Deploying tablet PCs in an engineering education environment

Tablet PCs are one of the newest innovations in the computing and communications world and have the potential for significantly improving the way in which faculty members teach and the many different processes and mechanisms involved in student learning. After much discussion and experimentation, the Virginia Tech College of Engineering decided to require that all incoming freshmen own their own tablet PC starting in the fall of 2006. This paper describes the process by which the college arrived at this decision as well as the expected benefits of this initiative. We also discuss the various processes involved in implementing the requirement program including faculty and staff training, development of the necessary support infrastructure, establishment of working relationships with hardware and software vendors needed to support this pioneering venture, and the assessment activities that will take place to measure the effectiveness of the overall process and its demonstrable changes in the way in which faculty teach and students learn. Mechanisms for scaling and adopting the processes used here at Virginia Tech will be suggested to the audience.