I still have the slide rule with leather case that I dangled from my belt in George Phillip's advanced math class, my daughter still has the graphic TI calculator that she used at Meigs Magnet School, and my son carries a small camphone in his shirt pocket loaded with more RAM than an Apollo mission landing craft. Those appliances improved the quality of life for my familily members and generally meant an expenditure of less than $100.
So, what is the icon of the current generation of school children? Recent articles seem to point to the PDA (Personal Digital Assistant). Small, powerful, and around $200.
An April 16, 2004 story in the
Valdosta Daily Times Lowndes Middle Students Using PDA's in the cCassroom talks about a relatively low investment amount, training for teachers, and a host of benefits:
"The most exciting possibility with the hand-held computers is the student's ability to immediately transmit questions to their teacher's laptop and receive instant feedback."
Seventh-grade student Morgan Harris said, "They are really cool and allow you to take notes on them as well as beam questions and answers to the teacher. I think those hand-held computers would be a wonderful experience for all students."
"The benefits for teachers include generating reports on student progress, planning, developing and implementing lesson plans, correcting student papers on site, and communicating effectively with students and their parents. Another benefit of using hand-held computers is that they tend to improve students motivation to write."
