Slashdot Mirror
Handhelds for Students?
OmegaGeek writes "Wired is reporting from NECC 2002 that one solution to achieving universal computer access advocated by teachers (and marketing departments too, no doubt) is the use of handheld computers instead of laptops or desktop PCs. Is this a reasonable solution? Does it offer anything for the students other than the ability to beam notes instead of passing a piece of paper? I've also posted a commentary at LearningTech."
The idea looks nice, but the blocking factor would be the speed at which notes could be taken, I'm afraid. I grafitti much slower than I type, but I type slower than I can take notes on paper. So what you'd be left with would be an expensive replacement for textbooks.
superblog.org: all your favourite blogs on o
doesn't anyone else recall the Apple eMate 300?
That was classic intercourse!
It takes just as long to learn how to program one of those things (in my day it was the hp 48) than it does to simply upload the material to your brain using a little IO device called "studying."
Just my $.02 YMMV
PDA's and other hand-held devices can be a huge boon to anyone who has the capacity to use them. Sure, students who already know how to use a computer and _type_ will benefit from the technology. However, what about students who lack that. We haven't reached the point where all students in all public schools have computer access or even a relevant amount of computer knowledge. To a certain extent; this is overkill. I don't quite think this will turn into glorified note passing; Given the chance to roll their own apps, I think this could result in a number of great projects. I know that if I had been handed some form of PDA with wireless capability in high school, my friends and I would have developed some form of networked app/network game. (Ahh, the joys of having time to code in homeroom) However, the amount of experimentation that would be allowed with the device would be called into question; You'd need a really progressive school system to allow that type of innovation.
When in doubt, parenthesize. At the very least it will let some poor schmuck bounce on the % key in vi. (Larry Wall)
I think educators are basically being tapped out for their budget, so they are being marketed (or "marked") by poeple who have computers and want to sell it.
But before we step in to the "can we do it?" phase, we need to step into the "Why?" phase:
What advantage is this going to confer to kids?
A radically changed lesson plan to incorporate whiz-bang gizmos, where neither the lesson plan nor the gizmos have had all their bugs wrinkled out?
No, this is a bottom up approach and you end up having the tail wag the dog. Lets look at computers in some schools- in the late 80's my grammar school had a couple of Commodore PETs (literally 2), it was wheeled out for special occaisions (once a year) and wheeled back into its closet. It was obvious that they bought the hype that "computers are our future, so simply by having one near a classroom it will enrich the students!"
We need a top down approach: what are we trying to teach? How best to implement the lesson plan?
And if you want to teach "computers" (ugh, who'd want to take that class?!) figure out what you want to do- maybe instead of a hand held device one of those microprocessor lab trainers (a computer on a board with a led read out and hex keypad input), or a unix system, or just a plain ol' windows box with Word on it (hey, typing is a skill!)
I hate when people just throw tech at a problem without thinking it through.
This guy,
is doomed.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
From the article: "It gives all kids an opportunity to use technology," he said.
That's a pretty pointless statement to make. When the kids ride a schoolbus to school, they're using technology. When they use a toaster to toast their pop-tarts in the morning, they're using technology. When they change the channel on their TV with a remote control, they're using technology. If they have a wristwatch, they're using technology!
It sounds to me like whoever wrote this article is getting kickbacks from the handheld manufacturers.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
I'm glad a don't live in San Antonio and have to fund this with my tax dollars. It is a stupid and clueless waste, and a cop out for real education. A computer lab should be enough. We have such a freaking gadget fetish, and now we're shoving it onto kids? So they are not allowed to carry cell phones and pages, but handhelds are now mandatory? These will largely just be used for games and various other bullshit and time wasting. The most valuable part of education will come from teachers and books - not the technological gadget of the day. Imagine a teacher having to compete for attention with the handhelds of each student. Hey, I have a really cool handheld: a notepad and a freakin pencil.
The conveniences you demanded are now mandatory.
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
Why don't they phase in support for handhelds and see how effective they are? The kids that have enought money to get handhelds can be the testers of the system. If it catches on and teachers and kids seem to benefit, they can progress from there. We can discuss what we think are pros and cons all day, but until they actually do a study or run a pilot program no one really knows the impact handhelds will have on learning.
While the use of a PDA for note taking can be a waste of time, I imagine the possibilities of mathematics software is limitless. Considering many parents are still shelling out $100 for the same TI-81 I purchased 10 years ago in high school, this may relieve them of that burden.
Perhaps our future math students will be able to better understand more complex complex systems when they can see them rendered in a more realistic fashion (how about 3-D graphs???) Not only that, modern programming languages can be utilized on PDA, where the TI-81 crew is stuck with basic.
Perhaps good old Steve Wolfram can port Mathematica to the PocketPC platform.
I have no doubt PDAs are useless for anything not science related, and I would guess that if a kid was diligently poking away during english class his professor would be rightly dismayed.
I don't read or respond to AC posts
My wife has a slim little toshiba laptop and she types much faster ( not to mention much neater) than she can scrawl with a pen or pencil.
Given the extremes, it seems silly to "mandate" such a thing into existence- let the typers type, let the writers write, and let the kids who sleep in the back use a tape recorder!
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
Being a grown-up, and being as careful as you are with YOUR hand-held that you care deeply about, how much attention do you pay to where you put it? Ever put it in your pocket and walk into the corner of a desk, thusly crushing the screen? Ever put it in your bookbag and then plop the bag down on the floor? I've broken the touch-sensitive surface of my IIIxe at least twice in the years I've had it, and although it's easy to replace, it's still a hassle. I got a bumper case for it, but it's a pain to take out to dock...
Anyway does anybody really think a bunch of school kids (given some of them are tech-saavy, but...) are going to be able to keep their expensive (it's still more than a bottom of the line TI graphing calculator) PDA's in one piece? I think that has always been part of the argument against giving students laptops too.
I think it's fine and dandy to have a centralized system where a kid can go to a computer in the library and see when his homework is due and look at notes from class, but anything else is just fodder for either breakage or game-playing.
-S
Ok, we know how frequently Laptop computers get stolen in schools... Can you imagine how many of these things could, nay, WILL, get stolen? All you gotta do is shove it in your pocket.. a laptop at least requires a *little* bit of planning ...
...
The schools had better have good replacement policies, otherwise there's going to be a lot of kids that are SOL when their PDA gets stolen on the 2nd day of school... And I'm sure that it's going to cost a pretty penny to replace all these things.
Maybe each of the PDA's should have the owners name inscribed in them in such a way that to remove the name would require a very noticable degree of damage to the device... that might serve as a deterrent.
In any case, I'm not saying that giving all the kids PDA's is necessarily a bad thing, just that there's going to be lots of social and financial implications for the schools and students involved
ìì!
I work (as a contractor) at a Board of Ed. We've had three different laptop programs, and the first two were dismal failures. Now with the 3rd one, kids won't be taking them home. The problem with laptops and kids is the same as palmtops and kids.
The problem is that children aren't adults, and are (generally) less responsible and tend to throw their bags/coats etc. In short, things get broken. Never mind "I left it at home" excuse derailing a project and wasting time in the classroom. Wired workstations are still the way to go, not only for speed, but also for reliability.
Before asking "can we", the question is "should we"?
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
why must we spend all this money? I didnt have computers when I went to school.
with the exception of computer class they arent needed.
children need to learn math in their heads they need to know why math works the way it does.
history is history, the events of 1776 will not change, so a nice hard copy book that will last 5 years will be cheaper than a computer that is obsolite in 2.
english/writing classes, have you seen the hand writing of people lately?
computers are just a waste of taxpayers money, how about giving "good" teachers a raise instead?
Thanks to file sharing, I purchase more CDs
Thanks to the RIAA, I buy them used...
All I can say is this is just the slippery slope. They start out getting their hands held, and the next thing you know they're pregnant. When will you people learn that an abstinence based sex education program that promotes ZERO PHYSICAL CONTACT before marriage is the only valid response to the creeping moral decline in this country?!
It Is the Nature of Information to Transgress Artificial Boundaries
At this time, we need to be focussing on Equality of Opportunity by making sure every citizen is literate, understands at least enough Math to balance a checkbook and understand how to save money, and understands enough science to know snake oil salesmen when they show up. If a person knows that much, they can take their destiny into their own hands and learn the rest from books, the Net, whatever.
That is not to say we should not strive to make computers available to everyone - internet computers in libraries are a great idea. But first things first.
At my work, this summer we will require all High School students to buy a Thinkpad, iBook or Powerbook G4.
Already, the English department requires everything to be done on a computer, we offer classes on photography without a darkroom (Photoshop/Gimp) and there is a huge amount of digital photography and video.
Our campus is 90% covered in 802.11b and we have a flexable attitude towards study locations and learning, so we think that laptops will be a great boon to education at this level.
I just graduated from a high school where we had a good 450 of those iPaq things floating around. I went to River Hill High School in Clarksville, MD (AKA Rich White Boy School).
The handheld program has been nothing but a failure.
First year, they tried giving them all to the 9th graders. All they did was download porn over the 802.11b (I'm not kidding), and play games. Forget actually using them for anything. The 'school' software we had never worked, and was served off crappy Compaq Armada laptops that never stayed on for very long. Not to mention how often the kids broke them and refused to pay.
After that mess, they tried making 5 or 6 classrooms digital. The most we ever used it for was to browse the web, except when we were showing off for the newspapers and TV. Given the fact that a full unit cost $700 (color IPaq, expansion sleeve, keyboard, case, Cisco 802.11b card), I'd just as soon see the money into buying eMacs or Dells instead of this. Then at least, we could see what we're browsing on the web.
At USD, thats University of South Dakota for those who live outside the Mt. Rushmore State, the administration has completed the first year of a 3 year "pilot" program where all incomming students receive a PALM M500, assorted software, USB cradle (That I still cannot get to work with linux) and access to Infrared ports scattered through most of the buildings on campus. These provide access to the internet for email, news, upgrades, assignments, and anything else you might want.
After the first year, adoption or use by the student population runs around 50%. The other half either collect dust or sell them on E-bay. Professors like them, because it makes producing a handout or study guide easier, beaming to a few students who then "pass it on" and saving paper. The biggest problem has been classes where only 1/2 to 1/3 of students have either been issued a PALM (freshmen only) or have bothered to bring it. The next plan is to have certain sections of popular classes be listed "PALM Only" so professors and students so inclined actually CAN take advantage of the devicecs.
Students who use them most often take advantage of the handheld news options, email, and the like. My personal favorite was to transfer my notes to the PALM so I could study for finals while I'm out fishing.
Trying to use sarcasm in text-based forums does not work.
Frankly I just don't get it. There are two good ways to learn about something: do it or discuss it. Hands-on learning is really only useful in some subjects (chemistry, CS, etc.) so that leaves discussion for most school subjects. The best discussions occur in small classrooms where everyone has done the reading. I don't see where computers fit in here. Sure, it's nice to have access for online articles etc. but usually computer projects in highschool involve making a webpage or powerpoint presentation, neither of which have *anything to do with the subject at hand* I dislike the idea that schools are corporate training. I don't want my tax dollars teaching tenth graders to be entry level HTML authors.
Don't get me wrong. I love computers. But I've yet to see an application in the classroom beyond simple word-processing and document search that makes them anything more that $1000 time wasting devices. Computers are the worksheets and posters of a new generation, a busywork tool for lazy teachers. I'd rather see that money going to increased teacher salaries, building new schools, or buying more textbooks.
My highschool started purchasing laptops for the students (and increasing tuition by fifteen hundred dollars) the year after I graduated. My sister's still there though and she tells me the laptops do nothing but help students not pay attention. The class sits, computers open, not listening because they're talking on AIM and someone will post the notes online anyway. Every once in a while they'll do a "research" project online that involves little more than cutting and pasting from online encyclopedias.
I do approve of Computer Science (if taught well and not just as job training) in the schools, and I do think that computers can be useful in the classroom, even if they aren't often put to good use. But with the sad state of American education being as it is, I think we're a *long* way away from the point that a laptop is the best way to spend $1500 of the education budget (not to mention additional hires and resources)
I've no experience with Pocket PC devices in the classroom, but I'd imagine it would be worse. The Pocket PC fails in the two areas that school computers are actually worthwhile - word processing and internet search. They're totally inadequate for word processing and not quite there on internet search (small (lo-res) screen doesn't support many pages, awkward interface, wireless concerns). So this initiative seems to only make classroom technology more useless.
I guess they make school more fun, but unless you're the type of student for whom learning really is a pleasure, in which case you'll do just fine regardless, school being more fun probably means you're learning less.
in 1900 you weren't considered educated without fluency in Greek, Latin, French and German...
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
How the PDAs are handled by these kids (including being broken, stolen, etc.) is besides the point. If we know PDAs will help them manage the information that they're bombarded with daily then they should be used. Working out the logisitics is really secondary.
Laptops or tablets are a better option. I am an avid Palm fan/user however I also take a tablet (paper kind) to meetings. The limitations of writing and size are too great given the current level of technology. I read ebooks on my palm but I don't think a set of textbooks would be practical.
On the other hand, many people are going too high end. Forget gaming or graphics, etc. This is school. Text editing, note taking, paper writing, math solving (3 R's type work). How about new "older" versions of machines. Under-powered for today's executives but more than enough for this type of work. Even a "skinny" Linux capable of running KDE/GNOME and Open Office would give them a heck of a boost. (I said Linux because of the legal issues of attempting to outfit them with win98 and cost)
Too often I see these fail because everyone wants to supply a machine for the minority (1ghz+ processor, 256meg of ram and 40 gig hard drive. If the kids want to learn to code, or extend the power of what they are doing, that is fine, but we need a product for the masses. How about a 333mhx, 128 meg of memory, 4 gig hard drive, and modem/Ethernet card running at 800x600. It would seem someone could produce such a laptop that was shock resistant for under $500 a piece and still make money. This is so far off bleeding edge, offices are probably using them for door stops.
By the way, I used my laptop as this example(IBM 1400I) which does 80% of what I need to do as a developer (mail, documentation, notes, etc). I even manage a couple of games. These kids would be hard pressed to use this to its potential.
Come on laptop producers. Step up and take the challenge. How about making $12 on 10,000 machines instead of $100 on a 1000?
But beyond just providing an instant reference the laptops provided a way to communicate with the professor during lecture without disrupting class and without fear of embarrasment. The professor set up an IM account that he left logged on during lecture. Anyone at any time could IM the prof questions, comments, or links to reference material anonymously and the professor could then answer them at a convenient point in the lecture. Some might argue that anonymity may not allow the professor to get to know about their students, but I feel that in large lectures, alot of questions go unasked because people feel too embarrassed to ask them. In our class the professor knew exactly when something he said needed clarification. I think the students benefitted greatly from what the technology allowed.
No brain, no pain!
Handing out technology is pretty much the mindset that has prevailed in the schools up to now, and it doesn't work. Teachers don't have the time or resources to effectively use the Macs/PCs they have, and most schools have no competent SysAdmin--they usually draft a teacher and they grudgingly do it for a year.
Talk to your local elem. school teachers, esp. ones with diverse classrooms, and get a feel for their challenges. Then tailor a technology approach that meets their needs; if you can find ways to improve the effectiveness of teaching, you will help more kids.
I think that the ideal device would be a PDA that is so ubiquitous and inexpensive that it is not worth stealing, and no great loss if damaged or misplaced. Now, design a classroom around that device-- the child carriers the PDA home or to school, but at either place it can be plugged into the desktop and become part of a more capable, flexible learning system, with a keyboard, mouse, or other input device depending on the child's need. No more text books-- all instructional media is electronic and licensed to the school system.
The main initial benefit of the EDA (let's call it) is to provide local storage of homework assignments, calandar, contact, basic reference information, and statistics on use. This ensures that kids can't forget their textbook, or homework assignment, or spelling list, or worksheet, because the teacher can synch every EDA in the class at the end of the day.
Unplugged, the EDA stores key imformation for homework, reading, and studies-- much like a handspring or palmpilot. Plugged into class net or a home PC, it is the front-end of a more powerful networked information device.
More ambitiously, use the EDA and the wired classroom to give teachers instantaneous feedback on student interaction, learning, participation. No more night spent grading papers, other than writing assignments. Basic skills tests are graded instantaneously, proving the teacher with immediate feedback on instructional effectiveness. Each kid can advance at his/her own pace--"leave no kid behind" would become a reality.
The Teacher's workstation would enable them to scan the entire class during a writing or reading assignment, enable or disable instant messaging or polling, and even measure the time use and interaction on a class assignment, realtime, or record statistics that can be analyzed later. This would also make standardized testing much more consistent across classrooms, schools, and school districts.
Stop with the "Apples for the Students" already. It is having little positive impact on learning, burdens teachers that are already overloaded, and amounts to little more than a toy that teachers use to distract students while they provide individual attention on handle admin duties.
---
Actually, I just completed doing this. I took a sociolinguistics class as a postgrad, and took all my notes on my palmtop pc, a cassiopeia, because I was too lazy to . I found out a couple things:
1) The urge to play games was immense, because nobody (save the folks behind you) can tell what you're really doing on there.
2) Input is not that bad. I use the Fitaly keypad and was getting upwards of 20 wpm after a few days. Character recognition was terrible in the basic setup. But what really helps after a while is the word suggestion -- especially since a lot of the class was learning and applying new terms.
3) I didn't feel out of place or nerdy, except that I was taking notes and many others weren't. I was regarded as more of an outcast for not having a cell phone.
4) When my stylus broke, I was sort of fucked. Same with power outages -- once I played games for three hours before class and missed a day's worth of notes. I was late with a paper because I had totally drained the batteries and couldn't charge it fast enough to print.
5) The incompatibility with PalmOS made it impossilbe to "note pass" digitally. I understand there's a $30 program that lets you interchange, but it seems costly just to send "Prof's a goober" to another techno loser. I have seen people swap notes via palm to palm connections, but it often took so long to negociate that I wonder if copying by hand might be easier.
6) Because nobody knew how to use my pc, when I passed it around to get people's email addresses I would usually have to enter them myself. Everybody understands a pen.
For what it's worth, the palm made it so nice to study up for tonight's big test, post my notes online and print out flash cards (word macro to search for bolded text, copy out the text after it, repeat for each card).
Hey freaks: now you're ju
WOW! Instead of that annoying socratic method (Professor: "Mr Pithers! Please stand up and tell us WHY we should never invert the apex of a geometric nucleus?") to find out the students grasp of knowledge, have a "private" little quiz- almost anonymous, and the teacher gets a better "random sample" of what the class knows.
P.S.- that geometric nucleus question is hard.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
You slap one of these into their hands and the first thing they'll do is install a game into it and start playing.
Then you put wireless communication into the scheme and you'll have kids playing games against each other and some l337 h@><0rZ doing scans all day instead of listening to the teacher.
This could go to a Very Bad Place. I can see it now.
Teacher: Young man, would you like to share that instant messages with the rest of the class?
/*drunk.. fix later*/
Okay in reponse to some of your Goods-
Reasons 1, 2, and 4 are done for a great number of college courses, both traditional and distance learning. This has been a natural evolution from having a department/school wide network with internet access and computer labs. The emphasis is that this evolved out of circumstances, this has not been pushed by some technology vendor.
This can also be done without laptops as well- though more and more most colleges are saying the average freshman needs a computer, with fairly reasonable access to a computer lab or a library. (SIDENOTE: the one in my high school was locked up tighter than a chastity belt. That makes sense, lets NOT let the kids use computers! We literally had a LOTUS 1-2-3 class as a lecture!)
Now the difference is that Sunday night 3 am our freshman can go into the computer labs and type away. High schools are usually closed by then.
But this can all be acheived without getting "ultra fancy" and losing sight of the goal- get kids to use computers as tools, not simply as toys.
In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
To give you an example, when I began working at the computer lab in college in '95, a majority of the problems I dealt with involved the students being unfamiliar with PCs in general, rather than an issue of the computer being broken. "How do I turn it on?", "How do I type a paper?", "What's the 'any' key?", and so forth were the main problems. Gradually, however, as more students entered college having used computers in high school to type papers and do research, my job has become less of "How do I use this infernal contraption?" to "Is the network broken?"
My point is that use of computer technology in grade and high schools is beneficial less for the overt "Kids will have new ways to learn" and more for the side effect of increased familiarity and comfort with technology in general. It's been years since I had to assist a student who was so afraid of breaking the computer that he or she wouldn't even touch the mouse.
So, while practically the PDA thing seems kind of like throwing technology at (what appears to be) a non-existent problem, the side benefit is wonderful. Kids become familiar with tech in general and lose some of their fear for it, which in my humble opinion is a good thing.
- Jonathan
Want good eductation? All you need is a student who wants to learn and a teacher who wants to teach. If you have those two things everything else is irrelevant.
The problem is the one that has always plagued education, the prevelence of "students" who are not there to learn, and "teachers" who are glorified babysitters. Introducing a new tool into this situation isn't a solution to this problem, because there is no solution to this problem. You can hire better teachers, assuming you can find them, but that doesn't solve the problem of the "students" who aren't there to learn.
The reason I'm bringing this up is that for a very long time people have been bitching and moaning about how our schools are sub-par. Gadgets are for some strange reason seen as a solution to this problem. The truth is that the "problem" of poor schools is largely manufactured by political pundits in order to stir the emotions of the sheeple. There are areas where the schools are sub par. There are two reasons for this that are interrelated. First, the local culture of these areas is barbaric. The "students" are criminals in training, many of which won't live to see their 21st birthday, and even more of which will spend that birthday behind bars. Good teacher's are not going to want to work in such an environment. Needless to say computers and palm pilots aren't going to solve the problem.
A computer or any other information tool in the hands of an interested student will of course be of value. That same tool in the hands of someone who doesn't give a rat's ass is just going to be a waste of money.
If you want a better education for your children, teach them at home starting at the youngest age you possibly can. Send them off to first grade or kindergarten already knowing how to read. If you can afford to home school them, do so. If not then try your dead level best to ensure that they are in a school district where their fellow students are not going to be a bunch of thugs and where the teachers have faith in the future of the students they teach.
Lee
Muslim community leaders warn of backlash from tomorrow morning's terrorist attack.
...actually the handheld's killer app in education, once the notes can be passed globally.
I curate MedicalMnemonics.com which is a non-profit database of mnemonics for medical students, which includes a port to the PalmOS.
In the pre-handheld days, you could dream something up, and share it with someone nearby. Now a button click on the handheld shares your new studying technique to about 40,000 other students trying to learn the same thing as you are.
The implementation has received good feedback from the pretty much all the students who use it. Some buy their handhelds, others get them provided by the school. Laptops aren't nearly as popular as handhelds, since walking around all day on the wards in the clinical years--never really sitting down to be able to open up a laptop.
Since slashdot is a technology site, the mechanism of global sharing, used in the application, might prove interesting too: To avoid custom HotSync conduit problems on Linux and other platforms:
-----
Cast a Cold Eye
On Life, on Death
Horseman, pass by
--W.B. Yeats' gravestone
The vast majority of the handheld devices today are based on underpowered yesterday tech that require special software and is way overpriced. /.ers have played with these yet, but I have and it is a fact in my experience that if you write script at even a moderate pace on those little pieces of shit you will crash CE in no time. Total hang and all you have to do is write a few sentences, that's lame. If you treat it gingerly it works great, but if the user is supposed to treat it like a precious little toy that means it's not there yet. At the moment, these things are little more than expensive toys. Sure you can tell me that Palm is so stable but speaking of yesterday's tech. Adding names to a list is really important for certain people, but for most people it's not a huge sell. Expensive toys are great for expensive spoiled brats, but not for mandating in public schools.
For instance if they went with a StrongArm110 processor and 64Megs with GPRS wireless they'd probably be running CE. Dear God! I doubt most
Depite being fragile and nearly worthless for real world tasks like note taking, handhelds are mega bucks. The model I have sitting in front of me that runs CE with the GPRS built-in is about $600. Wow! That's like a fifth of per head ADA. (Average Daily Attendance, the rate by which schools are compensated by the government which has to be leveraged over all expenses including teacher salaries)
Now when we see them coming with CF modules over 512MB and running more intriguing software like that we see at handhelds.org perhaps it will beome more adviseable as a recommendation for students, but I doubt it even then. By the time they have WiFi and big memory, they'll be victims of their own success for classroom purposes.
Once they become powerful enough to be worthwhile and useful tools, they will also become full-fledged entertaniment devices. Can you possibly imagine a conflict if groups of students decided they'd rather play QuakeIII tournament instead of participate in class? Or how about DIY porn, little Joey is using the camera on his PDA to look up little Cindy's skirt and is broadcasting the action to little Timmy in the third row. The class is quiet, but nobody seems to be concentrating on the assignments. What could possibly be occupying everyone's attention?
I have one of the latest version of one of these babies sitting right in front of me and I'm sure that it's a great, though fragile, toy and little else. Everyone I've let play with it agrees. The people that make them are going to be failing consistantly until they start marketing them as toys and entertainment devices. There is no way I buy this khaki pants, blue work shirt mentality that these things are essential tools that are the Next Big Thing(TM) in the here and now. If jotting down names and phone numbers is the essence of your life you already have a Palm. If you're looking for something more get a laptop. If you want a toy, get a handheld. But if you want an entertaining toy then wait a few years and get a handheld when you can stream videos and MP3s off your home server. Then they'll be rocking toys, but you aint going to be doing that with GPRS.
Students can no longer prepare bark to calculate problems. They depend instead on expensive slates. What will they do when the slate is dropped and breaks?
--Teacher's Conference, 1703.
I got a Palm m100 a couple of months ago, and I am 100% pleased with it. It's a refurb, it cost me $50 at the Bad Place, (otherwise known as Fry's) and it hasn't disappointed me yet.
... it is just like KMahjongg and GNOME Mahjongg and just as addictive)
Yeah, it's slow, yeah it's got a black-and-white screen. No worries...it does what I need it to. I've got my addresses and phone numbers in it, I take notes with it (tap, tap, tap that onscreen keyboard...faster than Graffiti for me)and I have a few free-as-in-beer timesink games that are great for killing time. (Look for Mahjongg at www.palm.com
Basically the low-end Palm is like an old Mac Classic. Except this is a Mac Classic you can put in your pocket or your purse. Think Retro and you are in the right mindset to use a Palm.
One of these days when I'm in the chips I'll get a Zaurus, but until then my little Chibi-Palm-chan will do just fine for me.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
And this differs from kids drawing in their notebooks, making paper airplanes and origami out of notebook paper, and playing paper games like Tic-Tac-Toe... how?
We advocate computers in the schools, but nobody advocates manditory keyboarding. I'm 24, and I never even owned a computer until my last 2 years of highschool, and that was an obsolete 286. However, I did decide to take typing (on old IBM typewriters) in about 8th grade. The typing has served me well for my entire life. They delay in using computers hasn't seemed to hurt me, I'm currently employed as a computer technician, having been entirely self-taught in computers, which came from a lot of reading, and from upgrading that 286 to (eventually) a K7-1133mhz machine (going to a 386, 486, p100, k6-2 300, etc along the way).
The only technical skill you need is keyboarding. The only general skill you need is problem solving. That's it.
Other than a lab for writing/printing papers, what, exactly, is the benefit of having computers in school? Maybe a compsci lab, but any kid interested in that type of thing will learn more at home on his own (I certainly did).
If you want to give them computers, give them old TRS-80's and have them learn how to write stuff on them. Or better yet, an introductory analog, followed by digital electronics course.
Using computers for simulations doesn't do much good if the kids don't know how the computer performs its magic in the first place. Hell, even in college we would have to do numerical methods by hand with a calculator, even though in the real world, that stuff is done by computers. We had to know what the computer was doing (this was an engineering course, btw, not a compsci course).
How do you write formulas or draw pictures on the thing?
I don't think a pda would work so well for things like, oh I dunno, describing the equations of motion for a fluid using navier-stokes (or drawing a quick sketch to illustrate what the equations should model)
A year or two ago somebody wrote in to Ask Slashdot to get ideas for a project that involved giving handhelds to hundreds or maybe thousands of kids all over the world, and seeing what they did with them. Anybody know what happened to that?
Did it happen yet?