Palm Handheld Computers
by: Patti Weeg
A communication tool? Yes!
In the education landscape, Palm handhelds are more than just organizers; they are small computers that encourage student collaboration and sharing. Handheld computers give students and teachers the opportunity to communicate on a new and exciting level. Students can beam information to each other and collaborate as they complete assigned tasks. Teachers can also beam files such as quizzes and assignments to students. The ability to beam files from one Palm to another opens a new world of possibilities for cooperative learning and creative teaching.
Pictured above:
Students at Delmar Elementary use Palms to write questions about stories they are reading in class. They beam their questions to other students who write the answers and beam them back.
More examples of communication with Palms:
- seventh graders at Goodrich Middle School
- Julius Caeser Project - Students at River Hill High School beam text from an e-book version of Shakespearean play to each other as the create literary research papers
- Success Story - North Star Middle School
- Handhelds in Teaching & Learning -
Class Logs written by graduate students taking Tony Vincent's class at University of Nebraska at Omaha and Millard Public Schools.
Resources: Learning@Hand Lesson Plans
Benefits
- small size, can be carried from place to place easily
- turn on instantly
- can be used outside
- Low cost of Palms compared to desktop or laptop computers will help bring schools closer to a one-to-one ratio of computers to students.
- Using "FligIt" teachers can bring selected and approved webpages to their students
- Teachers can help special needs students get organized.
Limitations
- screens are small
- students must remember to sync or they will lose data
- security issues - loss, theft
- fragile - screens break if Palms are dropped
- Beam cheating - students can beam each other the answers.
Adaptations to the Learning Environment
- Storage, charging and distribution of Palms are management issues that teachers must take into consideration.
- Students schedule times when they can sync their Palms.
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