So the professional listserv was buzzing about the experiences a local college was having with their trial use of pen-and-tablet setups. Then, I got notice that one of my profs might possibly use a pen-and-tablet setup for his course, which involved writing in a number of different languages, many of them highly graphical. In a couple days, I had tried out the pen and tablet … and had bought a state-of-the-art one for the professor.

An instructional designer is often a conduit for technologies. In that vein, we should be game to try anything…and that includes both comfortable technologies and those that are not so comfortable. Of course, pens and tablets are a very convenient haptic interface. Pens and tablets are used for live drawing, annotations, design, and the structure of these as input devices makes for more natural haptics.

Whoever has tried to use a mouse for fine-tuned inputs knows how dreadful these may be. If a technology compensates for the hand-eye coordination and the mouse features, then there can be some helpful designs. However, when the authoring tools do not compensate, it can be pretty easy to end up with a mess. Basic handwriting annotations in a whiteboard is a good example. For those who even want to draw a simple arrow…or freehand circle, they know how clumsy a mouse can be. (A mouse can dance for other things.)

Anyway, the pen and tablet setup is very much plug-and-play and so encouraging. It works beautifully with a range of visual editing and authoring tools. Yes, pens and tablets have been around a long time, but some technologies have a way of moving slowly in instructional design…and I’m just glad now to have seen this in action.