Tablet (or slate) computers are a group of small portable computers that have two features in common, a touch screen and wireless connectivity to the web. At the 2010 Consumer Electronics show held in January in Las Vegas, this category of product caused the greatest interest ahead of the release of the Apple iPad (www.cesweb.org). The tablet PC has been developing incrementally over a decade since Bill Gates predicted their rise, and, now, the Windows-7 operating system explicitly incorporates tablet PC support. The established virtual learning environments in universities (such as Web-CT and Blackboard) use the model of a large central repository with connected terminals that is logically like the main frame computers of 50 years ago. In the age of tablet PCs, this model is becoming inappropriate and some universities are going their own way to develop learning systems based on the new interactivity that is available. The author describes how Monash University in Australia creates its own e-learning system to engage students in large classes using tablet PCs.