The following information comes from SRI International’s 2002 Study on handheld computers:

Find the full document at: http://www.sri.com/news/releases/11-11-02.html

 

 

72% of teachers said handhelds are more easily used in the "flow of classroom activity" than desktop computers

 

75% of teachers that allowed students to take the handhelds home reported an increase in homework completion rates.

 

For some special needs students, a seemingly simple writing assignment can be exasperating. Learning disabilities, dyslexia, or grapho-motor problems can cause students to struggle to write legibly on paper. Through the PEP program, a teacher at a New York middle school investigated how his special needs students could be helped with writing tasks through the use of handhelds with attached keyboards. This teacher reported that there was a significant decrease in student frustration with writing, and students became significantly more efficient at their daily work. With handheld computers, these students enjoyed and even looked forward to their writing tasks, he said.

 

 

The following are brief summaries of the findings from the 2002 SRI International Palm Education Pioneers Program:  Final Evaluation Report. 

Find the full report at:  http://www.palmgrants.sri.com/

 

 

Ø   Elementary Teachers were more positive than middle and high school teachers. 

o More research is needed to explain why this is the case”, but one possible answer according to the authors is that “Elementary teachers may be less constrained by standardized testing…””

 

Ø   Teachers who used handhelds for science based projects or for writing tasks found handhelds most effective. 

o The authors say this may be due to the fact that students can take the handheld computer to the place they are doing their lab work to analyze the data and the availability of calculators and spreadsheets for the Palm help a great deal. 

 

Ø   “PEP teachers found the key benefits to students were increased time using technology, increased student motivation, increased collaboration and communication, and benefits from having a portable and accessible personal learning tool. 

o The authors want to further track the motivation piece to see whether motivation remains the same, increases or decreases as the novelty of the new technology wears off. 

 

o Drawbacks were “inappropriate use, technology management issues (hot syncing), usability issues (graffiti) and equipment damage.” Yet these were minor drawbacks. 

Ø   72% of teachers said “Palms contributed positively to their students learning.” 

Ø   65.9% of teachers said their students were very comfortable using Palm Computers. 

Ø   “40% of teachers said handheld computers increased the amount of homework completion, while another 40% said this was not applicable or they did not know.”  However the teachers who gave their students full access to the handheld at school and home reported as follows: “39.3% said it increased homework completion somewhat, and 35.7% said it increased homework completion quite a bit, while only 17.9% said it did not increase homework completion. 

Ø   Many teachers reported having problems with Hot Syncing the handheld. 

o Some said it was problematic because each student in a school is not necessarily assigned a specific computer.

o Others found that “the security software installed on school computers interfered with Hot Syncing.”

§ Some teachers had to change operating systems. 

Ø   Some teachers reported loading software onto multiple handhelds was a problem. 

Ø   “40% of teachers reported students had problems with Graffiti.”

Ø   “36.3% reported that they had “some problems” with recharging the handheld computer.” 

o Routines for charging can solve this problem, such as designating who Hot Syncs to which computer, or designating certain days for students to HotSync. 

Ø   “52.1% reported they had “some problems” with tracking and collecting student work that was completed on the handheld computer.” 

Ø   Some teacher reported having problems with students beaming at inappropriate times.  But they said a strong user’s agreement and classroom rules that are enforced can help this situation a lot. 

o Some teachers used a “closed cover policy” during lecture…  

Ø   One of the Special Education Teachers who used the Palms reported that his students started looking forward to writing.  Whereas prior to using the Palms many looked at writing with pen and paper as “torturous”. 

Ø   PEP Teachers said “Handhelds have made it easier for the classroom teacher to bring the use of technology to all of their students and more often.” 

Ø   “Most PEP Teachers reported that their use of desktop computers was unchanged.” 

o Some said it actually increased their use as more students could benefit from a small number of computers.  One example the report gave was how students could use FlingIt to put a web page on their handheld to review the material and allow another student to use the desktop computer to free up space. 

Ø   PEP High School Teachers reported that the three most important software packages for the Palm were:

o ImagiProbe

o Documents to Go

o AvantGo

Ø   Not surprisingly PEP Teachers reported that the most important peripherals were:

o Keyboards

o Digital Cameras (notably the PalmPix by Kodak)

o Probes

Ø   PEP Teachers reported that “student training… was not a major area of concern.” 

Ø   PEP Teachers reported that “65% of students who had full personal use of their Palm used it daily for scheduling/organizational tasks.” 

Ø   “79% of PEP teachers reported that students who had full personal use of their handheld computer took it home regularly. 

Ø   The authors believe that handheld computers had much enthusiasm due to the following reasons:

o Teachers did not have to rely as much on a computer lab and have to move their entire class to a new location. 

o “Laptop Computers are more expensive and can still be intrusive when not in use.” 

Ø   PEP Teachers found that handheld computers were best suited when used for formative assessment such as portfolios. 

 

Please go to www.palmgrants.sri.com to view the entire document in full. 

 

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