My first Tablet PC was a slate. It was usually kept in the docking station, hooked to a cat5 cable, and I rarely used digital ink. It was not until I started using GoBinder and PlanPlus for Windows XP that my habits changed. In January of this year I started to play with OneNote. But it was not until last night that things just clicked.
I needed to write out ideas for new teachers. An administrator asked what made the difference for me during my first year. Reflecting on my first year of teaching meant pouring over handwritten notes and scribbles. Some of the thoughts in my journal were hilarious, while others were sad. After sitting idle for a bit, and sitting in front of a blank MS-Word document, I decided to open OneNote and do a quick mind map.
Mindmapping is a great way to see connections and before realizing it, the page on OneNote was filled with words, boxes, and colors. Ideas were unlocked from my tired mind and I could see my time had been productive. I completed the task with ease and actually had a good time scribbling. Even the printout of the mind map was impressive. Everything was date and time stamped. More impressive was that the page appeared to have been done on a piece of paper. It was beyond cool.
After this exercise, I needed to return to reading and taking notes for my classes. In order to accomplish this task in the fastest manner, my screen is usually split horizontally with MS-Word and Adobe Reader open. While reading, I am paraphrasing the text. However, because of my success earlier with the mind map, I started to wonder how the same task could be completed for my class.
What I need, though, is a much bigger Tablet PC. No, let me say that differently. What I want is a bigger Tablet PC to complete this task. I want more screen real estate. I want to have a full Adobe eBook open, a full MS-Word document open, OneNote, PlanPlus, Outlook Express, Skype, and several browsers open at all times. I want to be able to quickly launch PowerPoint, Adobe Photoshop, Grade Machine, and many other programs.
Yes, I want speed and screen real estate. Just think of all the cool mind maps I could create with a 17" Tablet PC. Just think of all the possibilities.