U Virginia turn tablets on teaching: school tries high-tech content delivery

University Business, July, 2004

Turns Tablets on The University of Virginia will launch an ambitious program to develop and deliver digital course material using tablet PCs. The pilot program, set to begin this fall, will include more than 400 students in the school's biochemistry, psychology, and statistics programs, said Edward Ayers, dean of Arts and Sciences.

University faculty will work with Thomson Learning (www.thomson.com) over the summer to develop the course content, while Microsoft (www.microsoft.com) has agreed to supply its Tablet PCs and the necessary software. Students will be able to collaborate with each other and communicate digitally with instructors in real time on campus and in wireless classrooms.

The university expects that combining intelligent digital tools and blended learning models will improve both student [earning and faculty productivity. "Our goal is to institute pilots like this to explore and expand how more traditional approaches might be reinvented to better serve our students," said Ayers. "It also meets the demands and sensibilities of today's tech-savvy, information-focused student within the budgetary constraints of higher learning institutions.