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Laptops
Handhelds: Making the Most of One-to-One Computing
by Kellie Doubek, Meg Ormiston and
Christine Tomasino
©2004
With wireless laptops costing on an
average about $1200, the trend of a “laptop for every student” may truly be
unattainable for schools with limited financial resources. If one-to-one
computing is to be the future of technology in schools,
 for the
average price of $350, a wireless handheld solution seems more realistic. To
maximize this investment, however, handhelds must be used for more than
personal organization, drill and practice, and creating products. In the
hands of students, handhelds have the potential to transform teaching and
learning when connected with strategies for active learning where students
are encouraged to think about previous knowledge, access new knowledge,
discuss understanding, and collaborate and share with teachers and peers in
the learning process. Handhelds strategically deployed should not be a
passing fad, but an effective tool to increase achievement for students of
all abilities.
Years ago technology arrived in classrooms with
little support and few guidelines for use. Teachers were charged with
“integrating technology”, but the how and why were missing. Technology
committees planned and workshops were held, yet teachers still struggled to
get computers in the hands of students. Computer labs were filled period
after period with  low
level activities with a focus on the products spewed from the printer with
no measurable learning gains. Then a new trend began, splitting apart
computer labs to move workstations to classrooms at the point of
instruction. Students, working individually or in pairs, cycled through the
computer station doing much of the same work, with more drill and practice
software use, word processing, Internet research and multimedia
presentations. Teachers still struggled to get thirty students to produce
products using one or two computers. With the affordability of one-to-one
computing with handhelds, the future of technology integration gives
students the access required to collaborate in new ways and become active
participants in the learning process, thus shifting the paradigm from using
digital tools for creating learning products to using digital tools to help
students construct new learning through meaningful dialogue, metacognition
and reflection during the learning process.
As these low-cost personal learning
tools become pervasive in classrooms, educators will need new guidelines to
make the most of this investment for learning. Teachers will ask new
questions when looking to use the handhelds effectively in learning. How can
handhelds be used to encourage active learning strategies? What handheld
applications can I use to assist students in collaborating to build
understanding and encourage reflection? How can handheld use promote and
strengthen individual thinking, guide student interpretation and reasoning?
What is the best way to use handhelds to test student understanding of
content before, during and after instruction? How can I help students manage
their learning and become autonomous in the process? How can students
exchange ideas and express understanding? Let’s illustrate some of this
through examples from a fifth grade class studying
 animals.
Keep in mind these learning activities would be appropriate in other grade
levels and content areas.
Aligning to learning standards, the teacher wants to first assess what
students know about the classes of animals to begin the unit. Can they
identify a few? Are they familiar with some of the characteristics the
animals share in each group? Using
Inspiration for Palm OS by Inspiration Software, Inc, the teacher
creates a file with the names of animals from different classes and beams it
to students. Students working together discuss the animal characteristics
and organize the animals using similarities and differences. The webs
created are beamed back to the teacher to initiate whole group
discussion. The teacher clarifies student understanding and uses further
questioning strategies to help students make connections between the new
content and what they already know. Based on this discussion, students make
changes to their individual web, building from their initial understanding
of the content. This living document modifies and grows throughout the unit
as student understanding deepens.
As the unit progresses, the student wrestles with new
vocabulary and new content information. Students turn to the handheld to
help them manage this new knowledge. Word meanings can be looked up in
Noah Lite by arsLexis
and personal vocabulary dictionaries can be created using the freeware
application DicMake.
Students keep track of terms, including definitions, sentences and clues to
help them remember the meanings. Using the Palm OS To Do List to keep
track of vocabulary gives students the ability to categorize the vocabulary
into groups. A freeware application,
LiteNotes,
combines the power of visuals to add drawings to help students in the
understanding of new words. As students process large amounts of new
information related to content they use the handheld for note-taking.
Whether it’s a slide show made with
SlideshowtoGo by DataViz, a mind-mapping program like Inspiration
by Inspiration Software, Inc. or a simple word processing program
like Palm OS MemoPad, students take notes and organize new content
knowledge, refer back to it, clarify and revise it later as needed to aid in
understanding. Using the power of handhelds throughout this process,
students share files with other students, giving them additional
opportunities to collaborate and clarify any misunderstandings they may
have. Because the handhelds are personal digital tools, the data captured
during the learning process is always in the hands of the students and can
be accessed anytime.
At times during the unit,
textbook material becomes too difficult for some of the struggling readers.
The teacher accesses alternate electronic text from primary source archives,
textbook publishers, and other Internet resources. This text is beamed to
each student handheld. Using a word processing application like
WordtoGo from DataViz, students
work with the text as a large group, small group or individually to
highlight vocabulary, italicize main ideas, or add their own words to aid in
comprehension of the reading. The teacher even inserts questions
strategically throughout the text, requiring students to pause while reading
to think about what they have read and reflect on their understanding. The
handheld gives students and teachers the power to pull the text apart and
manipulate it in a way not possible with paper, again making it always
available in the hands of the students.
Throughout the unit the
teacher and students use assessment tools to review, assess and evaluate
their learning. Students create questions to test their understanding with
Quizzler by
Pocket Mobility, beaming to each other to create a great review of
content. Using the same or other classroom assessment software for the
handheld, the teacher creates quizzes and tests to evaluate student
understanding. The powerful instantaneous feedback through beaming between
teacher and student and student to student provides the direction for
learning. The teacher also uses the handheld to enhance seamless and ongoing
assessment through techniques like exit slips. Using the word processing
software, Freewrite
by GoKnow, the teacher compiles student assessment responses into a
single document. The teacher gauges student progress and understanding of
the content standard and then distributes these compiled responses to the
entire class by beaming the document back to students. Students now have
access to the combined knowledge and view points of their peers, thus
deepening understanding.
Using handhelds throughout the
process of learning described in these classroom examples encourages student
communication and collaboration, as well as enhancing the students’ ability
to organize their learning. Students are motivated not only by the use of a
digital tool, but their ability to manage their learning and the ability to
easily share understanding with others. Using handhelds in this one-to-one
computing environment improves the quality of instructional activities when
students are encouraged to think about previous knowledge, access new
knowledge, discuss understanding, and finally share what has been learned
with peers and teachers. These new successes, where handhelds are used
strategically for the process of learning, will become well documented in
future technology integration success stories.
For more information about
Handhelds For Learning contact Christine Tomasino
ctomasino@comcast.net Kellie
Doubek
kdoubek@comcast.net, or Meg Ormiston
megormi@comcast.net
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