Cheryl L. Willis

Tablet PC's as instructional tools or the pen is mightier than the 'board!

Tablet PCs have several unique features that lend themselves nicely to the academic environment-both for faculty use and for student use. Faculty in the College of Technology at the University of Houston have used Tablet PCs (TPCs) for the past year. This paper will describe those experiences and the possibilities they provide for new ways of teaching and learning.

Mind tools for enhancing thinking and learning skills

As early adopters of an emerging technology, the Tablet PC (TPC), certain University of Houston Information Systems Technology faculty began to integrate TPCs into the undergraduate curriculum in Fall 2003. Classroom experiences revealed the tool as particularly engaging to Information Systems Technology students. Thus, the authors now believe that TPCs have great potential to improve critical thinking skills of Information Systems Technology students if activities can be developed that capitalize on the inherent capability of the TPC to support visualization.We have just begun a formal investigation of the effectiveness of the TPC as an instructional tool that facilitates the development of critical thinking and learning skills in undergraduate Information Systems Technology students. The investigation extends previous work on the effectiveness of mind maps for improving critical thinking and problem solving skills by combining the visual learning technique of mindmapping with the emerging technology of the TPC and pen-enabled mindmapping software. The research question to be answered is: Do critical thinking skills of Information Systems Technology students improve when mindmapping activities are incorporated into the classroom and delivered via technology.In this paper, we first provide background information on the development of critical thinking and learning skills, the role of visual learning in the development of critical thinking and learning skills, and visual learning tools and techniques such as semantic networks, concept mapping, and mind mapping. We then describe the scope of the project we are undertaking and provide initial results of development efforts to create instructional modules and activities focused on mindmaps.

Mobile computing in the freshman computer literacy course what impact

In this paper, the inclusion of pen technology and mobile computing in a freshman introductory computing course is described.

Using concept maps to navigate complex learning environments

A concept map is a graphical representation of relationships among concepts. Willis and Miertschin suggested the use of technology-based concept mapping as an active learning strategy that can enhance learning and thinking skills, particularly among students native to a digital environment [16]. In addition, modern concept mapping software tools enable instructors and students to create visual navigation structures through complex knowledge domains. The authors find value in visual navigation structures for their relevance to organizing and simplifying learning environments and for their appeal to visual learners. This paper investigates different ways to develop digital interactive concept maps (CMaps) to help students navigate complex knowledge domains, such as the content of a course or a curriculum. CMaps can be used to present information in a nonsequential way or in several different ways, depending on the need. Interactivity enables students to easily locate digital information artifacts pertinent to a concept (media files, slide presentations, web pages, etc.) by clicking on links associated with a CMap node representing the course concept or category. A review of recent literature is provided, different software tools are compared, and the authors document their personal experience. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0511672.

A freshman course in emerging information technologies

In this paper, we describe current conditions in the workforce and in Information Technology education that drive the need for curriculum change in introductory computer and information technology courses. An outline for a new course is proposed that is more closely aligned with industry needs and standards.

Centering resonance analysis: a potential tool for IT program assessment

Knowledge is organized according to the meaning of words that define the relationships established among the ideas that the words represent. Knowledge structures that humans have in their minds can be represented spatially as concept maps. Another means of representing mental schemas is with written text, such as a project report. Assuming that explicit textual artifacts are a reasonable representation of an individuals mental schema, then network text analyses can be used to summarize and represent the text. Centering resonance analysis is an approach for text analysis that uses the premises of centering theory, where a center is defined as a noun or noun phrase that links utterances to produce coherence in discourse. Through centering resonance analysis, word networks of nouns that represent main concepts can be constructed and influence and resonance statistics can be calculated. Capabilities of centering resonance analysis are presented as it is applied to examples from information systems education. Its applicability as a tool for program assessment is considered.