In the February issue of Teaching & Learning Magazine, A Report Card on Handheld Computing states that "more powerful than that first Macintosh or Windows computer...the handheld computer may just become the technology that revolutionizes the face of learning." This informative article, which includes the history of the pda, a case study of one middle school's usage and links to educational software, concludes that pda's are not quite ready for prime time but strongly suggests future potential pedagogical benefits. I was convinced.
PDA's in the Classroom
Submitted by cel4145 on March 26, 2002 - 01:33.
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Re: PDA's in the Classroom
While working at the Innovative Technology Center at the University of Tennessee last summer, which is an administrative organization mostly made up of education faculty and graduate students, one of my assignments was to do an annotated bibliography of whatever I could find on using PDAs in pedagogy.
Wouldn't ya know, I lost it. But, I do remember that some disciplines lended themselves more easily than others to the use of PDAs. Nursing classes, for example, found ways to use them to record vital signs, and agriculture classes were able to take them out into the field and make notes and record data about soil samples, livestock, etc.
This one teacher used them in his class to give students little quizzes during the class. When he wasn't sure they were understanding what he was trying to teach them (it was one of those HARD classes like physics), he asked them if they understood. Many students who would have been too shy to say they didn't understand were able to send the teacher the message through their PDAs.
I think the use of PDAs needs to be theorized a little more. Like you said, they're not ready for prime time. I've seen very little so far that presents PDAs as anything other than substitutes for paper.