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The Model PDA Classroom

Imagine a classroom, empty except for a teacher standing by the open doorway. The bell rings and students begin to filter in steadily. Each one is not encumbered by a heavy load of books, paper, and other school supplies, but instead carries a single electronic device no larger than a piece of bread. No other articles are necessary on the typical day.

This is a traditional classroom, having about thirty desks arranged in a grid pattern. But the desks are anything but traditional; each has gadgetry embedded into it's surface. At the one corner is a small docking station, designed to receive the digital school materials the children have brought. At another corner is a small infrared receiver, able to handle simple data transfers without actually docking the machine. Though the desktop is otherwise smooth, a panel maybe lifted from the center to reveal a keyboard, which contains another interface for physically coupling the personal digital assistants while using the keys to type commands or enter data.

As each student enters, they remove their PDA's from protective covers and place them into the cradles at the corner of each of their desks, and then hit a button to begin the transfer process. It doesn't matter which desk they choose, information is exchanged between handheld device and a master server elsewhere in the building. Since they do this process, called "syncing", every day, there is no disruption in the class.

During syncing, each student's device is engaged in a massive data exchange. Homework assignments from the night before are uploaded to the server, and new ones are downloaded to the devices. Diagnostic tests for the class and those intended for later review are downloaded to the device. Email messages which are waiting to be read are downloaded to the device, and those composed the night before are uploaded to the server and sent to their recipients. New calendar appointments are exchanged; both the student's plans for upcoming weeks and the teachers dates for tests and projects. Checklists for ongoing projects are updated, minor messages are exchanged, and even new software programs are downloaded to the device. All of this completes within a few minutes, for most students, even before the tardy bell has rung.

Class begins and the teacher addresses the students. "Today," he tells them, "we are going to discuss some basic electrical principles. Let's start with the pretest." Again, the students are familiar with this assessment process, and they pick up their PDA's off of the cradles and find them automatically running a software program designed to gauge their understanding of some content matireal. Like Jim Minstrel's Diagnoser, this software asks a series of multiple choice questions, basing each question and the responses to each question on past performance. When teachers review this, they can more easily understand the student's misconceptions and modify their instruction accordingly.

The students finish their pretests, and sync again to upload their responses. This sync takes only a few seconds, as very little data has been changed on the PDAs. The teacher can check a display screen to see which students at which desks have finished the pretest. Some work on other assignments from other classes while they wait; this is no more distracting because they are simply using the PDA in the same way as they did while taking the test.

"Now it's time to begin a lab", the teacher tells the students, seeing that everyone has finished. The students check their devices and see that they each have been assigned to groups. One member of each group has a notice that indicates their PDA was loaded with special driver software during the very first syncing. The teacher gives each of these students a special attachment for their PDA which turns it into a digital multimeter. He also gives the students a box with batteries, switches, wires, clips, lightbulbs, and other basic electrical components.

"Play with these toys and see what you can discover," the teacher tells the class. "If you have questions, check your devices and to get hints." The students set to work, using the PDA's together to examine the topic at hand. About a minute before the bell rings to dismiss the class, the teacher asks the students to return their materials and sync one last time. He does not need to waste class time announcing the homework assignment because he has already sent each of the students an email explaining how they will be required to type up their observations and submit them the next day.

That night, the students, each of which has their own PDA keyboard at home, read the assignment and construct their responses, on the device. They know that they will turn it in the next day automatically, and only need to remember to bring their PDA, like they do every day.

Robby Slaughter