Tablet personal computer (or tablet PC)

Personal computer tablet is a portable computer equipped with a touch screen as an input device, and designed to be operated individually. The term was presented by Microsoft in 2001 and it now refers to any tablet-sized personal computer. Unlike laptops, PC tablet may not be equipped with a keyboard, as they use a virtual onscreen substitute. All PC tablets have a wireless adapter for Internet and local network connection. Software applications for tablet PCs include office suites, web browsers, games and a variety of applications. Yet, since portable computer hardware components are low powered, demanding PC applications may not provide an ideal experience to the user.
PC Tablets use the same hardware as normal laptops but add support for pen input. Tablets running Windows get the added functionality of using the touch screen for mouse input, with improved handwriting recognition personalization tool as well as an automatic handwriting learning tool.

Applications developed for the tablet PC cater to the form factor and functionality available on the platform. Many forms of applications incorporate a pen-friendly user interface and/or the ability to hand write directly in the document or interface. Each student at the DLI receives a PC tablet right from the first day. They are an essential part of the learning. Students use their tablet as their notebooks. In them, the entire curriculum to the whole course is uploaded. All of the homework is done through the PC tablets through the Blackboard program. The fast speed internet is already loaded. Hence actually students carry the tablets with them all the time; in them is the full list of curriculum programs and textbooks, the assignments including the daily assignments, in addition to the Internet links and audio-visual links and sources.

The tool proved to be an easy and practical tool for learning. It can be a substitute for piles of textbooks and the numerous amounts of notebooks and papers. A student at any moment can refer to his schedules, his books and dictionaries, as well as his notebooks and assignments.

Disadvantages of using the PC tablets inside the classrooms include the need for considerable time to get used and become comfortable with it. Consequently the second shortcoming becomes the obsession of students with too much reference to YouTube and Internet. Students increasingly become less attracted to the teacher and what is happening inside the classroom.

References:
Dimond, T. (1957, December 1). Devices for reading handwritten characters. Proceedings of Eastern Joint Computer Conference,  232–237. Retrieved from http://rwservices.no-ip.info:81/pens/biblio70.html#Dimond57
Page, M. (December 21, 2000). Microsoft Tablet PC Overview. Retrieved from http://www.transmetazone.com/articleview.cfm?articleID=499
Lyons, D. ( 2010, October 11). The successor to Gingerbread, Android project Honeycomb is targeted for tablet computers. Newsweek,  49.