November 2003 — Features
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Portable Technology Comes of Age
Initially, only 50% of the student teachers were excited to use the PDAs during this pilot program and only 50% expected to use them in the teaching process. There was a lot of uncertainty among the students as to their ability to learn and use the devices appropriately in such a short period of time. Many of the student teachers felt the devices were too expensive, the advantages were not sufficient and the time period of adoption too short to warrant changing the technology tools they were already using. Some resisted to the point of not using the PDAs during the course. Though, most adapted the devices for personal use and found their portability and ease of use to be desirable.
Because the participants were student teachers in an introductory course on teaching methodologies, they had no previous teaching practices and experiences to compare with those in the pilot program. Many of the student teachers struggled to see the value of handhelds in the classroom environment. At the conclusion of the course, the majority felt that handhelds offered a lot of promise for effective use in education, but they personally did not experience it. During debrief sessions, the students often struggled to identify new or novel activities or uses of the handhelds in school settings.
The student teachers in this study felt very comfortable with the use of PDAs after this experience. A majority (58%) saw the need for the classroom to be more collaborative and active, while 96% of the student teachers believed that technology, such as PDAs, has great potential for effective use in the classroom. They realized that as the instructional leaders in the classroom, they also need to be capable of appropriately using such devices; many are not yet to that point. For a lot of the student teachers, this course presented a vision of the possibilities that technology like the PDA can offer.
Reference
SRI International. 2002 "Palm Education Pioneers Program: Final Report." September. Online: www.palmgrants.sri.com.
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