York Region District School Board
York Region District School Board Teachers and Administrators Benefit from Flexibility of Tablet PC
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Company Overview
The York Region District School Board operates the province's publicly-funded schools in the nine municipalities in York Region, Ontario. The Board is responsible for administering the funding they receive from the province and determining operational requirements such as the number, size and location of schools, as well as education curriculums and the tools teachers need to improve teaching practices.
Business Challenge
To ensure its population of over 100, 000 students is prepared for the rapidly evolving world, the York Region District School Board continuously reviews and evaluates its programs and practices to ensure they deliver the Ontario curriculum in the best way possible. When evaluating new opportunities for the classroom, the Board always considers how best to introduce new technologies into the educational environment. "We are always looking at how technology can be used to augment student lessons, or simply help teachers do their jobs more effectively," says Bill Hogarth, Director of Education, York Region District School Board. "Technology can really empower our teachers and give our students a wonderful educational opportunity."
While technology advances in the classroom offer significant benefits, they often involve distinct departures from traditional teaching and learning practices. To investigate how new technology solutions can best be implemented into the classroom, the York Region District School Board appointed three teachers, currently curriculum consultants, to form an e-Learning team. The e-Learning team is charged with identifying new technological innovations to facilitate teaching and learning processes, evaluating how best to utilize these technologies and looking at how to unobtrusively incorporate them into the classroom environment. By using the technology in their daily work, the team evaluates tools being considered for classroom use, determining what benefits these tools could bring to teachers and students.
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Solution
When the York Region District School Board's e-Learning team first saw the Tablet PC and Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, they immediately felt this evolved notebook computer would be a great fit in the classroom environment. "We could see how this innovative tool would be a natural supplement in a teacher's lesson, while at the same time helping make them more efficient and productive," says Todd Wright, Curriculum Coordinator, Information Technology, York Region District School Board e-Learning team.
Specifically, we liked that the Tablet PC could be used like a teacher's clipboard and notebook computer in one, allowing teachers to record, store, send and retrieve student information and teaching materials electronically. By replacing the age-old clipboard with a Tablet PC, we predicted that teachers could use this device in the classroom, on a fieldtrip, or while moving from meetings around the school, and with its added capabilities, it could provide significant time savings and increased collaboration."
Windows XP Tablet PC Edition improves on a notebook PC, by allowing a user to control the Tablet PC using a digital pen, create and save searchable handwritten documents and to convert them into typed text for later use in other applications through the Microsoft Windows Journal utility. With a digital pen and speech recognition capabilities, the Tablet PC becomes a writing pad that can be easily carried around for maximum mobility. And by downloading the Microsoft Office XP Pack for Tablet PC, users can integrate electronic "ink" into everyday programs in Office XP.
The three curriculum consultants/teachers on the York Board's e-Learning team each equipped themselves with an Acer TravelMate 100 Tablet PC, as well as the Office XP Pack for Tablet PC, as part of a pilot program to investigate the Tablet PC features and functions.
Business Benefits
The curriculum consultants found the Tablet PC extremely easy to use and experienced tangible increases in productivity, enhanced mobility and better collaboration while using the Tablet PCs.
Ease of Use
"Whenever you move to a new device there is always the fear it could be difficult to learn and actually slow you down in the initial stages, but our transition to the Tablet PC was virtually seamless," says Janet Millar-Grant, Curriculum consultant, Distance Learning, York Region District School Board. "Not only is the Tablet PC very intuitive and extremely easy to use, but we were also able to take advantage of our existing knowledge of Microsoft Windows operating system. It will be very easy for us to put the Tablet PC into the classroom without a significant learning curve for the teachers."
"What could be easier to learn than something that works like a pad of paper and pen?" says Todd Wright, Curriculum Coordinator, Information Technology, York Region District School Board e-Learning team. "With the Tablet PC, I don't take paper notes anymore. Instead I take electronic notes with the Windows Journal note-taking utility. I write on the Tablet PC screen the same way I would on a piece of paper, except now I can save my handwritten notes for future reference, send them in e mail, and even sort and search them later."
Increased Collaboration
With all documents stored electronically, the team is now able to retrieve information without having to contend with a filing cabinet to slow down decision-making and share information with other people in a simpler way.
"The ability to collaborate on handwritten digital documents with my colleagues using our Tablet PCs has proven to be invaluable," says Andrew Angus. "We've quickly moved away from a paper-based work environment which has increased our productivity and made for a more organized workspace."
Providing Tablet PCs to teachers will provide similar benefits. Instant screen rotation allows users to carry the Tablet PC like a clipboard. Teachers can take attendance or make notes on student progress during class lessons and, instead of having to transcribe the notes into electronic format later, they simply dock the Tablet PC at the end of the day to upload all the information collected to the school's main database. Not only does this save time and streamline the process, it also allows for easier collaboration as all teachers and administrators have access to the most accurate and current information.
Increased Mobility
With the Tablet PCs lightweight form factor, instant screen rotation, easy conversion to tablet format, and built-in support for wireless networking it is easy to take anywhere.
"The members of the e-Learning team are constantly on the go between meetings and presentations to Board committees in many different locations throughout Ontario," says Andrew Angus, Curriculum Consultant, Computer Studies, York Region District School Board. "It's important that we have access to the same tools we have in the office while we are the road and the Tablet PC is giving us as much functionality as a desktop, but with the mobility of a handheld."
Within days, the members of the e-Learning team had moved all their files from their notebook computers to their Tablet PC without having to sacrifice functionality. "I retired my laptop computer, PDA and clipboard as soon as I discovered that one Tablet PC could do virtually everything they could do and more. Now, when I take notes in a meeting they are saved electronically with the note taking feature and I can share these notes with my colleagues more quickly," says Wright.
Leveraging the wireless capabilities of the Tablet PC and the wireless local area network in the York Regional District School Board's head office, the e-Learning team also found it much easier to move seamlessly from meeting room to meeting room with full access to data, whether it is on their PC hard drive or network servers. Power efficient high-end processors combined with new battery technology and Windows XP power-management features lets users use their Tablet PC away from their desks for longer periods of time.
Moving Forward
The benefits the e-Learning team experienced during their evaluation have provided them with a guide to how the technology can play a key role in improving the teaching and learning experience of York Region District school staff and students. "In addition to being a member of the e-Learning team, I'm also a teacher myself," says Todd Wright. "I found the Tablet PC can easily go from the boardroom to the classroom environment, where teachers could use it to take notes on student progress, or even as a teaching tool, such as using PowerPoint presentation graphics program for instruction, writing directly on the screen to highlight information."
The e-Learning team can also see the Tablet PC being used in the classroom for the demonstration, creation and publishing of student generated work. "I think students will become engaged in the writing process to a greater extent as the Tablet becomes a thought and idea processor," says Wright.
The York Region District School Board is now planning to purchase 20 to 25 more Tablet PCs before the end of 2003 to enable teachers, school administrators and executives to take advantage of the mobility, productivity and collaboration features the Tablet PC provides. From there, the York Region District School Board will evaluate how different school programs, such as special education classes, could benefit from the Tablet PC technology. "We are all excited by the opportunities the Tablet PC offers and will work to get this tool into our schools," says Bill Hogarth.
For More Information
For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Co. Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: http://www.microsoft.com/ For more information about York Region District School Board visit the Web site at:
www.yrdsb.edu.on.ca For more information on Acer visit the Web site at: www.acer.ca
