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Jan 15, 2001
What Works
Kids on the Run: Mobile Technology
by Jennifer C. Patterson
With hectic schedules and natural energy, kids are in a constant state of motion. Now, with the growth in mobile technologies, schools can capture this energy to encourage student learning far beyond the walls of the classroom.
Lighting Up Young Faces
Almost every child loves a field trip, but those at Wyoming Elementary School in Millburn, N.J., have an extra reason to look forward to the trip--they get to take their AlphaSmarts.
Computers are nothing new to these students, says Cathy Catalon, technology specialist at the school. She estimates that 95 percent of the suburban, largely professional families have computers at home, and the school provides a computer lab in addition to the AlphaSmarts. But she notices the students' "faces light up" when they are allowed to use the AlphaSmarts.
"They love them. It's a chance for them to have something very personal," Catalon said. She notes the device's slightly smaller keyboard is a good size for students' hands, and the small, integrated screen makes it very portable for young kids.
Every third-grade student has access to an AlphaSmart for lessons in keyboarding, while students in other grades share the remaining units. Kids use the AlphaSmarts to take notes, transcribe interviews, and enter stories on the move--for example, during a class trip to a museum. When students return to school, they can upload their text to a standard computer and create a book or newsletter memorializing their trip. Kindergartners took the AlphaSmarts on their field trip to an apple farm, where they typed in accounts of what they saw and then printed their text on printers in the classroom. "They had a tremendous feeling of pride at writing a story," Catalon says.
The AlphaSmart is equally engaging for older and younger students. Catalon has observed fourth-graders taking charge of the entire upload process--connecting cables, setting up the word processing program, synchronizing information, then editing and printing their work--all without assistance. "It creates a feeling of independence," she says.
Learning in the Palms of Their Hands
Students at Consolidated High School District 230 in southwest suburban Chicago have a little help solving problems: the Palm IIIxe. As part of the largest educational deployment of Palm handhelds in the United States, nearly 3,000 District 230 students are using the palmtop computers to study fitness and nutrition, science, and language arts. Along the way, they have enhanced the use of their Palms with peripheral attachments and educational software.
Darrell Walery, district director of technology, has found the use of Palms in science classes to be one of the most interesting initial applications of the technology. Science teachers have taken the students and their Palms to the courtyard pool, where students used a science probe attachment from ImagiWorks to examine the content of dissolved oxygen molecules and the pH of the water. "The kids were really involved and serious about using the data," Walery said. The Palms have become an integral part of the district's Student Empowered Teaching program, which involves students in problem-based learning by asking them to identify problems, gather information, propose solutions, and draw conclusions.
The program offers students the option of purchasing a Palm for $225 or renting one for $75 per year, so they can take them home in the evening. If they elect to neither purchase nor rent, units are available for use during the school day. The district views the handheld units as a cost-effective and more portable alternative to instituting a laptop requirement for all students.
The Palms allow for a number of peripheral devices that enhance flexibility. In addition to the science probe, the district also uses the PFU Happy Hacking Cradle, which permits text and data entry on a standard keyboard. This alternative to Graffiti handwriting software and a stylus-operated keyboard increases the Palm's usefulness in language and note-taking situations by allowing text to be entered quickly and directly.
Science classes are not the only ones benefiting from Palm flexibility. Fitness and nutrition classes use software from Vivionic to gather data on caloric intake, and language arts classes use Palm's memo pad function to collect notes and data for reports.
The students have taken to the handhelds so rapidly that district adults are hurrying to get the training necessary to keep up. In Walery's words, "Adults are immigrants to the technology culture; students are native."
Training Aspiring Engineers
When Smithtown Central School District on the north shore of Long Island wanted to prepare its high school students for positions in local electronics and computer technology companies, it turned to nearby Symbol Technologies as part of a corporate outreach program. Symbol helped the school by installing a wireless network and donating educational hardware. In return, the students tested Symbol products.
"The whole school is wireless," said Dennis Kramer, a high school teacher and institutional specialist for technology. "I can bring a computer to any part of the classroom or bring a student to any learning site anywhere."
With this degree of flexibility, students are finding it easy to develop applications that allow them to practice their programming and engineering skills while solving real-world problems for the school. One student-created solution is ChemBar, a bar coding program that makes use of Symbol's bar code reader to organize and control the inventory of chemicals in the school's laboratories.
ChemBar allows the user to scan a code on a chemical bottle and receive a printout of the shelf life of the product, a list of chemical reactions to be aware of, and safe disposal procedures.
ChemBar also has applications beyond the walls of the school. Four neighboring school districts have generated purchase orders to buy ChemBar, and the students are investigating selling their product elsewhere as well. Kramer says that access to this sort of technology is an important step to these students' future success. "They are implementing the available technology to solve problems, which is what a successful engineer would do."
Leveling the Playing Field
Flat Rock, Mich., is a working-class area south of Detroit. When the school district received $5,000 from the community to spend on technology, district administrators looked for a solution that was more cost-effective than buying one or two computers to be shared between their two buildings. So they purchased a cart full of DreamWriters, keyboarding devices with an integrated LCD screen. The devices were such a success, the parent organization later purchased more. Not only did the DreamWriter maximize the district's spending power on technology to help with keyboarding skills, spelling, language arts, and social studies; the units, each the size of a sheet of notebook paper, were space effective as well.
Jan Clark, a fifth-grade teacher at John Barnes Elementary School, has personally observed the students' reactions to the DreamWriter. "They love it. It's something different to do," she said. "This new element infuses excitement into everyday lessons."
However, for some students, the DreamWriter is more than just a fun educational aid. "It evens the playing field for students with graphic problems" like dysgraphia, a learning disability similar to dyslexia in which students have difficulty creating a written product, said Clark. The experience with these students has inspired the district to include a DreamWriter as the required assistive technology component in their individual education plans.
Because all students use the DreamWriter, dysgraphic students do not feel singled out for using this technology. And it allows them to produce results that compare favorably to those of their peers. "They've produced a paper that looked nice and was readable," said Clark. "It shows they can present a worthwhile product," she added, explaining that students are now proud to have their work hanging in the hallway for all to see.
Sharpening Skills without Pencil and Paper
When teachers at Tully Elementary School, outside Louisville, Ky., want their students to produce computer-generated projects, they don't head for the computer lab. They reach for the school's CalcuScribes. These individual keyboard units with clamshell covers that hold a small screen let students input and edit text and perform mathematical operations, then synchronize their work with the school's computers.
The school has two carts of thirty CalcuScribes that teachers check out for work with their classes. Cindy Baumert, president of the PTA and a reading tutor, explains that students are constructing their state-mandated writing portfolios with the help of these devices. This is particularly important for parts of the portfolio that must be computer-generated rather than handwritten. "Before, each class had to wait for the computer lab; now, they can do it anywhere," Baumert said. "The kids beg to use them," she continues, noting that the devices appeal to students of all abilities. Some of the most noticeable results have occurred with students with learning disabilities or attention deficit disorders. The keyboard has taken the labor out of writing assignments that were a struggle with pencil and paper. "It is a tremendous boost to their self-esteem," comments one teacher.
Jennifer C. Patterson is an education and technology writer in Centerville, Ohio.
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