[senit] tablet pcs

David: 

We've played with classroom tablets in inclusive (LD and non-SEN students) 
settings with great results. Mostly using them as "mini-IWBs" with more 
interaction. What's been nice is that we could have some students typing on 
an attached USB keyboard, others typing on the on-screen keyboard, others 
using the writing function, still others using speech recognition and/or 
voice recording. The output is just as flexible, of course. Our best 
experiences have been with HP machines or Lenovo ThinkPads. They seem most 
robust, most able to stand up to this kind of multiple-user environment. 
What's especially nice is that you can do almost all of this with the 
software in Vista and Office, combined with free stuff. Or with XP and an 
add-in Speech Recognition package. 

With the screen size on the HPs or ThinkPads we've found that once you get 
past four students at a table, it doesn't work so well. 

All that said, of course I'm discussing a different kind of classroom than 
you are, but I think these offer amazing collaborative work possibilities in 
all sorts of SEN situations. 

Ira David Socol
Special Education Technology Scholar
CEPSE
College of Education
Michigan State University
socolira at msu.edu
http://speedchange.blogspot.com/ 

david fettes writes: 

> can you tell me about tablet PCs? For instance one student have a tellus 3 communiaction aid- based on Fujitsu tablet computer , xp, it has switch access and a touchscreen with a reasonable size. That has made some staff wonder whether more students 
> could benefit from something similar but not as a dedicated communication aid. Many of our students benefit from use of touchmonitors on computers (hence we want a tablet with a proper finger controlled touchscreen not stylus controlled) &/or switches. Ie could you buy the tablet PC which the tellus is based on and make it into a multi purpose portable  for the SLD classroom? Loading say , clicker, chooseitmaker, 2paint, a range of switch programs? 
> What would need to be considered? the angle of the device wrt sunlight, (tellus has mounting plate and deskmount)
> the charging life, getting info to and from the device, and printing?
> Some comments have been made about the relaibility and robustness of laptops, some of which may apply to this idea? What about costs and options in this area? Suppliers? The smaller size of the tablet compared with standard comoputer monitor may make some icons in some programs too small? Does anyone have students using a tablet PC in this way ?
> David 
> 