Abstract
Educational institutions face pressure to incorporate the latest technologies into their offerings. Many U.S. K-12 school districts have embraced SMART boards, tablet computers, and “bring your own device” (BYOD) implementations so precollege students can become accustomed to technology-rich learning. U.S. higher education, in general, has been slower to adopt computers use as part of the in-class learning experience. Anecdotally, it appears that technology has taken hold in project-focused or problem-solving-oriented small classes rather than in large lecture classes. To better understand the use of tablet devices in a large urban research institution, classes that used tablet devices at Boston University were observed and faculty members who taught the classes were interviewed. Tablets were used in a number of small engineering, medicine, business, fine arts, and hospitality classes. Faculty members reported that maintaining students’ focus on the course material was a challenge. They also bore the costs of teaching with technology- whether it was in the time to teach themselves the technology and evaluate alternatives, the need to arrive early or stay late in order to set up and put away the technology, or the negative comments about technological failures that surfaced on course evaluations. These findings may be generalizable to other higher education settings.
Published Version
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