Please see my post a few minutes ago. With K12LTSP (Free Open Source Software) and donated PCs (one server and 5-7 old PIIs) you can outfit a classroom with 3:1 student to PC ratio as cheaply as the cost to upgrade the donated server (say a few hundred for more RAM/faster HDD). Limiting the number of clients to 7 means you can use older 100 Mbps switches instead of the newer Gbps switches required when more than 7 clients hang off a single server. This approach transformed our classrooms and obviated the need for the computer lab for most use cases. Kid's used the PCs all day long for research, creative writing, math practice, etc. With TeacherTool (FOSS) you can do most of the things you do with a projector, but the display is sent to each student PC instead of to a projector. It is absolutely the most cost effective way to put technology in the hands of teachers and students that I have ever seen. See more on our story at http://www.morrisbrandon.com/ and click on the Technology link.
Let's keep the issue of your tablet and projector aside for a minute and discuss basics. As a parent technology volunteer in my child's elementary school, we did several things that showed how technology could be used effectively in the classroom and I believe our experience could apply equally well to the high school math/physics scenario in which you're interested. First, we used Open Source software and a thin client architecture using K12LTSP to drastically increase the number of computers in each class at very low cost, and increased the speed of the Internet connection via a cable modem (the district feed was dialup speed at best). This meant that teachers could put enough safe-for-Internet use computers in front of the kids that they could do inquiry-based research/learning in science, and could also learn and practice math on various educational web sites, with the teachers only needing to help students with specific issues they ran into. It led to substantial increases in productivity and speed of acquiring new knowledge, especially in project/research report applications. So I believe the most important use of technology in the classroom is to bring the interactive knowledge of the world into the classroom for the students to use, and enable students to learn how to discover knowledge on their own, making them lifelong learners.
Based on this, my recommendation for the best use of your projector is to get your PTA to fund a Linux server and enough thin clients for at least a 3:1 student to PC ratio. This will only cost about $500 for a server powerful enough for 5-7 thin clients, and the clients are only about $150 each (w/o monitors). You can also do it with a donated server and clients, the server should be a P4/1Gig RAM and the clients can be quite old, PII/300 MHz/128 MB RAM. I'm guessing if someone had the money to fund a tablet PC and a projector, they should be able to get another $1400 or so to leverage those devices and put the technology in the hands of the students where it will do the most good. With K12LTSP, you can connect the server to the projector and using TeacherTool, anyone from the teacher to any student on any PC can take over the display and explain their ideas to the rest of the class using Open Office (Writer, Impress, Calc, etc.). I agree 100% with the comments about hands on physics and math being critical, but once they do the hands on work, this gives them a vehicle for documenting their work as well as presenting and defending it to the rest of the class.
For the tablet itself, its real benefit is mobility and a pen based input, so I'd focus on using it in data gathering when on science outings, doing experiments in the hallway/gym, etc, and as another poster has noted, for display of lecture slides/notes that you annotate in class as you see which concepts need more info. But if you upgrade it to Vista or the newest MS Office, you'll have to save files in the older Office format to be able to read them on the thin clients using OpenOffice, as well as for students to use them at home on their PCs. And you'll need whatever annotation program you use to be able to save files in a format that can be read by OpenOffice and older versions of MS Office to be maximally beneficial.
Slashdot Mirror
Please see my post a few minutes ago. With K12LTSP (Free Open Source Software) and donated PCs (one server and 5-7 old PIIs) you can outfit a classroom with 3:1 student to PC ratio as cheaply as the cost to upgrade the donated server (say a few hundred for more RAM/faster HDD). Limiting the number of clients to 7 means you can use older 100 Mbps switches instead of the newer Gbps switches required when more than 7 clients hang off a single server. This approach transformed our classrooms and obviated the need for the computer lab for most use cases. Kid's used the PCs all day long for research, creative writing, math practice, etc. With TeacherTool (FOSS) you can do most of the things you do with a projector, but the display is sent to each student PC instead of to a projector. It is absolutely the most cost effective way to put technology in the hands of teachers and students that I have ever seen. See more on our story at http://www.morrisbrandon.com/ and click on the Technology link.
Let's keep the issue of your tablet and projector aside for a minute and discuss basics. As a parent technology volunteer in my child's elementary school, we did several things that showed how technology could be used effectively in the classroom and I believe our experience could apply equally well to the high school math/physics scenario in which you're interested. First, we used Open Source software and a thin client architecture using K12LTSP to drastically increase the number of computers in each class at very low cost, and increased the speed of the Internet connection via a cable modem (the district feed was dialup speed at best). This meant that teachers could put enough safe-for-Internet use computers in front of the kids that they could do inquiry-based research/learning in science, and could also learn and practice math on various educational web sites, with the teachers only needing to help students with specific issues they ran into. It led to substantial increases in productivity and speed of acquiring new knowledge, especially in project/research report applications. So I believe the most important use of technology in the classroom is to bring the interactive knowledge of the world into the classroom for the students to use, and enable students to learn how to discover knowledge on their own, making them lifelong learners. Based on this, my recommendation for the best use of your projector is to get your PTA to fund a Linux server and enough thin clients for at least a 3:1 student to PC ratio. This will only cost about $500 for a server powerful enough for 5-7 thin clients, and the clients are only about $150 each (w/o monitors). You can also do it with a donated server and clients, the server should be a P4/1Gig RAM and the clients can be quite old, PII/300 MHz/128 MB RAM. I'm guessing if someone had the money to fund a tablet PC and a projector, they should be able to get another $1400 or so to leverage those devices and put the technology in the hands of the students where it will do the most good. With K12LTSP, you can connect the server to the projector and using TeacherTool, anyone from the teacher to any student on any PC can take over the display and explain their ideas to the rest of the class using Open Office (Writer, Impress, Calc, etc.). I agree 100% with the comments about hands on physics and math being critical, but once they do the hands on work, this gives them a vehicle for documenting their work as well as presenting and defending it to the rest of the class. For the tablet itself, its real benefit is mobility and a pen based input, so I'd focus on using it in data gathering when on science outings, doing experiments in the hallway/gym, etc, and as another poster has noted, for display of lecture slides/notes that you annotate in class as you see which concepts need more info. But if you upgrade it to Vista or the newest MS Office, you'll have to save files in the older Office format to be able to read them on the thin clients using OpenOffice, as well as for students to use them at home on their PCs. And you'll need whatever annotation program you use to be able to save files in a format that can be read by OpenOffice and older versions of MS Office to be maximally beneficial.