Technologies for engineering education

Within any discipline, teaching involves a distinctive relationship between content, pedagogical approaches and the use of technologies. In engineering education, the content includes mathematical symbolic and diagrammatic forms, traditionally taught using handwritten and talk-based approaches which have not been easily accommodated by keyboard-centric digital technologies. In 2012, a pilot project involving staff in the AUT School of Engineering was initiated to explore the use of digital pen-enabled technologies. This paper reviews educational research supporting the use of these technologies in an engineering education context and reports on findings from the project. The paper also discusses ways of integrating digital pen-enabled technologies with other developments in educational technology to enhance traditional pedagogical approaches to the teaching of engineering, and to facilitate progressive development of transformative approaches

TABLET TECHNOLOGIES AND EDUCATION

ABSTRAC

Instructor Use of Tablet PCs in a College Pre-Calculus Course: Implementation & Assessment

A group of six math instructors used tablet PCs to teach their individual sections of a high enrollment gateway Pre-Calculus course in a diverse urban four-year college. Student performance in the experimental sections were compared to those in 31 other sections in terms of student retention, pass rates, and score on the department-wide standardized final exam. Student performance was higher in Tablet PC sections across all three measures, although in some cases the improvement was not substantial enough to improve students’ overall course grades. Surveys of students and faculty in classes using a Tablet PC reflected overall positive impressions of the technology’s use in mathematics classrooms

iPads for STEM Teachers: A Case Study on Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Proficiency, Intention to Adopt,and Integration in K-12 Instruction

With the rapidly growing popularity of mobile learning and the trend for Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) in the United States, there is an emergent need for up-to-date training on the use of mobile technologies for K-12 STEM teachers. This article will discuss the implementation of and results from an exploratory case study conducted within a summer professional development focused on cultivating teacher readiness for mobile learning on iPads in the STEM fields

Remote Access and Computerized User Control of Robotic Micromanipulators

Nano- and micromanipulators are critical research tools in numerous fields including micro-manufacturing and disease study. Despite their importance, nano- and micromanipulation systems remain inaccessible to many groups due to price and lack of portability. An intuitive and remotely accessible manipulation system helps mitigate this access problem. Previously, optimal control hardware for single-probe manipulation and the effect of latency on user performance were not well understood. Remote access demands full computerization; graphical user interfaces with networking capabilities were developed to fulfill this requirement and allow the use of numerous hardware controllers. Virtual environments were created to simulate the use of a manipulator with full parametric control and measurement capabilities. Users completed simulated tasks with each device and were surveyed about their perceptions. User performance with a commercial manipulator controller was exceeded by performance with both a computer mouse and pen tablet. Latency was imposed within the virtual environment to study it’s effects and establish guidelines as to which latency ranges are acceptable for long-range remote manipulation. User performance began to degrade noticeably at 100 ms and severely at 400 ms and performance with the mouse degraded the least as latency increased. A computer vision system for analyzing carbon nanotube arrays was developed so the computation time could be compared to acceptable system latency. The system characterizes the arrays to a high degree of accuracy and most of the measurement types of obtainable fast enough for real-time analysis