Throughout
this course both practical and enhancing uses of handhelds in
the classroom to infuse technology into the curriculum were explored.
When we began addressing practical tips, the first topic that
generated a lot of discussion was whether or not to send handhelds
home with students. As a management tool, some participants indicated
that their schools choose not to send handhelds home with students.
Although I understand wanting to protect the district’s investment
from loss or theft, I would want to carefully weigh the pros
and cons before making that decision. Students carrying handhelds
between school and home would certainly have the potential to
dramatically increase parent involvement. Children would have the ability to practice and continue work with the same technology
they have available in the classroom, parents could observe the
technology at work, and home/school communication would increase.
When you partner good parental support with quality instruction,
students succeed.
Sketchy, iKWL, Fling It, and Documents to Go were a few of the available Palm programs addressed. Sketchy would have multiple
uses including illustrating math problems, phases of the moon,
sun’s path across southern sky, Earth’s revolution around the
sun, life cycles (plants, butterflies, birds, frogs, etc.),
story-telling through pictures, and changing seasons. When
students can step by step illustrate a concept and view it
as an animation, it has significant impact on their learning.
First of all, when a child beams the teacher his or her animation,
you see immediately how well the student understands the concept
and whether or not redirection or extension of learning is
needed. Children learn by doing, so by breaking a process down
into steps and visually showing others, achievement soars. Utilizing
iKWL frequently to access students’ background knowledge is
fundamental to the learning process. Instead of generating
a class KWL chart, individuals are able to enter on handhelds
what they “know”, what they “wonder”, and finally, what they
“learned”. Developing good questions for the “I wonder” piece
alone will affect achievement, but as children research (Fling
It will be an awesome tool here) and have to either confirm
or correct their entries, understanding will increase dramatically.
Students come to us with a lot of information…some solid and
some faulty. When they can judge for themselves how accurate their understanding is through research and application, you are
nurturing life-long learners. Fling It will allow me to “fling" Web pages from the desktop computer to the students’ handheld computers. I like
the fact that the teacher can decide whether or not to include
graphics and determine the link depth of the selected Web pages,
especially in lower grades! Students can then view the “flung”
Web pages at home, on the bus, or in the classroom. This capability
alone makes children more independent learners. Using Documents
to Go to compose poems, riddles, descriptive writing, reports,
or spreadsheets to document what they have learned and then
allowing them to present to the group with Elmo is equally
powerful. Presenting learned information to others makes the
information “stick” with you.
The
work in this course also helped me think outside the box in
using handhelds in the classroom. For example, I had never
considered using Contacts for beaming vocabulary words! In
addition, I was unaware of how many free applications are available
for use on handhelds. Spell-It is used for vocabulary review
and may be categorized by word clues. We can use To Do List
for ABC brainstorming or writing acronyms. Memo Pad will be
great to use for “Exit Slips” from learning activities, i.e.
“Three things I know, two things I learned, one question I
still have.” Beaming quizzes or responses to inquiry aid in
giving students immediate feedback. What If Builder will be great to use in composing stories. Quotes may also be used to stimulate
student writing or as a tool to express their understanding
of the use of language. With Bookshare, students can create
a book with a partner. Of course, before they do that, they
may want graphically organize their thoughts with a prewriting
exercise in IdeaPad! Happy-O-Meter allows students to rate how well they understand the learning target. My Goals
also lets children monitor their own learning. Gone Mad will be motivating to students simply because they love Mad Libs, but Gone Mad
provides more than just silly stories and practice with parts
of speech. It may be used to write stories where students can
insert specific vocabulary or spelling words, but it doesn't
even stop there. Then they can export the story into Memo Pad
to edit the tale so that it makes sense. Now the teacher can
quickly see what kind of grasp his or her students have on
(the sometimes elusive) English language. As reflected previously,
students’ ownership of learning enhances achievement. Extensive,
relevant use of handhelds throughout the day, infused with
curriculum goals, will breed success for our students.
With
palm apps in the classroom, we are provided many forums to
promote meaningful dialogue among students, for exchanging
ideas and information using pictures and words, for editing
and creating work with others, for reflecting and review, for
self-assessment. Comprehension and understanding are increased
when students have multiple opportunities for collaboration,
and when students are involved in managing their own learning,
achievement improves!
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