November 2003 — Features
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Portable Technology Comes of Age
Students' recommended changes. As part of the students' final examinations, they were asked to report what things or activities should be continued during a course that uses PDAs, what things or activities should be discontinued, and what new things or activities could be added to the current offering.
The students felt that the iPAQ should be used more frequently in course assignments and activities, course material could be made available to them through beaming, and more training activities were required. In fact, the largest response to what should be changed was the suggestion to spend more time in training the students on how to use the devices. There was little agreement among all the students on what should be eliminated from the current offering.
Changes in student attitudes. Students were asked to indicate their degree of agreement (from strongly agree to strongly disagree) to statements reflecting attitudes toward the use and effectiveness of technology in the teaching and learning process. Responses on the pretest reflected a general optimism about technology in education and a strong belief in its potential. Their posttest responses remain overall positive, but show some changes as a result of using the iPAQs during the course.
Students indicated that their confidence in using electronic devices increased by 25%, their confidence in effectively using a computer or electronic device to communicate with others increased by 16%, and their confidence in using an electronic device to organize their personal learning increased by 41%. When asked if they think technological tools are critical to the improvement of the teaching and learning process, strong agreement increased by 19%. When asked if they were willing to experiment with technology to discover its capabilities, strong agreement increased by 15%.
Reflecting back on the course, 50% of the students agreed that they were excited at the beginning of the course to use the iPAQ. After using it during the course, 65% felt it was a positive experience, 41% felt their attitude toward the use of technology in the teaching and learning process was more positive because of their experience with the iPAQ, and 66% agreed that electronic devices are useful tools in the classroom. However, only 38% believed that wireless handheld devices like the iPAQ should have a place in classrooms today. More than half of the students (67%) found it easy to discover uses for the iPAQ in their personal lives, 54% agreed that technology gives each individual more control over his or her own learning, and 50% agreed that technology helps one to be more productive. On the downside, only 8% agreed that PDAs are worth the cost to purchase and maintain.
Discussion
The findings of this pilot study matched well with the conclusions from the SRI International study of teachers in the Palm Education Pioneer program. In the PEP program, practicing teachers used the PDAs as classroom educational tools for an extended period of time. In this study, prospective student teachers were first exposed to the PDA and provided some initial and limited experiences in using the PDA in a classroom environment. The students were then given the opportunity on a voluntary basis to use the PDA how they wanted for personal reasons. A comparison of results from the two studies is useful, as seen from the following outcomes.
