Warrensburg Handheld Project

Handhelds and Learning: "Hand in Hand"

Warrensburg Middle School is involved in an innovative project in which 7th and 8th grade students use handheld computers in their daily learning activities, both at school and at home. Each student has been assigned a Palm TungstenE2 (7th grade) or a Palm TX (8th grade) handheld computer, a wireless keyboard, and a carrying case, in addition to a variety of software that is used for learning and for creating documents, animations, concept maps, drawings, quizzes, etc. The students are responsible for taking the handheld computers home every night and charging the batteries, so that the devices can be used throughout the next day at school.

Palm Tungsten E Handheld computers are quickly becoming an important tool in schools across the United States. Educators have come to realize that the most powerful benefits of technology are seen when students have access to tools throughout the day, rather than occasional visits to computer labs. When students can turn to this productivity tool at a moment’s notice, this behavior more closelyresembles the ways technology is used on a daily basis to solve problems in the real world. And handheld computers are much less expensive than laptops, making it possible to put a computer into the hands of every student. A typical handheld computer used in schools costs $150 to $300, compared to the $800 to $1500 price tag for laptops.

In the past, people have thought of handheld computers as little more than PDA’s (personal digital assistants), or a place to keep track of appointments and addresses. But the devices are now much more powerful than many people realize. They are now fully functional computers, and are capable of 80 to 90 percent of the tasks that can be done on a newer desktop computer. Students can create word processing documents, with advanced formatting and spell checking. They can create spreadsheets that carry out math calculations. They can create and view images and KEYBOARD animations. They can look up information on web sites and collaborate with students and subject area experts in other parts of the world by email. They can listen to audio recordings, such as podcasts, recorded lessons from their teachers, and music. They can wirelessly beam their documents to each other for peer editing, and to their teacher for evaluation. And the list of learning activities goes on and on. Among the few things that cannot (yet) be done on handhelds would be those tasks that require very intensive computer processing, such as editing digital videos.

Handhelds and eMINTS: "Hand in Hand"
The 7th grade program at Warrensburg Middle School was funded by a grant from the Missouri Department ofElementary and Secondary Education. The grant brings in more than $300,000 to be used over a two-year period to get the program up and running. The 7th grade program is in its second year. The 8th grade program is paid for by district technology funds, and is in its first year.

There are 14 teachers involved in the 7th grade program, and 12 teachers in 8th grade. All teachers are going through an extensive program of professional development, in which they each receive approximately 200 hours of training over a two-year period. As with all innovative teaching programs in schools, we feel that the success of such programs is closely tied to the amount and quality of teacher training and support.