More Handheld Computing Blogs

I'd like to recommend two new blogs by educators about handheld computing:

Palms for Patriots is a blog that describes the activities of Debbie Lyles' computer science class at Franklin Parish High School in Winnsboro, Louisiana. Debbie is doing and sharing some amazing activities with the 15 students in her class. For example, Debbie blogs about how she divided the class into groups and their task was to research one of MIT's Participatory Simulations. It's the job of every group to teach the rest of the class the simulation they researched. Expert groups are a great way to empower students and to have them learn new applications!

NW Handheld Integration Project has a place to blog about handhelds in the classroom. Based in Oregon, this blog features troubleshooting tips, lessons, and Palm applications. There's lots of fun photos and videos from the Northwest Handheld Project's workshops and trainings. Also part of the site is a wonderful section on Handheld Logistics in Middle School. (Ok, this blog is not that new, but I have not specifically previously mentioned it before).

If you are interested in reading other blogs, go to Learning in Hand's Web Links - Blogs page. You should also try searching for blog posts that mention handhelds and learning (or students or education or teaching) at Technorati or Google Blog Search. These sites return results in reverse chronological order, so you see the newest posts reported first. Like blogs, you can subscribe to an RSS feed for the results of your search. That way your aggregator (like Bloglines, Firefox Live Bookmarks, or Safari RSS) will have updated search results whenever your search terms are mentioned in a blog posting. Pretty cool, huh? This is the way I discovered the two blogs I just recommended!

MathAce is Updated!

MathAce has become even better! Brian Schau has updated MathAce to version 1.3. The improvements include some minor changes to the layout of the Preferences screen. Brian also added the option to not save the score.

The biggest improvement is the ability to beam preferences. This means the teacher can set the maximum operand, operations, and timer on her handheld and beam those exact settings to student handhelds. This is really handy for me when I bring a class set of handhelds into a primary classroom. Instead of taking ten minutes to guide young students through setting the preferences, all I have to do is point my handheld at theirs and tap the "Beam Preferences" button on MathAce's main screen.

You can download MathAce v1.3 here. If you have already installed MathAce, simply replace the previous version.

Dropairs is Delightful!

Dropairs is the one of the coolest new Palm applications I have seen in a long time! This is one of those applications that could be used with kindergartners all the way up to seniors in high school. And, Dropairs can be used for virtually any curriculum area!

Here's the instructions from Dropairs' Help menu:

• The object of the game is to match both paris before they reach the ground.
• Two shapes are sliding from the top to the bottom, increasing speed as you advance in the game. Before the shapes hit the ground you have to find their two matching paris or your game will be over!
• Each correct match is worth 100 points, plus the remaining bonus (up to 160 points). This means the faster you match a pair, the more score you gain.
• When you match 16 pairs one after another without a single mistake, you get the big bonus: 5000 points!
• Each wrong answer will deduct 100 points off your total, and the big bonus count will reset to zero.
• To change the board you are currently playing, select "Pairs".
• You can pause the game by tapping the menu icon or tapping the upper (title-bar) part of the screen.
• During the game you can enter the letter "t" on the Graffiti area to see the correct answers. Warning! Viewing the correct answers will cost you your bonus

When you download the application, it comes with 12 Pair Boards, including boards where you match artist to their works, multiplication problems to their answers, and flags to their countries. The developer, NorthGlide, has another 24 Pair Boards on the website and promises many more to come. You can download boards to match state capitals to their states, American Sign Language letters to their finger shapes, and photos of minerals to their names. Dropairs even lets you review the pairs before you play the game.

Can't find a Pair Board that matches your curriculum? Then use Dropairs Pair Board Maker for Windows. You can make your own Pair Boards! Making your own Pair Boards takes some knowledge of working with images. First, create pairs of JPG, GIF, or BMP images (images that are 60 x 60 or 30 x 30 work best) in a drawing program. The images can have words, phrases, pictures, diagrams, numbers--you name it! You'll import these pairs of images into Dropairs Board Maker for Windows. After completing some information fields and importing the images, you can make a PDB file that loads onto your Palm handheld. You can beam your newly created Pair Board to students! The Pair Boards tend to be large files, so they will take a while to beam. Quality Pair Boards will even be posted to the NorthGlide site so more people can enjoy the boards made by others!

I have not yet made a Pair Board myself, but I have downloaded and played around with the board maker for Windows. I plan to make a Pair Board for matching photos of the staff in our school with their names so students know the names of all adults in the building. I also want to do one for second graders where they match kinds of landforms with photos of those landforms. I think making these Pair Boards will actually be some fun! I look forward to designing my own backgrounds, colors, and sounds!

Dropairs is an amazing piece of software because it is so customizable. It's even more amazing because it is free! Even the additional Pair Boards and Dropairs Pair Board Maker for Windows are free! Thank you NorthGlide!

Handhelds Benefits Come With Costs

The Kansas City Star published an article titled Handhelds Benefits Come with Cost in its Saturday, September 24, 2005 edition. The article tells about the many benefits and monetary costs of handheld computing in Olathe Unified School District in Kansas. Olathe is the third largest district in Kansas and has issued a handheld and keyboard to each of their staff and students in two of their four high schools. The other two high schools and some of their middle and elementary schools have class sets of handhelds for a total of nearly 4,200 handheld computers!

One interesting fact from the article is that the director of technology said that Olathe schools replaced about 60 lost or damaged handhelds from last year, totaling about $18,000. But with 4,200 handhelds, that's lower than two percent, which is quite low.

The most touted benefit is increased student motivation. Read Handhelds Benefits Come With Costs (free but annoying registration required) from The Kansas City Star to read more about Olathe's benefits and costs of handheld computing.

Hurricane Katrina eGallery

GoKnow, the company that makes useful software like Sketchy, FreeWrite, and PiCoMap, is compiling a Hurricane Katrina eGallery. GoKnow requests that teachers submit documents made by students about the math or science of hurricanes or the impact on people. All submissions must have been created on a Palm or Pocket PC.

After collecting these documents, GoKnow will create an online gallery of the submissions. Besides Sketchy animations, I suggest submitting essays or poetry typed on a handheld.

Documents must be receieved by Friday, October 28. GoKnow will make a donation to the Red Cross for each submission. Read more at GoKnow's website.

Podcasting in the News

Local newspapers are beginning to report on the podcasting phenomenon. Sunday's Omaha World Herald's Let's Learn About Podcasting explains podcasting in simple terms and even has a paragraph about my school's podcast, Radio WillowWeb. In addition, the article's sidebar is about keeping inappropriate or explicit podcasts from children: Parents Should Keep an Eye on Podcasts.

The Philadelphia Inquirer published the article Podcasting is a New, Exciting Way to "Turn a Classroom Inside Out". As part of the tech.life@school section, the article quotes David Warlick of the Connect Learning podcast and Bob Sprankle, of the Room 208 podcast.

In addition to these articles, check out this Podcast Directory for Educators, Schools, and Colleges from ipodcast.org.uk. Based in the United Kingdom, you can find education-related podcasts from all over the globe!

It's also amazing to note that there are a number of podcasts devoted to Palm handhelds. This page at GrassNet lists nine different "Palm-Powered" podcasts. These podcasts tend to be somewhat technical and not geared specifically toward educators. And of course, I know you're looking forward to another episode of the education-specific Soft Reset podcast. Mike and I will be recording Episode #2 this week and it will be all about choosing a handheld.

Upcoming Michigan Conference

The yearly Michigan Handheld Computers in Education Conference will be held November 4, 2005 in Holland, Michigan. It's hard to believe, but this is the fifth time for this conference from the Ottawa Area ISD!

I have the pleasure of presenting the opening keynote:

From Creative to Crazy
Innovative teachers and students from across the country are using handheld computers in creative, cool, and even crazy ways. Tony Vincent shares experiences, activities, and software that will leave no doubt that handhelds are small computers that can be used in so many different ways. Get a glimpse of the educational possibilities when students have access to handheld computing!

Many terrific presenters from around the country and I will share our wisdom about handheld computing in the breakout sessions. Check out the PDF of the sessions being offered. The trip to Holland, Michigan will be well worth your time. It's one of the biggest and best educational handheld computing conferences around! Click here to register. It's only $50 and includes the opening keynote, four sixty-minute breakout sessions, and most importantly...lunch!

Watch a five-minute QuickTime video with post conference interviews from last year's conference to see the enthusiasm of those who attended. (Yes, that's me being interviewed at the end of an exhausting day.)

* There are Preconference Workshops on November 3. More information and registration for these will be available September 20. Elliot Soloway from GoKnow will be the luncheon keynoter!

Soft Reset is On the Air!

Got an extra half hour while you clean your classroom or go for a walk? Then download the first episode of the new podcast, Soft Reset. It's hosted by Mike Curtis and me, Tony Vincent. In this bi-weekly podcast, you'll learn helpful tips, hear about useful resources, and listen to insightful discussions about topics that handheld-using educators care about. Listen to the MP3 on your computer in the your browser, in iTunes, on your handheld, or on your iPod. Read about listening and finding podcasts.

The first episode features a great discussion about charging batteries. Future shows will include interviews, curriculum ideas, tips, and more! Mike and I hope the podcast is helpful and informative. Please leave a comment or email us with ideas, questions, comments, and suggestions. We want the podcast to be useful!

Click here for Soft Reset.

Bits & Pieces

Sixth grade teacher Jason Jaffe at Mill Creek Elementary School in Warrington, Pennsylvania has a new website. Check out the Handheld Computing section to learn about how he and his students use Palm Tungsten Es.

Katie Morrow in O'Neill, Nebraska has a new website called Handling Handhelds. The O'Neill Public Schools are using handhelds to provide ubiquitous access to computing for their students. The site is designed for a graduate class Katie teaches. Check out and subscribe to the Handling Handhelds Blog to follow along with their journey.

Memory cards are handy for storing large files like photos, audio, and video for your handheld. Memory expansion cards are gaining more and more capacity and speed while their prices are declining. You can get a 512 megabyte SD card for less than $30. A one-gigabyte SD card can be found for less than $50. Make sure that the SD card you choose is compatible with your Palm handheld. See Palm.com's Support Knowledge Library to learn about the maximum size expansion card your handheld can use.

Technology & Learning Magazine's School Site of the Month for August is WillowWeb. WillowWeb, coincidentally, is the website for my school, Willowdale Elementary, in Omaha, Nebraska. The students and teachers at Willowdale are proud because we take a lot of pride in what we publish online. Technology & Learning is a free publication. Sign up online to receive free issues!

Wendy Gallagher has written an article for TechLearning.com titled Putting Reading Assessment and Achievement in the Palm of Your Hand. She explains Running Records and how mClass Reading software for grades K-3 allows teachers to use handhelds to complete individual reading assessments with children.

The September 2005 Learning & Leading with Technology magazine has two great articles about handheld computing. You can access this PDF. The second page of the PDF (page 26 of the actual magazine) begins the article "Beam Me Up! Using Handhelds with Elementary Students" by Mark van't Hooft and Karen McClain. Page 36 of September's Learning & Leading with Technology has an article by Robert Kadel with the agreeable title "The Time is Right to Embrace PDAs in the Classroom." Robert makes so many great points for using handhelds, however, his article is only available to ISTE members.

Up to 1200 Best Buy gift cards valued at $2500 each will be awarded to schools across the United States that are within 50 miles of a Best Buy store. Best Buy's Teach program will award schools that "expand or enhance existing programs that use the school's available technology to make learning fun for kids." Applications are due September 30, 2005.

Grant Street Software's SD Deploy is now available for Windows Mobile devices. Deploy is incredibly useful and time-saving if you are setting up multiple handhelds.

There have been some great suggestions and comments added to August 30th's blog post Second Graders?. Scroll down to the bottom to read them. As always, please post your own comments on any blog entry.

Better Battery Life

I've found that the batteries in handhelds are one of the first things to go out. With Palm handhelds, it can be costly or difficult to replace batteries. I have many Palm m515s in a cabinet at school that no longer hold a charge. Right now it doesn't seem worth it to seek battery replacement. Fortunately, my iPAQ 5400 has a removable battery so when it gave out (from being left on the charger for months on end), I found an inexpensive replacement on eBay. Unfortunately, now I have an iPod mini in need of a new battery. I can find a battery cheap on the web, but it doesn't look at all easy to actually change.

It's important to care for your electronics' batteries to have them last as long as possible so you won't have to replace a battery so soon. There's an abundance of information about caring for your handheld's battery. The Lithium-ion (a.k.a. Li-ion) batteries found in handhelds, cell phones, notebook computers, and digital music players don't require much maintenance, but there are some tips online to help you extend the life of Li-ion batteries.

palmInsider posts About Batteries. There are six basic ideas offered for getting the most out of your Li-ion batteries. These ideas include reading the user's manual, fully charging your first time, never fully draining the battery, and not leaving the handheld charging all of the time.

BatteryUniversity.com has a Do and Don't Battery Table. The column for Li-ion batteries encourages frequent charging, storing at 40% charge in a cool place, and avoiding full discharge. The How-To Prolong Lithuium-Based Batteries page suggests calibrating the fuel gauge once every 30 charges by letting the battery become very low. It's an often occurrence for a handheld's battery meter to be inaccurate. The palmInsider article says to warm reset your handheld (i.e. poke a Palm handheld's reset hole while holding down the Up button) while it is on the charger and leave it charging overnight to recalibrate a Palm handheld's battery meter.

Apple uses Li-ion batteries in its notebooks and iPods. This page gives some more insight into these batteries. It says that Li-ion batteries need to be exercised for maximum performance. Apple suggests that if you don't use your device often, at least complete a charging cycle once a month to keep the battery's electrons moving. Additionally, excess heat can cause batteries to lose capacity. If you charge an iPod or handheld in a case, be sure the case is not making the device warm. If it is, charge without the case.

You may be wondering why handhelds and other electronic devices don't simply use good old AA Alkaline batteries. Apple's page puts it into perspective: "if your iPod were powered by 4-AA Alkaline batteries and you used one pack per week (which is conservative), after two years you would have spent over $200 (buying in bulk) and piled up 400 dead batteries for your local recycling center."

Second Graders?

Stephen from Indianapolis, Indiana writes:

I have admired your Planet 5th website and now the Learning in Hand site for many years. My question is this: I have had the Palm 130's for three years while I was a 5th grade teacher, but now for the 05-06 school year, I will be teaching 2nd grade. A 5th grade colleague and I want to do "Palm Buddies" similar to intermediate and primary "Book Buddies". The problem is this: what would you suggest we do! We are not real sure what programs would be best for our 5th graders to teach our 2nd graders or what they would be capable of doing? Maybe just math facts? or e-books? Any advice or research out there for 7 year olds using palms with their older classmates would be extremely beneficial.

I've used handhelds with students in grades K-5. There are by far many more activities and applications to use with the upper grades. However, there are still many things second graders can do. Here are some activities second graders at my school have done:

• MathAce for addition and subtraction practice.
• MathTreeHouse for addition practice.
• Note Pad for drawing or beaming spelling words.
• Sketchy for making drawings and animations to review a concept.
• Quizzler for quizzes about a topic or unit of study.
• MatchWho to make a character to write about.
• SpellIT's Word Jumble mode for practicing spelling words.
• Coconut Fern to play a game of Connect Four against the computer or against a friend.

And if they have a fifth grade buddy helping them, there's even more possibilities. Let me list some buddy ideas that come to mind:

• Fifth graders make GoneMad! story templates and then help the seconds grader fill it out and read it. They could even then write a story template together to share with other pairs of buddies.
• Fifth graders could help second graders create a Quizzler quiz over something they have learned.
• Fifth graders and second graders could write a What-If Builder story together.
• Fifth graders could teach a second grader how to play some of the simpler games from this page.
• Fifth graders use Dictate with second graders to practice spelling words.

There are certainly plenty more way to use handhelds with second graders. Please leave a comment with your ideas for Stephen!

Kevin from Mexico City

I had the fortune to speak with Kevin, a fifth grader at Mexico City's Centro Escolar Cedros in June at the National Educational Computing Conference. Students at Cedros have used Pocket PCs for a year. Several eager fifth graders from the school showed conference-goers all about their handheld computers in a poster session.
Here's a paragraph from the handout for the session:

Students at Cedros are improving their learning process by making concept maps, animations, researching by using Internet, using Word, Excel and some other interesting tools but the most important they are improving teamwork, the use of technology and building their own for the future.

Kevin was kind enough to allow me to record him (using my LifeDrive). He proudly showed me a Sketchy animation, a writing piece in FreeWrite, a PiCoMap of what he likes to do in his free time, and more. Kevin explains that only fifth grade has Pocket PCs, but next year each and every student will have one at Cedros. I know Kevin will be more than willing to help all of those other students. In the time I spent with him, he navigated around the Pocket PC with such ease!

Although Kevin's English is a little difficult to understand, I think the recording would be great to play for handheld-using students. Handhelds aren't used for learning in just one country–the same devices and applications are being used by students around the globe! Take for instance the 2005 Sketchy Animation Contest winner, Water Journey, from Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Listen to Kevin in my final three-minute recording from the NECC conference.