Abstract
This paper describes results of a study of high school juniors and seniors who participated in their school's 24/7 access tablet PC (TPC) program during the program's third year. Primary areas of interest for this study were students' experiences with and attitudes about the TPCs, physical discomfort associated with TPC use, and temporal and task-driven patterns of TPC use. Data were collected via questionnaire. Results showed students' attitudes were generally quite positive towards the TPCs. However, they did not tend to think TPCs had improved their grades, few disagreed that TPCs were a distraction in class, and visual and musculoskeletal discomfort was prevalent. Recognizing the organizational capacity of the TPC was associated with several positive attitudes towards the TPC, including aiding interactions with teachers and feeling more comfortable in class. This type of assessment provides a useful complement to more common assessments of impact of digital technology on academic performance.
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