Using Digital Tablets in the Classroom

Classrooms are changing dramatically in the way technology is used. When I was in elementary school, the overhead projector was the technology teachers used. Today there is a concept similar, but way more advanced than the overhead projector, and its called the Wacom drawing tablet. When you go onto the website http://www.wacom.com/en/inuse/forspecialtyindustries/education.aspx you will find many different ways you can use this new piece of technology. You can use software we already have, such as PowerPoint, Acrobat, NetMeeting, and Word and directly draw, annotate, or mark up on the screen. You can integrate AV infrastructures used on the podium, lecturn, or conference table. Once you connect the pen with the LCD projector you can share your ideas with a group of any size. 

I would integrate this technology in my classroom by using it to teach lessons on the projector. I would have many possibilities as to what I could teach. I could teach math by pulling up math problems on the board and then using the pen to solve them in front of the class. I could show students how to research certain things on the internet, as well as pull up videos for a certain topic. I could also use an example of a paper that I want my students to write and then critique it using this technology. This technology also allows for flashdrives to be used. If a student were to give a presentation, they could put it on their flashdrive and pull it up on the screen. They could pull up examples of whatever topic, mark certain things, circle certain things, the possibilities are endless. 

To use this technology, I would need an LCD projector, and of course a Wacom tablet.