Handhelds can be useful for blogging (short for "weblogging"). Of course, handhelds can be used for the word processing and digital photography that can later be placed on the web using a desktop computer. However, there are also solutions that publish your web log directly from your handheld!

Palm users can read the article “Palm OS Blogging Software Roundup.” Also, check out PalmSource’s Weblogging Expert Guide.

Pocket PC users can download Pocket Blog.

Check out these blogs from fifth grade classrooms at my school: Sanborn Super Students & The French Gazette. Students use a handheld’s word processor and a desktop computer’s KidzLog software (for Mac and Windows) to publish these daily articles about happenings in their classrooms. Incidentally, I use KidzLog to publish this very blog you’re reading now. Maybe I should consider blogging directly from the comfort of my own handheld instead? (Well.. as long as my laptop is nearby, I'd rather use its full size keyboard, large display, and fast internet connection...)

A set of handhelds with a full-size keyboard (or a set of AlphaSmart Danas) are great for teaching keyboarding! Each student can have access to a handheld and keyboard without hogging valuable school computer lab time. In fact, generally, students need about 18 hours of practice to get touch type just 18 words per minute. It takes a lot of time to maintain and improve their touch typing skills!

Of course students can use the handhelds’ word processors to practice keyboarding. There’s also some free Palm applications that can help students practice (and don’t be fooled by their original purpose of testing Graffiti entry skills—keyboards can also be used with these applications):

Giraffe: Use this game with a keyboard to give student’s typing practice. It’s great for young students to become familiar with the location of keys.

WPM: Words Per Minute tests typing speed with a short passage. The cool part is that you can change the passage. Why not have students practice their keyboarding technique, accuracy, and speed with a paragraph from your social studies or science textbook?

FitalyLetris: Like WPM, this application allows you to enter a block of text to be used for game, drill, and test modes. Students must accurately type a character before they can enter the next character.

These three applications can give students practice keyboarding but do not offer keyboarding skills instruction. For that, good old teacher-directed instruction is required.

GoKnow has released a new version of Cooties that is compatible with all Palm OS 5 handhelds. It has nicer-looking graphics and includes a 20 page file of lesson plans, handouts, and worksheets for using Cooties in the classroom. Unfortunately, this virus-transfer simulation software is no longer free (it’s $149.95 per classroom).

You can download a 7-day trial and learn more about Cooties here.

There used to be a version of Cooties for Pocket PC from Hi-CE. GoKnow has licensed Hi-CE’s software, so Cooties for Pocket PC from GoKnow should be out soon.

Want to include pictures of a Palm handheld’s screen for use in handouts, slide shows, and web sites? Use Snap, software for taking screenshots on the Palm OS. You can take a screenshot of any application by pressing one of your handheld’s hard buttons. The BMP image is saved to an expansion card. To use the images, you need to access the card using a card reader. Navigate to PALM > Programs > Snap. There you’ll find .bmp images that can be used in a variety of desktop software applications--great for software walkthroughs! There’s many great screenshot applications out there. Why is this one so special? It’s free!

Want to capture screenshots on a Pocket PC? Try Pocket Screen Capture—it’s also free but you must run the application each time before you take a screenshot.

It’s strange, but students love to write using handhelds. Even reluctant writers seem to produce more and better quality writing when they compose using a word processor on a handheld (with an attachable keyboard, of course). Besides the coolness factor, students like writing with handhelds because it’s easier to revise and edit using a word processor.

The topics students may write about are endless. However, I have found that giving students a daily or weekly writing prompt is a great way to start the school day. I type the prompt into a document on my handheld. Then I beam this document to students. They write to the prompt in that document they received from me. They also file this prompt in a category along with their other writing prompts from the past. After many daily or weekly prompts have been written, students then pick one to fully revise, edit, and publish. Using this method, students will have at least one great writing piece that can be enjoyed by others and graded by the teacher. No more excuses of “I don’t know what to write about.”

Here are some links to great collections of writing prompts:
http://www.writersdigest.com/writingprompts.asp
http://www.creativewritingprompts.com/
http://www.classbrain.com/artteensb/publish/cat_index_22.shtml

It was never fun to teach students about parts of speech—until Silly Sentences came along! My students and I helped develop this Palm application where the user enters lists of interesting adjectives, nouns, verbs, adverbs, and prepositional phrases to make crazy sentences. Sentences are color coded to help students recognize parts of speech. The help menu tells about the parts of speech and gives tips for using the software.

In fact, my fifth graders would study one of Silly Sentences’ five parts of speech each week. At the end of each week, students brainstormed at least 25 interesting words (or phrases) for that week’s part of speech. After entering five sets of words, it was time to tap the “Make Sentence” button. The students went wild! Their sentences were so crazy, they couldn’t help but laugh and share them with others. I overheard sentences like, "The cute kitty is being tickled madly until midnight," and "A plump teacher will parachute daily in the microwave." [Note: Don't tap the Make Sentence button until all parts of speech are entered because you handheld may crash.]

The best part? Students actually remember and can identify the parts of speech! Mission accomplished!

There’s lots students can do with even a Palm handheld’s built-in applications. Take Memos (a.k.a. MemoPad), for instance. Memos is a very simple word processor and it’s one of the first applications I introduce to students. Some important things to note about Memos:
• The first line of the document also serves as the title of the memo when in list view.
• You can have multiple memos with the same title.
• Tap once inside a word to insert your cursor.
• Tap and drag your stylus to select text (it will be highlighted).
• Double-tap a word to select an entire word.
• Triple-tap a line to select the entire line.
• Once you have text selected, you can use the Edit menu to cut, copy, and paste within that memo, into another memo, or into another application.

A great curriculum connection is using Memos for editing. I type a paragraph from my students’ science or social studies book into Memos. Then I change some capitalization, subtract punctuation, and add spelling mistakes to the memo. Next I beam this memo to each student. The students edit the memo. Later the class will check the memo with their handy answer keys: their textbooks! I would use this activity as one of my “morning messages” for students to work on.

Once students master the basics of entering, selecting, and changing text in Memos, they’re ready to move up to a more advanced word processor like Word To Go or WordSmith.

Matt Villasana, fourth grade teacher in Columbia, Missouri, sent me this great tip:

"I wanted to let you know that I started a project using audio books for my struggling readers. SuccessLink donated SD cards for the class, so I've been recording myself reading books and converting those to MP3 files. Then the students can read along with the books using RealOne on their Tungsten E's. It's been a great way to get my struggling students more interested in reading."

Visit Matt's class web page, Studio Four, and experience "A Handheld Classroom in Action."

Mr. Linson's third grade class in Indiana was kind enough to send me their Rhyming Words eBook to post on my eBooks page. An easy way to create your own eBooks is with eBook Studio. If you create your own eBooks, please consider emailing me the PDB file to post on the eBooks page so your eBook masterpiece can be shared with others!

Books created in eBook Studio are read in the free eReader for Palm, Pocket PC, Mac, and Windows.