Using handheld technologies in schools

Originally marketed as a personal organizer for on-the-go business executives and ardent technophiles, personal digital assistants (PDAs) have evolved into handheld computing devices and have become one of the most ubiquitous electronic devices. Can these computing devices also be used to help fulfill the promise of educational computing? This series of articles from SEIRTEC is devoted to exploring the possibilities of handheld computing in K-12 schools.

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Is a computer for every student — a laptop or even a ratio of one desktop computer per student — still a dream for most schools? Across the Southeast, the response would be a resounding, “Yes!” Several schools, however, are testing handheld computers, such as Palm’s Palm Pilots and Hewlett Packard’s Jornadas, as possible technologies to provide each student. Many high school students already own a graphing calculator that costs about the same amount as many of these handheld devices.

So why provide a student a handheld computer? In addition to being a graphing calculator, a handheld computer can serve as a time management tool, a graphic organizer, a word processor, a Web browser, an email device, and much more.

Originally marketed as a personal organizer for on-the-go business executives and ardent technophiles, personal digital assistants (PDAs) have evolved into handheld computing devices and have become one of the most ubiquitous electronic devices in both the consumer and business worlds. Sometimes known as PDAs, palmtops, pocket PCs, personal PCs, handheld devices, or handheld computers, these devices were described in the Chicago Tribune as looking like a “cross between a cell phone and a Nintendo Game Boy.”

Due to lower costs, increased functionality, and the availability of new software designed specifically for education, K-12 schools are beginning to take a serious look at handheld computing for teaching and learning, administrative tasks, and communication and collaboration. In fact, the potential for using handhelds in education is almost limitless.

Now is the time to begin discovering whether or not these computing devices can be used to help fulfill the promise of educational computing. They just may be the answer to overcoming the problem of access to technology and to creating equity of use in the classroom.

This series of articles from SEIRTEC is devoted to exploring the possibilities of handheld computing in K-12 schools. The articles that follow were part of a longer series in SEIRTEC NewsWire, Volume 5, Number 2 (Fall 2002), which is availble here in PDF format. The issue includes projects that use handheld computers, information on wireless technology, and an interview with Diana Skinner, Technical Director for Johnston County (NC) Schools, about her system’s use of handheld technologies.