Educational Technology Committee

Minutes of October 23^rd, 2006, meeting

 

1. Chair distributed copies of a Summary Report by Sue Breeyear on the Tablet Pilot Phase II – Faculty September 2006 Focus groups (link).
1. Sue indicated that there had been 4 group sessions and that a survey had been completed by 59% of faculty participants in the pilot program (link).
2. Sue indicated that most problems reported by participants involved functionality issues (e.g., cursor drift and screen calibration).
3. In-house IT support provided by Sue Breeyear and John Martineck.
4. Calibration-problem rate was approximately 40%.
2. Tony Richardson asked whether IT was prepared to deal with an approximate calibration-problem rate of 40% for a deployment of 150 PC Tablets (40% of 150 = 60) expected during the first week of January 2007. Tony suggested that an early deployment of approximately 30 PC Tablets in late December might relieve some pressure on IT support.
3. Bill Anderson pointed out that Gateway had continued to upgrade the PC Tablets and that he expected a lower calibration-problem rate. Bill also pointed out that the PC Tablet could be used as a simple laptop but that, hopefully, the faculty would learn to use the additional features offered by the PC Tablet.
4. Bill Anderson talked about the motivation for transition to PC Tablets:
1. We are at the end of the normal 3-year cycle for our current laptops and they needed to be replaced. A forward-looking plan led to the PC Tablet platform.
2. New features that have a positive impact on teaching (e.g., “inking”) are available only on PC Tablets.
3. The PC Tablet environment allows collaborative work between users.
4. The price differential between laptops and PC Tablets is approximately 5%.
5. The introduction of a new computing platform for faculty ties in with the possible mandate for students beginning in fall 2008.
5. Training sessions and tutorials on PC Tablets will be offered to faculty.
6. Next EdTech meeting is scheduled for November 27^th.