International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and Technology Learner-centred mathematics and statistics education using netbook tablet PCs Birgit Locha*, Linda Galliganb, Carola Hobohmc & Christine McDonaldd a Engineering and Science Education Research Group, Mathematics, Faculty of Engineering and Industrial Sciences, H38, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, Australia b Department of Mathematics and Computing, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia c Department of Mathematics and Computing, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia d Department of Mathematics and Computing, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD 4350, Australia. * Corresponding author: bloch@swin.edu.au

B. Loch et al. Learner-centred mathematics and statistics education using netbook tablet PCs Tablet technology has been shown to support learner-centred mathematics education when this technology is available to both the lecturer and the students. However, cost is often the barrier to students’ use of tablet PCs for their university studies. This paper argues that more affordable netbook PCs with tablet capabilities can be viable alternatives to full sized tablet PCs to enhance active and collaborative learning in mathematics and statistics. For a whole teaching semester, netbook tablet PCs were given to volunteer students from two different cohorts. Students were enrolled in nursing mathematics or introductory statistics in non-mathematics majors at an Australian university. The aims were to gauge the suitability of this technology and to identify what active and collaborative learning emerged in these first year classes. While the netbook tablet PCs were actively promoted in their tutorials, of additional interest was students’ use of the technology for any aspect of their studies both inside and outside the classroom. The outcomes of this study were to inform a university decision to provide inexpensive tablet technology to larger cohorts of students. The results highlight different approaches required in the mathematics and statistics classes to achieve collaborative and active learning facilitated through the technology. Environmental variables such as the tutor, student, learning space, availability of other technologies and subject content impacted on the nature of learning. While learner-centred education can be facilitated by inexpensive netbook tablet PCs, we caution that the savings may come at the expense of computing power. Keywords: tablet PC, netbook tablets, mathematics, statistics, learner-centred, student engagement, active learning, collaboration Subject classification codes: 97U50, 97U80 1. Introduction A challenge for any tutor is to engage first year university students undertaking mathematical studies. Making the mathematics relevant to students’ studies and their future careers can be one step towards overcoming this challenge. Another is to actively engage students in learning mathematical concepts by fostering a learner- centred approach. It has been demonstrated in the literature that learner-centred education can be facilitated through the use of tablet PCs by students, when the technology is integrated by the tutor in face-to-face teaching activities. Despite considerable discounts since the arrival of the iPad®, full sized tablet PCs are still fairly expensive and widespread distribution to students is out of reach for many universities. Recently, the first netbook tablet PCs were released to the Australian market and the opportunity arose to revisit the affordability of student tablet PCs. This development led to the study described in this paper. At the University of Southern Queensland in Australia, funding was made available to trial a classroom set of Asus EeePC T91® netbook tablet PCs. These computers were considered suitable as they cost less than AU$1000 (compared to AU$2500 for a standard tablet PC at the time). Students were given these tablet PCs for a whole semester to investigate how they would use them for learning and for