Wireless Tablet PC’s in the Laboratory and in the Classroom

William M. Spees*, Regina F. Frey*,#,William E. Buhro*, Greg Noelken*, Jason Crow*,

Liz Peterson#, Dewey Holten*

*Department of Chemistry and #The Teaching CenterWashington University in St. Louis

Background on the HP Grant

• HP Technology for Teaching Grants were awarded to 31 universities in 2005.

• The award includes ~$55k in computer equipment and ~$15k in cash.

• The team of Drs. Holten, Buhro, Frey and Spees received funding for their proposal on behalf of Washington University.

Equipment Provided by the HP Grant

• 21 wireless tablet PC’s• 11 HP Advanced Docking Stations with CD/DVD drive• HP digital projector with Smart Attachment Module and

wireless card• HP digital camera with dock• HP Procurve wireless access point• Secure storage cart with charging bays for 20 tablet

PC’s• HP Printer/Scanner/Fax

Objectives of the WU Wireless Tablet PC Project

• To provide students with the tools required to:

– To facilitate the management and sharing of data.– To develop an electronic notebook that provides

the ability to perform analysis of data on-the-fly in undergraduate laboratory experiments (and in the research laboratory).

– To develop in-class activities that facilitate classroom analysis and discussion taking advantage of modern, high-power software and technology.

Program Implementation begins during the spring 2006 semester!

What is a Tablet PC?

Application #1. In-class activities (Chemistry 465, Instructor: Prof. William Buhro)

Show your work to the class!The HP Smart Attachment Module

Moderator(i.e., instructor)

Student A

Student B

Student C

Student D

Student E

HP Projector with Smart Attachment Moduleand wireless card

wireless connection

Only the moderator can allow other users on the wireless network to send data to the projector.

Application #2: Electronic Laboratory Notebooks

(Chemistry 445, Instructors: Prof. Dewey Holten, Dr. William Spees)

Out with the old, in with the new: Electronic Laboratory Notebooks have on-board software for data analysis and chemical modeling.

Microsoft OneNote

Courtesy of Terence Gade (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center)

Paper vs. Electronic Notebook Pages

Traditional Microsoft OneNote

Electronic Notebook → Hardcopy or PDF

Notebook pages are printed to pdf files using Adobe Acrobat Distiller

Networked Computer-interfaced Instrumentation in the Physical Chemistry

Laboratory• Differential Scanning Calorimeter• FT-IR Spectrometer• UV-Vis Spectrometer• Fluorescence Spectrometer• Cyclic Voltammetry Instrumentation• Speed-of-Sound Apparatus• EPR Spectrometer

Instrument-to-Notebook Data Transfer

• Data transfer from computer-interfaced instrumentation to the electronic laboratory notebook is easy.

Chemistry Department Server

My Documents Folder

Logged in underChem445 account

Logged in underChem445 account

DSC photo

LAN connection

wireless connection

Differential Scanning Calorimeter

Electronic Instructor Feedback

Electronic Submission, Grading, and Return of Laboratory Reports and Electronic Notebooks via

Telesis

Group folders for each student

Only the individual student and course instructors can see, read and upload files to the group folder.

Electronic Submission and Grading (cont’d)

Student’s Report(pdf)

1. Student submits the report online via Telesis (timestamped)2. Instructor distills pdf with Acrobat Distiller

Student’s Report(Microsoft Word)

Student’s Graded Report with instructor’s markups/comments

(pdf)

Snapshots of the pdf report pages are pasted into OneNotefor grading by the instructor.

Student’s Graded Report with instructor comments

(OneNote)

Instructor distills pdf with Acrobat Distiller

The graded report is placed in the student’s Telesis folder.

Application #3. Electronic Lecture Notes(Chemistry 445, Instructors: Prof. Dewey Holten & Dr. William Spees)

Plans for Evaluation of Efficacy

• Surveys of Chem 445 and Chem 465 students will be conducted at the end of the spring 2006 semester.

• Objectives of the Evaluation:– To gauge efficacy of new activities and learning tools – To seek input from students on ways to improve– To guide future developments (in collaboration with the

WU Teaching Center) – To assess viability of broader implementation

Acknowledgements

• Hewlett-Packard, Higher Education HP Technology for Teaching Grant (PI: Prof. Dewey Holten)

•Kathy Atnip (Academic Services, Arts & Sciences Computing)

•Terence P.F. Gade (Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center)

Anti-acknowledgements?

• Emma Catherine Spees– Born 12/19/05