Sunday
Mar192006

Soft Reset #11: Great Games

Soft Reset LogoSoft Reset Show #11 is all about memory, strategy, and logic games for Palm and Windows Mobile computers. With games, students build thinking and problem-solving skills in a entertaining way. After sharing nine different Palm games and eight games for Windows Mobile, Tony and Mike discuss management strategies for handheld games. You may want to download the software below before listening.

Show Notes:

Enjoy the show! Click an icon below to listen or subscribe.

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Saturday
Mar182006

Taking Care of Business

Tony VincentI wrote yesterday about leaving my job as a public school teacher. I’ve shed tears over this decision, but I know this is going to be best for me. Heck, it’s going to be best for you! I've made this choice so that I can concentrate more on learninginhand. Additionally, I have some exciting new projects I want to pursue. I just hope I can make a living at this. Actually, I’m going to ask you to recommend my professional development services to others. In the past, I didn't seek out speaking and workshop engagements (I guess they sought out me). Now, without being tethered to a school's calendar, I can travel whenever I like. I love to speak at schools, universities, and conferences. Even more, I enjoy conducting hands-on workshops. Whether it’s handheld computing, podcasting, blogging, digital video, or websites, I endeavor to inspire and motivate teachers to use new learning tools. I've already worked with students, teachers, or a combination of both in 17 states. Though most of my summer is pretty well booked, August and September are somewhat empty on my calendar. That would be a great time for me to energize teachers with new strategies, activities, and techniques for engaging students in learning. I appreciate any business you send my way. Thank you.

Friday
Mar172006

Wish Me Luck

Clovers & RainbowYesterday I informed my principal that I will be quitting my job after this school year. Yes, I’ll be leaving Willowdale, one of the best schools on the face of the planet. Why? Well, as much as I adore the staff and students at Willowdale, I’m also being pulled in another direction. I immensely enjoy helping teachers use new learning tools. I’m ready to write more books. I’ve got a full summer of conferences and workshops. It’s so great being able to travel and meet folks from around the country. I love that my ideas and resources are helping teachers, most of whom I have never met. I am constantly amazed that something I type in my little Nebraska home makes its way to people across the globe. For a few years now I’ve tried to balance my passion for sharing with my love of teaching in a public school. I just can no longer do both as there just aren’t enough hours in the day for everything I want to do. I'm probably crazy for leaving such a great gig at Willowdale. Please wish me luck as I continue on my journey...

Here is what I wrote in an email my Willowdale colleagues:

I have made the decision to end my employment with Millard Public Schools after this school year. In some ways it was a difficult choice. I have taught at Willowdale for eight years, and I respect, admire, and consider everyone in the building a good friend. I have learned so much from each and every one of you. I am constantly amazed at the support Willowdale staff has given me over the years. I love you guys!

I'm not moving. I'm not unhappy at Willowdale. I'm not leaving the education field. I'm not even leaving for another job. I hope to continue helping teachers and students learn and grow by writing books, speaking at events, and giving workshops. I'm excited to be my own boss (though I am certain that Susan is a far better one). I look forward to traveling. I look forward to connecting with educators and making a difference in the lives of students. Right now is the time I need to try this. Not only will it be an exciting change, but I will have more time for my cats, family, friends, and me.

My employment may be ending with Millard, but I hope to continue to learn about education and technology by volunteering time at the best school around--Willowdale. In the meantime, I hope that you can learn as much from me as you can in the next couple of months. I'm willing to help you learn anything I know how to do. Let's continue to be a leader in educational technology and finish the year with great learning opportunities for students!

I'm thrilled with the new direction my career will take, but I'm sad that I won't see my Willowdale family as often. I hope that I will be missed, but I also hope that you are happy for me.

Wednesday
Mar152006

Projecting the Screen & AVerMedia Contest

Document CameraA document camera is my preferred way to show a handheld's screen to an audience. That's because there is no software required and few things can go wrong. I also favor document cameras because they can be used for many other things in the classroom like showing an answer key, a calculator, an iPod, or an art technique. Document cameras work best in combination with a data projector, but projectors can cost over $1,000. The good news is that most document cameras can also be attached to a television screen.

ELMO is a popular brand of document camera, but there are several other brands. AVerMedia is another company and they make AVerVision Document Cameras. In fact, AVerMedia is currently having an essay contest. You can enter to win one of five document cameras! Simply submit a 100-300 word essay by you or your students about how your classroom would benefit from a new document camera. Entries need to be emailed by April 28, 2006. Winner will be notified by May 14. Click here for more information. Thanks to Mike Curtis for informing me about this contest!

Another way you can demonstrate a handheld to an audience is with software that displays a handheld's screen on your computer. Then you simply mirror your computer's screen on a data projector. PdaReach ($24) and HandShare ($30) can both show a Palm's screen on a Windows computer through the handheld's HotSync cable. HandShare goes a step further and supports Bluetooth and Wi-Fi connections, so you can walk about the classroom using the handheld (or handing it to students to use). For Windows Mobile users, there's Microsoft's Remote Display Control for Pocket PC (free). These solutions are much cheaper than a document camera, but a Windows computer and a data projector are required. Oh, and if you have a SMART Board, students can operate the handheld by actually touching and interacting with the projection! Kevin in the U.K. has a great photo demonstrating this.

Besides a document camera or Windows software, you could try a hardware presentation solution from iGo. The Pitch Duo ($280) works with Palm OS and Windows Mobile handhelds. This solution requires a projector, but no laptop or desktop computer is needed. Unfortunately, to the dismay of many, the Margi Presenter To Go is no longer being sold.

What's your favorite way to demonstrate a handheld to a room full eager students?

Monday
Mar132006

LcmGcf

LCM-GCF IconThe least common multiple (a.k.a. LCM or least common denominator) is the smallest number that is the multiple of two or more other numbers. For example, the LCM of 3, 4, and 6 is 12.

The greatest common factor (a.k.a. GCF or greatest common divisor) is the largest number that will divide two or more numbers exactly. For example, the GCF of 9, 12, and 15 is 3.

Students often find LCMs and GCFs when working with fractions. To practice finding greatest common factors and least common multiples, Brian Schau has created LcmGcf for Palm computers. It's based on MathAce, so you are probably familiar with its interface and options. In LcmGcf you practice solving LCMs and GCFs of two or three numbers. You adjust the settings of the quiz, take the quiz, and then enter the score into the Last 10 Scores list. Also, the settings can be beamed from one handheld to another, just like MathAce. LcmGcf's User Manual gives some basic directions for using the software.

And, just like MathAce (and Angles, Dictate, Gone Mad!, MixedUp, Simplify), Brian has released LcmGcf as freeware! Thanks Brian!

Sunday
Mar122006

2006's Sketchy Animation Contest

SketchyIt's here! GoKnow's annual Sketchy Contest looks for the best examples of animations from science, math, language arts, social studies, and other curriculum. The animations must have been created during the 2005-2006 school year and can be created on Palm or Pocket PC computers (there's a 45-day trial for each). The prizes are even better this year:

  • 1st place: iPod Shuffle
  • 2nd place: Nintendo GameBoy Advance SP
  • 3rd place: Miniature Digital Camera
  • Honorable Mentions: Certificate of Recognition
Winning and honorable mentions will be posted to GoKnow's website for the world to see! According to GoKnow's Sketchy Evaluation Guide, the best Sketchy animations tend to:
  • Have typed text (when appropriate) using the text tool to explain and label concepts
  • Have no student names in the animation itself
  • Demonstrate good use of colors and design
  • Have smooth transition between frames
  • Teach a concept to someone who knows nothing about it. Can a stranger watch your Sketchy and understand what you are learning about?
  • Entertaining to watch—the “replay value”
GoKnow has added something new this year: a category for teachers. Teachers can now enter the contest! All submissions are due April 21, 2006 and winners will be announced May 5.

Go to GoKnow's Sketchy Animation Contest page for a flyer, rules, submission guidelines, and submission template. It's also a great idea to check out winning examples from the 2004 Contest and 2005 Contest.

Tuesday
Mar072006

A Mobile Cause

T.H.E. JournalTechnological Horizons in Education Journal is available in print (free subscription) and online. T.H.E. Journal's March 2006 issue features a cover story about the uses of iPods for learning with the article In iPod We Trust by Mikael Blaisdell. A Mobile Cause is another story in March's T.H.E. Journal by Linda L. Briggs and it addresses key challenges of incorporating handhelds into the curriculum:

  1. Training Teachers.
  2. Staying Focused on the Purpose.
  3. Finding Cost-Effective, Useful Software.
  4. Managing the Classroom.
  5. Handling Bandwidth and Battery Issues.
A Mobile Cause quotes handheld computing advocates Christine Tomasino and Kellie Doubek, who worked on the successful three year NCLB project called Bridging the Disconnects. Part of the success was that each teacher received more than 100 hours of training. One-hundred hours seems like a lot, but Christine cites research that says to change teaching practices, educators need over 80 hours of professional development. With proper training, Kellie says that handhelds promote more interaction among students than laptops.

Besides Christine and Kellie, A Mobile Cause also quotes little old me. Unfortunately, I did not have the opportunity to fact check the article before it went to print. Allow me to clarify a few things from the article:

Tony Vincent, a fifth-grade teacher at Willowdale Elementary School in Omaha, NE, “whether you’re using Palms or Pocket PCs, there’s just a multitude of great programs out there.”
I did teach fifth grade for six years. Three of those years my students each had a handheld. However, for the last two years I have been Willowdale's technology specialist, working with students in grades K-5 and their teachers.
Vincent, who also serves as a technology specialist at Willowdale, has worked out a system for managing the 30 or so non-wireless handhelds that rotate among Willowdale’s three fifth-grade classes of 25 students each. He simply passes them out when projects call for them, then collects them back again, charging the batteries in the off hours.
Each and every fifth grader at Willowdale has a Palm handheld. They don't share and each student is responsible for charging their own device. In addition to fifth grade handhelds, we have a class set of handhelds that are shared among the other grade levels. Those are checked out by teachers when their lessons lend themselves to an activity that can be done on a handheld. That rotating set is the one I take responsibility for charging. As for the "non-wireless" label, the author is referring to the lack of Wi-Fi or Bluetooth network capabilities, which is the case at Willowdale. However, non-wireless makes it sounds like the handhelds are tethered to a network or power source in some way, and that is not the case.
The handhelds periodically are synchronized with Vincent’s own handheld, using infrared beams that travel to and from the devices. They can also be connected with a standard computer via a USB port.
Handhelds cannot be synchronized with each other. However, handhelds can beam data to each other. Synchronizing a handheld involves a desktop computer and is typically done through a USB connection. Some handhelds can also sync using Bluetooth or Wi-Fi.
Whether you go wireless or choose to communicate via the infrared capabilities of most handhelds, you may run into bandwidth problems if the students are all using the devices at once to share data. Vincent suggests careful planning to avoid traffic jams. “If [students] all try printing at once, it will take half an hour. Split it in half. It just takes some experience.”
I don't know if "bandwidth" is the right word for what I was trying to communicate. It's not a technical limitation as much as it is a management issue. For example, don't expect the whole class to get their assignments printed off in the morning before the bell rings. That's just not possible. Instead, figure out a way to schedule or stagger printing so that students aren't wasting their time waiting in line to sync or print.

Yes, there may be some minor points of clarification, but A Mobile Cause is a great way to absorb some of the lessons that handheld-using educators have already learned.

Tuesday
Mar072006

Illinois Conference & FLY Pentop

I traveled to Illinois last week for the annual Illinois Technology Conference for Educators. The conference was one of the best run and organized conferences I've had the pleasure of attending. One look at the conference sessions, and you'll see blogging, RSS, Web 2.0, and podcasting were popular topics. One of the best things about a conference are the handouts. IL-TCE has a page full of them! Also, the conference has an ongoing blog. The blog started before the conference began and it will continue well after the conference is over.

I presented two sessions twice: "Radio For Kids, By Kids" and "I Like Handhelds Because..." Folks in the "Radio For Kids, By Kids" sessions were really pumped about producing an episode of Our City Podcast. I suspect we'll be hearing about several cities in the Illinois and Indiana area on the podcast.

One of the highlights of "I Like Handhelds Because..." was when I briefly demonstrated LeapFrog's FLY Pen ($99). It's a "pentop" computer with no screen. All feedback is auditory (and don't worry, the pen comes with earphones).

FLY Through MathI demonstrated the FLY Through Math: Multiplication & Division module ($30) for the pentop computer. The module comes with a computer chip containing the software and special grid paper. A student can set up a problem to solve on the paper by carefully writing one digit per box. The student then attempts to complete the problem. The pen alerts the student if he or she has written an incorrect digit while solving the problem. If the student gets stuck, he or she can tap the hint button at the bottom of notepad with the tip of the pen. The FLY then gives a cute and memorable tip. For instance, I demonstrated a hint for when you have finished a long division problem but the remainder needs to be recorded next to the quotient. Tapping the hint button will get you this catchy tip: "Mmm, mmm, mmm, leftovers! Record your remainder next to the quotient." That hint got quite the chuckle from those at IL-TCE.

FLY PenThe FLY Pen is a specialized handheld computer. I don't see it as a computer that you give each and every student. But I can see having a few FLY Pens in the classroom as a center or resource. If you have some money to spend in your budget, consider a FLY Pen or two for the classroom. Kids will love learning from a talking pen!

I plan to share more about the FLY Pen in the future. I'll tell you about the FLY Through Spelling, FLY Through Spanish, and FLY Through Tests add ons. In the meantime, learn more about FLY from TechLearning.com: LeapFrog FLY & The Pentop Computer.

Thursday
Mar022006

Fool Your Handheld

Purge Dialog BoxCasey Hales in Texas had a problem with Calendar on his Tungsten C. His date book was a complete mess with duplicate entries. He emailed me asking if I knew of a quick way of resetting the calendar. If he attempted to delete each calendar entry individually, he would have to invest a lot of time and effort. A hard reset would erase his entire calendar at once, but it would also delete everything else from the handheld. So, I gave him two pieces of advice. First, I told him to use Palm Desktop to delete entries. You can just click and delete each entry on the desktop. (On the Palm, it takes four taps to erase each entry.) My second suggestion was to use the "Purge.." command from the "Record" menu in Calendar. This won't delete future events, but it's a fast way to get rid of past events. Casey took my purge idea and ran with it:

The purge feature works great to kill the entire calendar! Of course, you have to lie to it a wee bit. I was sitting there deleting one at a time and remembered what you just wrote about it only deleting the past not the future events, so I pulled a Superman and flew around the earth forward really fast and ended up in December of 2006! OK, actually, I told the computer it was 12-31-06 and then purged it. Poof! all my troubles went away. I now have a blank calendar with the exception of the hard dates put in by the Desktop software like Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, etc. Thanks so much for the purge tip!
No, Casey, thank you for the tip! I never considered changing the system date to fool the device! By the way, Casey could have marked appointments so they would not be deleted during a purge. To do this, he could set each event he wants to keep as a repeating event that repeats, say, 50 years in the future (so it won't actually repeat on your calendar). The handheld will not purge the first occurrence of any repeating event whose repetitions have not finished yet. You can call this purge protection.

Casey solved his problem in a way not intended by the operating system. Many people use tricks like this to fool computers into doing their bidding. Here are a couple more ways to pull a fast one on your Palm handheld:

You can get rid of extra lines in Calendar's Day view. Blank appointment lines in the Calendar's Day view can be annoying, especially if they cause you to scroll down to appointments later in the day. If you want to see your day at a glance, you can do one of two things. You can try switching to the Agenda view if your Palm has it. Or, you can also choose Options > Preferences in Calendar. Change the Start Time and End Time be the same. When you return to the Day View, those extra lines no longer show up.

Take control of what category is listed first. Perhaps you have a category you use most often and would like it to be at the top of your list of Categories. Categories are normally listed alphabetically, but you can trick your handheld. Tap "Edit Categories..." from the categories menu in the upper right corner of the screen. Create a new category or rename one you already have so that it begins with a space. The computer considers a space to come before letters alphabetically. So, categories starting with spaces rise to the top of the list.

Aren't these the kinds of things we want students to figure out? "Out of the box" thinking is a valuable life skill. Besides learning about the curriculum, students (and teachers) learn important problem-solving skills from interacting with technology. What are ways you or your students have duped or deceived your handheld? Please share creative tricks by leaving a comment!

Wednesday
Mar012006

February Forum Digest

Speech BubbleFebruary was a short month, but it had its share of great postings in learninginhand's Discussion Forums. Here's a recap of some of the conversation from the last month.

  • Ian introduces himself. He teaches at a primary school in Australia. He has developed a web site about his project with iPAQs. Pocket-Ed Futures features an idea-filled blog. Ian has been doing some great stuff with Pocket Excel and Pocket Word.
  • Lynley, another Australian, asks if Australians can participate in Our City Podcast. Tony answers, "Absolutely!" And, by the way, there is no deadline for submitting to Our City Podcast.
  • Wendy is curious about United Streaming's videos on a handheld. Mike offers great advice for playing videos on handhelds.
  • Brian wants to know what word do you use for the past tense of "sync?" Dale's and Mike's responses may give you a chuckle.
  • Tony shares an amazing video with a woman who can enter text using a handheld's onscreen keyboard faster than you have ever seen before.
  • Stephen would like to know about the Palm Z22. It retails for $99, but will it do what he wants? George and Kevin offer their first-hand experiences.
  • Wendy is interested in Windows Mobile. She wants to know what devices and software you recommend. Todd lets Wendy know about the StyleTap emulator, which lets Windows Mobile run most Palm applications.
  • Tony tries to start a discussion about Soft Reset #10: Researching Handheld Computing. So far, no one has joined in (hint, hint).
  • Dale, Wendy, & Mike write about future topics for the Soft Reset podcast.
  • Tony loves the new version of Apple's GarageBand because it features a Podcast Studio mode.
  • Tony set up an RSS feed for new forum posts. Unfortunately, it has been experiencing technical problems. So, for now, it may or may not work. http://feeds.feedburner.com/forums
Each month a forum contributor is randomly selected to receive a pair of learninginhand stylus-pens. February's lucky winner is Kevin. Congratulations!

Tuesday
Feb282006

Summer Conferences

There are several opportunities this summer to dive further into handheld computing:

Map of Conferneces

I hope to see you at one or more of these conferences! By the way, you can always check upcoming events on learninginhand's Professional Development page.

Saturday
Feb252006

NEA Today: Ready To Upgrade?

I was excited to find this month's NEA Today in my mailbox because a handheld computer makes an appearance four times on the cover! In fact, the featured story is Ready to Upgrade? and its goal is to help educators get a handle on the world of gadgets and the Web.

Here are some of the best quotes from the article:

Technology in the classroom is also helping some students shed their writer’s block. “Before on writing exercises, I would be lucky to get two or three sentences,” Murray says. “Now, using the keyboards, they’ll type paragraphs.”

Creswell Middle School math teacher Ron Armstrong was stunned to find that giving kids handhelds actually made them want to spend more time on math problems. When his students first got the devices, he let them work on problems for the first five minutes of class while he took attendance—but that wasn’t enough. Now students show up to class 15 minutes early just to practice their math exercises.

“There’s a direct correlation between the technology teachers have in the classroom and the technology teachers use,” says Lary. “Those who have gotten things like a laptop, a document projector, or digital camera—as soon as they get them, they start using them as a resource.”

“We tend to teach how we learned,” says Eric Jefcoat, a computer literacy teacher in Fort Collins, Colorado. He notes that more and more teachers fresh out of colleges of education “don’t consider technology integration a big deal because they’ve grown up with it, come out of college learning it, and it’s just more natural to them.”

The most effective training programs offer educators multiple sessions and conferences and provide sample lesson plans that integrate technology into curriculum, hands-on learning opportunities, and access to helpful instructional Web sites.

Ready to Upgrade? has many sidebars with resources and information for teachers. You can access this information online by clicking the link at the end of the article's Web page.

Unfortunately the NEA Today's cover story only has room to barely scratch the surface of handheld computing in education and it only mentions blogging and podcasting in passing. However, I'm still excited because Ready to Upgrade will spur more interest in new learning tools. The last time handheld computing was featured in NEA Today's cover story was April 2003 with Are You Ready. It brought the idea of handhelds in the classroom to nearly three millions readers and sparked interest that lead to many of the implementations of handhelds that are in classrooms today.