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Planning
"Handhelds are an important and early component of a new group of computer appliances being used to deliver educational content and administrative solutions. It is important to gain experience with these appliances to determine what technologies should make up your technology repertoires. But remember: Its the application more than the device that makes the educational difference" (Levinson and Grohe, 2001).

Phase 1: Investigate/Learn/Evaluate
 
Questions:
  • What hardware and software do we need?
  • What resources are there?
  • How do we evaluate resources?
  • How do we use these hardware and applications?
  • How do we want to apply these technologies to our discipline?
Activities:  
  1. Review documents on handheld models and applications
    Review - Palm Zire 71, Sony NX, Tungsten C
    PDA Comparison
    Palm Options: Palm Zire 71 Details  or  Tungsten T Details I Bluetooth I Expansion Slots
  2. Research Web sites for information on handheld use by doing a Google search  or click on the "Applications" link in the navigation bar on the left.
  3. Review the Palm Education Pioneer Grant Evaluation Report.
    http://www.palmgrants.sri.com/findings.html
  4. Post resources and questions to discussion board for team members. Click on the "Discussion Board" link, select "Post a New Article" or select "View Postings" to review what others have posted.
  5. Develop a list of applications that you would like to use on the handheld with your students and post to the discussion board.
  6. Attend a workshop on using the handheld and basic applications - downloading applications, synchronizing calendar, beaming, offline Web pages, Palm Reader. A date will be selected the week before classes start for the fall.
    How PDAs Work: http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/pda.htm/printable

Phase 2: Develop Support Materials for Faculty
 
Questions:
  • What have we found?
  • What are the key support issues and how can we overcome them?
  • How can we best support faculty in using the handheld technology?
  • What do we need to implement handheld use in the classroom?
Activities:  

  1. Create Web documents to share with faculty via the discussion board (for example, identifying the support issues, how we can best support faculty, etc.)

  2. Identify resources, peripherals and pricing information to purchase handhelds with ISF/Tech Fee funds.

  3. Develop a proposal for ISF/Tech Fee. You can do more than one. Think of how we could submit a combined proposal to share resources. Fillable Tech Proposal Form [Word].

  4. Develop lesson/unit/course plan using handhelds in your discipline and post to the Web via the discussion board. This document should be explicit enough so that it can be replicated by other faculty.

Phase 3: Deployment of Support, Training & Applications
 
Questions: Activities:

For questions concerning this Web site, contact Jeanne Vilberg. Developed July 2003, updated October 2003.