Winter 2002 Vol. 11 No. 1

TECHNOLOGY ADVANCEMENTS

Talk to The Hand

Students Use PalmT Handhelds for Collaborative Learning

Living in a mobile society, Universities must provide a learning environment using the latest technology to enhance the educational experience of students and the teaching experience of faculty. Handhelds provide students a quick, simple, smart and fun way to learn and communicate inside and outside of lecture halls and dormitory rooms. With thousands of applications and accessories available for handhelds, students can take notes, access writing tools such as a dictionary and thesaurus, create drawings, collect data, graph mathematical functions, manage activities and assignments. They also can instantly beam messages to their friends, send and receive emails and access the Internet wirelessly. PalmT developers have created approximately 500 education-specific applications and accessories for students and faculty.

Mike Lorion, Palm's vice president of education, said, "In the mid-1980s Dartmouth, Princeton, Stanford and other top universities made significant investments that led to the widespread adoption of personal computing technology on campuses around the world. Today, PalmT handhelds are a great match for students because they epitomize their mobile lifestyle."

Palm's mobile technology enables universities the chance to extend learning beyond the walls of classrooms. Handhelds can be loaded with applications, such as financial calculators, reference books, literature books, coursework organizers and word processors. Another advantage is that handhelds considerably lighten the 20-pound backpack that the typical student lugs around.

Committed to exploring innovative uses of technology, Penn State Abington, located in the Philadelphia suburb of Abington, PA, first provided Palm IIIxT handhelds to students enrolled in one of its Information Sciences and Technology (IST) and engineering classes in the fall of 1999. Today, Palm handhelds are incorporated into the curriculum of several academic programs and activities.

"Palm handhelds, enabled our students to learn new ways to organize, share and make use of data using one of today's hottest new technologies," said Bob Avanzato, associate professor of engineering. "They're also enhancing their problem solving abilities and are much better prepared to enter today's increasingly technology-oriented workplace."

About Palm, Inc. Palm, Inc. is a pioneer in the field of mobile and wireless Internet solutions and a leading provider of handheld computers. Palm OS(R) platform, gives handheld solutions that allow people to carry and access their most critical information with them wherever they go. Palm handhelds address the needs of individuals, enterprises and educational institutions through thousands of application solutions. The Palm OS platform is also the foundation for products from Palm's licensees and strategic partners, such as Franklin Covey, Handspring, IBM, Kyocera, Sony, Symbol Technologies, and HandEra (formerly TRG). Platform licensees also include Nokia and Samsung. The Palm Economy is a growing global community of industry-leading licensees, world-class OEM customers, and approximately 150,000 innovative developers and solution providers that have registered to develop solutions based on the Palm OS platform.

The campus offers a number of courses, which explore practical applications of technology:

The IST program covers networking, databases, emerging technologies, the Internet and e-commerce concepts. Students use their Palm handhelds as a personal organizer for scheduling classes and taking notes. They take electronic quizzes with the devices and beam the results back to the teacher with the infrared beaming function. Moreover, they are downloading course-related materials from Web sites using AvantGo, a Web-based service that allows users to retrieve course-related e-magazines, download jpeg files and access Web-site content for off-line viewing. They are also developing databases for project work and new ideas for commercially feasible Palm applications.

Engineering students are now working in teams to explore further ways to use the Palm handheld in circuit design, programming, and robotics. Last spring engineering students attending the Pennsylvania Governor's School for Information Technology at the Penn State University Park campus experimented with a Palm handheld to develop and operate a Palm-controlled mobile robot. They also demonstrated it at the National Governors Association conference banquet held in July 2000. By using handhelds to design and command robots the students gained a better appreciation of how the handhelds can be used for almost everything from manufacturing to exploration.

"Students have found the Palm handheld an enormous boost to their learning experience," said Bob Avanzato, associate professor of engineering at Penn State Abington. "The Palm handheld system is truly a powerful instructional resource for both the students and the teacher."