Projects - Palm Network Research - Article

Connections: The Last Hardware Hurdle

Almost all of the physical characteristics, capabilities, and features of Palm-compatible PDAs meet the requirements educational technology pundits have sought for years. These devices are small, portable, and inexpensive, yet powerful and extremely utilitarian. They can potentially supplant calculators, probe and sensor equipment, and even many of the functions of full laptop or desktop computers. But unlike their bulkier counterparts, handheld computers lack a versatile method of making connections. Unfortunately, Palms are not yet part of the network.

Like many oversights, this aspect of handheld computing was primarily an original design goal. Palm Pilots and other competing devices enable users to extend their desktop, personal information, contacts, documents, and email to a portable device. An occasional marriage through a physical wire allows handhelds to retrieve only the essential data from the user's primary computer, through a process called synchronization. When PDA and PC are "synched", any information common to both is identical. As users make changes, subsequent synchronizations update desktop or handheld respectively, keeping data up-to-date, backed-up, and allowing a sort of virtual access to the PC while away from the home or office.

This model, while fantastic for employees or private individuals, fails in principle and in practice in the classroom. Student information needs synchronized regularly, so assignments can be completed away from school and important materials are always accessible. Student information, however, isn't quite personal. Teachers need access for grading and distribution of resources, and while a computer network could make this data centrally accessible, without authoritarian standards or centrally-managed machines such an approach would be unreliable. Furthermore, there has been no money saved nor equity issues addressed if every student must own or access a personal computer to synchronize their personal digital assistant. Without a developmental change, Palms and competing devices lack the critical mass necessary to truly impact education.

As is often the case with optimization problems in information technology, the answer is the client-server network. Instead of synchronizing individual Palms to individual computers, synchronize an entire classroom of devices to a single machine. The technical challenge lies in performing this mass synchronization simultaneously. Once student devices are merely extensions of one large data resource instead of individual snippets of personal information stored on disparate machines, teachers can easily distribute, collect, and administer all student information and activities through this network.

Many of the applications for technology in schools become instantly feasible through PDA networking. Electronic textbooks and other writings, which are available on handhelds but are usually a pain to distribute, could be circulated through synchronization. Students will only need to retain the current chapters under discussion, and updates for corrections, errata, or new developments will not require an additional printing and subsequent high costs to the district. Students may make annotations or answer questions about their readings, none of which will permanently mar these texts but will be readily accessible to their teachers for review and feedback. Assessment mechanisms can truly automate the old paper-and-pencil approach. Distribute a quiz or test electronically through synchronization, and after completing their work, student answers can be instantly uploaded and sometimes automatically graded through a second synchronization. Educational software, such as drivers to enable PDA attachments, calculation tools, study aides, curriculum guides, and other learning facilitation packages may be "handed out" and the resulting student performance "picked up" in the same fashion. And synchronization can perform routine administrative tasks, such as determining which students are in attendance and providing aggregate data to students and teachers regarding grades and discipline.

The traditional functions of personal digital assistants also expand through networking. Teachers and administrators can now place important events on a students' calendar, such as upcoming tests, project due dates, and school activities. Teachers can add items to a students' to-do list, and can even uncheck a particular task if they feel it still needs additional work! And perhaps most incredibly, synchronization gives every student access to e-mail, automatically sending and receiving messages with each electronic round trip to the server. Students who bring their devices home can carry along messages, so even teacher and parent can communicate asynchronously through the handheld device.

Synchronization becomes the method for making assignments, collecting work, and providing resources. It enables communication between students, parents, and teachers. It accelerates or alleviates administrative headaches, making attendance, gradebooks, and student record keeping simpler, or in some cases, wholly invisible. It addresses equity concerns by providing everyone with a connected, semi-internet capable computer. And when PDAs go totally wireless, able to chatter through the ether with Bluetooth or 802.11b or a similar technology, synchronization will only become more effective.

The future is clear. Network synchronization is the last hardware hurdle for handheld computers in education.

Robby Slaughter