Noteblogging: taking note taking public

Abstract

Classroom note taking tends to be a private activity, hiding a wealth of knowledge in both content and method. With the advent of the web, whose technology and culture seemingly invites everyone to share everything, we are prompted to ask how making note taking a public activity -- noteblogging -- might advance learning. What does a blog about a computer science classroom look like? What supports are needed to enable noteblogging as a form of auxiliary instruction? In this paper we overview the design and use of noteblogging as part of the Ubiquitous Presenter digital classroom system. With NoteBlogger, students with Tablet PCs take handwritten notes digitally on top of the instructor's slides, and their notes are instantly reviewable by other students in class using a web browser. We examine the impact of noteblogging on a CS1 course through interviews with bloggers (to reveal their motivation and understand their choice of content) and blog watchers (to learn when and why they watch). We also analyze the blogs in this CS1 course to identify their educational contribution. We find that noteblogging enables a unique classroom participation model that specifically engages more advanced students. Blog content spans many levels of intellectual engagement, which can support a range of learners in CS1 as well as perhaps model for them various levels of reflection.

References

1. R. Anderson, R. Anderson, B. Simon, S. Wolfman, T. VanDe-Grift, and K. Yasuhara. Experiences with a Tablet PC Based Lecture Presentation System in Computer Science Courses. SIGCSE 2004.
2. Berque D., Bonebright T., and Whitesell M. Using Pen-based Computers Across the Computer Science Curriculum. SIG-CSE, 2004.
3. Bloom B. S. Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, Hand-book I: The cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Co, 1956.
4. Brecht, J., DiGiano, C., Patton, C., Tatar, D., Chaudhury, R., Roschelle, J., & Davis, K. Coordinating networked learning activities with a general-purpose Interface. International Re-view of Research in Open and Distance Learning, To Appear.
5. K. M. Davis, M. Kelly, R. Malani, W. G. Griswold, and B. Simon. Preliminary Evaluation of NoteBlogger: Public Note-Taking in the Classroom. Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology on Education, 2007.
6. T. Denning, W. G. Griswold, B. Simon, and M. Wilkerson. Multimodal Communication in the Classroom: What does it mean for us? SIGCSE 2006.
7. D. Duncan. Clickers in the Classroom. Pearson Education, 2005.
8. M. Kam, J. Wang, A. Iles, E. Tse, J. Chiu, D. Glaser, O. Tarshish, and J. Canny. Livenotes: A System for Cooperative and Augmented Note-Taking in Lectures. SIGCHI 2005.
9. R. Pargas, D. Shah. Things are Clicking in Computer Science Courses. SIGCSE 2006.
10. Nardi, B., Schiano, D., Gumbrect, M. Blogging as Social Activity: Would You Let 900 Million People Read Your Di-ary? Proceedings of the 2004 ACM conference on Computer supported cooperative work CSCW '04.
11. Wilkerson, M., Griswold, W., and Simon, B. Ubiquitous Pre-senter: Increasing Student Access and Control in a Digital Lec-turing Environment. SIGCSE 2005.

Index Terms

• Applied computing

  • Education