With Wacom pen displays at the heart of DePauw University's interactive teaching system—dubbed DEBBIE—students can stop spending all their time taking notes and focus on understanding the lessons.
For students at DePauw University, DEBBIE (DePauw Electronic Blackboard for Interactive Education) has changed more than just the way they take notes—it's changed the way they learn.
"DEBBIE was designed to enhance the way teachers and students share written information during class," says Dr. Dave Berque, Associate Professor of Computer Science. "Teachers, especially in mathematics and science, write large amounts of information on chalkboards, and the majority of each student's energy is devoted to copying what the instructor has written into their notes. With DEBBIE, students can write down diagrams and formulas into their own set of notes."
Wacom's interactive pen displays are at the heart of DEBBIE. "As the teacher writes, the DEBBIE software transmits the material to each student's display," continues Dr. Berque. "The students use their electronic pens to annotate their individual copies of the lecture notes based on comments made by the teacher and the rest of the class. Both the teacher's notes and student's annotations are saved at the end of the class for later reviewing and studying."
"Before, I was lock-stepped into following handouts. I want to be able to deviate from my plan, based on questions the students have. If a student asks for another example, I want to be able to give that example whether it's in the handout or not. It's really important to encourage students to be engaged in class. The traditional way of doing that is to stop and ask a question. With DEBBIE, I can build in questions on my Wacom display."
