HANDHELD COMPUTING IN K-12 EDUCATION
The following list of URLs has been compiled by Dr. Lud Braun and is provided to you to assist in your exploration of the use of Handheld Computers in K–12 education:
http://www.mpsomaha.org/willow/p5/handhelds/index.html
This
is a description of Tony Vincent’s experience with handhelds in his Fifth
grade class.
http://www.handheld.hice-dev.org
Lots
of good ideas about handhelds in education from the HiCE folks at the University
of Michigan.
http://glef.org/FMPro?-DB=articles1.fp5&-format=article.html&-lay=layout%20%231&learnlivekeywords::jargonfree=
Technology%20Integration&-token.3=Innovative%20Classrooms&-token.2=Technology%20
Integration&-token.1=Art_955&-max=200&-find
This
is a wonderful article and accompanying Online video about handhelds in
the classroom, produced by the George Lucas Educational Foundation.
http://pie.concord.org/list.php3?PALM_Session=3ee75c461908beb903998dad25e5bb36 A Concord Consortium site that reviews educational software for handhelds.
http://www.k12handhelds.com/cue2002.PDF
A
PDF file that is essentially a PowerPoint presentation of handhelds in
education.
Looks at how handhelds apply in science, math, language
arts, grade keeping, classroom management, etc.
http://usight.concord.org/curriculum/suggestions.html
Lots
of ideas for curriculum and handhelds.
A conversation with Carolyn Staudt (an educational technology pioneer from the Concord Consortium) regarding the future of handhelds in education.
http://playspace.concord.org/Documents/Learning%20from%20Handhelds.pdf.
A
report by Carolyn Staudt (a pioneer in handheld computing) about her experiences
with 2nd graders and handhelds.
http://aa.uncwil.edu/numina/tech%20web%20page/web
This
is a listing of sites for K-12 and higher education handheld applications. It
includes a “PDA Field Guide” which looks at the pros and cons of PALM OS
v. Windows CE.
http://www.k12handhelds.com/florida/
A
Florida teacher-created site describing a number of educational applications,
including lots of teacher support materials.
http://probesight.concord.org/curriculum/template_section.htm
Curriculum
ideas for probeware uses in education; published by the Concord Consortium.
http://www.handheldlearning.org
A
good resource of information about curriculum, staff training, etc. with
handhelds.
Description of four schools’ experiences with handhelds.
http://www.wired.com/news/culture/0,1284,40483,00.html
Here
is a story about a high school district in Orland Park, IL which has purchased
2,200 PALMS and given them to all their students. Lots going on in
this School District.
http://www.electronic-school.com/2001/06/0601handhelds.html
A
good article from www.electronic-school.com about
the pros and cons of using handhelds in the classroom.
http://www.palmgrants.sri.com/PEP_Final_Report.pdf
A
comprehensive report on multi-year study of the impact of handhelds (PALMs)
on students over a range of grades and subjects.
Excellent material
here.
In PDF format, it is 80+ pages long (download it rather than
printing it).
Well worth your reading.
http://cilt.org
This is the link for
the Center for Innovative Learning Technologies exploring different aspects
of handheld computing.
http://www.palm.com/education
PALM’s
Website that focuses on educational applications including success stories,
software, and hardware available for PALMs.
http://school.discovery.com/schrockguide/gadgets.html
Kathy
Schrock (well-known by K-12 teachers for her great work in Educational
Technology and teacher support) provides a link to sites to buy items,
teacher-created URLs, etc.
http://www.rainbowtech.org/Palm
Several
URLs about handhelds; these sites were created by teachers.
One of
the sites is entitled “Handhelds as Mind Tools.”
http://www.pdaed.com/vertical/tutorials/buyersguide.xml
Addresses
lots of questions related to purchasing a handheld (PDA) including how
to make your choice, what you can do with it once you have it, and where
to buy one.
http://itd.usd259.com/initiatives/handhelds/handhelds.htm
A
discussion about lots of new accessories for PALM OS handhelds.
http://palmgear.com
This is PALMs online
store with information about software, hardware, and accessories for PALM
OS handhelds.
http://www.learningathand.com
Reviews
of educational software, discussion boards for teachers using handhelds.
http://www.handango.com
An Online provider
of educational software for PALM OS and other handhelds.
http://www.freewarepalm.com
A large
selection of FREE (no cost) software for PALM OS handhelds
http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com
Peanut
Press, a subsidiary of PALM, publishes ebooks from recent novels to books
on religion, science, and much more. There are hundreds of ebooks
listed, plus there is a downloadable free version of PALM READER for handhelds,
for desktops, and for laptops. Most ebooks cost only a few dollars. Some
are FREE.
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech083.shtml
A
discussion of the benefits of using handhelds, including several examples
of classroom use.
There are lots of URLs related to handhelds in
education.
http://www.macul.org
Michigan Association
for Computer Users in Learning. Various links regarding handhelds
in education.
http://coe.ksu.edu/Bailey/html/DP.prop.02.pdf
A
dissertation proposal for looking at handhelds in education. This
link contains good research questions.
http://www.lr.k12.nj.us/ETTC/archives/handheld.shtml Several articles on handhelds in education including one entitled “101 Great Educational Uses for Your Handheld Computer.”
http://www.k12handhelds.com/tceappt
An
18 slide PowerPoint presentation of issues relating to handhelds in education.
This
might be very useful within your school and/or district for administrators.
http://www.grantstreetsoftware.com
They
offer a suite of software to manage large numbers of handhelds in classroom
situations. They aren’t cheap (cost ranges from $199 to $499 per package),
but they sound powerful and useful if you have lots of handhelds to configure
or to update.
http://www.k12handhelds.com/apps#top
Contains
descriptions of a large collection of educational applications, including
administrative ones.
http://probesight.concord.org/
Comprehensive
look at probeware applications in education.
http://www.concord.org/newsletter/2002winter/monday_lesson.html
A
look at handhelds used to record student observations during field trips.
http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/hhc/
Good
report from eSchool News. It compares laptops, tablet computers, and handhelds
in classroom applications.
http://playspace.concord.org/Documents/Learning%20from%20Handhelds.pdf
Another
paper by Carolyn Staudt. This one was published recently (within the last
year) and looks at the problems and potentials of handhelds in the hands
of kids, and describes a number of educational applications of handhelds.
http://www.smartphoneacademy.co.nz/ebooks-are_they_ready_to_come_of_age.pdf
An
excellent review of the status of eBooks and their potential role in education.
http://www97.intel.com/education/odyssey/day_185/day_185.htm
Special
ed sixth graders in a NJ school use handhelds.
http://www.palm.com/us/education/studies/study3.html
Here
is a really nice story about special-ed kids using handhelds.
http://cmsce.rutgers.edu/projects/palm/hce-projects.html
Here
is a really nice story about special-ed kids using handhelds.
http://www.goknow.com/Products/PAAM.html
This
site describes a new product called PAAM (for Palm OS Artifact and Assessment
Manager). It is offered by GoKnow, the commercial arm of the hi-CE Project.
PAAM makes the teacher’s job of managing student reports, papers, etc. and
assignments to students much easier than by beaming.
www.principalm.com/
This site describes
a Palm-based tool for school principals and other administrators. Using this
tool, the principal can keep files in his Palm of all students in the school,
including student names, addresses, photos, phone numbers, emergency contacts,
each student’s schedule, etc. Also at this site there is a description of
a tool for teachers called Teacherpalm which permits the teacher to store
in her Palm attendance data, name, address, photo, grades, discipline problems,
schedules, etc. for each student in her classes.
www.alphasmart.com
This site describes
the new AlphaSmart Dana which is larger than most handhelds and has a larger
screen, but runs most Palm software and has a full-size keyboard. It costs
$399 in small lots. It is now available in a wireless version.
The September, 2003 issue of Technology & Learning has a good article about uses of probeware in science classes. The article is on pp. 40-42. It includes 12 URLs related to probeware plus a description of several science applications of probeware.
http://education.wichita.edu/m3/mobility/handhelds/softwarelist.htm.
Contains brief descriptions of over 20 educationally-oriented programs
for Palm OS.
http://education.wichita.edu/m3/mobility/handhelds/curriculum.htm
Contains
11 URLs about integrating handhelds into the curriculum.
http://www.eduscapes.com/tap/topic78.htm
This
site contains hundreds of URLs about teacher-support and educational software,
educational applications, articles on handhelds, project ideas, GPS ideas,
and digital-camera applications.
http://www.wirelessgeneration.com/web/
Wireless
generation has developed a series of assessment tools for classroom teachers
that run in Palm OS. The teacher enters observations directly into the
Palm during class and, later, can hot-synch them to a desktop computer
which generates individual data about student performance of each student
for parents, more detailed results for the teacher, and overall class performance
for administrators.
http://www.memoware.com
Humongous collection
of free ebooks (with some for sale as well). There are 18 categories of reference
ebooks ranging from Business through Travel, and 15 categories of ebooks
in literature ranging from Adventure through Westerns. There are hundreds
of free ebooks here.
If you have a link you would like to add, please use the form link below to contribute. Or email Faye Lourenso at with the link address and a comment about the site.