Handheld Computers Bring K12 Classrooms into the 21st Century
Cathleen Norris and Ellioit Soloway, July 2008
Schools systems and districts are continuing to struggle with the costs of equipping schools and classrooms with computer technology. An affordable option is now becoming available for wide-spread use in classrooms. Mobile, hand-held devices or mobile learning devices (MLD) are shown to be just as functional as a laptop, but are more cost effective ($500 and up for a laptop, $250-300 for a hand-held). Other advantages:
- Portable - Weighing about 1/7th of what a laptop weighs
- Multimodal - Integrated sound, recording, playback, photo
- Constructive - accepts input as well as providing output
Just as a laptop or desktop requires software, so do the MLD. Software is available for teachers to create lesson plans and student interaction to those lesson plans. Professional development is required for teachers to not only how to use the MLD, but also to integrate their existing lesson plans and curriculum. By integrating existing lessons, the need for paper worksheets for students can be eliminated and making it easier for students to work within the lesson plans. Additionally, training for use of the MLD takes about half the time than learning software applications for desktop or laptop computers.
The articles includes examples of success stories in various school districts. The Alvin (TX) Intermediate School District passed a bond issue to support the iniatitive, purchased the MLD, software, and professional development from the same company. My personal opinion is that the turn-key implementation contributed to the success of the project. School officials also are encouraged by the increased student motivation and fewer behavior problems in the classes where the MLD is used. Districts in Michigan and Hawaii have also implemented the use of mobile-learning devices with similar success.
The wave of the future may be that students' personal cell phones can double for MLD and this will save the school districts money on hardware, but software must still be purchased to enhance the student cell phone for classroom learning.
The bottom line is that districts must begin now in securing alternative methods for computer learning and it seems the mobile-learning devices are a great place to start.
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3 comments:
This article is a fine example, I think, of where technology is taking education and how the framework for education may change so dramatically in the next few deacdes ( or sooner)...textbooks replaced with student communication devices...laptops cheaper than textbooks. On and on it will go. Thanks, RobertW
My nephew has a "notepad" that he uses in his HS classes, provided by his school - it has MANY uses - notebook with stylus, completes and saves his homework on it for uploading to teacher, laptop and,most amazing to me, is that it also has ALL his textbooks loaded on it -
I have been looking at these devices for a while. It would be truly wonderful if my school system would invest in something like this (I am keeping my fingers crossed).
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