Photo by Jamie Heilman
When you walk into Engineering Unit E on the University Park campus, you might see a dozen or so students at numerous drafting tables, some working together and some working alone. Each student appears to be focused on what at first glance looks like some type of metal drawing tablet.
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Photo by Jamie Heilman |
This brightly lit room, cluttered with tools and supplies of the architect, is the classroom where Professor Loukas Kalisperis teaches Architecture 232, a design course for second year architecture students. It is also the site for Penn State's Tablet PC project. The brainchild of Kalisperis and John Harwood, senior director of Teaching and Learning with Technology (TLT), a unit of Information Technology Services (ITS), the Tablet PC project began in the summer of 2004.
The purpose of the project is twofold. First, architecture faculty were interested in experimenting with tablet PCs because they felt students could be more creative with a tool like the tablet computer that mimics traditional drawing tools like pens and slates. Students use a stylus to write, draw, or perform other functions of the tablet PC, and may use the device for checking e-mail and other standard computing tasks.
Second, TLT staff were interested in what it would take to manage multiple computers in mobile locations, as opposed to the fixed-location computers presently managed in classrooms and labs across Penn State campuses. The Tablet PC project will allow TLT staff to understand what will be required to deploy, manage, and support computers loaned to students for use in class. Several tablet models were tested by TLT staff for performance, durability, and compatibility issues. Kalisperis and other staff from the College of Arts and Architecture also tested the equipment and chose the Gateway M275 tablet because of its large screen size, convertible design, and memory capacity.
The Tablet PC pilot project is an extension of an ongoing collaboration between ITS Graduate Education and Research Services (GEaRS) and the School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture that began in 2001 with the development and operation of the Immersive Environments Lab (IEL) in 306 Engineering Unit C. The IEL is equipped with a large format, multi-screen, 3D stereo enabled computer "desktop" that enables students to use a variety of virtual reality and multimedia techniques throughout the design process to better realize their designs and to communicate various aspects of their projects with their instructors and peers. Teleconferencing technologies are also available in the IEL for interactive collaborative visualization with colleagues in other locations.
Architecture 232 students use the IEL to present their projects to their instructors and peers on digital white-boards and the tablet PC's shared desktop. Those watching the presentation can view the presentation on their tablet PC or the wall display system. The tablet's shared desktop lets audience members annotate or markup the presenter's design from their seat. Bimal Balakrishnan, a College of Communications doctoral student and Kalisperis' teaching assistant, believes that "one of the challenges beginning students face is visualizing buildings or spaces that don't yet exist in reality." Using the computers in the IEL helped with this challenge, but student creativity was constrained by the necessity of completing designs in an isolated computer lab at a particular time of day or night. Kalisperis explains, "the idea for a design does not always happen from 2:30 to 5:30 on Monday, Wednesday, or Friday afternoon. Designs happen all the time! The tablet PC allows the student to capture their design anytime and anywhere."
During the first semester of the pilot project, Kalisperis immediately recognized changes in both the quality and the quantity of the work submitted by the students. According to Kalisperis, the tablet computer allows students to record an idea at the exact moment it occurs, which is extremely important to the conception of a design. Each student receives feedback from Kalisperis and the other students during the presentation period. Having a tablet computer allows students to adjust their designs in an immediate reaction to the suggestions made by other students. Not only can they adjust their designs, they can test them to make sure the design will work. An enthusiastic Kalisperis explains, "They change their designs while I lecture! Being able to adjust and test their design in an almost immediate response to feedback is what to me, is most important."
Having the tablet PC available has also increased the number of designs produced by the students. Kalisperis explains that not only are the designs "more thoughtful, more refined, and better tested," there are more of them, which creates an unexpected challenge for Kalisperis and the students. Before the Tablet PC project, students turned in three to four project boards each week, which were presented and reviewed with the instructor and peers. "Now, students are able to produce more drawings than they can possibly present in their fifteen minute time slot!" says Kalisperis.
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Photo by Jamie Heilman |
Chris Sacksteder, Tablet PC pilot project manager, said that user feedback from the initial fall 2004 pilot had been positive and that students seemed to be extremely happy with the tablet computers. Fourteen students participated in the fall 2004 pilot, and thirteen students are using the tablets during the spring 2005 semester. James Crissinger, one of the students in the first semester pilot, said he knew the tablet PC was going to be extremely useful the first time he used it. According to Crissinger, "I've never used anything so fast that was so small and light. The power of it was unbelievable, even with power hungry graphic applications like Form Z and Photoshop." Another student from the first semester pilot, Katie McCully, agreed. She used the tablet computer primarily for class, but also used it to check e-mail across campus. McCully said that the additional disk storage was another reason she liked using the tablet: "The tablet PC was great because it had a lot of space. We need a lot of space for our work because we're constantly changing files and making new files. Now I can store everything in one place and track different versions of my work. I loved using the tablet PC because of the large screen, the disk space, and it was light and easy to carry. When I had to go back to my laptop, I wasn't really used to it because it did not have the technology and the power of the tablet PC."
A visit with the students at the beginning of the project's second semester revealed their excitement about the project. A few students expressed concerns about their liability for the device, referring to the agreement students sign stating they will be responsible for the tablet computer during the semester loan. Kalisperis explained that during the first semester, the only problems encountered were with normal wear and tear on a few latches, which were replaced by TLT staff.
Penn State is once again setting the standard for teaching and learning with technology for other institutions of higher education. Kalisperis explains that in 1992 "we were the first department to actually use computers directly in the design studio. There were other institutions with longer histories of using computers, but they used them in a special course, outside of the design studio process." Design studio is the name given to the basic instructional model for architecture. Students work on a semester-long project either alone, or collaboratively with other students. Architecture 232 meets three times a week, with the instructor spending the majority of class time instructing students on an individual basis. Katsuhiko Muramoto, associate professor of architecture, has also been involved with the project. Muramoto explains the pedagogical benefits of the tablet computer with the use of a "before and after" illustration: "Before the introduction of the tablet PC, an instructor would stand behind the student to comment on their design and verbally suggest modifications. Now, I can use the tablet PC to show the student what I mean when I am talking about the design. In a very extraordinary way, the advanced technology of the tablet PC is reintroducing the time-tested method of hand-drawing back into the design process."
With the establishment of an architecture computer lab in 1992, Penn State modeled the use of computers within a design studio, which many architectural schools soon adopted and adapted for their own use. Kalisperis explains that even though the computer lab technology helped the students create, visualize, and test their designs, there was still a "disconnect between the design process and the use of computers. Architectural designs come from ideas, and ideas do not come when you have access to a computer, or when class is in session; so the tablet PCs are important because you can act upon your idea whenever and where ever it occurs."
International institutions such as the University of Brazilla, National Technical University of Athens, and the University of Istanbul also consider Penn State a leader in the use of technology in the design studio and visualization processes. Both the Tablet PC project and the IEL will be highlighted in the upcoming National Association Architecture Board's accreditation visit in February. Kalisperis and Balakrishnan will present a paper on the project at the Education and Research in Computer Aided Architectural Design (eCAADe) international conference in September 2005. Kalisperis says, "It's exciting to see the way the tablet PC technology fosters student creativity and improves the quantity and quality of student designs."
For more information about the Tablet PC pilot project, contact Kalisperis (lnk@psu.edu) or Sacksteder (cjs@psu.edu).
For more information on tablet PCs, visit http://clc.its.psu.edu/About/Projects/Evaluations/TabletPC/.
