Michelle
was a participant in Handhelds in Teaching and Learning
and wrote this article after spending time with one of
my fifth grade students. -T.V.
I
had the pleasure of interviewing Connor, a seemingly bright
and very-excited-about-handhelds fifth grader. He informed
and entertained me throughout our conversation.
I
began our chat by asking Connor about his favorite applications.
It was obvious he was eager to share them with me, as well
as some of the projects he had completed using them. As I expected,
he declared that Sketchy was his favorite. He shared an animation
that he created to help him remember the differences between
the spelling words to, too, and two. It was very creative,
and most of all, he said that he did well on his test because
he was able to make up his own meaningful study tool. He also
shared Be Smart, a math application with a work area built
in. What a fun way to work out those math problems – much
more fun than paper and pencil. Beep Maker was the next application
Connor presented to me, followed by Nine Colors. I was, as
I had expected to be, amazed by the ease with which he navigated
his handheld. At times he was tapping so fast I had to really
concentrate just to follow his steps. It is easy to see how
and why some of these students are mentoring adults!
Next
I asked Connor how he felt about using the Palms in class.
He said that he couldn’t imagine not using them. He loves
being able to use them for all the things they do. Connor also
shared that he was new to Willowdale this year and that he
was very excited when he found out about the handhelds. He
said that the first night he brought one home his dad asked
if he could take a look at it as soon as he finished. His parents
really like them as well.
When
I asked Connor why he thought the handhelds were a good idea
he said that they gave kids a “different way to learn”.
He felt that this was good because not everyone liked to learn
the same thing in the same way. Very insightful! I also asked
him what grades he thought would benefit most from the use
of handhelds. He thought that they would be best for 3rd graders
on up. When I asked why he said that he wasn’t sure if
kids younger than that would take good care of them. This provided
proof that he does see the value in taking care of the handhelds
and that he is concerned about responsibility. Good for him!
One
of the last things we discussed was which applications he used
most. I asked him to try to rank them in order of usage. He
listed the following with most used listed first: Math Card,
Sketchy, and CFB Timer. Connor said that, if they had a choice,
more teachers should use handhelds in their classrooms. I agree!
We
wrapped up our time together with a few activities. We used
Beamer to beam handheld terms back and forth and then we used
EFC to calculate our ecological footprint. Yikes – looks
like I need to make some changes! But I wouldn’t have
changed a thing about my opportunity to interview such a super
student.
