Handhelds In The Classroom

Handhelds

If you thought a palm or handheld computer was a glorified address book or date book, then you need to re-think. Handheld computers or palms are the wave of the future for education as it relates to access to knowledge. With these small devices educators have the opportunity to provide an affordable solution to the problem that so many teachers who attempt to integrate technology experience: not enough equipment.

Palms may eventually allow every student access to a computer. Students who are highly mobile and struggle with language and financial barriers may now have equal access to knowledge and technology through the use of these handheld computers, thus improving their opportunities for long term educational and personal success. There may come a time when every teacher has a classroom set of palms, but until that time comes it is still possible and affordable for teachers to have a handheld for each student in the classroom. There are many grant opportunities out there which provide funding to purchase the palms or will provide the palms themselves. Several schools in our county have already obtained grants to purchase classroom sets of palms. In researching for this article, I found several sites which offered applications for funds for palms for educational use. If you are interested, I encourage you to take the time to check them out.

At this point, you may be asking yourself how this address book can be used as an educational tool in your classroom. There are countless ways that handhelds can be utilized in the classroom.

Students can:

use the keyboard to write stories, poems, or essays and they can be immediately shared with the teacher for editing and assessment.

read and have access to an abundance of references, e-books, images, and programs that can be distributed to students instantly.

	create documents on the palm which can be instantly displayed and shared with the teacher and/or the rest of the class through a T.V. monitor.
	take tests and have instant results.
	use it as a "spinner" to randomly choose items for students to respond to.
	create illustrations.
	collect sensory information to use in science classes.
	create and share concept maps.
	have individual access to web pages.
	translate from one language to another.
	convert measurements and currency.

Teachers can:

	keep and input grades anywhere.
	implement exciting, hands-on lesson plans.
	keep and analyze statistics.
	quickly access grades and assignments.
	easily distribute information to each student quickly and efficiently.
	beam a website to students.

Check out these sites for free software to use with your palm lessons.

Also, there are several great sites that offer comprehensive lesson plan ideas for integrating palms into your curriculum.

To see more of Wicomico County Students working with handheld computers click here or visit http://www.globalclassroom.org/2005/technology/index.html