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' There is no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home. ' - Kenneth H. Olson, President of DEC, Convention of the World Future Society, 1977
The East Riding of Yorkshire School Improvement Service launched
an innovative new Project in New Pasture Lane Primary School in
Bridlington on Thursday 7th March 2002.
The Project is sponsored by the Palm Inc. manufacturers of handheld
computers, and funded by the East Riding of Yorkshire School Improvement
Service.
Background Information
Key Stage Two pupils use handheld Palm computers in a range of
lessons.
The computers allow pupils to input ideas by writing on the screen,
using folding keyboards and it is even possible to record sounds
and images and measurements with add on devices.
The Palms allow the pupils to work on word processing and spreadsheets
documents and then download their work to individual folders on the school intranet.
The teacher can beam documents to the pupils from their own Palm
handheld by infrared transfer, and pupils can hand work in by beaming
them back!
Feedback from pupils
" It helps me to do my work. "
" It's easier to be organised and you don't loose your pens and paper. "
" It helps with the words because I can check my spellings. "
" We can share our ideas by beaming them around the class. "
" We can improve our ideas by sharing them when we beam them to each other. "
" It helps me when I go into the computer room because my typing is much better. "
Many pupils are restricted in their use of computers by the speed
at which they can type, the Palm handhelds allow pupils to write
on the screen to record their ideas and the computer converts the
writing into text or numbers.
Palm screen shot |
The handheld computers also significantly increase the ratio of
computers to pupils in the school allowing more access to learning
through ICT.
The main objective of the project was to explore the potential
uses of PDAs with primary pupils.
Read on to find out about the types of activities that
were undertaken by pupils aged 7 to 11 years old.
Examples from the Classroom
Launch Day - The emulator software was used to
project a large image of the Palm.
Using emulator software |
This enabled children to interact with the new equipment and to
have a visual representation of the operating system that they were
being introduced to.
Initially a group of seven pupils worked together.
After an hour of structured activities the children were confident
to explain what they had learned to other classmates.
The orginal group acted as experts and were able to introduce the
Palms to other pupils from the class.
1. Introduction to Palms - (Y6: science link)
Using 'Graffiti' |
Many of the activities are designed to promote cooperative working.
Some of first things that the children learned were:
- to turn Palms on/off
- navigate home screen
- create a new memo
- beam a memo
- use cut/copy/paste in a memo
- use the onscreen keyboard
(see lesson
documents below).
2. Science activity - recording predictions (Y4)
The objective of the lesson was for children to record their predictions
about which rock they thought was going to the hardest and most
permeable (see lesson documents below).
3. History activity - Roman gods and goddesses (Y4)
The objective of the lesson was for the children to research and record information about Roman gods and goddesses (see lesson documents below).
4. History activity - Boudicca (Y3/4)
The objective of the lesson was for the children to research the
facts about Boudicca's revolt and use the information for a class
debate about her motives (see lesson documents below).
5. Literacy activity - Poetry (y5.6)
The pdf file outlines a literacy lesson for year 5/6 children where
the palms were used to reniforce literacy learning objectives.
6.Numeracy activity - creating graphs from a spreadsheet
(Y3/4)
The objective of the lesson was for the children to input data
they had collected into a spreadsheet and then use it produce
graphs (see lesson documents below).
7. Literacy activity - opposite adjectives (Y4)
The objective of the lesson was to use a dictionary and thesaurus
to find pairs of opposite adjectives (see lesson documents below)..
8. History - Tudors (Y3/4)
The objective of the lesson was to agree adjectives that describe Henry viii and to identify evidence to support suggestions (see lesson documents below).
During the project we found that PDAs can be used to enhance
the learning environment in the following ways:
- promoting collaboration
- developing the exchange of ideas e.g. beaming information,
ideas and responses between PDAs
providing immediate and engaging
resources to support learning
- promoting personal responsibility
through the use of these expensive and innovative resources
- stimulating
questions through a range of interactive resources
- developing an
understanding of the changing and portable nature of information
-
integrating ICT within the learning process
Some of the pitfalls we
encountered were:
- limited success of folding keyboards
- occasional
faulty displays affecting ability for pupils to input information
- Portable nature of the stylus results in loss of essential equipment
The success of the project is dependent on good in-school ICT support
for the up keep of PDA resources.
Below are two files used in conjunction with Palms for
a training session to introduce PDAs to primary ICT Coordinators.
To find out more about PDAs in education look
up the document below provided by BECTa www.ictadvice.org.uk/downloads/whatis/handheldcomputers_tech.doc
Some additional resources
Giraffe is a fun way to practise Graffiti writing downloadable from http://www.palm.com/support/downloads/3csoftware.html
A wealth of resources are available from www.handheld.hice-dev.org/
Click here to access the website of the project
school.
If you email the school regarding the project please put palm project
in the subject line of your email. www.newpast.eril.net
Further details are available from:
Lynn Kelsey, Teaching and Learning Consultant, ICT
Tel: (01482) 392497
email 1: lynn.kelsey@eastriding.gov.uk
email 2: primary.ict@eastriding.gov.uk
Lynn Kelsey, Teaching and Learning Consultant, Primary ICT
Tel: (01482) 392497
email: lynn.kelsey@eastriding.gov.uk
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DLC ICT Newsletter Autumn 2009
