Share Handhelds with MyDevice

Macintosh and Windows computers have built-in support for multiple users. This comes in handy when you have a family sharing a computer at home or students sharing a computer at school. Each user can set their own system preferences, desktop backgrounds, bookmarks, etc. In the multiple user environment the users can save their documents without others changing or deleting them.

Unfortunately, handheld operating systems don't include support for multiple users. Really, there's no need to because a handheld is a personal device—why would you share it with others? However, in education, it is often a necessity that students share handhelds. For instance, a high school teacher may have one set of handhelds to use with all five sections of her American history class. So far there has not been a good way to ensure that students do not erase or alter each other's work on shared handhelds.

Now Grant Street Software has a solution for the Palm Operating System! GSS MyDevice is an expansion card that is loaded with specialized software. It allows a student to transfer the entire contents of a Palm handheld onto the card. Once transferred, the handheld's contents are erased and ready for the next student. The next student inserts the card and with one tap on the screen, MyDevice begins to copy the contents of the card to the handheld's memory. It does take a couple of minutes to back up to the card and to restore data from the card, but I think MyDevice is a great solution to the problem of having more students than handhelds. MyDevice is available for about $33 per card in sets of 60.

Check out the data sheet sheet about GSS MyDevice to learn about "the smart way to use your shared set of handhelds."