Natalie Linnell

Classroom Presenter: Enhancing Interactive Education with Digital Ink

Classroom Presenter is a Tablet PC-based interaction system that supports the sharing of digital ink on slides between instructors and students. Initial deployments show that using the technology can achieve a wide range of educational goals and foster a more participatory classroom environment.

Supporting active learning and example based instruction with classroom technology

This paper describes an application of classroom technology in support of teaching through the use of examples and active learning techniques. Here we report on using Classroom Presenter, a Tablet PC based classroom interaction syst, in a senior level course in Algorithms -- a domain for which the instructor believes working on sample probls is critical to student learning in the classroom. The role of the technology was to integrate activities into the lecture so that students have the opportunity to work with concrete examples in class, while the instructor can collect and review student work in real time, incorporating selected student answers into the discussion. In this paper, we describe the pedagogical goals of the instructor, the types of activities used to achieve those goals, and the role that technology played in supporting those goals and activities. The contributions of the paper are in showing how classroom technology can be used to support pedagogical choices, as well as in phasizing the value of having clear pedagogical goals when incorporating a new technology in the classroom. We believe the application of technology as illustrated in this work could bring similar benefits to the instruction in other disciplines.

PaperCP: exploring the integration of physical and digital affordances for active learning

Active Learning in the classroom domain presents an interesting case for integrating physical and digital affordances. Traditional physical handouts and transparencies are giving way to new digital slides and PCs, but the fully digital systems still lag behind the physical artifacts in many aspects such as readability and tangibility. To better understand the interplay between physical and digital affordances in this domain, we developed PaperCP, a paper-based interface for a Tablet PC-based classroom interaction system (Classroom Presenter), and deployed it in an actual university course. This paper reports on an exploratory experiment studying the use of the system in a real-world scenario. The experiment confirms the feasibility of the paper interface in supporting student-instructor communication for Active Learning. We also discuss the challenges associated with creating a physical interface such as print layout, the use of pen gestures, and logistical issues.

Supporting classroom discussion with technology: A case study in environmental science

This paper describes the fruits of a partnership between two academic departments: offerings of environmental science and resource management courses technologically enhanced with a classroom interaction system developed in the computer science department. The system allowed the instructors to adopt a style of teaching - by engaging the vast majority of students during lecture - that would have been difficult without the electronic support. The main contributions of this work lie in the novel techniques and teaching philosophy used in creating materials, especially in-class student activities, to take advantage of the systems capabilities, and in the new usage model employed in these courses. Specifically, emphasis was placed upon using the system to encourage all students to directly participate in classroom discussions; in previous deployments it was used to support other pedagogical goals. Feedback data confirms that we were successful in devising classroom activities to engage students, create an atmosphere of participation, and accomplish some additional pedagogical goals of the instructors. In this paper, we describe the technology and pedagogy used in the courses, and evaluate the courses based upon the body of collected data, including in-class observation notes, digital ink artifacts created by students and instructors, instructor analyses, and student surveys.

Supporting an interactive classroom environment in a cross-cultural course

This paper describes a novel offering of a US- based course in Computer Science at a Chinese university. A senior-level Algorithms course from the University of Washington was offered at Beihang University in Beijing, China through Tutored Video Instruction, whereby lectures recorded in class at the University of Washington were subsequently shown at Beihang and facilitated by local teaching assistants. In this mode of instruction, the Chinese teaching assistants conducted interactive classes using both the video materials and a classroom interaction system (Classroom Presenter) for electronically supported student activities. These activities were done using a system of networked Tablet PCs, which allowed the students to electronically submit their work to the instructor, and enabled the instructor to display student submissions as well as ink on the lecture slides. This work has two main contributions: it demonstrates that Tutored Video Instruction coupled with classroom interaction technology is a viable strategy for offering asynchronous distance versions of courses while maintaining the interactivity of classroom environments. It also shows how language and cultural barriers can be overcome by combining recorded materials with facilitated delivery.

Evaluating facilitated video instruction for primary schools in rural India

The educational system, especially in developing regions, remains one of the most challenging systems for intervention and implementation of change. The objectives of this paper are to present findings of the first year of an evaluation study of Digital StudyHall (DSH), a Facilitated Video Instruction system being used in rural primary schools in India. Our analysis shows that the DSH system supports classrooms by providing teachers with instructional resources, access to expertise, and in-practice professional development. In the paper, we will a) describe the DSH system b) detail the evaluation design and c) present an analysis to demonstrate how some of the teachers using the DSH system change their teaching based on their experiences.

Collaborative technologies in international distance education

We present a case study of an international distance education course involving two sites in the US and one site in Pakistan. We use the case study to examine the elements of the distance learning environment, and specifically how those elements can be best used to promote classroom interaction. In particular we discuss the effectiveness of two software tools for distance learning that we have developed: ConferenceXP for video conferencing and Classroom Presenter to facilitate interaction across sites. We bring special attention to the use of student artifacts including digital ink and text, and their use in the presentation of design proposals, the facilitation of critiques, and in the promotion of general interaction.

Promoting Interaction in Distance Education

The Center for Collaborative Technologies at the University of Washington is dedicated to creating software tools that encourage interaction in the classroom. These include Classroom Presenter, a Tablet PC-based presentation and interaction system, and ConferenceXP, a video conferencing application for distributed courses, co-developed with Microsoft Research. In this article, we describe the use of Classroom Presenter in a pair of international distance learning courses. The two classes used different technologies: one was a synchronous class that used internet-based video conferencing and the other was an asynchronous class that used Tutored Video

Cross-cultural issues in a tutored video instruction course

In this paper we discuss cultural issues encountered while offering an Algorithms course from a US university at a Chinese university using Tutored Video Instruction (TVI). TVI is a distance learning methodology where lectures are recorded at one site and then shown to a group of students at a remote site by Teaching Assistants (TAs) who stop the video periodically for questions and discussion. In conducting this cross-cultural class, we were interested in determining if we could overcome the issues of using English language materials for Chinese students, achieve a sense of local ownership of the course, and create an interactive classroom environment. We were generally successful in achieving these goals by providing supporting materials and working closely with the Teaching Assistants who served as facilitators.