1:1 Computing Utilizing Tablet PC's in Higher Education - The Dakota State Implementation
A new way of doing education
Tom Farrell, Associate ProfessorDakota State UniversityMadison, SD
1 to 1 Computing A New Way of Teaching & Learning
The Original Wireless Tablet
Not really, but think of a computer that has all of the computing potential of a fully powered laptop computer but with all of the rich features of a Wireless TabletPC
Dakota State University Demographics
Undergraduate (3 Colleges) Arts & Science Education Business & Info
Systems All colleges
participated in WMCI at 100 and 200 level courses
Enrollment: 1,800 with 1,200 on campus
Graduate (3 Degrees) MISIS MSET MSIA
Blended delivery of Internet and on campus
Currently students can opt into WMCI only
Dakota State University Mission Statement
Dakota State University is South Dakota's leader in applying computer and information systems technology to higher education.
Dakota State's academic programs look to the future, emphasizing a high-quality, comprehensive, discipline-based education with the intense application of existing and emerging technologies.
The WMCI Concept
The concept was to enrich and take full advantage of an existing computing infrastructure by moving to a Wireless Mobile Computing Initiative (WMCI)
This initiative would place a Wireless Mobile Tablet PC on each of the student’s desktop for all classes to take advantage of opportunities afforded with wireless mobile tablet computing
Accomplished via a 1 to 1 computing initiative
Early Pioneers
Two faculty were identified by administration to explore the concept of the “Tablet PC”
I Remember well the day when we were told we were going to explore the concept We did not laugh in Dean’s office,
however by the time we got to the drinking fountain were having a laughing good time
Opportunities to Explore (Jan. 2003)
Lack of knowledge was hurting us so… Vendor Events
HP in Houston in January Gateway in Tucson in March
Very informative Quickly changed mind Airports saturated by Microsoft with Tablet PC’s
In addition to the vendor events, two systems were purchased for permanent assignment to two faculty to use as desk top replacements
Planning for Year One
Generally positive feed back moved us to pilot a larger group of Tablet PC’s Had previously rejected 1 to 1 mandate
programs because of rich infrastructure and computing environment, however were loosing that edge
Originally I was opposed, but now proponent Explored multiple vendors Ultimately selected Gateway’s Motion
Slate
Why Gateway (Motion Slate)
Tremendous attention from both vendors in addressing concerns
Keyboard modifications Price appeared to be
competitive in comparison to other brands
Thought the slate would be the way to go
Fall 2003
130 Gateway (Motion Slates) Cart Machines
2 30 stations labs were developed using rolling carts
One was a desktop lab replacement One was a lab for a new building opening on
campus 30 assigned permanently to students from
Center of Excellence for Information Systems 30 assigned to faculty across campus 10 to the library for check out
Fall 2003 Wireless Update
The 130 machine roll out caused additional expansion of the wireless network on the campus More areas including areas where carts
were located Additional site surveys and access point
placement Became about 75% wireless in all
academic areas
Cart Usage
1 30 station tablet cart was assigned to a room where all sections of Introduction to Computers were taught as were some of the programming classes All students used a tablet in class
Students never given the opportunity to embrace concept of working outside of class on tablets Migrated to traditional labs for outside of class
work Many reported liking the tablet as a tool
Cart Usage (Lab 2)
The second cart was assigned to a new technology classroom building
Wide variety of classes and disciplines Mix of distance and face to face classes Use less wide spread than the
Introduction to Computer lab Good reviews depending upon the
class and activities presented
30 Center of Excellence Students
Became one of the most important groups of pilot study
Systems became students to use at all times both on and off campus
Preview of what the 1 to 1 mandate program would yield
Students became very innovative and quickly embraced the technology
30 Faculty Machines
Initial problem was finding 30 faculty willing to try new technology Original thesis was to get a Tablet PC
you would have to give up your desk top system
Were to use as only computer system Tablet would function as a
presentation system (SmartBoard) in class as well as the faculty member’s university provided computer
January 2004
New President arrives One of his strengths was having worked with a
mandate program at the University of Minnesota Crookston
First IBM Think Pad campus
Time to make decisions for mandate program: Which student population Which vendor What policies and procedures
Which Student Population
Decided upon all 100 and 200 level courses across the entire campus with goal to move to all undergraduates
Would be a population of about 700 plus students
All current freshmen had at least worked some with a tablet
Needed to become a part of student recruitment plans
Vendor
Determination was made that the Slate model was not the direction to pursue Slate shortcomings
Keyboard No optical drive attached Not an integrated system unit
Wanted a “Convertible” system for all of the reasons listed above
Vendor (Cont’d)
Evaluated various vendors including: HP Toshiba Acer Gateway Viewsonic
Gateway’s introduction of the M275 was on the horizon
Why Gateway and the M275
Felt Gateway despite financial challenges had taken the necessary steps to become stable
Service from both the sales people as well the technical engineers was excellent
Value The cost vs features certainly came out the
best for the M275 Side note actually delivered 700 systems
1 week ahead of scheduled delivery
The Gateway M275E (Summer 05)
Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition
Processor: Intel® Pentium® M Processor 715 (1.5GHz)
Memory: 256MB DDR SDRAM Hard Drive: 30GB 4200rpm ultra ATA hard drive Floppy Drive: Integrated 4-in-1 Memory Card
Reader Optical Drive: Integrated 24x/10x/24x CD-RW and
8x DVD combo Expansion Slots: (1) Type II PC card slot External Ports: (2) USB 2.0, IEEE 1394 (FireWire),
VGA
WMCI Policies and Procedures
Very time consuming So many things to think about Visits to campuses with mandate
programs Formulated a WMCI task force
Appointed Chairperson (Dean BIS) Computing services staff Faculty and student representation As well as administration
Our WMCI Task Force
Met regularly and often Discussed many ideas and concepts Formulated a plan Over saw planning Unfortunately once the systems
were rolled out the task force has had limited involvement
Pre-Selling
It was determined that it would be important to pre-sell the concept to the two constituency groups of incoming freshman and next year’s sophomore students
Were scheduled for a minimum of a 30 minute presentation and question/answer period with all incoming freshman and parents Recruitment visits and registration
Pre-Selling (Cont’d)
Two faculty from WMCI task force offered services to all existing 100 level course instructors to visit their classrooms to present the WMCI plan and answer questions
Visited in excess of 15 classes and saw most students more than once Not bad concept to see more than once
The 1 to 1 Program
Students with < 64 credit hours would be required to participate
Would then qualify as a portion of financial aid
Would redesign curriculum in all 100 – 200 level courses to take advantage of the Tablet PC and Wireless connectivity
Students above the 64 credit hour threshold would have the option to opt in
Program Cost
Tablets were leased (3 year lease) Pricing model was presented to SD
Board of Regents Cost would be $275 per student per
semester Would include the M275 tablet,
Microsoft Office Suite of Products and Programming Languages and Internet
3 year warranty and accidental damage On campus service and warranty
How Able to Keep Cost So Low
Competitive pricing from the vendor Favorable lease rates Redirection of a portion of existing
technology fees away from labs Competitive software license agreements
Use of existing staff and student workers for support
Drawback to Lower Cost
For 2005 – 2006 academic year have attempted to raise fee and SD Board of Regents is only allowing us a 5% fee increase
Faculty Training
A key part of a successful mandate program
Our worst nightmares were of students questioning as to why they needed the Tablet in a given class
Applied for a grant for faculty training from the Governor’s office
Very successful in obtaining funds Now must deliver in the classroom
setting
Faculty Teaching 100 & 200 Level Courses Required to Participate
Three pronged approach: Faculty must be given a Tablet PC as
early as possible Faculty must be trained in many of the
tablet features as well features of additional software such as Office 2003, OneNote and Windows Journal
Faculty must have buy in $$$
The DSU Training Model
In June all faculty were given for their use over the summer a Slate tablet
Not the best but still better than no tablet
However, may have actually forced them to use Tablet capabilities more
The DSU Training Model(cont’d)
Faculty were trained in Tablet 101, Office 2003, OneNote and Windows Journal Challenged to develop implementation
ideas Concept of Wireless Projection with
potential and draw backs
DSU Training (Cont’d)
Course management system training We are a WebCT state
No choices Limited utilization up to training and
mandate especially for on campus courses
Emphasis placed on the paperless classroom
DSU Training Round 2
A second round of training was held in early August once the M275 systems had arrived on campus
Emphasis on utilizing fully the features of the M275 as well as a review of a limited number of Tablet features they had been working on over the summer
Faculty Curriculum Grants
Faculty were moreready to buy in once they were provided training and a Tablet PC
However a $3,000 grant for participation certainly helped to motivate them
Deliverables: Participate in training Modify syllabus to include the Tablet PC Modify instruction to maximize the use of
the Tablet PC
The Scope
800 was initial order
Final total was 965
Fall Roll Out to Students
From This to This
Imaging
Made a choice to do our own system imaging
Experienced with desktop labs
Use the Ghost product
Hired students to assist in August
Student Training and Check Out
Used students to do a brief 15 minute training to teach new students about the M275 and Perfigo
Additional training for freshmen in CSC 105 required class
Did at the time of fee payment
Help Desk / Staff Training
Gateway came and trained computing services staff and designated students
We are classified as an ASP (Authorized Service Provider)
Help Desk Location
One very large issue for Dakota State University was the placement of our Help desk facility
Various locations were considered however in the end the President made the determination it would be housed in the library
Still pros and cons to this placement, but that is campus politics
Help Desk
Initially open between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. M - F plus weekend hours Currently staffed 9 a.m. until 4:00 p.m
Goal is 10 minute evaluation and fix Loaner pool provided as a part of
the lease helps with to meet this goal
Hard drive fresh image
Support Issues
Spyware Spyware Spyware Student added programs Very limited hardware issues Did have a screen issue early on,
but screen manufacturer and Gateway were Great
No major hinge problems
Why the M275
Value Cost vs Benefit was good
Student centric machine
Easier faculty buy in as a desktop replacement
The Opt In–Those above 64 hours
110 Juniors 75 Seniors who opted in 65 in hands of faculty and staff
including admissions and all 100 – 200 course level faculty
All faculty regardless of course level have the option of at least a slate tablet system
Success Story–Only One Example
CSC 105 Introduction to Computers required freshman level course 317 students 33 assignments including hands on
activities, simulations and exams Not a single sheet of paper printed All submission done on line via WebCT Grading done using the Tablet features
and assignments returned via WebCT
Lessons Learned – From CIO
Need a special line item in budget Formal definition of support desk
and management Need a single person to manage
Memory be certain that you have at least 512 MB
Wireless Projection
We are using a product called Air Projector http://airprojector.c
om/ Also D-Link has a
similar product Linksys has a
product that is also an Access point
Things Done Correctly
Spring 2004 Version I of wireless projection Wireless projection assisted in faculty buy in
Version 2 of wireless projection Fall 2004 All classrooms
Citrix Implementation SAN implementation in advance of
initiative more home directories & web space
Citrix
Used initially to have the capability of connecting for teaching PeopleSoft courses
Real plus for the tablet implementation
www.citrix.com
Perfigo
Perfigo is used to authenticate to the network and ultimately to the Internet
Now owned by Cisco http://
www.perfigo.com/index_old.html
The “Old” Model
The “New” 1 to 1 Computing Model
Some Future Directions
Summer 2005 outdoor campus plus all dorm areas and rooms will be wireless
Move to all 300 (Junior) level courses Personal opinion looking back
should have included 400 level courses at the same time.
Conclusion
Seen lots of wireless/mobile computing, but only scratched the surface on Tablet PC capabilities
In my time with the TabletPC have seen so many additional software improvements
Hardware and OS have arrived
The End
Questions Comments
Tom Farrell College of BIS Dakota State University Madison, SD 57042 605 256-5173 [email protected]
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