Title III Update – April 24, 2006

Overall, the DigiMemo 692 digital notepads have turned out to be a disappointment. The pens, with a minor number of hours of use, loose their sensitivity and leave blank spaces in the text. When they were working, they did add some ease to the sharing of brainstorming in the research methods course but not enough that it really affected the productivity of the class. I’m trying to see if the pen problem can be overcome with some training of the students before I hand out the pads and I’ll try again in the fall in the literature review class in psychology (Psy 203S).

The Dell notebook computer, however, has made wonderful contributions to teaching/research. Beyond serving as my office desktop, it has been used (coupled with SPSS and Stastica) to analyze the data of at least 8 honors students for their theses (2 Chemistry, 2 Biology, and 4 Psychology students). It was also used to analyze the data of the students in the Research Methods (Psy 305) course (8 students). The wireless connection allows for the data analysis to be done most anywhere on campus (allows us to stretch out on big tables in the conference rooms or at the coffee house). It has also been used to aid in the design of research posters for the research methods course and for the presentation of student/faculty research at professional conferences.