Abstract:

Advances in technology not only have increased productivity in the whole economy and in the standard of living, but also have brought up changes and improvements in the way students learn and in the way instructors teach. Mobile computing and communication devices together with high-bandwidth communication infrastructure have transformed today’s classrooms into device-rich environments. The question that has emerged as a result of being surrounded by these tools and devices is whether technology hinders or enhances learning.
It seems that when it comes to lecture delivery, technology has created both a progress and a decline in helping students learn. The original ‘chalk and talk’ method of instruction was considered outdated when PowerPoint presentations become the only method of lecture delivery for every instructor. In addition, the ability of instructors to work through problems by using the white/blackboard has been diminished by the use of slide presentation (Scott, 2011). The advances in technology have facilitated the shift towards the original ‘chalk and talk’ method of lecture delivery where the ‘chalk’ has been replaced with ‘digital ink’ in an attempt to enhance the PowerPoint presentations and engage students during the lecture.
This critique presents a simple approach available to instructors to enhance the lecture delivery through the use of ‘digital ink’ and tablet technology, to increase student engagement during the lecture. The traditional method of teaching is applied in a new context – blended learning – to enhance the existing classroom experience

Keywords:

Tablet, digital ink.