Jordan Gerard/ Winonan
New data shows students are adopting the tablet program into their schoolwork, according to the teaching, learning and technology department (TLT), but now TLT is evaluating how professors are adapting to it as well.
“They catch on pretty quickly,” Norb Thomes, the learning systems and services coordinator for TLT, said.
Thomes and TLT department worked with faculty for one-and-a-half years before giving tablets to freshmen and juniors. During this time, they launched 60 of the faculty’s custom design pilot programs so faculty became familiar with the tablets.
Thomes said there has been a bell curve for faculty who are adopting the tablets into their teaching.
“Some embraced it right away. Others are a little more cautious and just want to see how it goes. Some will let others take lead and see how it goes before using it,” Thomes said.
Thomes helped faculty integrate tablets into their curriculums and showed them how to collaborate the tablet and laptop together.
The department did not expect to see a lot of adoption in the first year, but this year they expect to see more now that each student has a tablet, Ken Graetz, director of TLT, said.
“When you roll out new technology like this, a 25 percent adoption rate out of the gate is not bad,” Graetz said. “We want it to be higher and help faculty use them in interesting ways and successfully and give them opportunities to use them.”
The tablets were not meant to be a replacement for laptops, but instead an extension. The Apple iPad and Samsung Tab 4 are able to sync to both Apple and PC laptops, Graetz said.
“The thing that is happening is that faculty are flipping courses,” Graetz said. “Class time is more interactive and keeps students busy.”
For example, the TopHat app enables professors to publish questions in class and students answer anonymously. Professors can use the app to see if the class understands the material.
TLT bought a campus license for TopHat meaning it is free for faculty and students.
“TopHat can transform your instruction,” Graetz said. “You get an immediate response from students, and you don’t have to wait for students to fail an exam to see if they understood the material.”
Graetz said there are about 4,000 active student TopHat accounts and about 60 professors who use it.
“Faculty tell you they like it by using it, and when you see it transform what they do, that’s exciting,” Graetz said, “That’s what you want.”
As for the issue of tablets potentially distracting students, Graetz said it is not a technology topic, it’s a “why are you here?” topic.
“It’s on the shoulders of students to be engaged and on the shoulders of the faculty to engage them,” Graetz said.
Even if students do not need the tablets for class, they can still use it for studying, organizing and meeting up with friends or group projects.
Junior Kylea Roeglin said, “I actually do like using the tablet for class. It’s easy to use and accessible, and it’s easy to handle because of the size.”
Graetz also said students are “digital natives,” and they know how to use social media on tablets, but he said this is not what most employers are looking for in a potential hire.
“No one cares if you know how to use Facebook or Twitter,” Graetz said, “What they do care about is that you can stay in touch with clients, stay up to date in your career, have constant ‘field’ feed to understand new developments and research solutions to problems.”
TLT encourages students to continue to use their tablets for academic purposes with the intention of furthering their technology background.