Australia ponders over child palm pilot experiment
Australia ponders over child palm pilot experiment
The U.S. has kickstarted a palm pilot experiment in schools to help children organise their study programmes, which could catch on in Australia very soon.
The trial is taking place in the Wichita Unified School District in Kansas. Just under 1600 handhelds are being used to help the learning of 50,000 students.
Each student has access to a handheld for all subjects and the aim is to help them organise five or six different class schedules, their homework and other school activities.
Results have shown so far that the kids love using the handhelds and teachers have indicated that they are a positive addition to their classrooms. Research by palmOne, who supplied the handhelds, has revealed that the personal computers are motivating for the students and also promote autonomy and responsibility.
Even parents have shown enthusiasm for them in the states. Teachers have sent notes home to parents via handhelds and the parents have also responded to those notes, so they have worked as an effective school-to-parent communications tool.
In addition, they are small and mobile, so that children can put them in their backpacks, and they also stand up to the daily stress which students put them through.
A spokesperson for palmOne in Australia said that the company is looking into putting together a case study to persuade schools that there is a similar need for the palm pilots over here. He said that the case study will aim to show that solution can make learning easier for children and life less difficult for teachers and parents.
However, a teacher who works in an American secondary school in Sydney is not so enthusiastic about the prospect of students using palm pilots. "I think we should get back to basics and not rely on technology to communicate with children, teachers and parents. We should even try to shy away from using email and choose more face to face contact.
"Technology creates divisions, instead of unifying children. There's the whole economic and image problem to deal with. When children start using these palm pilots, they will start showing of. They will use the latest palm pilot to prove that they are richer and better than their friends. And it forces them away from personal communication. We need our children to communicate more on a human level, and not try to do everything through computers, otherwise they will become more and more cut off and lose out on development.
"Palm pilots might not suit certain children too, especially special needs children, so again, this could create hierarchies with children."
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