At Kent (School, Kent, CT), technology is part of the fabric of education. We use it in many ways in many places every day. It is transparent and real.
We are a pioneer in the Anytime Anywhere Learning (AAL) program (1995) and were one of the first 30 schools to commit to this integration of laptops in education. Our program includes classroom use of technology and campus-wide use of tablet PCs in a comprehensively networked, fully switched environment with high speed access to the both the commercial Internet and the academic Internet2. We are much more like a small college than a high school which makes sense -- that's where we prepare our students to succeed.
Technology, Kent School Academic Life
Friday, August 29, 2008
Embrace Failure in Schools
C.C. Holland offers inspiration for failure teachers might consider sharing with our students. Each one credits those who try to accomplish something without succeeding with each try. My favorite on this list:
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison
“I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Thomas Edison
Qs to Ask Applicant's References
Here are four questions to consider asking references provided by a prospective new teacher or school administrator. I adapted them to school hires from Jessica Stillman's post How to Get the Truth from References.
1. What did the applicant learn about and by using Tablet PCs and other advanced communication technologies while with you (including in preservice preparation).
2. What single career suggestion about increasing student learning rates with advanced communication technologies would you offer the applicant?
3. How did the applicant respond to various supervision styles, especially about the craft of learning with mobile PCs?
4. Would you hire/rehire this person, and why?
What would you add
1. What did the applicant learn about and by using Tablet PCs and other advanced communication technologies while with you (including in preservice preparation).
2. What single career suggestion about increasing student learning rates with advanced communication technologies would you offer the applicant?
3. How did the applicant respond to various supervision styles, especially about the craft of learning with mobile PCs?
4. Would you hire/rehire this person, and why?
What would you add
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Tablet PCs in Schools: Toward a Literature Review Revised
(I found these notes toward an online lit review of Tablet PC schools; created and not posted over a year ago. It may assist a teacher prepare a grant or research proposal as well as a proposal to use or upgrade uses of Tablet PCs in a school. I'll try to update and refine this draft as a new post sooner than later.)
It's almost grant proposal writing season again. Here's a starting collection of online sources about schools using Tablet PC. Some sources are newer than others.
Together, they indicate that thousands of students and teachers in 130 plus schools use mobile PCs.
Maybe these references will provide that extra margin of confidence your administrator needs to approve you submitting successful requests to use mobile PCs in your classroom.
About Tablet PCs and Education
WhatIsNew tags reports about Tablet PCs, ultra mobile PCs, and education. This is one of the oldest continuing online news services about personal computing and its ecosystem, including education. WIN now focuses on the mobile PC ecosystem, especially advancements in pen technologies and how people are using these systems to be more productive wherever they may be.
Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect said Friday that someday tablet PCs will replace textbooks for all students. "And so the teacher can customize the material, they can quiz the student. That student can have that tablet with them wherever they go and it's actually lighter than the textbooks and more flexible, richer in terms of what it can offer."
Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign February 24, 2004. ... JAMES J. STUKEL (President, University of Illinois) said computing is deeply embedded in the culture of this campus, and we are proud to say we have maintained our edge. Our students, faculty and staff enjoy more than 47,000 network connections by which we connect to the world, and people connect to us. More than 1 million times a week, people log on to the online catalogue of the University of Illinois Library, which is the third, only to Harvard and Yale, in size of its collection. And this campus is a giant in research and development in science and engineering. We have more than 80 centers, labs, and institutes where important, life-altering work is underway. Among them is the widely known National Center for Supercomputing Applications, which is helping to build the future of high performance cyber infrastructure. And this new office here at the far edge of the campus is the Beckman Institute for Science and Technology where 600 researchers collaborate, and finally I would be remiss not to mention the investments in R&D brought to the happy place of having two of our faculty members win Nobel Prizes.
Robert Williams of the Microsoft Tablet PC Team discusses on a Channel 9 podcast origins of tablets, including at the University of Illinois.
This white paper is based on information gathered at the Tablet PC and Computing Curriculum workshop (August 4, 2004). Microsoft Research sponsored the workshop, which was hosted by the University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering Department. The 32 invited attendees were faculty members from a variety of schools, including four-year colleges, research universities, and minority-serving institutions.
Tony Chen and others at MIT offer a case study about Positivo Informatica - The Tablet PC Textbook: The challenge of new markets and technology adoption.
This Illinois Talking Books project has been designed to evaluate various digital book formats, technologies, delivery methods for eBook and audio book content that can be delivered to users via Tablet PCs using the Internet.
When integrating Tablet PC technologies with other advances in the computing sciences, undergraduate computing educators must re-think what one teaches students and how one enable students to learn. Use similar principles in other levels of education.
ConferenceXP is an initiative of Microsoft Research. We’re exploring how to make wireless classrooms, collaboration, and distance learning a compelling, rich experience by assuming the availability of emerging and enabling technologies, such as high-bandwidth networks, wireless devices, Tablet PCs, and the advanced features in Microsoft® Windows® XP.
In PreK12
Interview wih Katherine Clark, Principal, Ocoee Middle School, the first public school in the nation to put Tablet PCs in the hands of students in 2002-2003 academic year, that a class of seventh graders used daily for math or reading. This was successful.
Hinsdale Township High School District 86 in Hinsdale, Illinois, supplies more than 300 of its faculty with Toshiba Portege(R) M200 Tablet PCs as replacements for desktop computers, and provides 250 tablets for daily student use in selected courses.
New Trier High School, Winnetki, IL newsletter discusses using Tablet PCs with projectors to create ultimate whiteboards, grading papers with annotation features, and teachers moving around the room while computing.
Brookfield Zoo’s Every Student is a Scientist (ESS): Using Technology to Foster Inclusive Learning pilot program partnership with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is on a list of the most innovative technology programs in the nation. ESS uses Tablet PCs with wireless connections to allow CPS students with visual, hearing, or physical impairments to explore conservation concepts and work alongside classmates who without disabilities.
The Cornwallis School in Maidstone, Kent, conducted a pilot study to experiment with using Tablet PCs to streamline learning and encourage early interaction with technology. The study was very successful and has led to the integration of Tablet PCs across the school and its extended community. “The Tablet PC makes it easy for students to share information with each other. This means they are less reliant on teachers as a source of information. A teacher using a Tablet PC imaginatively will deliver significant benefits,” said Mike Wood, Head Teacher, Cornwallis School. Benefits from use of Tablet PCs include new dimensions for learning and teaching in the classroom and at home, note taking made easier, reduced paper and costs, network homework, and knowledge sharing.
Case studies about Tablet PCs in this school serve as excellent sources for assembling a case statement for deploying Tablets in more schools.
Chris DeHerrera summarizes a news article about schools requiring students to use Tablet PCs in schools.
Karlen Communications offers an article with many links about Tablet Technology and People with Disabilities.
Software included with the bid purchase price (special pricing) for students attending the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy is Windows XP (Tablet PC Edition), Microsoft Office, and antivirus software (for staff and students). CDWG has agreed to extend IMSA special pricing to you and have a web site you may use to purchase the tablet computer. The recommended tablet computers all come with wireless networking built-in. Instructional strategies will change with the laptops. Assessments will likely change.
Tablet PC's are becoming de rigueur for freshmen at De La Salle Institute, according to Brother Michael Quirk, president of the private Catholic college prep. "We believe we're the first high school in the city going to tablets," says Quirk, who sees Tablets as powerful and more flexible classroom tools than desktops or laptops (notebooks).
Invicta Girls Grammar school purchased 15 Tablet PCs with the intention of assessing their suitability for use by the schools teachers and pupils.
Global Friends: Your PowerPoint Introduction An Internet Hotlist on Taipei, a PowerPoint partnership program with Schools with Tablets in Taipei, Taiwan and Villa Duchesne/Oak Hill School.
John Dell, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology The Tablet PC – A New Tool for a New Age Presenter - How Tablet PC is used to prepare and deliver lectures, conduct and record discussions, and do live calculationsin AP Physics-C class will be demonstrated. Class notes easily go live to the web on a daily basis, as dohandwritten solutions to sample problems, quizzes, and tests. MATH JOURNAL, a new software tool forautomatic, real-time, solution of systems of equations and models (including systems of ordinary differentialequations of the type found in physics) introduced in handwritten form will also be shown
CDW-G White Paper: One-To-One Computing What began as a visionary experiment a few years ago is fast becoming a widespread and highly effective educational practice: one-to-one student computing. In 1:1 computing, each student is assigned a notebook or Tablet PC, connected to the Internet, and taught by a classroom teacher with a similar device. The result has been a transformation in education.
In Higher Education
In Summer, 2004 , Mayville State University, Mayville, ND, became the first campus to issue TabletPC notebook computers to all students and faculty. The computer issued is the Gateway M275.
Microsoft Research announced the eleven recipients of the Tablet PC Technology, Curriculum, and Higher Education 2005 RFP awards, totaling $500,000 (USD) in funding. The objective of this RFP is to use it as a catalyst to encourage educators to apply resources toward the revising, updating, and validating curriculum and pedagogy in conjunction with tablet technology in higher education.
Northwestern University Information Technology offers a review of Tablet PCs. Keenan E. Dungey, Chemistry Program, University of Illinois at Springfield (Technology Day 2005). Classroom Instruction with a Tablet PC consists of PowerPoint slides.
Kathy Ford, at the University of Illinois Faculty Summer Institute 2006 held a session Take Two Tablets and Call Me in the Morning. The “Tablet PC” is being adopted by several fields, including nursing and engineering. She showed how a tablet is different from a conventional laptop and how instructors can use it to enhance teaching, maintain a paperless classroom and engage students in active learning.
Welcome to Illinois as a MS-Tech student beginning in August of 2006. he program recommends Tablet PC (HP Compaq tc4400 Tablet PC). This is a perfect computer to take notes in class, do homework and work with your team members. Many class rooms and buildings have wireless connectivity and you can easily take advantage of this using a laptop.
University of Illinois recommends Tablet PCs to students. It is very useful to have a computer while you are at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We recommend that you purchase a Table PC. Check for a list of university negotiated tablet PCs from Fujitsu and HP.
Ed Garay, Assistant Director, Academic Computing and Communications Center, and Director of the UIC Instructional Technology Lab (ITL), University of Illinois at Chicago comments about the mature design of the Fujitsu Stylistic ST4000 Tablet PC.
Tony Hursh describes the Tablet PC, gives some technical details, compares the Tablet PC to other forms of computer, provides an example of actual classroom use at the University of Illinois, and suggests further research on, and potential applications of, this technology in classroom instruction.
The Department of Atmospheric Science (DAS)at University of Illinois introduced the use of a Tablet PC to present lecture material to the Introduction to Meteorology and Severe and Hazardous Weather classes.
Tablet PCs in the Classroom webcast by presenter: Mitch Theys, Computer Science, University of Illinois Chicago.
Randal Jaffe offers online discussion about Teaching with the Tablet PC in Physiology and Biophysics.
Educational Technology, University of Illinois Springfield offers tablet PCs for faculty check-out.
Higher Education HP Technology for Teaching Grant Initiative recipients, 2006.
A University Business article asks the question, Is the Tablet PC the Future of College Computing? Rutledge Ellis-Behnke at MIT uses his tablet to help with lectures; with a special accessory, he transposes the display image onto a wall screen, uses his digital pen to add emphasis that everyone can see, then e-mails students the updated notes at the end of class. At Temple's School of Medicine, professor Tom Marino projects too, but adds diagrams and flowcharts in real time, and e-mails his notes to students during class. Now they can't say they didn't get the information.
The Educause 2005 theme The Tablet PC for Teaching and Learning offers the conference agenda with links to speakers. These presentations look at features and tools available with the Tablet PC that can enhance the classroom experience. Use of the ink annotation feature for grading, lectures, research, and collaboration were demonstrated, along with the voice and handwriting recognition capability of Tablet PCs.
Mitchel Theys and others at the University of Illinois Chicago Computor Science and College of Education discuss Tablet PCs and the Traditional Lecture.
Karen Chang, “iCare Worksheet in the Pocket PC and the Tablet PC”, Regenstrief Center Health Care Delivery Systems workshop at Burton D. Morgan Center, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN on September 23, 2004.
The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT)uses an application (which is currently in a proof-of-concept phase called "Hawk Tour") includes a Tablet PC that shows where you are, what's there, and how to get to other places on campus. The application has context awareness, which provides interesting functions as the user moves about the campus.
Joseph Trout, Jane Prey and others, Tablet PCs in Engineering Education. In this two hour workshop faculty will receive a hands-on introduction to the use of Presenter and OneNote along with a rudimentary drawing package.
Musings from Lanny Arvan, an economist at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, on learning technology with Tablets - pedagogy, the economics of, technical issues, the entire grab bag.
Mobile Computing (Tablet PCs) In Higher Education project at the Johns Hopkins University, generously funding by Hewlett Packard, has enabled the development of modified studio style instruction in introductory physics coures.
Tilman Wolf Receives Teaching Award from Hewlett-Packard. Wolf of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE) at UMass Amherst has received a highly competitive Technology for Teaching Award worth nearly $69,000 from the Hewlett-Packard Company. As part of the award, Hewlett-Packard is giving Dr. Wolf more than $53,000 worth of high-tech teaching equipment and $15,500 in unrestricted funds to pay for setting up this technology in the classroom.
Tablet PC Research
Microsoft External Research & Programs has supported more than 125 research projects at universities around the world in areas that include social computing (conferenceXP, classroom, Tablet-Based Computing including teaching, e-science, Compilers, Languages, and Runtimes, ... ), gaming, and robotics.
Rob R. Weitz and others offer the paper The Tablet PC for Faculty: A Pilot Project. They found that only a fraction of faculty are motivated to use tablet technology: roughly a third of faculty expressed an interest in replacing their notebook computer with a tablet computer" -- "generally, participating faculty did indeed use tablet functionality in their classes and were convinced that this use resulted in a meaningful impact on teaching and learning."
Linda Swarlis, Ph.D. Candidate, University of North Texas at poster session, poster # 48. Her title, How Cognitive Styles and Tablet PCs Impact Performance in Science Classrooms This research study examines to what extent field dependence, field independence, verbalizer, visualizer, high spatial, and low spatial cognitive styles, and the use of a tablet PC by girls impact classroom performance in a high school science class. Tablet PC usage, effective note-taking, and performance in tests in biology, chemistry, and physics classes will be examined. Does a tablet PC enhance learning for students? Does using the tablet PC enhance spatial ability for girls? Do cognitive styles impact satisfaction levels with the tablet PC, self-efficacy in technology for girls, and use levels that fully utilize the unique features of the tablet PC?
Misc.
Simplified User Guide for Tablet PCs Available at UIC Libraries.
May 22 , 2006 According to the Computer Industry Almanac, PCs In-Use Surpassed 900M in 2005. USA Accounts for Over 25% of all PCs In-Use. PCs per capita in the U.S. have reached 78% and will remain higher than cell phones for a few more years. The U.S. has a large PC usage lead with over three times as many PCs as the second place Japan. The U.S. accounts for over 25% of all PCs in-use compared to 4.6% of worldwide population. PCs in-use growth is slowing, but the U.S. is on track to have more PCs in-use than people in five or six years. In-use growth will continue because the PC is expanding its domain with new product categories such as Media Center PCs, tablet PCs, Ultra-Mobile PCs and handheld PCs. The rapid growth of mobile PCs is the major reason for current and future PC expansion.
A list of links to popular press articles about Tablet PC uses in various venues, including education.
Steve Potash, President, Open eBook Forum, presented PowerPoint slides about Digital Publishing Opportunities and Challenges Presented by the Tablet PC.
eFuzion: development of a pervasive educational system Annual Joint Conference Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education archive Proceedings of the 10th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education includes papers.
Straight forward mechanisms like online catalogs provide a powerful means for easy access to complex content and content-rich applications independent of location.
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions (NASDAQ: MDRX), a leading provider of point-of-care decision support tools for physicians, to Pioneer Applications in Support of Microsoft Tablet PC Initiative.
Jeffrey L. Popyack and Bruce Char of Drexel University offered an introductory-level workshop at SIGCSE 2006 Workshops. Their presentations include a brief overview of the Tablet PC software development environment, resources available for developers, and instruction on using the SDK, with suggestions for usage in software design and team projects throughout the computer science curriculum.
The George Lucas Education Foundation Learning Interchange shares examples of innovative practices in K-12 education taken from topics and stories archived in the vast resources of The George Lucas Educational Foundation. You will find topics showing technology integration, social and emotional learning, project-based learning, authentic assessment and more in the GLEF Learning Interchange. Also, Edutopia online with free teaching modules.
Curtis Bonk describes what he calls an education perfect storm. This includes PowerPoint slides with data about emerging technology, enhanced pedagogy, learner demand, and erased budgts useful for current source leads.
New Zealand-based Ambient Design Ltd., creator of ArtRage, is the $100,000 grand prize winner of the Microsoft® Tablet PC contest Does Your Application Think in Ink? Also lists ten other awardees.
Annotate, Edit and Comment with Tablet PCs PDF Files testimonials.
In connection with the July 2006 bar examination, the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar will permit as many as 270 examinees to use their personal laptop computers (including Tablets) to answer the essay portions of the test.
The Boeing Company Puts the Tablet PC Through Its Paces.
Pharmaceutical Company Streamlines Processes with Mobile, Versatile Tablet PC.
Advertising Agency Streamlines Processes, Saves Money, and Increases Productivity with the Tablet PC .
Report on Girls in IT Workshop
The Impact of Tablet PCs and Pen-based Technology on Education: Vignettes, Evaluations, and Future Directions (Paperback)
Jane Prey and others, Links to white papers about Tablets.
Student Tablet PC
Tablet PC Blogs
tabletology.com
Gottabemobile.com
Watch for updates to this reference list. And, please, let me know of your reference posts, adds, your favorites, and what you can't find.
It's almost grant proposal writing season again. Here's a starting collection of online sources about schools using Tablet PC. Some sources are newer than others.
Together, they indicate that thousands of students and teachers in 130 plus schools use mobile PCs.
Maybe these references will provide that extra margin of confidence your administrator needs to approve you submitting successful requests to use mobile PCs in your classroom.
About Tablet PCs and Education
WhatIsNew tags reports about Tablet PCs, ultra mobile PCs, and education. This is one of the oldest continuing online news services about personal computing and its ecosystem, including education. WIN now focuses on the mobile PC ecosystem, especially advancements in pen technologies and how people are using these systems to be more productive wherever they may be.
Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman and chief software architect said Friday that someday tablet PCs will replace textbooks for all students. "And so the teacher can customize the material, they can quiz the student. That student can have that tablet with them wherever they go and it's actually lighter than the textbooks and more flexible, richer in terms of what it can offer."
Remarks by Bill Gates, Chairman and Chief Software Architect, Microsoft Corporation at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign February 24, 2004. ... JAMES J. STUKEL (President, University of Illinois) said computing is deeply embedded in the culture of this campus, and we are proud to say we have maintained our edge. Our students, faculty and staff enjoy more than 47,000 network connections by which we connect to the world, and people connect to us. More than 1 million times a week, people log on to the online catalogue of the University of Illinois Library, which is the third, only to Harvard and Yale, in size of its collection. And this campus is a giant in research and development in science and engineering. We have more than 80 centers, labs, and institutes where important, life-altering work is underway. Among them is the widely known National Center for Supercomputing Applications, which is helping to build the future of high performance cyber infrastructure. And this new office here at the far edge of the campus is the Beckman Institute for Science and Technology where 600 researchers collaborate, and finally I would be remiss not to mention the investments in R&D brought to the happy place of having two of our faculty members win Nobel Prizes.
Robert Williams of the Microsoft Tablet PC Team discusses on a Channel 9 podcast origins of tablets, including at the University of Illinois.
This white paper is based on information gathered at the Tablet PC and Computing Curriculum workshop (August 4, 2004). Microsoft Research sponsored the workshop, which was hosted by the University of Washington Computer Science and Engineering Department. The 32 invited attendees were faculty members from a variety of schools, including four-year colleges, research universities, and minority-serving institutions.
Tony Chen and others at MIT offer a case study about Positivo Informatica - The Tablet PC Textbook: The challenge of new markets and technology adoption.
This Illinois Talking Books project has been designed to evaluate various digital book formats, technologies, delivery methods for eBook and audio book content that can be delivered to users via Tablet PCs using the Internet.
When integrating Tablet PC technologies with other advances in the computing sciences, undergraduate computing educators must re-think what one teaches students and how one enable students to learn. Use similar principles in other levels of education.
ConferenceXP is an initiative of Microsoft Research. We’re exploring how to make wireless classrooms, collaboration, and distance learning a compelling, rich experience by assuming the availability of emerging and enabling technologies, such as high-bandwidth networks, wireless devices, Tablet PCs, and the advanced features in Microsoft® Windows® XP.
In PreK12
Interview wih Katherine Clark, Principal, Ocoee Middle School, the first public school in the nation to put Tablet PCs in the hands of students in 2002-2003 academic year, that a class of seventh graders used daily for math or reading. This was successful.
Hinsdale Township High School District 86 in Hinsdale, Illinois, supplies more than 300 of its faculty with Toshiba Portege(R) M200 Tablet PCs as replacements for desktop computers, and provides 250 tablets for daily student use in selected courses.
New Trier High School, Winnetki, IL newsletter discusses using Tablet PCs with projectors to create ultimate whiteboards, grading papers with annotation features, and teachers moving around the room while computing.
Brookfield Zoo’s Every Student is a Scientist (ESS): Using Technology to Foster Inclusive Learning pilot program partnership with Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is on a list of the most innovative technology programs in the nation. ESS uses Tablet PCs with wireless connections to allow CPS students with visual, hearing, or physical impairments to explore conservation concepts and work alongside classmates who without disabilities.
The Cornwallis School in Maidstone, Kent, conducted a pilot study to experiment with using Tablet PCs to streamline learning and encourage early interaction with technology. The study was very successful and has led to the integration of Tablet PCs across the school and its extended community. “The Tablet PC makes it easy for students to share information with each other. This means they are less reliant on teachers as a source of information. A teacher using a Tablet PC imaginatively will deliver significant benefits,” said Mike Wood, Head Teacher, Cornwallis School. Benefits from use of Tablet PCs include new dimensions for learning and teaching in the classroom and at home, note taking made easier, reduced paper and costs, network homework, and knowledge sharing.
Case studies about Tablet PCs in this school serve as excellent sources for assembling a case statement for deploying Tablets in more schools.
Chris DeHerrera summarizes a news article about schools requiring students to use Tablet PCs in schools.
Karlen Communications offers an article with many links about Tablet Technology and People with Disabilities.
Software included with the bid purchase price (special pricing) for students attending the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy is Windows XP (Tablet PC Edition), Microsoft Office, and antivirus software (for staff and students). CDWG has agreed to extend IMSA special pricing to you and have a web site you may use to purchase the tablet computer. The recommended tablet computers all come with wireless networking built-in. Instructional strategies will change with the laptops. Assessments will likely change.
Tablet PC's are becoming de rigueur for freshmen at De La Salle Institute, according to Brother Michael Quirk, president of the private Catholic college prep. "We believe we're the first high school in the city going to tablets," says Quirk, who sees Tablets as powerful and more flexible classroom tools than desktops or laptops (notebooks).
Invicta Girls Grammar school purchased 15 Tablet PCs with the intention of assessing their suitability for use by the schools teachers and pupils.
Global Friends: Your PowerPoint Introduction An Internet Hotlist on Taipei, a PowerPoint partnership program with Schools with Tablets in Taipei, Taiwan and Villa Duchesne/Oak Hill School.
John Dell, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology The Tablet PC – A New Tool for a New Age Presenter - How Tablet PC is used to prepare and deliver lectures, conduct and record discussions, and do live calculationsin AP Physics-C class will be demonstrated. Class notes easily go live to the web on a daily basis, as dohandwritten solutions to sample problems, quizzes, and tests. MATH JOURNAL, a new software tool forautomatic, real-time, solution of systems of equations and models (including systems of ordinary differentialequations of the type found in physics) introduced in handwritten form will also be shown
CDW-G White Paper: One-To-One Computing What began as a visionary experiment a few years ago is fast becoming a widespread and highly effective educational practice: one-to-one student computing. In 1:1 computing, each student is assigned a notebook or Tablet PC, connected to the Internet, and taught by a classroom teacher with a similar device. The result has been a transformation in education.
In Higher Education
In Summer, 2004 , Mayville State University, Mayville, ND, became the first campus to issue TabletPC notebook computers to all students and faculty. The computer issued is the Gateway M275.
Microsoft Research announced the eleven recipients of the Tablet PC Technology, Curriculum, and Higher Education 2005 RFP awards, totaling $500,000 (USD) in funding. The objective of this RFP is to use it as a catalyst to encourage educators to apply resources toward the revising, updating, and validating curriculum and pedagogy in conjunction with tablet technology in higher education.
Northwestern University Information Technology offers a review of Tablet PCs. Keenan E. Dungey, Chemistry Program, University of Illinois at Springfield (Technology Day 2005). Classroom Instruction with a Tablet PC consists of PowerPoint slides.
Kathy Ford, at the University of Illinois Faculty Summer Institute 2006 held a session Take Two Tablets and Call Me in the Morning. The “Tablet PC” is being adopted by several fields, including nursing and engineering. She showed how a tablet is different from a conventional laptop and how instructors can use it to enhance teaching, maintain a paperless classroom and engage students in active learning.
Welcome to Illinois as a MS-Tech student beginning in August of 2006. he program recommends Tablet PC (HP Compaq tc4400 Tablet PC). This is a perfect computer to take notes in class, do homework and work with your team members. Many class rooms and buildings have wireless connectivity and you can easily take advantage of this using a laptop.
University of Illinois recommends Tablet PCs to students. It is very useful to have a computer while you are at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. We recommend that you purchase a Table PC. Check for a list of university negotiated tablet PCs from Fujitsu and HP.
Ed Garay, Assistant Director, Academic Computing and Communications Center, and Director of the UIC Instructional Technology Lab (ITL), University of Illinois at Chicago comments about the mature design of the Fujitsu Stylistic ST4000 Tablet PC.
Tony Hursh describes the Tablet PC, gives some technical details, compares the Tablet PC to other forms of computer, provides an example of actual classroom use at the University of Illinois, and suggests further research on, and potential applications of, this technology in classroom instruction.
The Department of Atmospheric Science (DAS)at University of Illinois introduced the use of a Tablet PC to present lecture material to the Introduction to Meteorology and Severe and Hazardous Weather classes.
Tablet PCs in the Classroom webcast by presenter: Mitch Theys, Computer Science, University of Illinois Chicago.
Randal Jaffe offers online discussion about Teaching with the Tablet PC in Physiology and Biophysics.
Educational Technology, University of Illinois Springfield offers tablet PCs for faculty check-out.
Higher Education HP Technology for Teaching Grant Initiative recipients, 2006.
A University Business article asks the question, Is the Tablet PC the Future of College Computing? Rutledge Ellis-Behnke at MIT uses his tablet to help with lectures; with a special accessory, he transposes the display image onto a wall screen, uses his digital pen to add emphasis that everyone can see, then e-mails students the updated notes at the end of class. At Temple's School of Medicine, professor Tom Marino projects too, but adds diagrams and flowcharts in real time, and e-mails his notes to students during class. Now they can't say they didn't get the information.
The Educause 2005 theme The Tablet PC for Teaching and Learning offers the conference agenda with links to speakers. These presentations look at features and tools available with the Tablet PC that can enhance the classroom experience. Use of the ink annotation feature for grading, lectures, research, and collaboration were demonstrated, along with the voice and handwriting recognition capability of Tablet PCs.
Mitchel Theys and others at the University of Illinois Chicago Computor Science and College of Education discuss Tablet PCs and the Traditional Lecture.
Karen Chang, “iCare Worksheet in the Pocket PC and the Tablet PC”, Regenstrief Center Health Care Delivery Systems workshop at Burton D. Morgan Center, Purdue University, W. Lafayette, IN on September 23, 2004.
The Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT)uses an application (which is currently in a proof-of-concept phase called "Hawk Tour") includes a Tablet PC that shows where you are, what's there, and how to get to other places on campus. The application has context awareness, which provides interesting functions as the user moves about the campus.
Joseph Trout, Jane Prey and others, Tablet PCs in Engineering Education. In this two hour workshop faculty will receive a hands-on introduction to the use of Presenter and OneNote along with a rudimentary drawing package.
Musings from Lanny Arvan, an economist at the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign, on learning technology with Tablets - pedagogy, the economics of, technical issues, the entire grab bag.
Mobile Computing (Tablet PCs) In Higher Education project at the Johns Hopkins University, generously funding by Hewlett Packard, has enabled the development of modified studio style instruction in introductory physics coures.
Tilman Wolf Receives Teaching Award from Hewlett-Packard. Wolf of the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department (ECE) at UMass Amherst has received a highly competitive Technology for Teaching Award worth nearly $69,000 from the Hewlett-Packard Company. As part of the award, Hewlett-Packard is giving Dr. Wolf more than $53,000 worth of high-tech teaching equipment and $15,500 in unrestricted funds to pay for setting up this technology in the classroom.
Tablet PC Research
Microsoft External Research & Programs has supported more than 125 research projects at universities around the world in areas that include social computing (conferenceXP, classroom, Tablet-Based Computing including teaching, e-science, Compilers, Languages, and Runtimes, ... ), gaming, and robotics.
Rob R. Weitz and others offer the paper The Tablet PC for Faculty: A Pilot Project. They found that only a fraction of faculty are motivated to use tablet technology: roughly a third of faculty expressed an interest in replacing their notebook computer with a tablet computer" -- "generally, participating faculty did indeed use tablet functionality in their classes and were convinced that this use resulted in a meaningful impact on teaching and learning."
Linda Swarlis, Ph.D. Candidate, University of North Texas at poster session, poster # 48. Her title, How Cognitive Styles and Tablet PCs Impact Performance in Science Classrooms This research study examines to what extent field dependence, field independence, verbalizer, visualizer, high spatial, and low spatial cognitive styles, and the use of a tablet PC by girls impact classroom performance in a high school science class. Tablet PC usage, effective note-taking, and performance in tests in biology, chemistry, and physics classes will be examined. Does a tablet PC enhance learning for students? Does using the tablet PC enhance spatial ability for girls? Do cognitive styles impact satisfaction levels with the tablet PC, self-efficacy in technology for girls, and use levels that fully utilize the unique features of the tablet PC?
Misc.
Simplified User Guide for Tablet PCs Available at UIC Libraries.
May 22 , 2006 According to the Computer Industry Almanac, PCs In-Use Surpassed 900M in 2005. USA Accounts for Over 25% of all PCs In-Use. PCs per capita in the U.S. have reached 78% and will remain higher than cell phones for a few more years. The U.S. has a large PC usage lead with over three times as many PCs as the second place Japan. The U.S. accounts for over 25% of all PCs in-use compared to 4.6% of worldwide population. PCs in-use growth is slowing, but the U.S. is on track to have more PCs in-use than people in five or six years. In-use growth will continue because the PC is expanding its domain with new product categories such as Media Center PCs, tablet PCs, Ultra-Mobile PCs and handheld PCs. The rapid growth of mobile PCs is the major reason for current and future PC expansion.
A list of links to popular press articles about Tablet PC uses in various venues, including education.
Steve Potash, President, Open eBook Forum, presented PowerPoint slides about Digital Publishing Opportunities and Challenges Presented by the Tablet PC.
eFuzion: development of a pervasive educational system Annual Joint Conference Integrating Technology into Computer Science Education archive Proceedings of the 10th annual SIGCSE conference on Innovation and technology in computer science education includes papers.
Straight forward mechanisms like online catalogs provide a powerful means for easy access to complex content and content-rich applications independent of location.
Allscripts Healthcare Solutions (NASDAQ: MDRX), a leading provider of point-of-care decision support tools for physicians, to Pioneer Applications in Support of Microsoft Tablet PC Initiative.
Jeffrey L. Popyack and Bruce Char of Drexel University offered an introductory-level workshop at SIGCSE 2006 Workshops. Their presentations include a brief overview of the Tablet PC software development environment, resources available for developers, and instruction on using the SDK, with suggestions for usage in software design and team projects throughout the computer science curriculum.
The George Lucas Education Foundation Learning Interchange shares examples of innovative practices in K-12 education taken from topics and stories archived in the vast resources of The George Lucas Educational Foundation. You will find topics showing technology integration, social and emotional learning, project-based learning, authentic assessment and more in the GLEF Learning Interchange. Also, Edutopia online with free teaching modules.
Curtis Bonk describes what he calls an education perfect storm. This includes PowerPoint slides with data about emerging technology, enhanced pedagogy, learner demand, and erased budgts useful for current source leads.
New Zealand-based Ambient Design Ltd., creator of ArtRage, is the $100,000 grand prize winner of the Microsoft® Tablet PC contest Does Your Application Think in Ink? Also lists ten other awardees.
Annotate, Edit and Comment with Tablet PCs PDF Files testimonials.
In connection with the July 2006 bar examination, the Illinois Board of Admissions to the Bar will permit as many as 270 examinees to use their personal laptop computers (including Tablets) to answer the essay portions of the test.
The Boeing Company Puts the Tablet PC Through Its Paces.
Pharmaceutical Company Streamlines Processes with Mobile, Versatile Tablet PC.
Advertising Agency Streamlines Processes, Saves Money, and Increases Productivity with the Tablet PC .
Report on Girls in IT Workshop
The Impact of Tablet PCs and Pen-based Technology on Education: Vignettes, Evaluations, and Future Directions (Paperback)
Jane Prey and others, Links to white papers about Tablets.
Student Tablet PC
Tablet PC Blogs
tabletology.com
Gottabemobile.com
Watch for updates to this reference list. And, please, let me know of your reference posts, adds, your favorites, and what you can't find.
Mobile Youth Report 2008
If you haven't done so already, Teach, check out the mobile youth report 2008, with a free download.
1.1 billion consumers aged under 30 with a combined spend on mobile of a quarter of a trillion dollars ($270 billion)!
That's the size of the mobile youth market according to mobileYouth's latest 2008 research - the mobile youth report.
Let's see, now. What's the teacher to student ratio for using mobiles? How does this ratio relate to curricula teachers tout as preparing students for the 21st century?
I wonder if we as classroom teachers can ever catch up with those now under 30 years of age and their familiarity with open learning. I heard a speaker at the Democrat convention propose a cadre of new teachers. That makes sense, especially if it can attract under 30s who use mobiles to learn. What do you think?
1.1 billion consumers aged under 30 with a combined spend on mobile of a quarter of a trillion dollars ($270 billion)!
That's the size of the mobile youth market according to mobileYouth's latest 2008 research - the mobile youth report.
Let's see, now. What's the teacher to student ratio for using mobiles? How does this ratio relate to curricula teachers tout as preparing students for the 21st century?
I wonder if we as classroom teachers can ever catch up with those now under 30 years of age and their familiarity with open learning. I heard a speaker at the Democrat convention propose a cadre of new teachers. That makes sense, especially if it can attract under 30s who use mobiles to learn. What do you think?
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
U.S. Earns 1 Gold Medal at 2008 Education Olympics
Did you catch the medal count at the 2008 Education Olympics? Finland earned the most with 35, United States the least with 1, behind Estonia with 08. Kudos to the U.S. 9th grade CivEd team for distinguishing fact from opinion, interpret political cartoons, and comprehend political messages!
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Tablet PC Learning Research Agenda 4 - Learner Views
This fourth post of notes toward a Tablet PC Learning Research Agenda gives priority to learner views of acquiring new behavior. All posts in this series address aspects of learning efficiency as a way to increase learning rates.
The first post proposed a Children's Research Center for Mobile PC Learning. The second started a list of research questions that a proposed Symposium on the Impact of Pen-Based Technology on Education Learning might address. The third began a glossary about Tablet PC learning research, especially measures of outcomes.
I consider this effort a way to clarify how an Association of Public School Learners and a National Association for Public School Learning might help account for increased academic performance in an emerging era of open learning.
A Learner View of Learning
It seems reasonable to assume that learners implicitly ask a series of six (6) generic questions when faced with a new task to perform. Most people who have encountered any instruction will recognize these questions as those each of us has considered at least once. Each question has a corresponding behavioral learning theory set of options instructors may use to increase learning efficiency.
Q 1: What must I learn to do? For example, see a color, squiggle, meaning of a squiggle, and/or hear a key word or phrase?
Q 2: How must I learn to do it? For example, where do I look, what for and which words and sounds must I hear to learn it? What moves do I make with my fingers? Can I choose from options you provide, or must I make my response some other way? How much guessing must I do? How fast must I do each thing? When will these presentations repeat?
Q3: What will it cost me to learn it? For example, how much time will this take me, seconds or minutes? How much of that time will I waste waiting for the instructor to give the next point? What other learning will I miss while waiting? Must I sit still or can I move around? How do I know I will I gain more than I give? Who or what controls what I give?
Q4: How will I know I learned it? For example, will a smiley face appear or bells ring automatically when I write the correct response? Will I know tomorrow after someone marks my response?
Q5: How will I show I learned it? For example, will I write something, choose something, fill in something missing, copy something? Who or what says whatever I do means I learned it, know it, understand it, can use it?
Q6: So what? What do I get for my cost? Stated another way, why should I learn whatever I decide to learn or what the program or another person says I should learn? For example, what benefit will I get for my cost, such as for my welfare gain, profit or advantage?
More questions
What generic questions would you include from a learner's view and what learning theories would instructors use to address each question?
More notes toward a research agenda
Future posts will continue to coordinate aspect of previous notes and fill in gaps to offer a possible research agenda useful to teachers, behavioral scientists, and software developers.
I appreciate your comments, so please let me know your thoughts, responses, etc. to this series and to the idea of building a behavioral science research agenda about Tablet PC learning.
The first post proposed a Children's Research Center for Mobile PC Learning. The second started a list of research questions that a proposed Symposium on the Impact of Pen-Based Technology on Education Learning might address. The third began a glossary about Tablet PC learning research, especially measures of outcomes.
I consider this effort a way to clarify how an Association of Public School Learners and a National Association for Public School Learning might help account for increased academic performance in an emerging era of open learning.
A Learner View of Learning
It seems reasonable to assume that learners implicitly ask a series of six (6) generic questions when faced with a new task to perform. Most people who have encountered any instruction will recognize these questions as those each of us has considered at least once. Each question has a corresponding behavioral learning theory set of options instructors may use to increase learning efficiency.
Q 1: What must I learn to do? For example, see a color, squiggle, meaning of a squiggle, and/or hear a key word or phrase?
Q 2: How must I learn to do it? For example, where do I look, what for and which words and sounds must I hear to learn it? What moves do I make with my fingers? Can I choose from options you provide, or must I make my response some other way? How much guessing must I do? How fast must I do each thing? When will these presentations repeat?
Q3: What will it cost me to learn it? For example, how much time will this take me, seconds or minutes? How much of that time will I waste waiting for the instructor to give the next point? What other learning will I miss while waiting? Must I sit still or can I move around? How do I know I will I gain more than I give? Who or what controls what I give?
Q4: How will I know I learned it? For example, will a smiley face appear or bells ring automatically when I write the correct response? Will I know tomorrow after someone marks my response?
Q5: How will I show I learned it? For example, will I write something, choose something, fill in something missing, copy something? Who or what says whatever I do means I learned it, know it, understand it, can use it?
Q6: So what? What do I get for my cost? Stated another way, why should I learn whatever I decide to learn or what the program or another person says I should learn? For example, what benefit will I get for my cost, such as for my welfare gain, profit or advantage?
More questions
What generic questions would you include from a learner's view and what learning theories would instructors use to address each question?
More notes toward a research agenda
Future posts will continue to coordinate aspect of previous notes and fill in gaps to offer a possible research agenda useful to teachers, behavioral scientists, and software developers.
I appreciate your comments, so please let me know your thoughts, responses, etc. to this series and to the idea of building a behavioral science research agenda about Tablet PC learning.
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
Microsoft Launched Microsoft Surface with Starwood
Microsoft launched Microsoft Surface (TM), a commercial touchscreen that breaks down barriers and provides effortless interaction with information using touch, natural gestures and physical objects. Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc. installed the first units in its Sheraton Hotels.
Microsoft Surface is a 30-inch display in a table-like form factor that several guests can use simultaneously. Picture a surface that can recognize physical objects from a paintbrush to a cell phone and allows hands-on, direct control of content such as photos, music and maps. Look for it in Restaurants, Hotels, Retail Locations and Casino Resorts. I wonder how teachers would use them in classrooms?
Thanks, Rob, for the prompt.
Microsoft Surface is a 30-inch display in a table-like form factor that several guests can use simultaneously. Picture a surface that can recognize physical objects from a paintbrush to a cell phone and allows hands-on, direct control of content such as photos, music and maps. Look for it in Restaurants, Hotels, Retail Locations and Casino Resorts. I wonder how teachers would use them in classrooms?
Thanks, Rob, for the prompt.
Bringing Invisibility Cloaks Closer
Researchers have engineered two new materials that bend light in entirely new ways. These materials are the first that work in the optical band of the spectrum, which encompasses visible and infrared light. Such cloaks, long depicted in science fiction, would allow objects, from warplanes to people, to hide in plain sight. Existing cloaking materials only work with microwaves.
Plug and Play Brain
BBC News posted a video demonstrating software designed for robots that allows them to "learn" to move through trial and error. Ralf Der at the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences has also applied the software to simulated animals and humans. Professor Der has tried the system on simple wheeled systems.
"I call it a plug-and-play brain," he said.
"The classic thing in robotics is 'bring this' or 'play this chess game and win'—the task is given," says Daniel Polani of the University of Hertfordshire. "Ralf Der's system is only defined by what it perceives and does, but there's no goal. It's a very good approach."
Der and his colleagues are working to create a long-term memory, so that when the robot finds itself in similar situations, it knows what to do.
"I call it a plug-and-play brain," he said.
"The classic thing in robotics is 'bring this' or 'play this chess game and win'—the task is given," says Daniel Polani of the University of Hertfordshire. "Ralf Der's system is only defined by what it perceives and does, but there's no goal. It's a very good approach."
Der and his colleagues are working to create a long-term memory, so that when the robot finds itself in similar situations, it knows what to do.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Glossary about Tablet PC Learning
This draft begins my assembly of a glossary that gives priority to learning with Tablet and other mobile PCs. It’s part of my effort to offer real time, on-the-fly instructional decision support and collaboration to teachers using mobile PCs that translates into increased student learning rates. In this way, I’m trying to increase transparency to learning that Tablets and their siblings permit.
Each term has technical, operational criteria that allow measurable reporting to demonstrate increases in the probability of a correct response to a given instruction or presentation. I have used these ideas for decades when assessing instruction, venues, and software.
The glossary gives me written descriptors of how I think about learning when observing in classrooms, evaluating education software, etc. I use it as a reminder when searching for empirical research, scholarly, and evaluation reports about learning. It also indicates the breadth and depth of Tablet PC Education today as well as its possible future. Perhaps others will find this glossary useful also.
Some descriptors originated in empirical experimental research studies (symbolized by ER), mostly conducted by others; still more come from my less rigorous efforts, such as proof-of-concept exercises (identified with symbol POC). All have theoretical explanations that allow generalizations beyond uses in their original contexts. Check the tabs on this blog for details about POC entries.
I divided entries into terms about learning principles and associations as well as organizations about learning.
Terms about Learning Principles
Direct Learning (DL) (POC). Direct Learning software gives no more than three examples before someone can solve problems offered in a software program.
For example, MathPractice software format lets people solve problems without additional mediation by a person or by more examples or directions. Writing DL software requires the programmer to use straight-line logic to analyze the problem presentation process (image sequence), the content (astronomy, English, mathematics), and to blend these two analyses into a single step-by-step offer of a problem that allows a quick, correct answer.
DL software has three main dimensions familiar to education developers: sensory context, presentation process, and content analysis as well as legacies (pedigree). Each of these dimension consists of enough operational details to mire a software development project in debates about data point assumptions and confidence. Yet, theoretically, managing these dimensions by using operational criteria from learning research will increase learning rates for a given educational software program. http://tabletpceducation.blogspot.com/2005/03/defining-direct-learning-for-tablet-pc.html
Information supply chain (POC). Passing an intangible information commodity (such as 1+1=2) along from one source to another as in a tangible business commodity supply chain.
The transmission of ideas and processes from one generation to another as through school curricula. I refer to this transmission as an information supply chain. Others set a higher standard by calling it a knowledge chain. Teachers and books have been a major part of these chains, with increasing value to users as they increasingly save learner's time in mastering ideas and process of other people.
Learning. The learner meets criterion for successfully solving a problem or in other ways performing a task.
Learning analyst (POC). A specialist who estimates probabilities of learning and in other ways assesses instruction, software, and venues in terms of empirical research about learning and theories of learning.
Learning criterion (ER). The stated result expected in order to claim learning occurred.
Learning efficiency (POC). Measures that indicate the extent to which instruction and learners' attentions meet to yield a learning criterion quicker, easier, or with less effort when compared with other possible ways of reaching the same criterion (Heiny, 2007).
From a learner view, learning efficiency means spending less time, effort, and other personal resources acquiring a given set of information or skills. It also means gaining something of personal value in exchange for those resources.
Learning efficiency rating (LER) (POC). An informal system to rate student learning efficiency according to teacher instructional patterns. A learning efficiency rating score (LERS) indicates the level of confidence someone may have in an instruction to yield a learning criterion promptly, directly, and easily. Raters use the Learning Efficiency Scale (LES) to score instruction and then convert it into a rating.
This rating is to teaching what a financial credit rating score is to lending. Both indicate levels of confidence to have in someone’s future performance, based on past performance.
Learning efficiency scale (LES) (POC). Measures of learning efficiency indicate the extent to which instruction and learners' attentions meet. LES yields a measure of instructional competence, e.g., power or proficiency. It provides a framework for students and school observers to rank the relative capacity of school lessons and instructional material to yield intended student academic behavior.
Learning efficiency Star Rating System (LESRS) (POC). The number of stars assigned to an efficiency level symbolizes the instructional capacity to yield efficient learning.
***** Highly Efficient instruction receives a Five Star Rating,
**** Efficient instruction receives Four Stars,
*** Normally Efficient instruction receives Three Stars,
** Less Efficient instruction receives Two Stars, and
* Inert / Laissez-faire instruction receives One Star.
Learning forecasts (POC). A statement of probability of a student or group meeting learning criterion. Forecasts range from general statements by such indexes as I.Q. scores, achiever-test results, and grade level assignments to technical estimates based on instructional processes.
It’s also a proposed online subscription service for teachers of online databased real time information indicating whether instructional technique A or B will likely yield the most efficient learning rate by individual students in a given lesson.
Learning rates (LR) (POC). I don’t think I’ve defined learning rates. Indirectly, I’ve said that the threshold question about education software seems apparent: What learning do you as the software designer intend from the use of your software? Specify, at least for yourself, an operational definition of what you mean by learning. For example, you might assert, "This software will increase a users correct responses from 4 out of every 10 tries to 9 out of 10 tries."
Learner resources (POC). Time, energy, and personal tangibles as well as intangibles required to use prerequisite skills and information while meeting a learning criterion.
Learner view (POC). A view of instruction and its venue as seen by a learner.
Nearsourcing (POC). The fewer interventions, the nearer the original source the user selects. Nearsourcing of information acknowledges using insights of an information originator without considering interpretations others assign to those insights. It distinguishes sources closest to originals from farsourcing, or from what academics commonly call secondary, tertiary and other more removed sources.
Nearsourcing occurs when information users give priority to contents in information supply chains with fewer interventions between original sources and information a user selects to make a decision. It offers simplified information transmission from originators to learners and greater efficiency of collaboration of learners with originators of a bit of information.
Net learning (POC). A calculated or estimated difference between learning gained and learning limited by the learning venue or lesson.
One step learning (ER). Zeaman and House documented repeatedly in experimental laboratory studies of two choice visual discrimination tasks that human learning occurs in one step. Other activity of learners before learning is random (trial and error) behavior while searching for the relevant visual dimension to complete a task successfully.
Open learning paradigm (OLP) (POC). A working descriptor of the commonly asserted access that mobile PCs allow anyone to learn anything, anytime, anywhere (Any; ATTW; A3TsW?) on demand.
Personal benefits (PB) (POC). Learner gains more than personal resources given in exchange for advancement, advantages, or profits. (Heiny, 1980).
QuickStart Learning (QSL) (POC). It refers to activities that provide a person with prompt changes in behavior. Some have called this eons old practice learning-by-doing. It is a generic category of immediate, efficient behavior change activities. QSL is to learning what instant gratification is to the learner. They define engaged learning. Once the person starts the activity, measurable learning occurs. QSLs increase a learner’s behavior repertoire efficiently, that's one of their common attributes.
Time. The duration of an event, process, condition, etc., as with passing clock moments, trial blocks, beginning to end, start to finish, before and after, betwixt and between.
Trial and error learning (ER). Learner’s behavior before meeting before learning is random (trial and error) behavior while searching for the relevant dimension to complete a task successfully.
Venture educators (VE) (POC). Like venture capitalists, venture educators take the small daily gambles, risking their careers as well as the learning rates of their students to test the utility of these tools in schools. Are to education as venture capitalists (VCs) are to business.
They take calculated risks to gain advantages for student learning rate as VCs invest in clients. VEs don't have formal schooling or professional preparation comparable to VCs. Dodge offers useful insights for VEs to consider. Many of the logic patterns he reviews, VCs learn in business school and through trial and error. Some patterns they adapt and create. Others they create on-the-fly.
When a VE fails, theoretically students might pay a price. But in practice, the novelty of the VE’s efforts usually appears to help students more than regular curricula and instruction. I don't have objective data to support that hypothesis. Many observations in a wide variety of settings seem like a fair basis for this generalization until it's tested empirically.
Associations and other Organizations of and for Learners
Association of Public School Learners (APSL) (POC). A proposed independent body of public school learners and alumni advocating for public school policies that promote competition with private schools for the best students to address global demands.
National Association for Public School Learning (NAPSL) (POC). A proposed independent body to advocate for public policies that make public school learning more competitive with private schools and with other efforts for students to meet global demands
Open Learning Study Group (OLSG) (POC). A proposed group of scientists and policy analysts who give priority to understanding the potential and implications of learning on-demand anytime, anywhere, about any topic by anyone for any reason.
Children’s Research Center for Mobile Learning (CRCML) (POC). A proposed empirical research organization.
I'll post an updated version of this glossary, hopefully sooner than later. Let me know if you have Qs before then. I'd welcome your comments.
(Note: I edited these entries, so minor differences may exist between them and some original postings.)
(I included on 12-04-08 and started updating this draft at Classic Education. I'll post an updated version of these updates on this blog later.)
Each term has technical, operational criteria that allow measurable reporting to demonstrate increases in the probability of a correct response to a given instruction or presentation. I have used these ideas for decades when assessing instruction, venues, and software.
The glossary gives me written descriptors of how I think about learning when observing in classrooms, evaluating education software, etc. I use it as a reminder when searching for empirical research, scholarly, and evaluation reports about learning. It also indicates the breadth and depth of Tablet PC Education today as well as its possible future. Perhaps others will find this glossary useful also.
Some descriptors originated in empirical experimental research studies (symbolized by ER), mostly conducted by others; still more come from my less rigorous efforts, such as proof-of-concept exercises (identified with symbol POC). All have theoretical explanations that allow generalizations beyond uses in their original contexts. Check the tabs on this blog for details about POC entries.
I divided entries into terms about learning principles and associations as well as organizations about learning.
Terms about Learning Principles
Direct Learning (DL) (POC). Direct Learning software gives no more than three examples before someone can solve problems offered in a software program.
For example, MathPractice software format lets people solve problems without additional mediation by a person or by more examples or directions. Writing DL software requires the programmer to use straight-line logic to analyze the problem presentation process (image sequence), the content (astronomy, English, mathematics), and to blend these two analyses into a single step-by-step offer of a problem that allows a quick, correct answer.
DL software has three main dimensions familiar to education developers: sensory context, presentation process, and content analysis as well as legacies (pedigree). Each of these dimension consists of enough operational details to mire a software development project in debates about data point assumptions and confidence. Yet, theoretically, managing these dimensions by using operational criteria from learning research will increase learning rates for a given educational software program. http://tabletpceducation.blogspot.com/2005/03/defining-direct-learning-for-tablet-pc.html
Information supply chain (POC). Passing an intangible information commodity (such as 1+1=2) along from one source to another as in a tangible business commodity supply chain.
The transmission of ideas and processes from one generation to another as through school curricula. I refer to this transmission as an information supply chain. Others set a higher standard by calling it a knowledge chain. Teachers and books have been a major part of these chains, with increasing value to users as they increasingly save learner's time in mastering ideas and process of other people.
Learning. The learner meets criterion for successfully solving a problem or in other ways performing a task.
Learning analyst (POC). A specialist who estimates probabilities of learning and in other ways assesses instruction, software, and venues in terms of empirical research about learning and theories of learning.
Learning criterion (ER). The stated result expected in order to claim learning occurred.
Learning efficiency (POC). Measures that indicate the extent to which instruction and learners' attentions meet to yield a learning criterion quicker, easier, or with less effort when compared with other possible ways of reaching the same criterion (Heiny, 2007).
From a learner view, learning efficiency means spending less time, effort, and other personal resources acquiring a given set of information or skills. It also means gaining something of personal value in exchange for those resources.
Learning efficiency rating (LER) (POC). An informal system to rate student learning efficiency according to teacher instructional patterns. A learning efficiency rating score (LERS) indicates the level of confidence someone may have in an instruction to yield a learning criterion promptly, directly, and easily. Raters use the Learning Efficiency Scale (LES) to score instruction and then convert it into a rating.
This rating is to teaching what a financial credit rating score is to lending. Both indicate levels of confidence to have in someone’s future performance, based on past performance.
Learning efficiency scale (LES) (POC). Measures of learning efficiency indicate the extent to which instruction and learners' attentions meet. LES yields a measure of instructional competence, e.g., power or proficiency. It provides a framework for students and school observers to rank the relative capacity of school lessons and instructional material to yield intended student academic behavior.
Learning efficiency Star Rating System (LESRS) (POC). The number of stars assigned to an efficiency level symbolizes the instructional capacity to yield efficient learning.
***** Highly Efficient instruction receives a Five Star Rating,
**** Efficient instruction receives Four Stars,
*** Normally Efficient instruction receives Three Stars,
** Less Efficient instruction receives Two Stars, and
* Inert / Laissez-faire instruction receives One Star.
Learning forecasts (POC). A statement of probability of a student or group meeting learning criterion. Forecasts range from general statements by such indexes as I.Q. scores, achiever-test results, and grade level assignments to technical estimates based on instructional processes.
It’s also a proposed online subscription service for teachers of online databased real time information indicating whether instructional technique A or B will likely yield the most efficient learning rate by individual students in a given lesson.
Learning rates (LR) (POC). I don’t think I’ve defined learning rates. Indirectly, I’ve said that the threshold question about education software seems apparent: What learning do you as the software designer intend from the use of your software? Specify, at least for yourself, an operational definition of what you mean by learning. For example, you might assert, "This software will increase a users correct responses from 4 out of every 10 tries to 9 out of 10 tries."
Learner resources (POC). Time, energy, and personal tangibles as well as intangibles required to use prerequisite skills and information while meeting a learning criterion.
Learner view (POC). A view of instruction and its venue as seen by a learner.
Nearsourcing (POC). The fewer interventions, the nearer the original source the user selects. Nearsourcing of information acknowledges using insights of an information originator without considering interpretations others assign to those insights. It distinguishes sources closest to originals from farsourcing, or from what academics commonly call secondary, tertiary and other more removed sources.
Nearsourcing occurs when information users give priority to contents in information supply chains with fewer interventions between original sources and information a user selects to make a decision. It offers simplified information transmission from originators to learners and greater efficiency of collaboration of learners with originators of a bit of information.
Net learning (POC). A calculated or estimated difference between learning gained and learning limited by the learning venue or lesson.
One step learning (ER). Zeaman and House documented repeatedly in experimental laboratory studies of two choice visual discrimination tasks that human learning occurs in one step. Other activity of learners before learning is random (trial and error) behavior while searching for the relevant visual dimension to complete a task successfully.
Open learning paradigm (OLP) (POC). A working descriptor of the commonly asserted access that mobile PCs allow anyone to learn anything, anytime, anywhere (Any; ATTW; A3TsW?) on demand.
Personal benefits (PB) (POC). Learner gains more than personal resources given in exchange for advancement, advantages, or profits. (Heiny, 1980).
QuickStart Learning (QSL) (POC). It refers to activities that provide a person with prompt changes in behavior. Some have called this eons old practice learning-by-doing. It is a generic category of immediate, efficient behavior change activities. QSL is to learning what instant gratification is to the learner. They define engaged learning. Once the person starts the activity, measurable learning occurs. QSLs increase a learner’s behavior repertoire efficiently, that's one of their common attributes.
Time. The duration of an event, process, condition, etc., as with passing clock moments, trial blocks, beginning to end, start to finish, before and after, betwixt and between.
Trial and error learning (ER). Learner’s behavior before meeting before learning is random (trial and error) behavior while searching for the relevant dimension to complete a task successfully.
Venture educators (VE) (POC). Like venture capitalists, venture educators take the small daily gambles, risking their careers as well as the learning rates of their students to test the utility of these tools in schools. Are to education as venture capitalists (VCs) are to business.
They take calculated risks to gain advantages for student learning rate as VCs invest in clients. VEs don't have formal schooling or professional preparation comparable to VCs. Dodge offers useful insights for VEs to consider. Many of the logic patterns he reviews, VCs learn in business school and through trial and error. Some patterns they adapt and create. Others they create on-the-fly.
When a VE fails, theoretically students might pay a price. But in practice, the novelty of the VE’s efforts usually appears to help students more than regular curricula and instruction. I don't have objective data to support that hypothesis. Many observations in a wide variety of settings seem like a fair basis for this generalization until it's tested empirically.
Associations and other Organizations of and for Learners
Association of Public School Learners (APSL) (POC). A proposed independent body of public school learners and alumni advocating for public school policies that promote competition with private schools for the best students to address global demands.
National Association for Public School Learning (NAPSL) (POC). A proposed independent body to advocate for public policies that make public school learning more competitive with private schools and with other efforts for students to meet global demands
Open Learning Study Group (OLSG) (POC). A proposed group of scientists and policy analysts who give priority to understanding the potential and implications of learning on-demand anytime, anywhere, about any topic by anyone for any reason.
Children’s Research Center for Mobile Learning (CRCML) (POC). A proposed empirical research organization.
I'll post an updated version of this glossary, hopefully sooner than later. Let me know if you have Qs before then. I'd welcome your comments.
(Note: I edited these entries, so minor differences may exist between them and some original postings.)
(I included on 12-04-08 and started updating this draft at Classic Education. I'll post an updated version of these updates on this blog later.)
Friday, August 08, 2008
FastForWord Rates Five Learning Efficiency Stars
Scientific Learning offers a cluster of stories describing how their FastForWord personal computer with speech recognition program helps students crack the reading code, including a special education 10th grader.
This gets a 5 Star Learning Efficiency Rating!
Dave Nagel reports that the Utah State Board of Education has signed a five year contract with Scientific Learning for use of FastForWord in their schools.
I wonder how many Tablet PC schools use FastForWord.
This gets a 5 Star Learning Efficiency Rating!
Dave Nagel reports that the Utah State Board of Education has signed a five year contract with Scientific Learning for use of FastForWord in their schools.
I wonder how many Tablet PC schools use FastForWord.
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Academic Possibilities of Tablet PCs
DePauw University professor Dave Berque says, "Tablet PCs offer teachers and students a natural way to deal with a wide range of academic possibilities ... "While traditional laptops are great for textual content, they don’t allow free-hand input of content."
Paying a little more (than for a non-Ink notebook) up front can increase the overall usefulness of the hardware investment(with a Tablet PC)."
Berque's work at DePauw led to the development of pen-based technology, now known as DyKnow Vision, that is being used in classrooms around the nation.
We like your pace, Dave! You make all of us stretch as you open new ways for us to increase student learning rates. Thanks.
Paying a little more (than for a non-Ink notebook) up front can increase the overall usefulness of the hardware investment(with a Tablet PC)."
Berque's work at DePauw led to the development of pen-based technology, now known as DyKnow Vision, that is being used in classrooms around the nation.
We like your pace, Dave! You make all of us stretch as you open new ways for us to increase student learning rates. Thanks.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Tablet PC Learning Research Questions
These notes start a process of assembling a proposed research agenda as a learner might use a Tablet PC to increase learning. Perhaps these notes could serve as a beginning for organizing a Symposium on the Impact of Pen-Based Technology on Education Learning (SIPTEL). I assume that these studies occur in an environment in which people take advantage of instructed as well as open learning.
With your help, I'd like to flesh these notes into a reference for those interested in examining the mechanics of how people learn with Tablets and what implications these findings have for ways we organize learning venues, especially public schools.
Notes
Tablet, Touchscreen, and other mobile PCs offer state-of-the-art tools to identity how people learn new information and intellectual skills. These tools, with their many features, complement and expand the capacity of the Wisconsin General Test Apparatus (WGTA) and field study designs used earlier for similar purposes.
I have more confidence as a teacher in objective, experimental, empirical, behavioral research results than from anecdotes and school program evaluation reports. Yet, results from any of these strategies yield more confidence than from personal experience and other forms of non-objective data.
Tablet PC learning studies appear timely and relevant, given the expanding use of these tools in schools and businesses.
I'd like to see the following questions addressed objectively about Tablet PC learning. Studying these questions could require some teachers to work with behavioral learning scientists and software developers. I leave questions about learning as a meaningful process, cognition, knowledge transfer, creativity, neuropsychology, etc. to others, for the moment.
Two categories of study questions appear useful as a start: learning as behavior pattern change, learning as meeting state standards, and likelihood of increasing learning without school instruction.
Study Questions
1.0 Learning as Behavior Pattern Change
1.1 What do Tablet learners (i.e., students when learning) do first, second, third, etc. when reading, solving math problems, taking notes, etc.
Describe common and unique movements of eyes, hands, sounds that gain attention, number of tasks conducted at a time, etc.
1.2 Do people of all ages learn the same way as described in previous objective, experimental, empirical, behavioral research studies, e.g., by Gold, Hobbs, Skinner, Zeaman and House, et al.?
An easy, useful beginning test of this hypothesis would be to replicate with Tablet PCs learning studies conducted with the WGTA. That way, we could compare results in order to describe effects of testing and examining equipment. These comparisons would allow us to calculate confidence indices to use when applying findings about how people learn to school instruction. With appropriate support, students as young as 4th and 5th grades could replicate some of these studies.
1.3 What learning efficiencies do Tablet PCs offer with existing instruction and curricula?
For example, identify which Tablet features reduce the number of errors students make before meeting learning criteria in a lesson. Rank order these features from most to least efficient in lectures, one-on-one instruction, direct learning exercises, etc.
1.4 Which Tablet features increase learning efficiencies most at the beginning, middle, and end of a school day and lesson?
In other words, when in the school day and in a lesson do Tablet features work best? What distribution of fatigue exists across Tablet PC features and work as well as clock time?
1.5 What novelty affects do Tablets introduce to student learning rates?
Asked another way, when do student learning rates plateau as an indication of Tablets' routine use?
1.6 What visual and auditory dimensions yield learning criteria faster and in what order of quickest to slowest?
Do Tablet learners respond to sight or sound learning prompts more quickly? Color or sound rhythm slower? As compared with non-Tablet learners? Distributed similarly across academic content?
2.0 Learning as Meeting School Standards
3.0 Likelihood of Learning without School Instruction
3.1 What school relevant content do students learn independently beyond school instruction?
3.2 Which students will likely learn that content independently.
Implications of Study Results
How does Tablet learning affect the validity of categorical programs, such as special education and gifted and talented students? Of classroom instruction? Of grade levels, such as 1st, 2nd, and 9th grades?
What Tablet application software strategies would likely incease student learning more for each academic content area?
This is a start. Let me know your additions, questions, and so forth.
With your help, I'd like to flesh these notes into a reference for those interested in examining the mechanics of how people learn with Tablets and what implications these findings have for ways we organize learning venues, especially public schools.
Notes
Tablet, Touchscreen, and other mobile PCs offer state-of-the-art tools to identity how people learn new information and intellectual skills. These tools, with their many features, complement and expand the capacity of the Wisconsin General Test Apparatus (WGTA) and field study designs used earlier for similar purposes.
I have more confidence as a teacher in objective, experimental, empirical, behavioral research results than from anecdotes and school program evaluation reports. Yet, results from any of these strategies yield more confidence than from personal experience and other forms of non-objective data.
Tablet PC learning studies appear timely and relevant, given the expanding use of these tools in schools and businesses.
I'd like to see the following questions addressed objectively about Tablet PC learning. Studying these questions could require some teachers to work with behavioral learning scientists and software developers. I leave questions about learning as a meaningful process, cognition, knowledge transfer, creativity, neuropsychology, etc. to others, for the moment.
Two categories of study questions appear useful as a start: learning as behavior pattern change, learning as meeting state standards, and likelihood of increasing learning without school instruction.
Study Questions
1.0 Learning as Behavior Pattern Change
1.1 What do Tablet learners (i.e., students when learning) do first, second, third, etc. when reading, solving math problems, taking notes, etc.
Describe common and unique movements of eyes, hands, sounds that gain attention, number of tasks conducted at a time, etc.
1.2 Do people of all ages learn the same way as described in previous objective, experimental, empirical, behavioral research studies, e.g., by Gold, Hobbs, Skinner, Zeaman and House, et al.?
An easy, useful beginning test of this hypothesis would be to replicate with Tablet PCs learning studies conducted with the WGTA. That way, we could compare results in order to describe effects of testing and examining equipment. These comparisons would allow us to calculate confidence indices to use when applying findings about how people learn to school instruction. With appropriate support, students as young as 4th and 5th grades could replicate some of these studies.
1.3 What learning efficiencies do Tablet PCs offer with existing instruction and curricula?
For example, identify which Tablet features reduce the number of errors students make before meeting learning criteria in a lesson. Rank order these features from most to least efficient in lectures, one-on-one instruction, direct learning exercises, etc.
1.4 Which Tablet features increase learning efficiencies most at the beginning, middle, and end of a school day and lesson?
In other words, when in the school day and in a lesson do Tablet features work best? What distribution of fatigue exists across Tablet PC features and work as well as clock time?
1.5 What novelty affects do Tablets introduce to student learning rates?
Asked another way, when do student learning rates plateau as an indication of Tablets' routine use?
1.6 What visual and auditory dimensions yield learning criteria faster and in what order of quickest to slowest?
Do Tablet learners respond to sight or sound learning prompts more quickly? Color or sound rhythm slower? As compared with non-Tablet learners? Distributed similarly across academic content?
2.0 Learning as Meeting School Standards
3.0 Likelihood of Learning without School Instruction
3.1 What school relevant content do students learn independently beyond school instruction?
3.2 Which students will likely learn that content independently.
Implications of Study Results
How does Tablet learning affect the validity of categorical programs, such as special education and gifted and talented students? Of classroom instruction? Of grade levels, such as 1st, 2nd, and 9th grades?
What Tablet application software strategies would likely incease student learning more for each academic content area?
This is a start. Let me know your additions, questions, and so forth.
Tuesday, August 05, 2008
Tablet and other Mobile PC Case Studies Update
Lora at whatisnew posted an updated list of case studies that describe uses of Tablet, touchscreen, and other mobile PCs in schools. This is a great resource for anyone preparing proposals and reports about their uses in education.
In addition to case studies, this and other sites report about the many educators and individuals who use mobile PCs, but have not yet appeared in third party sponsored case studies.
It looks like we have a large enough n for someone to conduct empirical experimental studies that provide evidence of the extent to which these PCs affect student learning rates. That would be a good research program for someone. Let me know if you're also interested. I am.
Hmm. I wonder who would fund such a study?
In addition to case studies, this and other sites report about the many educators and individuals who use mobile PCs, but have not yet appeared in third party sponsored case studies.
It looks like we have a large enough n for someone to conduct empirical experimental studies that provide evidence of the extent to which these PCs affect student learning rates. That would be a good research program for someone. Let me know if you're also interested. I am.
Hmm. I wonder who would fund such a study?
Monday, August 04, 2008
People Still Judge Employees by their Attire
Christian M. Chensvold reviews dress rules for employees, a helpful guide for teachers who want to capture students' and parents' attention. Yes, Christian says, appropriate dress still matters, even though only 6% of men bother to wear ties and most women don't wear skirts to work. I wonder how teacher attire affects student learning rates? Please share with me any links to studies that address this issue. I remember spending most of class time musing about teacher and professor attire, and thinking how silly, dumb, etc. the class content was. (Of course, ya'all know more than I do!) Has anyone else done this?
Do Teachers Waste Time in Classrooms?
Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ, reports that wasted time in workplaces is up 44% (from 1.6 hours of an average 9.1 hour workday to 2.3 hours of an average 9.2 hour workday) from a year ago. He calls this change "Recession Rumination." Workers spend this increased time surfing the web for career improvement, personal finance, daydreaming about negative topics, chatting with coworkers, and entertainment.
Murphy's observation of 9,000 workers leads to an obvious great research topic for a university faculty member (with tenure!): Do educators also "waste" more school time, and if so, doing what and to what affect on student learning rates?
Murphy's observation of 9,000 workers leads to an obvious great research topic for a university faculty member (with tenure!): Do educators also "waste" more school time, and if so, doing what and to what affect on student learning rates?
Sunday, August 03, 2008
When Parents Ask Teachers
School starts tomorrow in Prescott (AZ) public school District 1. To all, we wish an academically successful year, including for my grand daughter as she enters high school.
My thoughts about new school years grow out of both reflection on contemporary education, shared by many, and a specific kind of reasoning, shared by fewer, especially implications that Tablet and other mobile PCs have for parent-learner-teacher interactions.
About 18 years ago at the start of another school year in California, I drafted a tip sheet for parents to consider when talking with teachers. A few years later, a school in South Chicago distributed it (without attribution) to all parents of students attending that school; I understand it was also circulated by other educators in the Chicago public school system.
In short, I suggested that the only question parents need ask educators is, "When will (parent inserts whatever you want to see your child do in school)?"
For example, When will my child sit still in your classroom? When will Sandra read a chapter book? When will Horace (OK, you may not know someone with that name, so pick another name and child's face to go with it) learn (fill in the academic skill of interest at the moment, such as fractions, Latin, standard English speech, diagramming sentences, when the civil war started, to recite Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s opening paragraph of speech, 'I have a Dream' ... )?
This one questions, When will ... , captures in a few words everything about schooling that parents want to know, but haven't received direct, clear information.
It also provides teachers with a chance to demonstrate the extent to which they manage learning efficiently (not teaching, acting out student behavior patterns, receiving certificates or awards, attending meetings and conferences, new school administrators, rules, and curricula, etc.) in their classroom.
Five Star Teachers (that means the instructors who arrange the most efficient student learning) will offer clear, concise responses, such as "We will start learning fractions on (insert a date). I will let you know if that date changes for (insert learner's name) for any reason." That's one together teacher! They do exist. I hope your child attends a Five Start teacher's classroom.(Wish I could have responded consistently so concisely.)
A Three Star Teacher will say something about needing to let you know (insert a time, such as next Monday, in two weeks). That's fair, especially at the start of a school year when the teacher's firming up schedules that reflect new information and requirements given to all teachers just before students arrive on campus. Anytime more remote is a put-off (however worded and well intended) reflecting a lower star rating teacher.
One Star Teachers will miss the parent's point by offering reasons why no one can answer that question, such as "It depends ... ", "I can't say because ... ", (insert whatever reason you remember hearing; we've all heard ourselves and other teachers give such reasons, hopefully infrequently). That teacher works from ideas about learning other than principles of learning (vs. teaching, curricula, lesson plans, etc.; that's teachers talk that parents need not understand in order to expect clear, concise statements about When ... )
The tip still seems relevant, so I offer it again, this time in fewer words. I hope it helps you plan how you will talk with your child's teacher.
Suggestion: Make that first conversation with the teacher earlier in the academic year than later. The first week will be memorable for the teacher. Write your name and telephone number on a piece of paper, and leave it with the teacher when you meet, so the teacher can contact you if schedules change.
You need not accept any "excuses" (you have a right to label any response other than the one you want to hear as an excuse) about anything other than an estimated date your child will learn (insert the skill).
It is possible for teachers to estimate these dates. Teachers know how, if they have drafted their academic year student learning schedule (not just lesson plans, curricula guides, and other teacher talk).
Yet, it may take several such questions over weeks or months by more than one parent for some educators to accept that you are informed, serious, and expect a reasoned response.
Last, be kind and considerate in your conversations. Teachers, even the Five Star Teachers, have their hands full in school every day, sometimes more than others. Request an appointment, don't ambush the teacher. We all try our best. Some of us expect such questions as When will ..., but most have not heard anyone ask it, so you may have to walk us through the process of offering a response you want.
Please let me know how this works for you, and what adjustments you would make.
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