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Order your subscription now at http://chronicle.com/4free?es _________________________________________________________________ From the issue dated October 11, 2002 Are Personal Digital Assistants the Next Must-Have Tool? By SCOTT CARLSON Last year, the University of South Dakota started requiring its freshmen to bring Palm hand-held computers to class, along with their notebooks and texts. Josh Carr was part of that first Palm-equipped group, though he says he didn't use the device much in class. He loaded his class schedule onto the machine and noted his exam times. And, new to the university, he used a campus map that the Palm came with, which showed the locations and phone numbers of his professors. It also came with the names and numbers of hangouts in Vermillion, he says. "For example, it has the number to Pizza Hut." But now Mr. Carr uses his Palm for studying all the time. He downloads his biology professor's lecture outlines onto the Palm, and his psychology professor has written a number of practice quizzes for use on the device. "You can take these quizzes anytime you want, and it helps you study for the test," Mr. Carr says. He could represent a new kind of student, one who taps essential class notes not into a laptop, but into a small hand-held device. Is the personal digital assistant, or PDA, poised to be the new technological darling on campuses? It is generating a buzz among some administrators, who are buying into using PDA's for selected classes or departments at their universities. But elsewhere, administrators and faculty members are skeptical about whether these devices can be effectively used as teaching tools, instead of just as digitized calendars and phone books. Although PDA's are making themselves genuinely useful in disciplines such as medicine, they have yet to catch on in most undergraduate programs. The small size of the hand-held devices has been an attractive feature for educators, who say that such machines are less disruptive to classes and easier on students' backs than are laptops. But with those small sizes come limited functions, which have been a frustration to some students, especially those who have been required to shell out money to buy PDA's but also want larger computers. More Capabilities Among professionals, PDA's are popular for storing phone numbers and addresses, keeping track of schedules and expense reports, checking e-mail, or playing quiet games of digital solitaire. But PDA's, which range in price from $100 to $500, have been expanding with various add-ons and extra software. For example, folding keyboards, available through PDA manufacturers, can turn a PDA into a miniature word processor. A Web site called Healthy PalmPilot offers software, like acupuncture charts and Spanish medical terms, for nurses and doctors. A company called Data Harvest Educational manufactures paraphernalia such as temperature gauges and heart-rate monitors that can be attached to a PDA. Many of the devices now come with wireless modems built in, so they can connect instantly to college networks. And almost all have infrared ports that let users beam data from one PDA to another. So far, however, good educational software for PDA's is in short supply, campus-computing experts say. But a handful of professors and college technology administrators are writing programs for the devices. At Wake Forest University, for example, programmers are working on software that would let professors use their PDA's to control PowerPoint presentations, turn on VCR's from across the room, and quiz students on course material. The devices are used in many medical schools because medical software made especially for PDA's is widely available. Students in Samford University's pharmacy school are using Palm hand-held computers to take notes in class and check medical references. Students at Florida State University's College of Medicine use Palms to compare interactions of prescription drugs in patients. Dozens of colleges have started to incorporate, and in some cases require, such tools in other disciplines, too. Drexel University has installed a wireless Web service that allows students to pick up class schedules, grades, and campus news on their PDA's. Stanford University law students are participating in a study, supported by West Publishing, that examines the effectiveness of putting legal-study materials on PDA's. Marketing students at Bentley College have used their PDA's as clipboards during market-research assignments. Dartmouth College, the University of Iowa's business college, and Duke and Brigham Young Universities all require students to have hand-held devices for some classes. Wide Usage The University of South Dakota, now in its second year of requiring freshmen to purchase Palms, has the most ambitious PDA usage. Professors have incorporated students' Palms into many disciplines. Music professors have used the devices for pitch-training. High-school students, with guidance from students in the university's education program, have added attachments to the Palms that measure acidity in rivers and streams. A media-studies professor has instructed students to store news clips on the PDA's to show them to, and trade them with, other students in class. Douglas A. Peterson, an assistant professor of psychology at the university, offered class topics, schedules, practice quizzes, and syllabuses in formats that were compatible with the students' PDA's. The schedules he built tripped alarms on the PDA's that reminded students of forthcoming exams. He found that the scores of his students who used the devices were higher than students who did not. Donald C. Dahlin, the acting president of the university, hopes to see more such personal-digital-assistant use in the classroom. He says South Dakota's program is an experiment that began modestly, with professors merely putting syllabuses and course materials on the PDA's. "We sat around confidently saying, Well, we don't know all of the PDA's uses, but because students are so technology-savvy, they'll be coming up with uses that we never dreamed of," Mr. Dahlin says, but that turned out not to be the case. "I think this is fairly new technology for the students, too." Progress in the program is important, he says, because it has cost both students and the university a fair amount of money. Last year and again this year, the university purchased more than 1,000 high-end Palms that sell for $200 to $400, and then sold them to students for $150 each. A university foundation also kicked in $75,000 for new servers and for "sync" stations -- places where Palm users can synchronize, download, or upload data. A 'Bothersome' Requirement Although the PDA has been good to Mr. Carr, not everyone has been pleased. "When I heard USD students used Palms, I assumed they would be free," says Megan Zimmerman, a freshman. "Students already have to buy books, tuition, and room and board, and for those of us not getting help from our parents, paying an extra $150 for something I would not otherwise buy is somewhat bothersome." She says that only one of her professors makes use of the machine, and that the rest of the time she could get by with a $3 day planner. Lance W. Andrews, a senior who is a psychology major at South Dakota, got a Palm from the university because he worked as an orientation leader on campus. As an upperclassman with a hectic schedule, he has made extensive use of his PDA's calendar features and has used the infrared ports on the hand-held device to transfer files to and from his professors. But freshmen and sophomores make little use of the machines, he says. "When the students received them, it was like Christmas. They were very excited, but I think they were more excited to start beaming games to each other, rather than take a practice quiz." The university is convening a committee that will evaluate the costs and benefits of using PDA's. So far, the institution has been sufficiently happy with the devices to require next year's freshmen to buy them, although the university will not subsidize the purchases this time. "The early indications are that this is making a difference and that it does have potential," Mr. Dahlin says, "but I don't think we're anywhere near the potential yet." There has also been cautious enthusiasm about PDA's at the University of Minnesota at Duluth. The college is in its second year of requiring all engineering students to own Compaq iPAQ's, which the engineering school settled on after the students opposed a proposal that would have required them to purchase laptops. Students pay a total of $800 over four semesters for the devices, which run a miniature version of Windows and have wireless connections to the university's network. Students have used the devices, which users say are more sophisticated than Palms, to download and move technical drawings, run spreadsheets, compute equations on a graphing-calculator program, and take pop quizzes in class. Over the past year, the university has put $70,000 into PDA training for professors. The iPAQ's have demonstrated some benefits. Compared with laptops, the PDA's are easier to tote around and less obtrusive in class. "There's a real barrier with those laptops open, with that black rectangle in front of everybody," says James P. Riehl, the dean of the college of science and engineering at the university. And the PDA's have saved work for the professors. James Alert, a computer-science professor, was initially dubious, but soon found them useful. In the past, when students had a problem with a concept in class, he would draw diagrams he had sketched a hundred times before. "Now, bang -- I drag out the Pocket PC and we can look at a simulation, we can feed it numbers, we can go over it," he says. "I view it as being able to rip off a piece of your computer and take it with you." Limited Power But the devices' small screens and limited power have been frustrating. This year, after some complaints from students, the department will allow 50 of the 250 students to buy laptops instead of PDA's. "We never intended these things to replace a computer," Mr. Riehl says. But students are already pressed for cash, and the university is reviewing the use of PDA's with that in mind. "I know that many institutions are rethinking their technology programs because of the high tuition that we have students pay. That's a consideration that we're concerned about." Major PDA manufacturers like Palm, Handspring, and Compaq have courted colleges with offers to set up educational programs, and with deals on bulk buys. Stories about the use of hand-held devices in the classroom are a major part of the manufacturers' marketing efforts on their Web sites. But Kenneth C. Green, the director of the Campus Computing Project, who tracks the use of technology in education, says that, in higher education, "it has not captured critical mass yet, and I think there are important reasons to understand why." "You need a bigger screen or fuller functionality in the campus environment. The PDA has not yet emerged as a competitive substitute" for the laptop. And the price has been a deterrent. "While it is true that there are some cheap PDA's, the midrange and more expensive ones run in the high $300s to $500s," Mr. Green says. "When you compare it to a notebook computer that starts at $1,000, it is not a winning comparison on the PDA side." This fall, Mr. Green says, computer companies plan to release tablet computers that will reportedly have some of the features of the PDA, like the ability to recognize handwriting, but with a larger screen. But others see potential in the current range of devices. Jeremy Roschelle is a senior cognitive scientist who studies technology and learning at SRI International, a nonprofit technology-research firm. He says new PDA applications for the classroom may make all the difference. "There is a danger in evaluating it based on inappropriate software -- that we may see it as a fad and miss it as something that doesn't work. There could be impacts if we use the right software." He mentions, as an example, instant-polling programs that are being loaded into PDA's at various colleges. With the program, the instructor can toss out a pop-quiz question and tell students to answer it on the PDA. Through the classroom's wireless network, the instructor instantly gets a sense of how many, and which, of his students understand the material. The instructor can redirect the lecture based on that information. Rajit Gadh, a professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at the University of California at Los Angeles, believes the PDA can make a difference not only in courses but in students' broader college experience. "Outside of class, the student is part of a community, and this is a personal-communication tool," says Mr. Gadh. He has ordered PDA's manufactured by Hewlett-Packard for his students to play with, in class and elsewhere. He says he hopes that the students will come up with interesting new software, such as a program that can orient a person on a campus map. "In the end, I think the in-class applications are going to be a small subset of what students will do outside of class." _________________________________________________________________ You may visit The Chronicle as follows: http://chronicle.com _________________________________________________________________ Copyright 2002 by The Chronicle of Higher Education