Mark Wagner has obviously worked hard on the content for the El Morro Intro to Tablet PC Workshop. Just pop over to the wiki to read the list of topics covered. I'd love to see even more on using Tablet PCs for classroom management, as well as annotating and grading papers. Tablets are great tools for these types of tasks.

Recently, I've received questions about what application teachers can use on a Tablet PC that would be like a transparency or overhead.

Check out WriteOn, a project out of Virginia Tech. Teachers can annotate and "play back" to reveal information. This would be particularly useful for complex formulas, equations, and staging labels.

LectureScribe is a whiteboarding application that you can use with a Tablet PC or interactive whiteboard. The app has a great ink playback features, which is particularly useful for revealing complex proofs, concepts, or other information.

In a Clemson University newsletter, Brian Dean, who wrote the app, described how he uses this Flash application:

Over the past few years, I have used LectureScribe for a variety of purposes: sending multimedia notes to students and colleagues in response to questions over email, posting supplemental material in my courses, making research notes for myself to view in the future, and finally in the development of a multimedia textbook where difficult material is explained using short animated mini-lectures.

The Association of Small Computer Users in Education (ASCUE) Conference 2008 will have a workshop on building video tutorials that includes LectureScribe tips for Tablet PC users.

Conference Dates: June 15, 2008 - June 19, 2008
Location: Myrtle Beach, SC
Conference website: http://www.ascue.org/ 
Presenter: Steve Anderson, U. South Carolina - Sumter
Workshop Date: Sunday, June 15, 2008
Time: 9:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Now that the workplace tool of preferred choice are mobile PCs over stationary PCs, IT support needs are shifting too. Global Knowledge is running a Windows Vista training course and certification test preparation that includes configuring and networking of mobile PCs, including instructions and labs on pen settings.

Course Outline

10. Configuring Mobile Computers

• Configuring Mobile Computer Settings
• Configuring Mobile Devices
• Configuring Power Options

11. Configuring Tablet PC Settings

• Configuring Pen and Input Devices

12. Networking Mobile Computers

• Networking Without Wires
• Connecting to a Wireless Network
• Working with Offline Files

Purdue University is hosting this year's Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology on Education (WIPTE). Submissions for papers, videos and posters are now being accepted.

Conference Dates: October 15 - 16, 2008
Conference Schedule future location

Here are some of the details for the Call for Papers:

Submissions Due: June 16, 2008.

Objectives: A wide variety of disciplines are embracing Tablet PC's and similar pen-based devices as tools for the radical enhancement of teaching and learning. Deployments of Tablet PCs have spanned the K-12, undergraduate, and graduate levels and have dealt with an amazingly diverse range of subject areas including nursing, veterinary science, geology, ethno-musicology, anthropology, landscape architecture, writing, mathematics, computer science, Japanese language, physics, engineering, art, economics, as well as others. Despite the diversity of content areas, many deployments have been similar in terms of the passion they have generated among students and teachers. The Third Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology on Education (WIPTE) is intended to leverage this shared passion and to identify best practices in the educational use of pen-based computing so that all educators may benefit from this next generation of technology.

As Microsoft's Chairman, Bill Gates paints a vision of technology today and how those advancements can improve tomorrow and is a trusted advisor on how we can achieve these goals.

This week Bill Gates testified before the U.S. House of Representatives, Committee on Science and Technology on the celebration of the 50th of the Committee. He answered questions ranging from the knowledge gap with students, fundamental problems with teacher professional development, the next big thing in technology, to inspiring kids to learn. Gates' message is consistent with prior speeches, but reviewing is worthwhile. "It starts with education," he stated.

Also this week, Bill Gates addressed the Northern Virginia Technology Council (March 13, 2008). In this he gave more specific examples about technology available to students today, including the WW Telescope project from MSR and Tablet PCs.

So if you put it on your computer and say hey, I’d like to see that for myself – you just connect up your telescope and boom, there you are. You can acquire information, add that to your database. So software touching all the sciences in a pretty deep way. So with these platforms there will be a huge variation in how creative governments are in applying software to their task, how creative businesses are to apply it to their task, how schools can take this and do new things.

The School District of Philadelphia broke ground on its "School of the Future" in 2004. Today, students attending use Tablet PCs for course material, notes, and assignments. Classroom equipment is state-of-the-art. There is no doubt that the Philly SOF has influenced school technology plans at a world wide level.

Franklin County Regional School District is a few hours to the west, outside of Pittsburgh, and they're exploring ways to bring advanced technology to their students and teachers. The state of Pennsylvania funded $423,000. What equipment have they selected? 60 interactive whiteboards, projectors and mobile PCs for the teachers, along with peripherals like printers, still cameras, webcams and video cameras. Students will have access to 270 mobile PCs that are distributed through the school on nine carts. Sounds like a great start to a one-to-many classroom.

What type of PC did you use in 1987? Probably an IBM PS/2 compatible PC, which you used at work.

Many of this year's graduating student teachers were born in 1987. These future teachers grew up surrounded by computers. How do you think their experiences will change next year's classrooms?

A simple way may be the acceptance of technology in daily life, versus special training on how to integrate it into their workflow. Another way may be that they'll expect a PC to be used as their main classroom organization tool as well as for rich interaction.

When Mom's Motion Computing LE1700 Tablet PC arrived at the end of December, it was the first of a new set of PCs finding their way into our family.

Have you noticed the new face to the Windows Vista Developer Center? Thanks for the update, Eliot.

Classroom Presenter 3 was released by University of Washington's Center for Collaborative Technologies. This presentation tool can be used in classes by teachers and students.