In Rick Robb’s English class at River Hill High School, the students entered carrying small computers and placed them on their desks. Once they turned on their devices, they were instantly connected to an electronic network, and Mr. Robb began the day’s writing lesson.
Standing at a small audiovisual equipment cart, Mr. Robb started the lesson by saying, “Let’s rock and roll.” The cart held a laptop that controlled the wireless network and software that allowed him to see what was on each student’s handheld computer. He instructed the students to examine a painting of a crowded subway car on their screens and choose a person to write a first-person monologue about.
As the students unfolded their lightweight keyboards and connected them to their iPAQ handhelds, Mr. Robb could monitor their writing as it appeared on his screen. When one student didn’t follow instructions, he reminded him about writing from a first-person point of view.
Mr. Robb, who had received special training and adapted his teaching to incorporate handheld computers, believed that the devices offered new and engaging ways to teach. His students also responded positively to using their handhelds, with one student, Alicia Lazaris, expressing that she enjoyed using it for her homework assignments.
Handheld computing, previously associated with tech-savvy individuals, is now becoming more prevalent in classrooms across the country. Brands such as iPAQs by Compaq Computer Corp., Palms by Palm Inc., and Visors by Handspring Inc. are competing for adoption in schools. Education officials see these devices as an affordable alternative to laptops or personal computers, allowing each student to have their own computer.
However, the use of handhelds in schools hasn’t been without controversy. Some administrators have banned them, citing concerns that students may use them to cheat or engage in non-educational activities such as playing games or sending emails. In Maryland, handhelds were banned from school campuses since 1989, but a recent repeal of the law has shifted the decision-making power to local school boards. Some districts have chosen to maintain the ban, while others allow classroom teachers to decide whether student-owned handhelds are permitted.
Even in schools that allow handheld computers, educators must remain vigilant in ensuring that students don’t use them as mere toys. In one instance, students in a West Virginia school used their handheld computers to turn on the school’s television sets using the wireless infrared communication ports, leading to a series of pranks before a teacher discovered the source.
However, some districts that were initially skeptical about the educational value of handhelds are now encountering more teachers who believe these devices have a place in modern schools. Mark A. Evans, a district technology teacher in the Klein Independent School District, plans to survey school administrators to determine if they support lifting the ban on student electronic devices. He believes that the relatively low cost of handhelds, with prices ranging from $250 to $550, makes it feasible to achieve the goal of one computing device per student, which many education technology advocates consider ideal.
Wireless Learning Experiences
However, school districts are progressing with experiments utilizing handheld devices. In Orland Park, Illinois, Consolidated High School District 230 has provided almost 1,700 out of its 2,200 students and 65 teachers with Palm III handhelds. The students either purchase or lease these machines, which come with software for standard office activities and data collection from scientific probes. Classroom sets of handhelds and portable keyboards are also available for students to borrow. Josh Barron, a history and world-geography teacher at Stagg High School in District 230, uses handhelds as a supplement to his teaching methods and has seen that they appeal particularly to struggling students.
In a history class last year, Barron’s students crafted a fantasy stock portfolio starting with $5,000 of pretend money. They used their Palm III handhelds on a daily basis to check stock prices online and wrote reports using lightweight folding keyboards, which are commonly used in classrooms that employ such computing devices. This year, Barron’s geography classes are utilizing a Palm-based program called PiCoMap, developed by Mr. Soloway, which enables students to create concept maps illustrating connections between various facts and ideas. For example, when studying a wetland ecosystem, a student can enter key words like “frog,” “dragonfly,” “water,” “trees,” and “air pollution” into cyber bubbles that appear on the screen and then connect them to associated bubbles. The concept map can be shared with classmates or submitted as homework using the handheld’s wireless infrared-communications link. Barron affirms that “students who own Palms become more engaged in their homework; they do it on the Palms and send it to me; this eliminates the need for paper and notebooks.” Nevertheless, he cautions that handheld computers cannot replace books because “it is too difficult to read on the Palm.” Furthermore, he acknowledges that these gadgets can be distracting, as students often use them for gaming rather than schoolwork. “The games are a concern,” he remarks, “you need to be cautious.” Additionally, like personal computers, handhelds require maintenance, such as keeping the batteries charged and regularly transferring data to more permanent storage on desktop computers or school servers. Educators are also concerned that students may use their Internet capabilities to access inappropriate websites.
At Colchester Middle School in Vermont, students can only use their handhelds at school; they are not allowed to take them home. “We prioritize supervision,” says Patrick Phillips, a science teacher at the school. “The first question they ask is, ‘Can it play games?’ They initially view it as a Game Boy.”
E-Books Approaching
In the coming months, handhelds will face competition from a new generation of electronic books, which feature larger screens that are better suited for displaying diagrams and paragraphs of text, according to Carole C. Inge, the executive director of the Institute for Teaching Through Technology and Innovative Practices in South Boston, Virginia. The institute, a division of Longwood College, is funded by the Virginia legislature to find ways of using technology to assist teachers in meeting the state’s academic standards. Since 1999, Ms. Inge has been developing “virtual reality” software for handheld devices that utilizes the Windows CE operating system. She has also worked with Palms but found the 3-by-3-inch screen size of these devices too limiting for virtual reality and other multimedia applications. “I have a spider, and I can examine it in three dimensions, but if I want to view the spider in an ecosystem, the screen size of a handheld is too small,” Ms. Inge explains. In contrast, she argues that an e-book with a 7-by-7-inch screen provides sufficient space for virtual reality experiences. Additionally, she claims that e-books are easier to use for consuming large quantities of text, viewing detailed pictures and diagrams, and administering computer-based assessments. This is the initial installment of a regular page dedicated to technology in education. The coverage of technology is supported in part by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.