“ANALYZING THE BENEFITS OF USING TABLET PC-BASED FLASH CARDS APPLICATION IN A COLLABORATIVE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT” A Preliminary Study

1. ABSTRACT This paper examines the potential use of the Tablet PC-based Flash Cards Application (“application”) in a collaborative learning environment. The application provides the flexibility of handwritten input and the ability to share flash card decks. The application was deployed in an eighth grade geometry classroom at a girls' school in Pittsburgh. Nine students participated in the study and each student was asked to individually create decks of flash cards reviewing the material that they had already learned (“review case”) as well as create separate decks previewing upcoming material (“preview case”). We randomly selected groups of students of different sizes, pooled their flash card decks, and measured the percentages of topics represented on the cards. The teacher's decks were used as the control. We found, in the preview case, that the decks of fewer students covered a higher percentage of material than in the review case. We also surveyed eight students to determine their criteria for selecting material when they created the cards. Half of the students created flash cards for material with which they were confident that would answer correctly, half created cards for material that they thought they should review more, and 3 out of 8 did both. The findings of this study gave us a better insight into the use of Tablet Flash Cards in a collaborative K-12 educational setting and also for higher education.