| While
friendly faces filtered into the cold elementary school building,
I finished my preparations for this evening's class. Once most of
the
students
who registered
for
the
class were present, we
began with introductions. Participants, including myself, pair off
to learn about another classmate. Then the pairs introduced each
other and told why their partner's are taking the class. Everyone
had a slightly different reason for taking the class. However, all
participants
shared a desire to learn.
After introductions,
I passed out the “Handhelds in Teaching and Learning” syllabus.
I went through the objectives of the class. Furthermore, I explained
the assignments and grading for the class. The next piece of business
to tackle was dinner. I cooked up a big batch of my famous chili
to serve for dinner tonight. Being prepared, I sent around a sign-up
sheet
for
others to bring dinner throughout the semester. I was relieved that
my week for bringing dinner was over already!
After finishing
the introduction to the class and deciding dinner, it was time to
dive into handhelds in education. I said something I needed to get
out of the way immediately. There are misnomers for handhelds computers.
Sometimes they’re called PDAs, PIMs, or, the worst, Palm Pilots.
I explained that since these tiny devices are more than simply organizers,
their name needs to convey their multiple uses. The best name is “handheld
computer,” or “handheld” for short. Hopefully no
one in the class will continue to refer to handheld computers as
Palm Pilots. Saying “Palm Pilot” is like someone scraping
their finger nails across a chalkboard: it hurts my ears! Only one
model of Palm was ever known as “Pilot.” That model is
no longer made. Models are now called Tugsten, Zire, m515, IIIc,
etc. Not Pilot!
Next, I explained
why handhelds are being used in education. The reasons include accessibility,
versatility, mobility, collaboration, ease-of-use, and fun-factor.
Additionally, I told the attentive students about the times when
handhelds could be used. To help students learn and produce, to meet
curriculum objectives, to promote active learning, to assess student
progress, and to manage time and resources were included as times
when educators might use handhelds.
Next, I showed
a video from
GoKnow. The video featured one of my favorite people: Dr. Elliot
Soloway! The five-minute video introduced the class how students
can use handhelds for meaningful learning. It was also the first
time many of the class participants had seen handhelds
in the hands of actual K-12 students.
Time simply flew
right by! Before I realized it, many stomachs were grumbling for
food. The class ventured into the teachers lounge. Everyone got a
chance to get to know others in the class as they chatted over hot,
spicy
chili.
After dinner each
class, I have a video to show. Tonight's video was titled, "Handhelds
in Omaha." Students watched as the series Teaching NOW! recorded
a day in my classroom in March 2003. The video lead to many great
questions and insightful observations.
I proceeded to
share some of the results from research on
using handhelds in classrooms. Research showed that teachers felt
handhelds helped students
learn. In addition, the research gave some more unsurprising news:
students are very comfortable using handhelds. Handhelds are simple
devices. You can do most tasks with three or less taps on the screen!
This all makes perfectly good sense: of course students are going
to be comfortable using handhelds. We’re talking about the “Game
Boy” generation, after all!
In the home-stretch
of tonight's class, I introduced the graduate students to blogging.
Blog is short for "weblog" and it's an online diary of sorts. Post
are made in chronological order. The best part of blogging is that
it's an easy way for instant publishing to the web. Each Handhelds
in Teaching and Learning student is required to keep their own
blog throughout the duration of the semester. I demonstrated
how to use Blogger to set up
a free blog. Then I let the students loose in the computer lab to
get their blogs started.
Eight-thirty brought
a close to the class. The first session of “Handhelds in Teaching
and Learning” flew by faster than I would have ever thought
possible. Everyone is looking forward to next week’s class
when I’ll begin to teach the basics of the Palm Operating System.
I'm looking forward to more wonderful discussions and delicious food!
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