The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > The Tablet PC Takes Its Place in the Classroom

The New York Times > Technology > Circuits > The Tablet PC Takes Its Place in the Classroom "Using Tablet PC's in allows teachers to go beyond conventional teaching methods, said Barbara Murphy, co-chair of the school's technology committee and a 10th-grade chemistry teacher. Instead of standing at the front of the classroom and talking, Ms. Murphy said, teachers can oversee students' work on projects. "We want students to be actively involved," she said. "The tablet PC seems to really facilitate that."
For example, using one piece of software, a peer-to-peer program called Groove Virtual Office from Groove Networks, students and teachers can collaborate on projects in the classroom from home or anywhere there is an Internet connection. The program, geared mainly for businesses, also has features designed for tablet PC's.
Using Groove in a math class, for example, a teacher could write out an equation in a shared workspace that is displayed on the classroom's whiteboard, and students seated at their desks can use their tablet pens to take turns adding steps to it. "It's like having 20 kids standing at a blackboard, each with chalk in their hands," said Ken Didsbury, academic dean and an English teacher at the Benjamin School."