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Monash University > News and Events > Monash Memo
Tablets help to teach health
7 October 2009
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| Ms Lindley and her students trial the new tablet PC technology. |
A trial of tablet PC technology in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences is enhancing the student learning experience.
Senior lecturer Jennifer Lindley uses the new touchscreen mobile computers to incorporate fresh elements into her classes, such as asking students to label diagrams and microscopic images that they send back to her tablet PC. She can then spark a discussion from their answers.
About 60 first-year radiography students and selected staff have trialled the high-end Hewlett Packard tablet PCs. Each tablet is loaded with free interactive teaching software called Classroom Presenter.
It is part of the MyLearningSpace project run by the Monash eEducation Centre, established to support and nurture the use of technology in teaching.
"The tablets allowed me to be a lot more interactive with the students," Ms Lindley said.
"You can gauge how they're going in terms of understanding the learning material and it made the lectures a lot more interesting for the students as well as for me as a teacher."
Academic Director of Information Technology Dr George Kotsanas is overseeing the trial. He sees the tablet PCs becoming a dominant teaching tool, as they allow staff to be creative in how they teach, and give students flexibility in their study methods.
"I think that this will be the more pervasive technology used within lectures or even tutorials and practical classes in the future," Dr Kotsanas said.
"Students can take them home, into a clinical environment, or anywhere else, and continue studying with their material all together on one device."
Following the success of the trial among radiography students, the tablet PCs have been introduced into the Bachelor of Physiotherapy course for second semester.
Planning is also underway to make tablet PCs available to all staff teaching in undergraduate medicine courses commencing in 2010.
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