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February 15, 2002
A Report Card on Handheld Computing (cont'd)
Beaming: Ups and Downs
Even critics of the handheld will concede that the devices are useful educational tools for taking notes on the fly, graphing data, and even viewing multimedia clips. However, an additional feature, one that will surely have education applications not yet foreseen at this stage, is its infrared capacity, which allows users to "beam" all kinds of information-drawings, data, even applications-to each other without having to download and print out or send via e-mail.
Beaming happens when two Palm or Pocket PC users point their devices toward one another. One then selects an item to send-for instance, a digital photo-and, depending on the type of device, clicks a button or taps a "send" icon. The file is then sent to the other device via infrared light beams (hence the term). It's quick and easy to do, and the teachers interviewed for this article credited beaming with specific gains in student writing skills. "Kids enjoy sharing their work with one another," says Janine Kopera, a third-grade teacher at Mead Elementary School in Allen Park, Mich. "They beam it to a partner, who reads it and responds, then beams it back. The feedback loop is very motivating." A Center for Children and Technology study, commissioned by wireless computing provider Mindsurf Networks, seems to bear out this observation. CCT found that 88 percent of teachers at Mindsurf pilot sites reported that student writing quality had improved.
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| Third-graders at the Mead Elementary School in Allen Park, Mich., take advantage of handhelds' "beaming" cpabilities to share writing assignments. |
Elliot Soloway, a professor at the University of Michigan who heads up Hi-CE's development efforts, has helped to create applications that take advantage of handheld computers' beaming capabilities. (To learn more about one such application, "Cooties," see "A Palm Learning Unit for Middle School" at left.) Soloway believes that enabling collaboration may be the greatest use of beaming for schools. "Beaming fosters collaboration in a variety of ways," he says. "For instance, students working in groups might each take one aspect of a project, complete it, and then beam their work to their partners to look at. We've also seen that kids write tons more than usual with handhelds. They can then beam their work to partners, get feedback, and revise. This kind of sharing is highly motivating, and it's built right into the device."
Despite its recognition as a time-saver and motivator for students, beaming is also one of the more controversial aspects of handhelds for schools. Soloway recounts how the devices had been banned in one school after a student had downloaded an application that let him use the Palm as a television channel clicker, and was disrupting instruction by changing channels on monitors during class. Other schools have complained that students use handhelds to play games and send personal e-mail during class time.
While such creative mischief can be annoying, more troubling is the potential for electronically enabled cheating. "This is an understandable concern," says Ray Rose, vice president of The Concord Consortium. "But teachers need to realize that it's not that easy to beam things. It requires line-of-sight alignment, for one thing, and the range is fairly limited."
Unfortunately, the beaming transport can also slow down practical tasks: for example, printing. When 30 kids all try at once to print handheld-created documents by synching up to a classroom PC or beaming to a printer outfitted with an infrared port (the two options available), the logistical problems become clear.
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