen space reallly quickly. OneNote Doesn’t create enough page bottom space fast enough for my tastes.
- Once I switched to Landscape I found that i was constantly knocking into the buttons encircling the perimeter of the screen. Highly annoying.
- I can see the tablet being an issue for persons who re not completely comfortable with wacom technology or the onenote interface.
I think, and I’m sure Mr. Seamon does as well, that the tablets have real potential. A few minor bugs are always to be expected.
A list of my suggestions for their use:
- Either new chairs or new desks. The angles simply do not work currently.
- A different battery size for the tablet.
- The ability to dynamically interact with the teacher’s presentation.
- Figure out a way to make one note provide more real estate in portrait.
My class notes are at the end of this post for all those interested in seeing my take on the test prep and 4.10 homework.
11 Feb 08 Using a tablet PC
tablet-work.pdf
Well, to start off, I have never used a tablet before and I thought it was going to be a very hard tool to get used to. Boy I was wrong. I really like that kind of computer, it allows you to write everything down that you could ever think of, best of all you can take notes on the monitor and then review them later without having the ink or pencil get washed away or erased.
In class today, our tests were handed back and we went over a few of the questions. To be exact, they were questions number 1, 4, and 5. We then decided when the due date would be for the corrections for the test, and that date was set to be Thursday February 14th.
From the end of that discussion we started working on Chapter 5 material. The first part of chapter 5 deals with estimating the area under a curve. (You can see how we did the problems in the attached document. We also determined that you can estimate or calculate the total distance traveled by a system using the same process of equations as finding the area under a curve (the area being the total distance traveled).
Comments on using a Tablet PC:
First- Don’t be afraid to press down on the screen when you are writing… The monitor is meant to take some pressure, and it makes writing much much easier.
Second- Use lots of colors, they add to the visual effect of the document and they also stimulate your eyes rather then looking over a black and white text the whole time.
Finally- Calibrate the pencil before you use it, when you are writing nothing is worse then the text coming up in a different place from where you write it. (Mr. Seamon can show you where to do it)
Thats all….. Hope it helps.
Tags: comments, howto, stjcalc, tabletpc