Kansas Schools Order Another 2,300 Palm's
July 17, 2006 | by Matt Aalto
Students and teachers at the Olathe Unified School District in Olathe, Kansas will get access to another 2,300 Palm Handhelds as the school district beefs up their arsenal.
While some school districts in the US are dealing with record budget cuts, the students and teachers in the Olathe Unified School District in Olathe, Kansas get another 2,300 Palm handhelds to play with thanks to a recent purchase. Today's purchase of the new Palm TX PDA's now doubles the school district's current inventory. The Olathe Unified School District is considered one of the most technologically progressive school districts in the state.
"Olathe Northwest was a brand-new school when we started our handheld program, and we wanted to provide some kind of one-to-one access to technology," said Rita Lyon, executive director of technology for the district. "The cost of laptops was out of our reach, but Palm's handhelds justified the cost. We will continue to expand the program in order to provide either one-to-one access or classroom sets of handhelds to all four high schools in the district."
"We are planning to have Wi-Fi access throughout our campuses, so it won't be too long until students have access to information anytime, anywhere in the buildings," said Lyon. "Most other Wi-Fi enabled products are out of our price range, but the Palm TX plus the keyboards purchased under Palm's Education Purchase Plan offer us an affordable solution and a way to place the technology into more classrooms and into the hands of many more students."
Lyons said that some students are given access to the new handhelds 24 hours a day, seven days a week while other students will only be able to use them in the classrooms. So what exactly will the new handhelds be used for? Lyons explains that the new PDAs will be used for word processing, spreadsheets, and presentations as well as for access to eBooks and other high-value applications.
Now we just need to convince the school administration that iPods are needed in the classroom and we will be all set.
Post Your Comment...Comments
Tony on Jul 18th, 2006 at 8:21 AM:
Actually, this is a fantastic idea! Schools around the country are using handhelds (Palm and Pocket PC) as a learning tool. Not only great for word processing (with a keyboard), but there are dozens of great (and many of them are free) software programs for teachers and students. There is even scientifically based research showing that students using handhelds are learning better: http://goknow.com/sbr/
Schools are not finding lost or stolen handhelds to be a problem. Students really do take care of their handhelds because they are very personal learning devices. And, as for cheating, good classroom management can curb that. Plus, handhelds are not usually allowed to be out during tests, so it's not a big concern.
Ian Bell on Jul 18th, 2006 at 8:28 AM:
I can see both points actually. I think it's great to introduce technology into the classroom, as long as it's being put to good use. I like the idea of being able to download eBooks etc, but I do not buy that people are using them for spreadsheets or word processing.
As for stealing, I assume that the teachers are using a method in which students must "check out" the PDA for use and return it at a specified time.
It's nice to see a school district invest in their schools, it's all too often that you hear about budget cuts, layoffs etc.
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Barry on Jul 17th, 2006 at 4:02 PM:
This is the dumbest purchase I have ever seen. Obviously this chic has the hots for the Palm salesman, why else would they spend money on these? Talk about a liability too! It will let kids cheat more without getting caught and I am sure some of them will be stolen too.