Thursday 2/19/04 Reported & Photographed by Lu

Class Log

Thursday evening ten teachers met at Willowdale Elementary School in Millard, Nebraska to learn about educational applications for Palm handhelds from nationally known and unprofessionally-dressed handheld guru Tony Vincent. Well-hydrated Vincent began the meeting by “beaming” a demo version of HanDBase 3 to all participants (which we didn't have time for, so we'll have to learn about HanDBase next week). Next on the agenda: pizza orders. Mr. Vincent then shared an email which his 5th grade class had recently received from the creator of Coconut Fern relating how the game was named. CoconutFern is an anagram for Connect Four. (Anagram: A word or phrase formed by reordering the letters of another word or phrase.) Go figure! After completing the discussion of Palm advanced housekeeping features from the previous week, Vincent shared his thoughts on the relative value of expanding handheld memory using multimedia cards (MMC) versus secure digital (SD) cards. Though the MMC is less expensive, he recommended the faster SD be used to avoid Data-rate Transfer Insanity. (Like obesity, Data-rate Transfer Insanity or DTI is under current consideration by the American Psychiatric Association for inclusion in its next revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM-V.) The topic then turned to eBooks. Mr. Vincent beamed the trial version of Palm Reader Pro to students. This particular version of Palm Reader has many attractive features but comes with a price tag. It morphs into the stripped-down free version after the trial period. Along with some eBooks on how to use the Palm operating system and Palm Reader, Vincent euphorically beamed students the newly revised virtual textbook on using handheld technologies in the classroom, SEIR*TEC NewsWire. A complimentary dinner was provided by Randy. The three minute after-dinner movie featured the perspectives of a teacher who had been enlisted to participate in a handheld trial program in her school. Initially skeptical about the value of handhelds in the classroom, she became a full-fledged convert. Her assertion that using PDA’s had required her to change her beliefs about teaching provided fodder for a few minutes of class discussion. Is a beliefs-change really necessary to embrace handheld technology? No way! the class concluded. Tony then demonstrated one possible classroom use of Prize Wheel by using it to “randomly” choose the winners of two coveted Palm t-shirts, one large and one extra-large. Oddly, Janet Caughlin, the co-author of Vincent’s recently published tome on using handhelds in the classroom won the first shirt. Deb won the second. She, of course, was forced to take the extra large garment as Janet was given first choice. (Not to worry, Deb. Tim says his t-shirt shrunk when it was washed so any collusion between Vincent and Caughlin may work out to your benefit.) Random indeed! Vincent proceeded to introduce Name Pick, another program to help teachers insure equity by choosing students randomly. A much lower stakes game was won by Cindy and Dan. The prizes? DARE folders that smelled new. The class remained unconvinced. After an attempted Ellen interlude, Vincent worked through some of the features of Thought Manager for Education, a program designed for teachers by Hands High Software, Inc. It has hundreds of uses including making outlines, planning lessons, recording assessments, writing anecdotal records, and taking notes. Mr. Vincent wrapped up the evening by encouraging each of us to choose next week’s assignment to read the SEIR*TEC NewsWire ebook entitled Using Handheld Technologies in Schools and write 10 new things we learned. Log in next week to find out whether or not eBooks are here to stay! As we left, there was only one thing on our minds. How long will it take for this snow to melt?!? Back