Faculty Directions, Fall 2005 - Confessions of a Chalkaholic

Jeff Appling
Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and Department of Chemistry

I know it's only calcium carbonate, but I love the way it feels in my hand - so smooth and cool. I like the heft; I use the triple-size chalk also called "railroad chalk." I like the way my ideas shoot out of my fingers leaving a white trail across the board. I've been addicted to chalk now for 18 years.

Yet sometimes something comes along that completely transforms the way you do things. Lately, for me, that has been the Tablet PC (don't worry, I still have a Mac on my desk, I'm adventurous, not crazy). I see very little chalk in my future - this new device will be my teaching machine.

Last semester I was in a chalk-users purgatory, a technology enhanced classroom with whiteboards (shudder). Students complained about my writing, which seldom happened when I used my beloved railroad chalk. Toward the end of the semester my Tablet PC arrived, and I started projecting that in class, writing on blank pages in Windows Journal. The students were happier with this method. They said they could all see and understand clearly, even though it was the same handwriting.

Using the Tablet PC was like writing on one of those overhead projectors with the scrolling film - I could back up at any time and revisit something I'd written. I could change pen thickness at will, and change colors to give my "atoms" different identities. I drew diagrams in color, making my copper electrodes brown and my zinc electrodes gray. And to show the zinc electrode eroding in a galvanic reaction, I erased the edges with my stylus. I don't think I'll have to bang two chalk erasers together ever again.

This new method will allow me to save my lecture notes and send them to students. That's certainly a plus. But what really convinced me that my teaching will be transformed was the moment I realized that I could grade my students' electronic work directly. They had turned in PowerPoint files that I was able to grade on my Tablet PC - I just wrote directly on their slides. I made many more valuable comments than I would normally be able to make. Previously I had viewed the slides, taken notes, and written a summary in an email. Now I make every point I need to make, and send the file back to the student. Finally we can become paperless in class.

My wish now is for all my students to have Tablet PCs as well. I envision a new focus on note-taking, making note-taking the center of the students' concept building. I could send them "pre-notes" with tables, figures and graphs for the next class meeting. I could include quiz questions or activities - I could have them draw pictures to demonstrate their visualization skills. They could take notes around the pictures and send me a copy. I could spot check the notes for accuracy, looking for misconceptions. I see an entire research project to study how students use these notes to build their visualization skills in chemistry.

Clearly this is just the beginning. The chalk is gone. A new teaching style is born. And perhaps when the students have Tablet PCs there will be a transformation in their learning as well. If that can happen I won't miss my chalk at all.