Lightning in a Bottle

This article from eSchool News is about the initiative from the feds to fund research on the impact of educational technology:

http://www.eschoolnews.org/news/ssunreg.cfm?ArticleID=4148&ul=%2Fnews%2FshowStory%2Ecfm%3FArticleID%3D4148

A high school student in California hacked into the grading system of his school. The twist here is that it was part of a research project, and he had permission to try. It turned out the password was the secretary’s first name (d’oh!), so it wasn’t too hard. You can read the whole story here:

http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/internet/12/17/student.hack/index.html

The Gartner Group has published an interesting report on future trends that includes discussion of new types of low-cost, durable computer displays. I think it has very interesting implications for educational applications. You can read it at :

http://techupdate.zdnet.com/techupdate/stories/main/0,14179,2901050-1,00.html

I have provided a document listing 15 Palm programs. These have been around for awhile. There are more coming out weekly. There are now a total of over 22,000 programs that run under the Palm OS. Many are free. Keep coming back to this Weblog and you will be continuously provided with information about new programs that run on Palm OS devices.

Download file

Evaluation studies are showing that handheld computers can offer unique benefits to teachers and students. Students can have a personal, portable device ready at-hand for individual and collaborative learning activities, whereever they go. Students can use handhelds for such things as collecting data in the field, learning vocabulary words while waiting to be picked up after basketball practice, or to self quiz during a long car ride. Teachers are finding handhelds to be effective instructional tools. It appears as if teachers feel handhelds are more easily used in the “flow of classroom activities” than desktop computers.

If you are using or are thinking of using handhelds to support your personal or your student’s life-long learning goals, I suggest coming back often to read materials presented in this weblog thread.