Seton Hall Univ. Providing Lenovo ThinkPads to Profesors and students

[=X=]

This fall Seton Hall University in New Jersey will become the first university to roll out the brand new Android-based Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet to faculty and students. (more...)

There have been several threads and even articles written on how much "serious" work can be done on tablets. I've always felt like most of the tablets today are content consumer driving and not for content production. My reasoning is simply because there is no efficient way to create content on tablets today. I don't feel this will be the case in the future.

Personally I think Lenovo has taken a step in the right direction. It's not like lenovo's tablet is revolutionary, however it has the right technology at the right time.

A trend that I have been seeing from the School is providing online books and homework online, not just for the computer science crowd. Many schools are now pushing the instructors to provide grade status online and accept homework online. I think we are at the tipping point where mobile portable devices will start becoming a must and no longer a toy.

Lenovo has the right mix the pen technology is great for taking notes (image based or OCR your notes), the WI-FI is great for uploading notes and doing research. And the Battery life 8-10hrs makes it dependable enough that it will last you the whole day.


=X=

[OtterBooks]

In the least, tablets can be nicely incorporated into classroom technology, particularly as tools during lecture. It makes sense that faculty would choose Thinkpad branded models, as they have the 'workhorse-tech' reputation among professionals. Thinkpads are what my school provides professors. Keep in mind that the decision could have been influenced by the university's current technology supplier contracts.

[GreenMonkey]

You absolutely need a pen for a tablet as a useful school device IMO. So far pen support in Android is pretty weak though, isn't it?

[luqmaninbmore]

I just use office to go for my spreadaheets and docs and repligo for pdfs. I do not see the problem.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

You absolutely need a pen for a tablet as a useful school device IMO. So far pen support in Android is pretty weak though, isn't it?

Isn't that an app-related thing, and not an OS-related thing?

[=X=]

Originally Posted by GreenMonkey

You absolutely need a pen for a tablet as a useful school device IMO. So far pen support in Android is pretty weak though, isn't it?

I think this is very true for fields that require unique characters to be recorded, like science, math, engineering. Probably not so much for English, Psyc, Phil. etc... But having a pen does certainly help.

Yes it is pretty weak. It's kind of interesting to see the tablet/mobile space de-evolve. Prior to the iPad/iPhone/BlackBerry most mobile devices had pen support.

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Isn't that an app-related thing, and not an OS-related thing?

I'm thinking that's what GM means. The pen support was part of the OS in MS WinCE and every app had access to the pen API. HTC Flyer has tried to emulate this by providing an API to their pen device. But even then it's still not as robust as WinCE.

[din155]

I think it may work if they are not trying to replace the notepad and pen. Off course I can be wrong as I have never used a pen on a tablet. I have used stylus on my PDA and it sucks. I completely support the idea of replacing books and exams (objective type ones at least) with a tablet but I am not sure how practical it is to take detailed notes on a tablet with a digitizer.

din

[din155]

Originally Posted by luqmaninbmore

I just use office to go for my spreadaheets and docs and repligo for pdfs. I do not see the problem.

can you take detailed notes using the same?

[kjk]

students seem to be able to take notes on a laptop keyboard-something I don't think I could to given my crap typing skills. I'm sure some can use a stylus, and some can even use virtual keyboards on tablets.

[Kali Yuga]

Ugh, the last thing I'd want to see as a prof is an ocean of laptops.

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by Kali Yuga

Ugh, the last thing I'd want to see as a prof is an ocean of laptops.

I was lucky to be formally trained to blind-type when I was young, on good old typewriter. The investment into that basic skill has paid well, even today I can type faster than I can write. In addition, typing requires less of my attention, I can keep my eyes on the presentation which is impossible to do when I write. The darn machine is just a tool...

I can not even begin to guess what is wrong with "an ocean of laptops".

[RockdaMan]

Originally Posted by Ankh

I can not even begin to guess what is wrong with "an ocean of laptops".

You don't think that they are listening to you:

[GreenMonkey]

Originally Posted by Ankh

I was lucky to be formally trained to blind-type when I was young, on good old typewriter. The investment into that basic skill has paid well, even today I can type faster than I can write. In addition, typing requires less of my attention, I can keep my eyes on the presentation which is impossible to do when I write. The darn machine is just a tool...

I can not even begin to guess what is wrong with "an ocean of laptops".

What's wrong is people surfing the internet, playing games, and playing on Facebook...and not listening. Odds are that 50% of them are not avidly taking notes and paying attention, but screwing around.

[thinkpad]

Originally Posted by kjk

students seem to be able to take notes on a laptop keyboard-something I don't think I could to given my crap typing skills. I'm sure some can use a stylus, and some can even use virtual keyboards on tablets.

This looks more like a mac-convention than a journalism class.

[MrsJoseph]

Originally Posted by thinkpad

This looks more like a mac-convention than a journalism class.

I was just thinking that, lol! I wonder does this school give Macbooks or something. I've never seen that many Macs in one place. Ever.