Beth Simon
Interviewed By : Geetesh Bajaj
Date Created: December 3rd 2004
Last Updated: February 21st 2009
Beth Simon is an Assistant Professor
of Computer Science at the University of San Diego, in San Diego,
California, USA. Her research interests lie in Computer Science
education and include both educational technology and multi-national,
multi-institutional education research. She works jointly with
the University of Washington's Educational Technology group and
the University of California, San Diego's ActiveCampus group on
Classroom Presenter, a Tablet PC-based system to increase interaction
in the classroom.
Geetesh:
Tell us more about your typical PowerPoint usage.
Beth: I use PowerPoint as a presentation design tool, but no longer
use it in actual "live" presentations, talks, or
lectures. For presentation I use a tool called Classroom
Presenter.
Most of my presentations are actually college-level lectures
for various Computer Science undergraduate courses including
beginning programming courses, computer architecture courses,
programming language courses, and computer ethics courses.
Geetesh:
What is your favorite PowerPoint feature? Also, which is the most sorely missed feature that you wish PowerPoint should have had.
Beth: I can't think of any particular feature of PowerPoint that is a favorite of mine – certainly nothing unusual that
isn't in common use.
The ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY feature that PowerPoint needs for Tablet PC use is the ability to use ink from the Tablet pen in the design mode of PowerPoint. Instead of typing each of my bullet points, I'd like to be able write them by hand. More importantly, I'd like to be able to just draw figures and diagrams – rather than having to make them in Microsoft's Journal program and paste them in. That is so awkward that I just don't do it. I know most math instructors would love to be able to hand write their equations in PowerPoint, rather than having to worry about the Equation Editor.
Geetesh:
Tell us more about Classroom Presenter.
Beth: Classroom Presenter is a Tablet PC-based presentation system
that combines the advantages of existing computer-based systems
with the flexibility of spontaneous handwriting. Running on
a Tablet PC, Presenter allows the instructor to handwrite
over computer-projected slides. The slides and ink are then
broadcast to other machines for students' use or to drive
a public display (a digital projector).
Additionally, Presenter supports inked input to the presentation
from the audience. Called "student submissions",
during presentation the instructor can stop and ask the audience
to perform a task based on a slide of the presentation. This
can be a quick problem to check for understanding or a brainstorming
session on a certain topic. Members of the audience, equipped
with Tablets, can ink on that slide and wirelessly send their
responses to the instructor Tablet. The instructor can then
preview these responses and choose to display some for the
class – possibly performing additional inking to clarify
a point. Pedagogically, this can ease the use of active learning
techniques in an electronically-based presentation.
Initial development of Classroom Presenter began with Dr.
Richard Anderson (University of Washington) while on sabbatical
at Microsoft Research.
Geetesh:
How is the Tablet PC platform changing the way of education.
Beth: I believe that the true impact that the Tablet PC will have
on education has not yet been seen. Tablet PC penetration
into the educational market has been slower than desired –
both by vendors and by those of us educators who want to make
use of them!
I believe that the Tablet (with wireless capability) will
have a huge impact on education. Consider the modern electronic
classroom. The instructor can communicate in a few modes:
oral (speaking) and static textual and visual (presentation
of static material on a slide).
Students have one primary mode of interaction – that
can raise their hands and orally ask a question. However,
in some cultures and in larger classrooms even this form of
interaction by students can be scarce. Now consider a wireless
classroom where students have Tablet PCs. Interaction can
happen wirelessly with the naturalness of handwriting and
diagramming or drawing. Additionally, questions, comments
or problems can be expressed in the context of the lecture
– directly on top of lecture materials on slides. Finally,
instructors with Tablets can now combine more traditional
chalkboard-style lecturing (using ink on the Tablet PC) with
high-quality pre-prepared materials including text, pictures,
and diagrams on slides in class.
Geetesh:
Would you like to share some trivia about a non-conventional
usage of technology or a software application.
Beth: One comment that I receive about potential use of student
submissions in a classroom concerns what happens when not
all students in the class have access to a Tablet PC. A common
occurrence in these situations is that a group of students
will work together on a particular Tablet – then, if
they finish while others are still working – they will
clear their screen and hand the Tablet PC to a Tablet-less
group. Then that group will create their own submission.
This was never anything that I suggested to my classes – it just happens naturally.
