You know how I love to give you online reading material. Let me share two recent newspaper articles. If you don't feel like reading each article, you can just check out some quotes and my comment below.

December 27th's The Daily News Record has a story from Luray, Virginia called In The Palms Of Their Handhelds: Teachers In Luray Add PDAs Such As 'Palm Pilots' To Help Students Better Learn In The Classroom. Here are some highlights:

• The first sentence is an attention-grabber: "Look carefully into Eric Benson’s third-grade classroom at Luray Elementary School and you might mistake it for a conference room."
• I've never heard the stylus referred to as a "little wand" before reading this article. That's cute and better than calling a stylus a stick.
• "Benson said the little machines have added an exciting twist to the class and made them more eager to learn."
• Hopefully the students at Harrisonburg High School will not literally be using Palm Pilots. A Palm Pilot 1000's 128k memory, 16 Mhz processor, and Palm OS version 1.0 will run only a fraction of the 30,000 applications for the Palm Operating System (which is currently in version 5.4).
• "Rockingham County Schools don’t plan to use PDAs for classes yet. Joe Hill, director of technology for Rockingham schools, said he’d like to see more education software on the machines before purchasing any." Joe is right: there's not software for everything, but when I train elementary teachers on handhelds, the amount of free Palm software usable in education often overwhelms them.

The second article is from December 22, 2005. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has the article Hand-held Computers Sharpen Pupils' Skills.

• The first sentence is a cute one: "At W. Robert Paynter Elementary School in Baldwin Borough, second-graders Emily Jurczyk and Christopher Karpuszka were beaming, and not just with childhood joy."
• Instead of "little wand," this this article calls the stylus "a special writing instrument."
• "She said the young children were taught to handle the computers as though 'this is your baby.'"
• "Mrs. Noel said the children were so enamored of the hand-helds that some asked for them when they wrote letters to Santa Claus." [I think it's great when someone named Mrs. Noel talks about Santa!]
• Both of these articles include a hyphen in the word handheld. Is a hyphen really necessary? The only time I see a hyphen in handheld is in newspaper stories...

learninginhand's Discussion Forums have been up for a month. In that time, there have been 37 different topics and 127 posts!

Here's some of what's been going on in the forums:

• Elaine wonders where your funding came from for your handhelds. Marc replied that his school wrote a couple of small grants. He also pointed Elaine to some grant resources.
• Wendy used Sketchy with kindergartners and they loved it. She asked for and received some more ideas of things to do with kindergartners and Palms. That lead to a lively discussion about using handhelds with very young students.
• Dale, the most frequent poster, is super excited about using handhelds with third graders. He tells about Pair Boards he used in Dropairs, including one for telling time.
• Wendy asks about charging class sets of handheld during long breaks. Rad tells about surge protectors with 10 outlets.
• Elaine stirred up great discussion when she tells about how hard it is to get other teachers in her school to use their handhelds with students. Glenn suggests teaming an experienced class with an inexperienced class to enable some cooperative learning. Glenn also suggests perhaps starting some competitions with math games between the classes. Mark proposes starting with simple tasks on handhelds to get other teachers hooked.
• Rob asks about the difference between using a Palm Wi-Fi card versus using the Wi-Fi in a Palm TX. Believe it or not, there is a huge difference you should know about. Tony gets somewhat technical in his reply to Rob.
• Todd wants to know how to export a Sketchy animation from a Pocket PC for viewing on a website. Tony gives him an answer.
• Tony teases that a new podcast is on the way that many learninginhand visitors will be invited to participate in. Details are coming very soon!
• Some great suggestions for future software are proposed in the Software Wish List forum.

Currently there are 30 members registered for the forums. You must register to post a message. Another advantage of registering is that it enables the forums to keep of track of which posts are new and unread just for you! To encourage more people to register and post, I'm starting a monthly drawing. I will randomly choose a registered forum user each month through May. That registered user must have posted sometime within the last month to qualify. What can you win? If selected, I will send you not one, but two learninginhand stylus-pens. Twist it one way and it's a pen. Twist it the other way and you have yourself a stylus! The first drawing will be at the end of January, so get registered now and join the discussion!

Part of the allure of handheld computing to both kids and adults are games. There are some great puzzle, logic, and strategy games for both Palm and Windows Mobile. I think the educational value of these types of games are underestimated (take a look at some videos my students did a couple of years back).

While on break, you may be looking for games that are less educational. The best known software company for handheld games is Astraware. Astraware makes addicting games like Bejeweled, Fish Tycoon, Text Twist, and Bookworm, Although you can demo any Astraware game for free, these applications cost between ten and twenty dollars each.

Astraware does off some of their older Palm games for free! Currently there are five free titles offered. Bang! Bang! is a game where you shoot targets to win ammunition and points. Biplane Ace is another shooting game where planes attempt to shoot each other down. Round Up is a strategy/puzzle game where you try to move marbles to their proper places in as few moves as possible. TacTic is similar to Tic Tac Toe. Instead of getting three in a row to win, you are given a larger board and your goal is a get as many points as you can by making the most lines before the board fills up.

The fifth free game may prove to be the most useful in classrooms. T-Blaster is a lot like Giraffe, where you enter Graffiti or type on a keyboard. The objective is to enter the falling text before it hits the ground. This is great for practicing text entry or keyboarding. Like all Astraware games, this one has great graphics.

There is a catch to this free software. You must register the software by supplying Astraware with your handheld's HotSync username. This is easy enough for registering software on one handheld. However, if you plan to use this on a class set of handhelds, be prepared to enter lots of names and registration codes.

Unfortunately, Astraware does not yet offer any free Pocket PC games. So here's a page from PocketGear with lots of freeware games. Enjoy!

The above animation is by Richard, a student in Jason Jaffe's sixth grade class at Mill Creek Elementary School in Warrington, Pennsylvania. Richard used NoviiAnimator to create his amazing cartoon. Novii sponsored a Christmas Drawing contest, and Richard's was picked as the winner. Mr. Jaffe's class is starting to dabble in podcasting so you can listen to a minute-long interview with Richard, recorded on a Palm Zire 72. View or download all of the animations entered into the contest from NoviiAnimator's Gallery page.

NoviiAnimator is a great alternative to GoKnow's Sketchy. It is packed with features and you can try it for free. Right now it's on sale for $13.95 per handheld. I'd suggest contacting Novii and asking for a classroom quote. There's a Windows program that will convert the animation into GIFs that can be used on web sites and slide shows. To get an idea of how NoviiAnimator works, check out the tutorial. Sorry Windows Mobile users, NoviiAnimator is only for the Palm OS 3.5 and above (and, unfortunately, cannot be installed with a Macintosh computer).

For Pocket PC users, there's a Windows Mobile version of Sketchy. There's also Pocket FlipBook ($19.95) and Flip It! ($4.99). I could not find any free animation programs for Pocket PC, but you can demo each of these programs at no cost.

For Palm users, there are free alternatives to NoviiAnimator and Sketchy. Schools are using AnimateMe! and Animator. However, these free applications do not have nearly as many features as the commercial programs (and tend to crash on newer handhelds).

Whichever software you choose to use, animation applications allow students to express themselves and the curriculum in fun and creative ways!

Great news! Mike Curtis, my Soft Reset co-host and fellow handheld enthusiast, is now a father! Mike and his wife Beckie have been pregnant with twins and the boys have finally arrived. Look at how many Palm applications there are about babies that Mike can now put to good use! Mike writes:

Greetings everyone,

Beckie and I had a wonderful weekend bringing our twin boys into the world. I've put together a simple website with more information and photos, but the basic info is that they induced labor late Wednesday night and the babies didn't arrive until Friday morning. It was a long and painful time, but in the end, everything worked out and all are healthy. We spent the weekend in the hospital getting a crash course in parenthood, and we’ve really been enjoying these initial days.

Colin MacIntyre was first (6:40 am) and weighed 6 lbs and 10 oz and was a little over 21”
Owen Parker was 6 lbs, 2 oz. (6:52 am) and measured a little over 20”

We want to thank you for being a part of our lives. Our door and hearts are always open.

For a little timeline of photos and captions, see www.michaeljcurtis.com/babysite.htm.

Happy Holidays!
Mike and Beckie

Soft Reset Show #7 is about podcasting. Tony conducted a day-long podcasting workshop for a group of eager educators at the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit in Pennsylvania. Workshop participants created segments to be included in this podcast. Some segments are reviews of educational podcasts while other segments are about other topics. They are fun to listen to and give you a small sampling of the variety of things that can be done on podcasts.

Show Notes:

• Cory from Winnsboro, Louisiana introduces the show. His computer science teacher, Debbie Lyles, is diving into podcasting. Students in Cory's class are using their Palm Zire 72s to record podcasts about historical events.
• Tony's Tip: Help combat the liquid you by having students practice saying, "can't you, won't you, don't you."
• ShakespeareCast.
• Lansing Library Youth News.
• Learn Out Loud podcast directory.
• Radio WillowWeb.
• The Tech Teachers.
• LMSD Podologue.
• Thanks to Apple for sponsoring this workshop.
• My apologies to those whose segments did not get included. I had technical troubles with at least one recording.
• Leave a voicemail for us to play on the show! 206-333-1942
• Email Tony and Mike at softresetpodcast@gmail.com.

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

This weekend the Associated Press released the article Gradeschoolers Learning on Handhelds. The article was reprinted in dozens and dozens of newspapers around the globe, including USA Today, Winnipeg Sun, and BusinessWeek Online. The article mentions handheld use in Olathe, Kansas, Yankton, South Dakota, and Eugene, Oregon. It focuses on Regan Veach's sixth grade classroom in a Kansas district where handhelds are being used with 4,000 students.

Here are some of my favorite quotes from the article:

Worded well: "As school districts scout ways to engage students already accustomed to instant messaging and interactive video games, they're buying up the kind of tech tools once reserved for jet-setting corporate executives."

Extremely interesting statistic: "Last year, a survey by Quality Education Data Inc. found that 28 percent of U.S. school districts offered handhelds for student and teacher use."

It's not all about tests: "Studies show that when used regularly, such media-rich instructional tools can work well to assess student performance."

Positive principal: "The overall achievement is rising and the Palms have been a piece in keeping our kids engaged."

According to the article, Robin Raskin, from FamilyPC magazine, worries that "students need to have some opportunity to digest material serially, like reading a book from end to end. A tiny screen might stop you from being an analytic thinker 'cause you just can't see enough of a thing at once." We know that as part of a continuum of classroom tools, ranging from pencils, to books, to desktops and laptops, handhelds are not always the best tool for the job. But, I do read plenty of eBooks and web sites on my own handheld and the smaller screen doesn't affect my comprehension of the material...

Since this article has been widely published, there are many blog posts written about it. I typed in the article title into Technorati, which searches blogs and displays the most recent entries first. Putting in "Gradeschoolers Learning on Handhelds" yields some results. For instance, one blog gives the article a humorous subtitle: "Gradeschoolers Learning on Handhelds: PDAs like handholding still forbidden."

Handhelds were also in the news in Australia. Handhelds On Trial in Australian Schools appeared in December 8th's Sydney Morning Herald. Students in hundreds of Tasmanian and Victorian schools will be using Palm handhelds as part of a three-year study by the University of Tasmania. Andrew Fluck from the university is quoted, "I think there have been a lot of schools that have toyed with using laptops, but the idea of schoolkids carrying laptops around doesn't really work. These handhelds are pocket size and more appropriate to learning needs."

A teacher at one of the participating schools says that one of the key challenges will be preventing the students from using all the storage for music downloads. Well, unless the students are also provided with an SD card, the Zire 31s used in the study won't be storing any MP3s. From Palm's website: "MP3 playback requires an expansion card (sold separately) on all models except the Palm TX handheld, the Tungsten T5 handheld and the LifeDrive mobile manager." I personally think the key challenge is providing ongoing professional development for teachers.

It seems that handheld computing in schools is only becoming more popular. It's great that newspapers are educating the public about why schools want handheld computers!

Check out the December issue of Mobile Learning News from Western Illinois University. This issue is all about handhelds and science. You'll find information and links to probeware and software to support science instruction and inquiry. Watch for the January issue; it will be dedicated to handhelds and math. You can access the archives of Mobile Learning News, including the November issue dedicated to little old me.

Soft Reset Show #6 is all about teaching economic concepts. Tony and Mike discuss three kinds of handheld applications for economics: calculators, games, and simulations. Dance with Tony as Mike plays music for us and listen to find out how Mike lost $11,000 worth of fish.

Show Notes:

• Robert, a second grader, from Lexington Elementary School in South Carolina introduces Tony and Mike. Thanks Robert!
• Tony's Tip: Pay attention to the included documents when downloading software, they could provide some useful directions--maybe even something you can copy and give to students.
• Mike's Tip: Perhaps you can put some commercial software on SD cards and have students share them. Make sure you check the license agreement and keep in mind that not all software can run from an SD card.
• Calculators: Inflation Master (Palm), Loan Calc (Windows Mobile), Mortgage Calc (Windows Mobile).
• Games: Lemonade Stand (Windows Mobile - $6), Lemonade Tycoon (Windows Mobile - $20), Fish Tycoon (Palm & Windows Mobile), Day Trader (Palm), Solar Wars (Palm), Space Trader (Palm) and Space Trader (Windows Mobile).
• Space Trader Lesson Plan & Other Lesson Plans
• Simulations: Sugar & Space (Palm).
• Music from The Freesound Project.
• Leave a voicemail for us to play on the show! 206-333-1942
• Email Tony and Mike at softresetpodcast@gmail.com.

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

Time's Up: Put Down Your iPods appeared in December 5th's Philadelphia Inquirer. The writer, Melanie Burney, explains how teachers and students in the Philadelphia area are using handheld technology. The article tells about the use of "Palm Pilots," iPods, blogs, and podcasting.

The Inquirer article is a fairly short read, but has some great ideas I can't help but quote:

• "With gadgets that students typically use to hear music or play games, educators are changing the face of education, starting with the youngest. They believe that with the technology, they can better engage students and boost achievement."
• "Technology 'should make teachers' jobs easier and learning more meaningful,'" according to Ken Hartman, director of academic affairs for eLearning at Drexel University.
• "Some teachers have found unexpected benefits in handheld computers. Students help one another with assignments, improving interpersonal skills and helping introverted pupils thrive in group settings."
• "'It's very challenging to keep their attention these days. The days of textbooks are over,'" says fifth grade teacher Domenick Renzi.

The article mentions that the Lower Merion School District has started a podcast for teacher professional development called Podologue. The first episode explores the role of technology in differentiated instruction. I've listened and the host has a genuine and professional sounding voice, so it's pleasant to listen to. [Click here to listen or subscribe to Podologue in iTunes.] Oh, and what a cool district to teach in--they are starting a project where some teachers will be given video iPods!

Five-hundred-eighty miles away, the Indianapolis Star ran iPod Popularity Stirs Tech Debate in the Classroom a day after the Inquirer piece was published. Lisa Renze-Rhodes' byline for the article is "Many metro-area schools bar the device, but others tolerate or even tout its use." The newspaper did a survey of 70 public schools in the area and and found that more than 50 have banned electronic devices during the school day. The Star gives a sampling of polices, ranging from confiscation of handheld devices to leaving up to teacher discretion. I worry about teacher discretion because too many teachers don't understand how the devices can be used for learning. The middle school where my former fifth graders attend leave it up to teacher discretion. Unfortunately, teacher discretion tends to be "you can use handhelds in other classrooms, but not mine."

At least one principal gets it. The Star quotes Robert Albano: "Part of our professional responsibility is to understand what each generation brings into our school building. Utilizing electronic devices (is) appealing to this generation. Our responsibility is to be on the edge, to take risks." Robert's school allows some use of MP3 players.

What's the big deal about allowing music players? High school student Michael Farah told the Star that listening music at school mirrors how he studies elsewhere. He is quoted, "If you want to get something done and you have your headphones on, it's pretty unlikely somebody will bother you."

Again, some adults just don't get it: another administrator says, "Study halls are to be used for studying. Students are not allowed to sleep (or) listen to music." It sounds as if he thinks listening to music is the same thing as sleeping! Hopefully this administrator reads the quote from Michael, the multi-tasking high school student.

iPod Popularity Stirs Tech Debate in Classroom goes on to say that schools are concerned about theft and about keeping order--that's why they ban electronic devices. It's certainly ironic when some schools are exploring ways to fund projects that give handheld devices to students while other schools are taking them out of students' hands.

After pressure from several readers and conference-goers (you know who you are--and thanks for the nudge), I have added Discussion Forums to learninginhand! Different from a blog, discussion forums are a public place where users can post messages and where they can reply to messages. That means you can start the topic--you don't have to wait for me to blog about it!

What kinds of things can we expect in the discussion forums? I'm hoping to see things like:

• success stories
• software recommendations
• implementation questions and answers
• podcast reviews
• conference session summaries
• software wish lists
• veteran users coaching less experienced ones
• sharing of online resources
• connections among educators in different school buildings
• lesson and activity suggestions
• conference and workshop annoucements
• posts relating to material discussed in the Soft Reset podcast

Click here to visit the new Discussion Forums! Since we're just starting out, there aren't many posts...yet. So take some time to register and post. You'll be glad you did.