THIRTY YEARS EVOLUTION OF CHEMISTRY INSTRUCTION (HOW A TABLET PC AND ONLINE COURSE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS HAVE CHANGED MY LIFE AND THOSE OF MY STUDENTS)

When I first began teaching university chemistry more than thirty years ago, the primary technological instructional aides were yellow, lined paper, a pen, a calculator, chalk, and either a black or green board. I moved to a few generations of overhead projectors, write-on transparencies, water soluble colored pens, and eventually commercially prepared transparencies, sometimes augmented by white boards and erasable colored pens. The overhead projectors gave way to document projectors, which, in large classes, enhanced the use of manipulatable models. But it has really been the tablet pc and online course management systems, along with outside-of-class peer review sessions, which have revolutionized how my department delivers courses, and more importantly, have improved student learning. This presentation describes how my course management has changed over the years, with emphasis on my present use of a tablet pc and online course management tools. There will be a brief demonstration of tablet pc applications. The presentation discusses successful strategies, how they have affected student learning, and it also discusses some technologies and strategies which have been less successful or may have led to less positive unintended consequences.