Students Managing Their Learning With Handhelds

by Kellie R. Doubek

©2004

 

Oh the handheld buzz! With the promise of providing one to one computing at a relatively low cost, handhelds are popping up in schools all over the country. However, some high schools across Illinois implemented handhelds years ago. If you ask them where the handhelds are now, more often than not you will be directed to a box in a closet.

 

Now wait, you might say. Those devices were early handhelds. They weren’t in color. They weren’t wireless. It’s true that the latest handhelds are pretty amazing compared to those “ancient devices” we used three years ago. In fact, the speed of Internet access and the image clarity on the screens of new wireless devices cause people to exclaim that handhelds are the replacement for laptops. All you could do on the old ones, I have been told, is beam assignments to kids and have them keep track of assignments on the calendar. But before you give up on the older handhelds or purchase new ones only for the purpose of Internet access, we should examine the power of students using handhelds as a tool to manage their learning.

 

It’s true that even a low end handheld is a great electronic organizer. Of course this is how many users new to handhelds begin to use it. Enter an appointment on the calendar and with the tap of the stylus, you can change from a day view, a week view or a month at a glance. This is a great time management tool for students. They can organize themselves each day, adding notes and details to each appointment or assignment added to the calendar. Need to schedule something next week? Tap on the week view and get an immediate visual of “which day is best” in your schedule. Need to schedule something for several days? Tap the month view to see what is most open in your schedule. Giving students the instruction to organize their time in this way is a life skill that will benefit them as students and eventually as someone’s employee. Many districts even have classes that teach study and time management skills. If not a separate course, it is more often than not a learning goal in some area of the curriculum in middle and high schools.

 

The To Do List is another great organizer. Write down a list of tasks, whether homework assignments, sports practice, a babysitting job or orthodontist appointment. Not only can you assign the task a due date, you can organize them by category and rank them by priority. With a tap of the stylus, you can see all of your tasks that need to be completed, just the tasks you ranked as a first priority, or view only by category to see all of your school work in one view. Like the calendar, not only can you list your tasks, you have the ability to add notes to each one. What was the topic of that persuasive paper for Language Arts? What kind of sources did I need to find for that research project and how many did I need? Access details for each right in the To Do List.

 

Now just taking the To Do List, what are some other curricular uses to help students manage their learning… not just their time? Think about the layout of the To Do List.

For each item you enter, you have the ability to add a note with almost unlimited text. You also get to assign it a category and a number one through five. When a student uses a handheld to manage their learning, the To Do List becomes a great digital tool for keeping track of vocabulary. Students have flexibility in the way they organize their vocabulary. They can assign a number to each class they have. (One for science, two for social science, etc.) Within each number, they can assign a category for each topic or chapters studied in the class. Then within each category, they list the vocabulary word as the To Do Item and add notes to each word. Since they can type almost unlimited text they can record definitions, sentences, synonyms and antonyms, or any clues to help them remember the meaning. The handheld becomes an organized binder which allows them to access all of their vocabulary terms and view all of the words for a single class or for a specific topic in a class.

 

Similarly, using the Memo application is another way to organize learning. What a great way to take notes! In Memo Pad, the user enters a name for the memo, adds details to the memo, and creates categories for the memos. Now think about how a student might take notes, specifically using the Power 3 note-taking strategy. When using the Power 3 strategy, the main idea or topic is Power 1, the support is Power 2, and any elaboration is Power 3. When taking notes for a class, students can create a category for each main idea, chapter or topic. Within each topic, the memo title becomes the sub-topic and the details of the memo become the place to elaborate about each sub-topic.  The student can view all of the memos or main topics in a list or the sub-topics within a main topic. A great study strategy is for a student to view the sub-topics within a main idea/chapter, etc. and see if they can remember the details for each. A tap of the stylus allows them to test themselves to see if they were correct. All of their notes for any subject are organized and readily accessed anytime, anywhere.

 

Students can utilize handhelds to manage their learning using an endless variety of free applications. Perhaps a student wants to use the To Do List for keeping track of assignments, extracurricular activities and personal commitments. Free dictionaries like Noah Lite are not just static digital dictionaries; the application also allows students to add words and definitions to its data base. The student could choose not to download the words that come with the program and only add his/her vocabulary words. The handheld is now a personal dictionary the student can access at any time.

 

If all of this wasn’t enough, there are numerous free applications for keeping track of grades, as well as other calendars and time management tools. Quizzing software is a great way for students to review and study content. Students can create tests and exchange them with peers or teachers via beaming. Teachers can download eBooks and beam them to students for anytime, anywhere access to alternate text. This text can also be transferred using a handheld word processor so that the student can use formatting tools to bold vocabulary words, italicize main ideas, and underline sentences which they have questions about.

 

As the variety of software grows and becomes more complex, the possibilities are endless. The power of each example lies in the student using the handheld in the process of learning, not to access flashy web pages or create showy products.