The Globe and Mail of Toronto, Ontario, reports that Tablet PCs are finding a place in the classroom. Writes Ian Harvey:

As class gets under way at Pickering College, a private secondary school north of Toronto, students open up their laptop computers and begin taking notes from the day's lessons. But there is no disruptive clattering of keyboards, just the whisper of plastic-tipped styli scribbling on glass.

"It is quiet, and that's the advantage," says Jason Smith, the IT technician who keeps the 235 Compaq tc4200 tablet PCs running for staff and students at the JK-through-12 school.

The school had shopped for notebooks and instead chose the tablet for its handwriting recognition software, which gave it an advantage over the traditional clamshell model with keyboard and screen. Students take notes in the same way they do with paper, but their handwriting is digitized and can be converted to text via software. They can also do schoolwork anywhere, any time, without worrying about what materials they have with them.

Described in the article as “the coolest product no one could use,” Harvey details the design changes and growing audience for the devices. He quotes Leslie Fiering, a Garnter Research analyst, as explaining that, although health care, insurance and real estate represent the largest Tablet markets, “in the past year there's growing interest from students and sales organizations." What is educational tablet use likely to look like when prices come down? Harvey visits another secondary school and writes:

Sharon Creelman, director of athletics at Appleby College, a private school in Oakville, Ontario, cracks open her Lenovo x41 tablet convertible to review plans for an upcoming game. Students are issued the same machines. "They're so light I can carry it everywhere," says the former Olympian field hockey player. "And we have templates for coaching sessions so I can use it like a whiteboard."

Marking essays is also easier. Annotations can be made on the screen and the document quickly returned to the student. "They get feedback quickly, which is important," she says and notes that there are also green benefits because the amount of paper used is reduced. Universities and other schools are also attracted to the tablet's noiseless note-taking capabilities, especially in large lecture halls where the clatter of keyboards can drown out a professor's words. "There really wasn't much of a learning curve," notes Smith of Pickering College. "This is a pretty tough environment but so far there have been no real problems."

Source and the complete article: GlobeandMail, Once dismissed as 'the coolest product no one could use,' tablet PCs finally find a niche