IT Department: Student Laptop Hardware & Software Recommendations

What Are Tablet PCs?

A tablet PC is a laptop that provides the user with the ability to operate the computer with a stylus or touchscreen instead of a mouse or keyboard.

The UM School of Law has been using tablet pcs for a couple years and has been evaluating the value to students and faculty of tablet PCs in the law school environment. Some law school faculty already use tablet PCs in lieu of white boards in classroom instruction. Tablet PCs also have potential for use in conjunction with collaborative classroom technologies that allow faculty to broadcast content to student's laptop computers. Tablet PCs allow users to use a stylus to write text or draw directly on the screen in their own handwriting in such applications as Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Outlook, to highlight text in the color of their choice and to capture handwritten notes to typed text and search handwritten text (using Microsoft OneNote).

Tablet PCs also allow users to share handwritten documents with other PC users regardless of whether they have a Tablet PC. While there are yet no law-specific tablet-based systems available, these will surely come and tablets are already useful for client interviews, depositions, negotiations and closings and especially at trial and in other situations where typing would not be allowed. It is entirely possible that during the three years you are in law school Tablet PCs will become much more important tools than they are today. A Tablet PC still costs more than a comparable conventional computer and at this point they are not required for law students; but most people find them intriguing and increasingly useful. Law students should determine for themselves whether Tablet PC technology is something they wish to invest in at this time.