Lightning in a Bottle

A report from the Brighthand News Team this month states that the total number of handhelds shipped worldwide dropped significantly during the first quarter of this year because of the weak economy. A study by IDC showed that worldwide handheld device shipments fell over 20% in the first quarter of 2003 when compared with the same quarter last year. Palm continues to lead the market with a 35% share, shipped 882 thousand units during the quarter, nearly double the number of its closest competitor. A statement at the end of the report concludes that handhelds have a limited appeal to the majority of consumers and enterprises.

Palm has released two new Palms that offer some interesting options for educators. The Zire 71 has a sharp, high-resolution color screen and a built-in digital camera. The Tungsten C has a built-in thumb keyboard and wireless networking. You can read more about them at Palms website at www.palm.com/us.

eSchool News has another well-done report on wireless networking in education. It does a nice job of giving an overview of the current and near-future state of wireless networking, including a comparison of the three (!) flavors of WiFi. You can read it at http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/wirelessSpec403/.

eSchool News has a nice web page on NCLB, technology, and assessment with articles and links to resources. The address is http://www.eschoolnews.com/resources/reports/nclb/index.cfm. As schools focus more and more on accountability issues, technology needs to find it’s place in both assessment and in impacting student achievement, or increasingly appear irrelevant.

Palm has just announced that they have accomplished a sevenfold breakthrough in memory for their handhelds. Palm has developed a memory technology that extends the amount of random-access memory (RAM) possible from the current 16MB to 128MB. In the future, Palms will be able to carry more images, video, music, applications and Microsoft Office documents.

There is a nice graphical presentation of how PDAs are being used throughout the educational community. Just go to the following website to see some well done graphs.

http://districtadministration.com/page.cfm?id=363

Apple has a contest for teachers using their iLife products (iMovie, iPhoto, iDVD, iTunes, iWhatever…) in the classroom. If you have created an activity or lesson plan using one or more of these products, you can find how to enter it in the competition at http://www.apple.com/education/ilifeawards/. The winner gets a Mobile Digital Media studio for their school, with 8 Powerbooks, 3 digital video cameras, as well as a cart, scanner and projector. In addition, the teacher receives a Powerbook and video camera for their own use.

The Journal of Technology, Learning and Assessment has published a research review on the impact of technology on student writing. Analyzing 26 studies over the years 1992 to 2002, the research showed positive impact on the quantity and the quality of student writing. Another interesting aspect of the data was that the older the students were, the greater the benefit.

You can access the research at http://www.bc.edu/research/intasc/jtla/journal/v2n1.shtml. (Warning - high volumes of educational research jargon!)

If you want to display PowerPoint shows from your PocketPC, the best alternative I’ve found is PocketSlides from Conduits. When you transfer your PowerPoint slideshow into PocketSlides format, it preserves transitions and animations. It also allows you to edit your slides once they are in the PDA, unlike other similar programs. It will work with the Margi Presenter-to-Go and the Voyager Colorgraphic systems for connecting to a projection system.

You can find more info at www.conduits.com. Also check out their really cool PocketArtist program for drawing and painting on your PocketPC!