Unleashing the Educational Power of the Pocket PC

[Editor's Note: Ken Nauss is director of Business Development at MathResources Inc., a company mentioned within this article.]

Once you've achieved the vision of putting a computer in the hands of every student in your classroom, what exactly do you do with it? Pocket PCs make really great personal organizers, but then what?

That's what today's pioneering educators are asking as they look for ways to reap the most from their technology investment. The key to maximizing educational results seems to be to go slowly, build an integrated software suite one application at a time, and choose software packages that serve both classroom management and teaching needs.

Early adopters of handheld technology in the schools emphasize that it's important to select pieces of software that support and complement one another. A school might lay the foundation, for instance, by purchasing a program to help with general classroom management. It might then gradually add on additional programs to enhance learning in particular subjects, probably starting with science and math.

Four popular programs lead the selection list for schools looking for must-have software:

Handheld Learning Environment (HLE) by GoKnow (http://www.goknow.com) allows teachers to print, view, and comment upon student work quickly and easily. With HLE, teachers can also distribute, organize, and archive student assignments as well as manage applications installed on student handhelds.

Parents appreciate that they can view their child's ongoing classroom work, but students are probably the biggest fans of HLE, especially its concept mapping and animation tools. For the three sixth-graders who presented samples of their handheld-generated work at this year's MACUL (Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning) conference, Pocket PCs clearly make learning exciting. One boy described becoming so absorbed in a social studies project that he worked on a section of it for two hours straight-and then took it home so he could polish it some more. That's strong testimony to the motivational power of the HLE.

TurningPoint's vPad.

TurningPoint by Turning Technologies (http://www.turningtechnologies.com) enables teachers to perform rapid in-class assessments. Using this classroom response system, teachers can immediately gauge whether students have understood a concept. There's no more waiting for the results of a paper test to find out whether Johnny or Suzy really "got it." Instead, teachers can quiz an entire class instantly to check who's on track and who's not.

TurningPoint builds on the familiar PowerPoint platform, and its question generation and report wizards make it simple to implement. What makes the system even easier to use is its Virtual Keypad (vPad). No add-on equipment is required; students simply enter their responses on the screen of their Pocket PCs and beam the results to their teacher, who can compile and analyze the results on the fly. With TurningPoint, one-to-one computing creates genuine two-way communication in the classroom. Besides enabling teachers to deliver material more effectively, it ensures that all students-even the shy and resistant ones-participate in the class.

Data Harvest's EasySense FlashLogger in the field.

EasySense Flash Logger by Data Harvest (http://www.dataharvest.com) makes science class a truly hands-on experience. It puts the power and precision of a high-quality scientific measuring tool directly into students' hands. Children can explore the world around them as active scientists, collecting more than 30 different kinds of data about the physical properties of matter.