Teaching electric circuits using tablet PC and Centra

An increasing trend for lecture-based courses is for instructors to convert their lecture notes to PowerPoint based presentation. While there are many advantages to electronic projection, a large drawback is the loss of interactivity. The use of a Tablet PC by the instructor promises to overcome this difficulty. The Tablet PC, combined with appropriate software, enables the instructor to "write and draw" using digital ink. This work describes our experience in using Tablet PC in conjunction with Centra to teach Electric Circuits. A typical lecture consists of preparing the agenda and lecture notes using PowerPoint. The PowerPoint presentation includes explanations of the covered topics and only statements of the problems that are going to be discussed during the lecture. When an example is reached, the Journal Viewer of the Tablet PC would be used to show step-by-step solution of the problem. The Journal Viewer file will include the schematics of the example problem. Electronics Workbench is used for schematic drawings. A brief discussion of this approach and the advantages and disadvantages of such a scheme will be presented.