Experimenting with HP Mobile Devices

College students already use wireless devices such as laptops and PDA's to write papers, take notes and send email. But a new collaborative study utilizing 35 Hewlett-Packard Tablet PC's is exploring what Stanford researchers are calling “radical opportunities for improving education” that may have far reaching implications in the classroom.

The research project, entitled “Applied Mobile Technology Solutions in Learning Environments,” is supported in part by a grant from the Wallenberg Global Learning Network. The tablet PC's are a gift from Hewlett-Packard Co.

“I think of the Tablet PC's as seed capital for the study and innovative use of mobile devices,” says Roy Pea, director of the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning, where the research is based.  

The project consists of three experiments on the educational benefits of mobile wireless computing devices. The experiments include:

Examination of the value of handheld wireless devices as an instrument to assess student understanding of course material: The professor will “push” in-class quizzes, polls, images and video to students, then aggregate their responses for display to the class.

1. Exploration of the use of Tablet PC's for management of sketches and rough ideas: Students will share their work between what they produce in class on the Webster “smart” whiteboards, and personal or collaborative work from outside the classroom;
2. Student creation of digital portfolios for gathering and integrating academic and extracurricular activities over the course of a year: This portion of the study involves a smaller group of students enrolled in a masters-level program in Learning Design and Technology.

During the study period, which ends at the close of spring quarter, about 200 students will be involved in using the Tablet PC's and other mobile devices in a variety of capacities.

Principal Investigator Roy Pea, who co-directs the Stanford Center for Innovations in Learning (SCIL), and acting deputy director Ken Dauber, will carry out their research in Advanced Resource Classrooms in Wallenberg Hall, which provides an advanced wireless collaborative computing environment.

Pea and Dauber hope that their study helps address two common problems encountered in higher education learning – the lack of clear communication between faculty and students, and the difficulty that students face in integrating their experiences in and out of the classroom.

Study results are to be distributed in July, 2004

Back to News