December 2007 — Article
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A Handful of Learning
Educators are turning to handheld computers to bring multimedia applications such as digital movies and e-books to their students.
IN MANY CLASSROOMS, movies are a special
occasion—a tool that creative teachers intersperse with regular
lessons to supplement the everyday curriculum and
make learning fun. But at the nine school districts served by
the Monroe 2-Orleans Board of Cooperative Educational Services
(BOCES) in Spencerport, NY, movies are becoming part
of the routine, with the help of specially customized handheld
computers that are bringing students engaging instructional
math content right into the palms of their hands.
After identifying a need to improve math achievement among its middle school students, BOCES enlisted the help of K12 Handhelds, a technology integrator in Long Beach, CA, that specializes in building multimedia applications specifically for handhelds. The company created a series of mini-movies to help teach a variety of middle school-level math concepts, such as algebra, the distributive property, exponents, etc. Each movie is about five minutes long and focuses on a specific topic, giving a basic overview and typically showing a math problem being solved, much as you would see a teacher solving a problem on a whiteboard. Broken down into different levels, the movies enable teachers to differentiate instruction and teach students at their own pace.
Seaford School District's use of handheld PCs has been so successful that it led two of the district's educators to establish an annual summer conference on handheld and emerging technologies.
BOCES is at the front of a trend in K-12 that is reconsidering the capabilities of handhelds. After years of confining handhelds to the world of assessment, educators are discovering new and innovative ways to incorporate the technology into their classrooms. Movies, e-books, podcasts—you name the multimedia application, chances are students can use it on a handheld.
Perhaps most importantly, according to educators, because of the portability of handhelds and the privacy they afford, students can make use of the content whenever and wherever they desire. "One of the surprising things we observed was that when students could work privately they were more willing to take a risk," says Laura Skolny, instructional technology coordinator with BOCES' Department for Exceptional Children, adding that the devices help with the delivery of customized materials to special needs students.
"It's no secret that young people of today learn better from movies and more game-oriented environments," says Karen Fasimpaur, president of K12 Handhelds. "We're just using handhelds to react to that."
