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Definition:

Handhelds are portable pocket-sized computing devices. Handhelds can come in numerous different forms. The most common handhelds are Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), phones, Personal Navigation Devices (PNDs), pocket computers, game consoles, graphing calculators, and handheld PCs.

Brief History:

Handheld devices have been around since the early 80s. The most primitive handheld is the pocket computer. Pocket computers are calculator-sized computing devices that operate very basically. Examples of pocket computers are digital language translators, digital dictionaries/thesauruses, digital address books, etc. Pocket computers led to the invention of highly-developed graphing calculators, which are able to do advanced calculations, sort data, make charts/tables, and plot graphs.

Expanding on the capabilities of pocket computers, Jeff Hawkins, Donna Dubinsky, and Ed Colligan founded Palm Computing, which developed the world's first Personal Digital Assistant in 1996. At the time, the trio was looking to create a handwriting recognition software - called Graffiti - but they decided they could create a portable hardware device in the midst of their experimentation. The first PDA was called a Palm Pilot (a name that is usually associated with other PDA devices not even manufactured by Palm Computing). The original Palm Pilot had no backlight, no infrared port, and no flash memory, but it did have a serial communication port, a 128 kB RAM size, and a touchscreen.

Eventually PDAs were merged with other devices, most commonly phones. The first widely-manufactured phone with PDA capabilities was the BlackBerry. Invented in 2002, the BlackBerry not only acted as a portable phone, but it also performed the functions of a PDA, had a touchscreen, and was able to remotely connect with an internet browser.

Recently, PDA devices have developed enormously. Now, almost every PDA has a color screen, can store and play MP3 files, can store pictures and other data, are merged with smartphones, have Bluetooth capability, have cameras, have GPS abilities, and many act as hard drives for computers via USB cables.

Educational Value:

Handheld devices have many uses and purposes. There are programs, such as Quizzler, MathAce, and Plucker, that can be downloaded to handhelds for classroom and educational purposes. Quizzler is an application where the teacher can make true/false or multiple choice quizzes for formal assessment or use flashcards for practice and studying tools. MathAce is a program with basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division problems. Plucker is an application where the teacher can Webclip without being on the Internet and it allows students to do research, practice reading, or find literature. For educational purposes, handheld devices can be used for administrative purposes, for communication and collaboration, and for teaching and learning purposes. Here are a few examples of how handhelds can be used and be beneficial within a classroom setting:

Administrative Purposes
  1. Keep schedule.
  2. Keep emergency procedures and checklists.
  3. Take attendance.
  4. Record and tabulate grades.
  5. Store and access lesson plans.
  6. Organize reading lists.
  7. Use calculators.
  8. Conduct authentic assessment.
Communication and Collaborative Purposes
  1. Send an email.
  2. Make a presentation.
  3. Distribute school activities information to students and parents.
  4. Record voice notes.
  5. Take online courses.
  6. Send/receive fax
  7. Conduct group writing activities.
  8. Access online educational events and news.
Teaching and Learning Purposes
  1. Make a spreadsheet.
  2. Read an ebook.
  3. Form, visualize, and solve equations.
  4. Study and compose music.
  5. Record observations on a field trip.
  6. View and use maps.
  7. Keep a journal.
  8. Create a timeline.

Key features of the handheld:

  1. Make appointments
  2. Add reminders with your appointment
  3. Make daily plans
  4. Make monthly plans (pay bills)
  5. Organize your monthly expenses
  6. Make notes to yourself
  7. Know what time it is around the world
  8. Personalize handheld
  9. Make contact list that include
    1. Phone Numbers
    2. Email Addresses
    3. Street Addresses
  10. Listen to Music while working out
  11. Use Calculator to figure out tips
  12. Use as a cell phone
  13. Store photo albums
  14. Synchronize Handheld to computer
  15. Transfer information back and forth from computer to handheld
How to use the Handhelds infront of you:
Step 1; Power on:
Press the button with green line in bottom left corner

Step 2; Basic Buttons:
  • Next to power button on right is Shortcut button for Calendar
  • Next to Calendar button is navigator buttons;
    • left button is left arrow
    • right button is right arrow
    • top button is up arrow
    • bottom button is down arrow
    • center button is select button
  • Next to navigator button on right is Contact button
  • Above the lower buttons is a black box known as Input Area
    • The Top right house figure is Home
    • Below Home is Menu option
    • On the far right is Find
    • Above Find is Sychronize
    • The small clock picture right beside Home is Clock (Which can be set to where you want)
    • Below clock and beside menu is text keyboard
    • To the left of Find is Number keyboard
    • Above number keyboard and left of sychronize is Brightness adjust display
    • In the middle of input is where you can shorthand text, letters and scroller
  • Top of display screen going right to left is clock, battery and shortcut
Step 3; Create Contact
  • push the contact button (bottom right)
  • On display screen bottom right click new
  • Where is says last name hit the text keyboard (input screen, left of menu)
  • Type last name and than hit done (bottom right on display screen)
  • Click on first name and hit the text keyboard and type name
  • Repeat for title
  • Click on work and hit the number keyboard and type number (if you accidently click on text keyboard just click done)
  • Repeat for each catagory.
  • Once you have finish click done and know that contact is stored
Step 4; Create an appointment
  • To return to home page click on Home (top right in input)
  • Click on Calendar in display screen (top right)
  • Click on "No appointments today" (top of desplay under time and date)
  • Click on 11 o'clock (new screen will appear)
  • Click just below "Start Time:"
  • Just to the right is the hours colum and on the far right of the display screen is the mins time
  • Click on the minutes time nearest to the current time it is right now (has to be ahead of current time and allow a couple mins to finish putting in appointment)
  • Than click OK (bottom left of display screen)
  • Click on Text keyboard in input area and type the name of the appointment (ex. class)
  • Click "Done" (bottom left of display screen)
  • Click on Details bottom (bottom of display screen)
  • A new screen will come up
  • Click in the box just right of the "Alarm" button and than hit "OK" button (bottom right of display screen)
  • Finish by Click on Home in the top right of input screen



Future Learning URLs:

Getting to Know Your Handheld: http://www.palm.com/us/support/handbooks/tx/en/basics.pdf
Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) Tutorial: http://gsm.utmck.edu/library/pda/tutorial/trends.htm
User Guide for the Zire 31 Handheld: http://www.palm.com/us/support/userguides/zire31/us/TOC.html
Manuals for Palm Handhelds and Smartphones: http://kb.palmone.com/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=PalmSupportKB,ts=Palm_External2001,Case=obj(20198)#zire31


Future Teaching URLs:

Here's a video of teachers in Omaha who use handheld devices in their classrooms Teaching Now!
Here's a website that gives teachers 101 uses (administrative and instructional) for handhelds 101 Uses
Here's a list of articles and tips for teachers using handhelds Articles and Tips
Here's an article about a school in Illinois that incorporates the use of handhelds in every subject area Helping Handheld
Here's a page full of links about handhelds and their relation to teaching on Kathy Schrock's Home Page Power in Your Hands

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_Digital_Assistant#Educational_uses
http://www.k12handhelds.com/101list.php
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Handheld_device
http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic78.htm
http://www.slideshare.net/kfasimpaur/integrating-handhelds-into-the-classroom-presentation