Handheld Devices on Campus

XXXXXXX XXXXXXX 15 percent over last year despite a slow economy. content and services for a growing number of end- Lorion and a host of educators say that Palm’s node devices—personal digital assistants (PDAs), persistent financial difficulties don’t seem to be having tablets, and embedded devices designed for single a negative effect on college sales. tasks.” While handheld initiatives on college campuses Kendall Whitehouse, director of Advanced Tech- percolate, educators and IT experts debate whether nology Development for The Wharton School of the handhelds will supplement or supplant laptop University of Pennsylvania—where Palm handhelds computers. Meanwhile, looming on the horizon are are as commonplace as telephones—is convinced that new types of portable computers based on Microsoft’s the most effective strategy is to create a single universe Tablet PC software that could shove laptops and of information that can viewed from different size handhelds aside, or at least give schools more choices. windows, depending on which type of computer is By Mary A. C. Fallon The first tablets, which can be written on like paper, accessing it. Handheldost of the nation’s 3,913 accredited colleges are being introduced this month by Hewlett-Packard For many universities, re-creating all of the institu- and universities haven’t launched initiatives Company, followed by Acer, NEC, Legend, and tion’s information so as to be viewable via a Web that recommend or require students to use Toshiba. As an alternative, AlphaSmart Inc. licensed browser that can be used by any type of computing handheld computers. Yet hundreds, like USD, the Palm operating system and in June introduced a device could prove to be an expensive and daunting are experimenting with how to enhance mobile computer called Dana, that has a screen 3.5 assignment. Equally as challenging as that great leap Mlearning with the mobile devices—hoping to times larger than a handheld screen and a full-size forward in information access, is translating anytime, leverage the coming convergence of wireless networks, keyboard. The Dana costs about two-thirds less than a anywhere access into exemplary pedagogy. Web services, and enterprise applications. Some pilot typical laptop. CSU Monterey has teamed up with Western projects, like those at Western Carolina University in Michigan University and received two grants to North Carolina and Loyola College in Maryland, are Access is the Issue develop a business plan for a wireless institute to study sputtering for lack of funds, or because they aren’t central IT experts anticipate the array of computing form how technologies are used, and to do applied research Devices to the college’s technology strategy yet. factors won’t be the driving issue; instead the focus on how wireless access changes learning and teaching. Towards a More Mobile Campus will be on how the range of computing and telephony They expect new faculty projects launched this fall Personal computing is on the move—if slowly—from Small Devices, Growing Status devices can share and distribute content and services will yield some answers by June. the desktop to a more mobile environment. Handheld “Handhelds haven’t hit mainstream yet,” says Mike anytime, anywhere. devices, connected wirelessly to the campus Lorion, vice president of education for Palm Inc. “They “All the stakeholders have to acknowledge that Applications—Present and Future network, will certainly change the way we work and are still building momentum. Mainstream is a couple of everyone wants access to resources in new ways,” says College educators can expect to be challenged by communicate. But how soon, and when? Here, Mary years away.” Palm, which has garnered the lion’s share of Gil Gonzales, chief information officer for California the paucity of academic software applications and e- Fallon offers an overview of the acceptance and use handheld sales to college students, faculty, and institu- State University at Monterey, which has a campuswide textbooks for handhelds, the lack of professional of handheld devices on campus. tions, estimates sales to higher education climbed 10 to wireless network. “Universities need to repackage their development training on integrating handheld computers and wireless access into instruction, and the snail pace of providers of course management software to enable handheld computer access to their products’ learning tools. “There has not been enough software written for academic purposes, and you can’t rely on faculty to create robust, enterprise -wide applications for handhelds,” says Ray Dannenhoffer, assistant dean for support services and director of medical computing at the University of Buffalo’s School of Medicine. For the most part, colleges with handheld initiatives rely on basic productivity software such as word processors, spreadsheets, and calculators, and the ability of handhelds to view specially-formatted Adode Acrobat Reader PDF files and a smattering of 10 Syllabus November 2002 www.syllabus.com Syllabus November 2002 XXXXXXX e-Books. students’ level of understanding at any point in time,” Junkin But there are some faculty who are exploiting the key attrib- said. “This free flow of communication keeps students involved, utes of handhelds to engage students in new ways and to assess thinking analytically about the material, and more inclined to their students’ understanding of subjects. discuss their ideas.” Physics professor William F. Junkin, of Erskine College in Because WebTarget supports multiple users with bi-direc- South Carolina modified an application called Beyond Question tional wireless communication, Junkin can gauge how well for Palm handhelds. The student-response software works in students understand a lesson by sending a set of multiple-choice combination with WebTarget Access Point, a new wireless tech- questions to their Palm handhelds, receiving their answers nology from TriBeam Technologies that extends the communi- within a second or two, and viewing their responses several cation range of the Palm handheld’s infrared ports to 50 feet. different ways. The Beyond Question modification allows Junkin to electroni- Junkin can view answers as they correspond to a seating cally poll a classroom of students using Palm handhelds and see chart, as answers from a work group, as an anonymous their responses displayed on his desktop computer in the class- histogram that shows how many students choose a particular room. answer, or as a spreadsheet that lets him quickly spot which “Because I receive immediate feedback, I can determine my students are having difficulty and which ones are ahead of their The First Wave: Mobile Medicine medicine in the 21st century,” says Ruth Greenberg, director of health sci- The first discipline to integrate hand- vide more-informed patient care right ences academic programming for the held computers is the field of medi- at the patient’s bedside,” says Ray University of Louisville. “We believe cine. Handhelds are as common as Dannenhoffer, assistant dean for sup- that many of those skills require tech- stethoscopes at dozens of U.S. medical port services and director of medical nological familiarity. By the time our schools today. Physicians and student computing at the University of Buffalo’s students graduate medical school, doctors alike are quickly embracing using a PDA should be second this mobile, wireless technology to nature to them. For the most keep pace with their always-on-the-go part, I don’t believe having work mode and the deluge of new medical students using PDAs information that daily informs their will change how students learn practice. the practice of medicine. At Medical schools are leading the way the same time, however, I do in the deployment of handheld comput- believe the PDA is changing, ers and wireless technologies to moni- and will continue to change, tor student performance, enhance stu- the way physicians practice dent-educator communication, medicine.” improve course management, and Today, physicians use hand- ensure that students have the latest held computers to write accu- information as they move between rate prescriptions, monitor crit- classrooms, hospitals, libraries, and ical information such as vital clinics throughout their communities. signs and medication at the About one-fifth of the country’s 125 point of patient care or from medical colleges require their third- outside the hospital or their and fourth-year medical students to offices, track patient care, cal- use handheld computers. Even at med- culate a variety of health ical, dental, and nursing colleges that indices, and access reference materi- don’t require handhelds, large numbers School of Medicine and BioMedical als such as pharmacopoeias that of students own personal digital assis- Sciences. explain drug interactions. Some med- tants. In August, the University of Louisville ical textbooks have been converted At the University of Buffalo, the School of Medicine became the first into e-Books readable by some hand- largest concentration of handheld medical school to provide all of its 594 held computers. Many of the medical devices can be found in the medical medical students with the mobile colleges requiring students to use school. “Handhelds, with their instant- devices (Palm m500s). “We want to handheld computers are creating cus- on ability, are a natural for the medical ensure that our students graduate with tomized applications to track patient professions. With them you can pro- the skills they

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