What is beyond the laptop initiative? Perhaps: Tablet PCs and DyKnow vision software

For over ten years Rose-Hulman has required all incoming students to purchase an institute-selected laptop computer and an associated suite of software. Students use their laptops in classrooms on a daily basis. More recently, we have begun to ask: What is beyond the laptop initiative? One possible answer is a combination of pen-based Tablet PCs and interaction-enhancing software like DyKnow Vision. This paper reports: our innovative use of DyKnow Vision software and Tablet PCs (hereafter, DyKnow/Tablets") to promote active learning in the classroom; similarities/differences in our approach across 7 courses covering engineering, humanities and science and involving more than 20% of Rose-Hulman's students; and studies that assess how DyKnow/Tablets affect student learning. Thus, the paper presents an innovative direction that engineering education may take as well as an assessment of some aspects of that direction. © 2006 IEEE.