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.

Whether you refer to small PCs with batteries Ultra-mobile PCs, ultramobile PCs, mini tablets, or UMPC, this category packs innovation into a little bundle that you can carry with you.  Between Intel and VIA designing special chipsets and processors with better power management, rotational hard drives dropping in price, and the popularity of small display sizes in consumer products we've seen the sub 2lb PC market start to expand. The innovation doesn't stop with chipsets and processors though. We're seeing touch screens on more PCs. You can tap your way around web pages with your finger or a stylus. When you're using a full Windows OS with browser, you can run Flash and Silverlight based web apps, read and write PDFs, and even use a full productivity application suite. You can use these little PCs as a companion or as a simple PC system.

Is a product still in the UMPC category when a rotational hard drive is replaced with solid state drive? What about when the screen is just a regular display and doesn't have touch? Or how about when the operating system is mobile or limited? Why or why not?

CES has been a great place for resellers, retailers, and partners to get product roadmaps, not to mention a good place for press and general audience to get a peek at future products. Though the target audience for these products is consumers, there really is a variety of product types on the show floor.

The CES 2008 Tablet PC & UMPC is underway. jkOnTheRun suggests over 100 people have already arrived. Joan Heiny says several people have been coming in and out of the rooms. More were arriving as we were talking on the phone. She also reported 5 manufacturers may be giving away Tablet PCs and several other manufacturers are present. The excitement and laughter from the crowd was obvious.

www.akihabaranews.com reports a new UMPC from LG (name yet to come) will be displayed at CES 2008.

Specifications include:

• a 4.8” Touchscreen
• 1GB of RAM
• Intel Menlow Platform
• 40GB of HDD
• HSDPA, Wifi, Bluetooth, and a Keyboard

The Samsung Q1 Ultra Premium UMPC was named a 2008 CES Innovations Honoree.

This post provides a few more pieces of information regarding the CES 2008 Tablet PC and UMPC Gathering.

Costco.com is offering a $100 coupon for Fujtisu Lifebook U810 with Windows Vista Home Premium. The coupon is valid for orders placed before December 10, 2007.

Windows Journal is a basic note-taking application designed so you can handwrite, search those notes, convert to text when needed, insert images, and even print other documents into Windows Journal for annotating. It is extremely handy for freeflow notes or brainstorming, just as you would use a piece of paper.

The low display resolution of a UMPC gives you an added bonus -- the Windows Journal page is approximately the size of an index card. This is useful for organizing project topics, references, or relationships.
Here are a few example screenshots

Yes, this means Tablet PCs & UMPCs to.

I briefly exchanged emails with Trace Choulat, who is organizing the Educause Handheld & Mobile Computing Constituent Group session. People interested in or already using mobile PCs, Tablet PCs, ultra-portables, & UMPCs are welcome to attend to exchange ideas about uses in higher education. The abstract has now been updated to reflect the range of mobile computing devices and PCs that people are now using.