I'm at the Lexington One Second Annual Handheld Computer Conference in Lexington, South Carolina. I kicked off the conference with my keynote From Creative to Crazy. Cathie Norris & Elliot Soloway presented the luncheon speech, "Realizing the Benefits of Technology - Handheld Centric Classroom: What Are We Waiting For?" I've heard them speak numerous times, but this dynamic duo always offers me something new. Here are some tidbits I picked up after enjoying a delicious turkey sub:

• Computers haven't had an impact because students don't have access.
• 5 years ago the national computer to student ratio was 6:1. Today it's 5:1. It's going to take a while to get 1:1 at that rate.
• There are 55,000,000 kids in the United States. The only way to fund one-to-one is through low cost devices.
• Laptops and desktop computer have a 72 dots per inch resolution. Handhelds have 200 dots per inch, making for a very sharp screen.
• Many one-to-one laptop initiatives end up using the expensive machines as simple word processors.
• The problems with laptops are that they moving parts that can break and a large screen that sucks up battery life.
• The Fourier Nova 5000 handheld (starting at $399) with a 7 inch screen and the Windows CE operating system is finally starting to ship. It's being distributed by Dell.
• Cathie demonstrated GoKnow's Handheld Learning Environment (HLE for short). She showed how the software can contain all learning resources, including hyperlinks to web research, rubrics, documents, concept maps, eBooks, and animations. When a student syncs with PAAM, they receive all of their materials that the teacher selected for the project. When a students exits one of the resources on their handheld, they are taken back to HLE and the list of that project's resources.
• Can 1:1 handheld access lead to increased student achievement? First, Elliot asks the audience if they share their computers with other people. The tool must be ready at hand to be truly useful. Elliot tells about a rigorous three year study (at a cost of $600,000) in Detroit Schools. Some classes of students had handhelds and some did not. There was no difference the first year. But the second year when the teachers began to figure out how to harness the power of handheld computing, and the students did statistically significantly better. That second year there was a water unit where there was no difference in the two groups, but that was the first time any of the teachers taught that unit. Now, because of this is scientifically based research, the curriculum and basic tasks were the same. For instance, when asked to do an animation, the control group would draw a cartoon on paper while the handheld users used Sketchy. Dr. Soloway says that there is not scientifically-based research on laptops showing this kind of data.

After Elliot and Cathie's energetic presentation, I presented a two-hour session on podcasting and differentiated instruction. I shared how to listen to podcasts on handhelds and important technical and instructional strategies. Participants listened to a collection of audio about planets from this sample RSS feed. Also, I demonstrated how to set up your own RSS feed that contains only the specific podcast episodes you want students to have. The conference was a great time and I look forward to next year's Lexington One Annual Handheld Computer Conference!

Labels: palm

Elementary math teachers will love Tic Tac 15, freeware for Palm handhelds from Nick Robins Software. It's a game that combines Tic Tac Toe, addition, and probability.

The objective of the game is to complete a column, row, or diagonal so that three numbers add to 15. Play can be against the computer or against another person (on one handheld). Players take turns revealing a random number 1-9 and then placing that number on the grid. Since each number is used only once, smart players take note at what numbers have already been used and consider what numbers remain.

Students get to practice plenty of mental math as they calculate the various possibilities before placing their numbers on the grid. Of course, there's also the luck of the draw since the numbers are generated randomly. Tapping the Show button displays the sums of each row, column, and diagonal. With sums showing, there's not as much mental math involved, but subtraction then becomes the skill players practice.

A tally along the right side of the screen keeps track of how many games are won by each player. To keep things fair, Tic Tac 15 players must take turns going first each new game. I suggest posing this question to students: Is Tic Tac 15 a fair game if the same player always goes first? In order to test this, players will need to use "Start Over" from the Options menu after each game. They will also need to keep track of their own wins, as Tic Tac 15's tally count will be reset each time "Start Over" is selected.

Labels: palm

Shepard School in Missouri has used 94 Palm handheld computers and keyboards for three years and Columbia Public Schools is spending $20,000 to replace them. Parents, teachers, and students support the purchase, but school board member Michelle Gadbois isn't so supportive. Michelle claims the money could be spent in better ways. This purchase is one of the reasons she voted against the district's $207 million dollar budget. Michelle claims to have seen "all of the information on this program" and she remains "unconvinced that this money would not be better spent improving teacher/student ratios in our classrooms."

My guess is that Michelle has not stepped foot in a handheld-using classroom. I bet she has not sat down with any of those students to see what they actually do on a handheld. And, although $20,000 sounds like a lot of money, divide it by 94 students and 3 years, and it's about $70 per student per year. Columbia Public Schools spends about $7,600 per pupil per year. $70 is less than one percent of the per pupil spending. That one percent can make a large different in students' attitudes, motivation, and learning.

Janese Heavin wrote an article about Michelle's opposition to handheld computing for the Columbia Daily Tribune titled Handheld Computers Worth the Money, Teachers Say. In contrast to the school board member, Columbia educators certainly have lots positives to say about handhelds. Though the article makes it sound like handhelds are only used for word processing, we know there are dozens of educational applications (most of them free) that really make handhelds a valuable learning tool.

Labels: palm

When you use a blogging service like Blogger, you may want to know some basic HTML codes so that your posts can contain text formatting, hyperlinks, and images. HTML codes contain a beginning tag and a closing tag that are enclosed in greater than and less than symbols.

Bold Text
To make text bold, you'll type:
I <b>really</b> love my handheld.
And this is what is displayed:
I really love me handheld.

Hyperlinked Text
To make hyperlinked text, you'll enter:
<a href="http://learninginhand.com">Tony's website</a> is helpful.
And this is what is displayed:
Tony's website is helpful.

Read Basic HTML Tags for lots more tags you could use in a blog post. If you are a Windows user, you can download the free Blogger for Word add-in. Format your entry in Word and send it to your Blogger account. Personally, I compose my blog post in Dreamweaver (the web editor I use for learninginhand.com). I then copy and paste the code generated by Dreamweaver into a new Blogger post. On the other hand, I could email that code to Blogger and my post will be made for me (this works well for blogging from a handheld). Many of these same tricks work for other blogging services as well.

Labels: blogging

The 2006 National Educational Computing Conference (NECC) is just around the corner. July 5-7 thousands of educators will meet in San Diego to attend sessions, visit vendors, and socialize.

I will be participating in a panel discussion during the Special Interest Group for Technology Coordinator's Membership Breakfast. The theme is The Role of Technology Leadership in a Changing Educational Landscape. Other panel members include David Warlick and Will Richardson. We'll be discussing blogging, podcasting, and wikis. The breakfast is from 7:30 am until 10:00 and costs $15 and will be located in SDCC 11A/B.

Also, I will be attending the Special Interest Group for Handheld Computing's (SIGHC) Annual Business Meeting in SDCC 7B. This is a great time to gather with others interested in handheld computing. The meeting is somewhat informal and will be Thursday, July 6 from 4:45 until 6:00. After the meeting, I propose that handheld (and/or podcasting) enthusiasts meet at Rock Bottom (half a mile from the convention center at 401 G Street) at 6:30 for dinner and socializing. Mike Curtis and I will be attending! If you plan to be there, please email me ASAP so we know how many to expect. With email, if there are any updates or changes, I can let you know.

I'll be blogging about what I learn at NECC. Like last year, most of my sharing will be done in the weeks after the conference. Expect lots of audio from NECC to be included in Soft Reset podcasts. Also like last year, I have orange stylus/pens to give away, so find me at NECC and ask for one.

If you plan to blog about the conference, please read David Warlick's advice about Blogging a Conference, including tagging your posts "necc06" so that people can find them easily through Technorati.

Tags: necc06 necc

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More videos about podcasting have appeared on the web and I think many educators will be interested in viewing them:

Learn Out Loud
If you are new to podcasting, check out Learn Out Loud's online video Podcasts and iTunes. The five-minute video will demonstrate accessing the iTunes podcast directory, subscribing to a podcast, and uploading a podcast to an iPod.

Room 208
Third graders in Bob Sprankle's Room 208 are very experienced podcasters. They have produced a video that shows you how they make their weekly podcast. You'll see the complete process, from the Monday planning meeting to Mr. Sprankle's Friday night editing session. You'll notice that Room 208 has very nice podcasting gear. You'll also notice that Bob incorporates great techniques for this video, including using appropriate background music, quick camera cuts, and varied camera angles.

Free CD
Remember those great videos from Apple I blogged about in March? Now Apple is offering to send you a free CD containing those videos for free. I have not yet received my CD, so I don't know if they are of higher quality than what you download online. The three videos in the series are Part I: Introduction to Podcasting, Part II: Meeting Standards with Podcasting, and Part III: An Administrator's View on Podcasting. Sign up to get the CD here.

Audacity Tutorials
Many Windows users rely on the free software Audacity to produce their recordings. Seeitdoit.tv has video tutorials for every aspect of podcasting, including audio setup, editing, sound quality, RSS, publishing, and promoting. The set of videos is $15. However, many of the complete videos can be found on Google Video for free.

Kent State's Research Center for Educational Technology has released the DVD-ROM Ubiquitous Computing: How Anytime, Anywhere, Anyone Technology Is Changing Education. The DVD is packed with nearly one gigabyte of data about ubiquitous technology.

So, what is ubiquitous computing? Ubiquitous means "ever present" or "everywhere." RCET's definition of ubiquitous learning environments is "learning environments in which all students have access to variety of digital devices and services, including devices connected to the Internet and mobile computing devices whenever and wherever they need them." And, in case you were wondering, the term ubiquitous computing was coined in 1988. I learned from the DVD that some say the first wave of computing was many people per computer. The second wave was one person per computer. The third wave is many computers per person. Ubiquitous computing addresses this third wave.

RCET's DVD-ROM has professionally narrated introductions and 36 video clips to help you understand where ubiquitous technology came from, what we know about it, and what it means for teaching and learning. The DVD has many concrete, real-world examples of ubiquitous computing. At first it might seem like a fancy word and a concept that is difficult to understand. After experiencing the DVD, you'll leave with a good sense of what it's all about.

Mark van 't Hooft, who joined us for Soft Reset #10, worked really hard on this DVD. He describes this new resource in the discussion forum. In fact, Mark has been researching ubiquitous technology in learning for years. He's now started a blog of this own, Ubiquitous Thoughts. Some of his recent posts include Ubiquitous Technology for a Global World, Cell Phones in Schools?, and Changing Teaching and Learning in Ubiquitous Computing Environments.

Although I'm certainly a fan of handheld computing, I think the idea of ubiquitous computing more accurately captures my thinking about how students are learning and how they will learn in the future. It's interesting to note that Google has 621,000 English results for handheld computing and 2,290,000 for ubiquitous computing. What does that tell you? Maybe you need to learn more by ordering the RCET's DVD-ROM! It works with Mac or Windows computers and RCET will gladly send you one free of charge.

May has come and gone, but the posts from learninginhand's Discussion Forums are still there for your reading enjoyment. Here's your monthly digest of some of what's been going on...

• Tony informs everyone that registration for the 4th Annual SuccessLink Handheld Conference in Missouri and for the Mid-Atlantic Handhelds Conference in Maryland has been extended.
• Dale shares an excellent tip for using PDA Reach and PowerPoint at the same time for presentations involving a handheld.
• Kim raves about a workshop she attended.
• Tony notes that for the first time in years, it seems Palm is not releasing new handhelds in spring. They did, however, release the Treo 700p last month.
• Wendy asks about your favorite podcasting forum.
• Dale tells us about an idea he has for a podcast segment involving tongue twisters.
• Brent continues a conversation about Mac versus Windows when it comes to podcasting.
• Rolly contributes his experience with an iRiver MP3 recorder for podcasting.
• Anna shares information about the new Where in the World podcast. She suggests that those who have or will participate in Our City Podcast also make short podcasts for Where in the World.
• Remember, the learninginhand forums have their own RSS feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/forums.

Each month a forum contributor is randomly selected to receive a pair of learninginhand stylus-pens. May's winner is Anna from Texas Congratulations and thanks to everyone who contributed to the forums last month!

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