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  • Agilix is Still in the Tablet PC Technology Game

    Several weeks ago, I wrote a five year anniversary article looking Tablet PC software companies. One of the companies that seemed to have dropped out of the scene altogether was Agilix . Most folks know Agilix by GoBinder , a notetaking application they brought to market 3 - 4 years ago. While they have not updated GoBinder in several years, I have since learned that Agilix is still playing ball in the Tablet PC space by making ink a key feature of other mobile products they are bringing to market in the education space. Last week, I had the privilege of following up with Mark Calkins and Jim Ericson, both Vice Presidents of Marketing at Agilix, and we talked a lot about GoCourse , a distributed instructional and course management application which is capable of delivery multiple medium types: video, audio, pdf's, Word docs, etc. I'm not going to spend a great deal of time going over all the in's and out's of GoCourse, except to say that those involved in distributed learning really need to take a hard look at what Agilix is offering here. The authoring, instructional, and student features of GoCourse look to be a very compelling solution. Be sure to checkout the GoCourse product page and watch their interactive tour - it is chock full of information that is too detailed for me to go over here. On my list of to-do's is to talk with our local homeschool study center, Collegium Study Center , about GoCourse. So, what about the Tablet PC features? Well, Agilix still recognizes that many students and instructors use Tablet PCs, so they implemented their InfiNotes notetaking control throughout their Notetaking features, as was implemented in GoBinder. In addition to the regular notetaking features, Agilix also supports ink in Speed Notetaker, a small notetaking GoCourse app that sits in the system tray, much like OneNote's SideNote. In addition, instructors get ink support in Speed Grader, which allows the instructor to quickly grade the student's...
  • More Tablet PCs in Education!

    Lora Heiny , the First Lady of Tablet PCs, sent us over a link on a Microsoft case study in Jefferson County Public Schools (JCPS), the largest school district in Kentucky. JCPS had been dissatisfied with the overall use of technology in the classrooms despite having a significant investment in Macs in the classrooms. After an assessment study, they decided to update the overall plan and gave the teachers Tablet PCs. JCPS decided to deploy portable computers and digital projectors to teachers in some of its elementary and middle schools for the 2005–2006 school year. Before teachers were given their new technology tools, they completed 18 hours of training. Teachers at 12 elementary schools then received Apple iBook computers, and teachers at 20 middle schools received HP Compaq TC4200 Tablet PCs running the Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition 2005 operating system with the Windows Journal note-taking accessory. ... The Tablet PCs were so well received, in fact, that JCPS ordered more and switched its elementary-school teachers from iBook computers to Tablet PCs. ... “After seeing what teachers can do with Tablet PCs, our principals want them now, too,” says Petersen. “They recognize how easy the Tablet PCs make it to integrate handwritten annotations and electronic documents, give customized presentations, and keep organized.” I found this interesting because so often we hear about Macs getting used in education and this case study shows how a Tablet PC can actually be easier to use, cheaper, and easier to support than a network of Macs. The ability to use digital ink was a key component of why this solution worked so well. The other key component - training! Even the wonderful, easy to use Tablet PC can be daunting to someone who doesn't know how best to use the technology. Face it, many teachers were never taught themselves how to incorporate technology into education. Even 18 hours of training on how to integrate the Tablet PC into their workflow apparently made a...
  • Playing Crayon Physics Deluxe on a Tablet PC

    Petri Purho, of Kloonigames , wrote a cool application called Crayon Physics and Crayon Physics Deluxe . He just got around to testing it out on a Tablet PC, and I have to say it looks really, really cool. What kid or student wouldn't love this? Watch the video below, then read more and download it here : Technorati Tags: Crayon Physics , Tablet PC This article originally posted on GottaBeMobile.com , THE source for Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC News, Video Reviews, and Discussion Forums! Full Windows Vista® in the palm of your hand - The OQO Model 02!
  • Kids Flip Out Over Tablet PCs

    Five years of Tablet PCs and kids are still getting excited about using them in school . Check out this picture Tristan Hanna after getting his HP TC4400 Tablet PC at Monte Cassino School. Priceless. From Tulsa World : Teachers at Monte Cassino School think their students are learning a lesson from their new computers that has nothing to do with math, science or history. The computers are teaching responsibility. New laptops were given to two classes of fourth-graders Tuesday morning, bringing to 224 the number of Monte Cassino students who use the tablet PCs daily. The students can use the computers as long as they attend the school. The entire seventh and eighth grades received computers earlier this year. The school's director, Sister Mary Clare Buthod, wants every student in third through eighth grades to have one eventually. ( picture courtesy of Kelly Kerr of Tulsa World). Technorati Tags: Tablet PC , Education , Students This article originally posted on GottaBeMobile.com , THE source for Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC News, Video Reviews, and Discussion Forums! Full Windows Vista® in the palm of your hand - The OQO Model 02!
  • New book on Tablet PCs in Education

    Lora over at WhatIsNew is also very interested in Tablet PCs in the education space, so I was very interested when she posted about a new book she found titled " The Impact of Tablet PCs and Pen-based Technology: Beyond the Tipping Point (2007)" . The book is an update to a version printed last year, and the new edition appears to be a complete re-write. From the Amazon editor's description: 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. This work is aimed at identifying best practices in the educational use of pen-based computing so that all educators may benefit from this next generation of technology. You can get your own copy at Amazon.com ( affiliate link for GBM ) Technorati Tags: Tablet+PC , Education , Book This article originally posted on GottaBeMobile.com , THE source for Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC News, Video Reviews, and Discussion Forums! Full Windows Vista® in the palm of your hand - The OQO Model 02!
  • Chalk One Up for UMPCs

    Many believe that the holy grail for Tablet PC and UMPC success is the education sector. For many reasons, the education sector has many problems that Tablet PC technology aims to solve. There is a reason that Dell is quietly targeting the education space with its XT Tablet PC. They have apparently lost a lot of ground to Lenovo and HP, and are using the XT to make up for lost market share. What about UMPCs? The highly portable and connected nature of the UMPC seems to be another natural fit. Well, JkkMobile has a good wrapup on what Samsung is doing there: apparently selling tens of thousands of Q1's to schools in the U.K. alone. I'd be interested in learning how the UMPC is doing in the U.S. education space. I bet Lora Heiny could tell us. This article originally posted on GottaBeMobile.com , THE source for Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC News, Video Reviews, and Discussion Forums! Full Windows Vista® in the palm of your hand - The OQO Model 02!
  • GottaBeAStudent: Myth of Battery Life

    Andrew Ferguson is an author at StudentTabletPC.com ...when homework and exams permit. This is the first in a series of guest posts for GottaBeMobile. This article was originally going to be about batteries and battery management. Well, it still is. But not in the way you might think. I wanted to write an awesome article about how I changed a few settings and all of a sudden I went from an hour of battery life to five hours of battery life. This will not be that article. I have a confession to make. Most of the time when my tablet is on, it's plugged into the wall. At home, I drop it in my port replicator and it basically becomes a glorified desktop. I have a separate power cable in the living room that I plug into when I do homework. Another brick remains in my bag for when I'm out and about and I'm pretty sure I have a fourth one floating around somewhere "just in case." In short, my life revolves around power cables and where the electrical outlets are. This is somehow fitting considering that I'm at college to become an electrical engineer. It seems to me that a lot of emphasis is placed on trying to get über long battery times. I'll often hear users wanting to buy a computer with a battery that will last them all day without having to plug in. This is not an entirely unreasonable request and with a battery big enough and a device that consumes a small enough amount of power, it can readily be accomplished. I'm not going to bore you with the technical details about my power consumption. Instead, I'll provide a brief overview of how I run my ship: I usually keep my monitor brightness at 3/8 to 1/2 brightness. There are three programs I almost always have running: OneNote, Mathematica, and Firefox. There are also a slew of programs running in my tray, such as Skype, Pidgin, AVG Antivirus, Mozy, Google Desktop, etc. My base RAM usage is around 900MB. I honestly have no idea how it got that high and I'm sure there is some memory...
  • Students, Mobility, and Tablet PCs

    Our readership on GottaBeMobile.com is quite diverse - from business people, to stay-at-home moms, to medical professionals, to students - we definitely cover a wide audience and diverse group of readers with some unique, yet common needs. Andrew Ferguson, of StudentTabletPC.com , is going to be guest-authoring some articles for us, focusing on mobile issues that students face. His first article, to be published on Monday, will be on the topic of battery life. We hope the articles will be beneficial to students and non-students alike. While you are enjoying Andrew's series on GBM, be sure to visit StudentTabletPC.com for more in-depth, student-focused articles and community discussions. This article originally posted on GottaBeMobile.com , THE source for Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC News, Video Reviews, and Discussion Forums! Full Windows Vista® in the palm of your hand - The OQO Model 02!
  • Education Goes Wireless

    I've become even more interested in articles discussing using Tablet PCs in education now that I'm actually back in school again. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has a nice article today covering several colleges that are increasing their use of Tablet PCs and wireless Internet access. I know that my school ( Portland State University ) seems to have WiFi available everywhere. For some students, though, it has drawbacks, because they can't seem to keep from surfing all class, although as University of Pittsburgh School of Law professor Kevin Ashley noted, "As long as the hands are going up and people are responding, I don't care what else they're doing." I hope my professors think the same thing. Technorati Tags: Education , Students , Tablet+PC This article originally posted on GottaBeMobile.com , THE source for Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC News, Video Reviews, and Discussion Forums! Full Windows Vista® in the palm of your hand - The OQO Model 02!
  • University of North Carolina Begins a Student Tablet PC Pilot Program

    University of North Carolina's Information Technology Services has built upon their previous faculty-based Tablet PC pilot, and have begun incorporating students for the 2007-08 school year. From DailyTarHeel.com First and foremost, ITS-TL identifies, explores and pilots different ways to integrate technology into the instructional mission of the University. A recent example is the UNC Tablet PC Research Group. This year, the tablet PC is included in the laptop models available through the CCI program. Capitalizing on the availability of the tablet PC, and leveraging the knowledge gained through last year's faculty tablet PC pilot, ITS-TL has partnered with student government to conduct a student tablet PC pilot. Tablet PCs are now on loan to 25 students for the 2007-08 school year. More than 475 students volunteered to participate in the pilot. Selected students attend a basic orientation program and follow-up training sessions, create regular blog postings and give their feedback through focus group meetings. Results of this pilot will help inform the selection of future computer models through the CCI. Results will also be made available to aid incoming students in selecting the best CCI computer for their academic needs. Technorati Tags: Students , Tablet PC , UNC , University of North Carolina This article originally posted on GottaBeMobile.com , THE source for Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC News, Video Reviews, and Discussion Forums! Full Windows Vista® in the palm of your hand - The OQO Model 02!
  • Who is Eligible for The Ultimate Steal?

    TheUltimateSteal.com kicked off live this morning and the biggest question of all has been: who is eligible for the $59.95 Office Ultimate 2007? Here are the details from http://theultimatesteal.com/eligibility.asp You must hold a valid email address at a U.S. educational institution ending in .edu (for example, leina@contoso.university.edu) AND Be actively enrolled with at least 0.5 course load. Also, you must be able to provide proof of enrollment status (ie, student card) upon request by Microsoft. If you are unable to provide proof of enrollment, you will be required to pay the full retail price of Office Ultimate 2007 (approximate ERP $679USD). Technorati Tags: Office 2007 , TheUltimateSteal.com , students , education This article originally posted on GottaBeMobile.com , THE source for Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC News, Video Reviews, and Discussion Forums! Full Windows Vista® in the palm of your hand - The OQO Model 02!
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