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2006 Knowledge Bank Rich Picture Case Studies
Balwyn North Primary School - Mobile Learning: introducing Pocket PCs into the classroom

 

Name: Graeme Lane
School: Balwyn North Primary School
Telephone no: 9859 4258 or 0418 554 973
Email: lane.graeme.gd@edumail.vic.gov.au

 

"Enter an eWorld of resources, fun and learning with Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s.)"

A collaboration between Broadmeadows Primary School, Balwyn North Primary School, Streeton Primary School, Fawkner Secondary College and Box Forest Secondary College, this tiny site is an entry point for Pocket PC users, connecting users to a fantastic collection of teacher and student blogs and email services.

Case study focus

This case study looks at the introduction of handheld (Pocket PCs) into the classrooms of five schools. The network consists of three primary schools and two secondary colleges exploring the use of handheld computers (Pocket PCs) in years 3 -8 covering the areas of literacy, and science (Balwyn North Primary School, Box Forest Secondary College, Broadmeadows Primary School, Fawkner Secondary College, Streeton Primary School). We look at the pedagogical changes occurring and the development of new learning skills by the students involved.

Background

A little over twelve months ago, I was invited to speak on the Channel 10 news regarding the "banning" of technologies in schools. The major part of this was directed at MP3 players such as iPods and mobile phones. It was clear to me at the time, that things had to change. The "digital natives" in our classrooms were not going to give up on the items that they now saw as essential to their lives. I put out a challenge to myself and my principal and teacher colleagues to find ways of engaging these technologies in the classroom.

At about that time, I was fortunate to be funded for a study tour to look at emerging technologies, in particular Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) in the US and the UK. Two colleagues Marcia Lane (Streeton Primary School) and Keith Mcdougall (Broadmeadows Primary School) also received support to visit the "BackPack.NET" program in Singapore and to attend the Strategic Leadership in ICT conducted by the National College of School Leadership in the UK.

On our return to Australia, we started looking at the ways we might use one to one technologies in our classrooms and in particular how the PDA’s might meet our needs as a low cost solution to one to one technology.

Why a PDA and what type?

We were looking for a ubiquitous tool that could be used in the classroom and in the field. We wanted students to have the ability to access the web, play media files, voice record, take photo’s, play flash files. We also wanted simple word processing and spreadsheets for tabulating and recording data. It also needed to be cheap!

After a deal of consideration and trialling of various types of PDA, we decided on the Pocket PC as it had the most features and was the only type of PDA that played flash files. Unfortunately we had to compromise on the ability to take photo's as the price point for the inclusion of a camera was higher than we were able to sustain.

Support

We went looking for support from a variety of sources, it was very short on the ground with many critics of the idea. "The screens are too small." "What are primary school children going to do with a PDA?" Fortunately for us, we did receive encouragement from La Trobe University, Microsoft (Victoria) and Dell computers. The project also grew at this time to include five schools, Balwyn North Primary School, Broadmeadows Primary School, Streeton Primary School, Box Forest Secondary College and Fawkner Secondary College. We were also receiving support from Mr George Sorgi, Ozinterbiz, who was to prove instrumental in the development of the program and support websites.

First Steps

In May 2006 we brought together the twenty teachers involved in the project to discuss their ideas and concerns. There was a great deal of uncertainty as some of the staff had only just gained access to the PDA's and others had had no experience at all. One thing was clearly apparent; we wanted to build a program that made innovative use of the technology that did more than just replicate a pen paper exercise on to the PDA.

The initial phases of the program revolved around having the staff and students become familiar with the technology and its uses in the classroom. With the assistance of George and a lead group of students we developed "ebytes" and "pocket bytes," short multimedia animations that introduce and reinforce the tools available in the Pocket PC's in a fun and innovative way.

The Pocket Learning website

We also established a Pocket Learning website optimised for use with PDA’s that allows staff to access weblogs of others involved in the project:

Pocket Learning website (http://www.ozbiz.com.au/myeworld.htm)

Pedagogy

Each school is developing approaches which will lead to change in pedagogy. We are actively pursuing ideas that will develop learning and teaching approaches which make innovative use of the technology.

Individual School focus


Balwyn North Primary School
The use of the PDA’s:

Broadmeadows Primary School

Box Forest Secondary College


Fawkner Secondary College

Streeton Primary School

Research

La Trobe university has been commissioned to develop a research project to evaluate the learning and engagement improvement in students using the PDAs.

Future Actions

We will meet early next term with Microsoft (Victoria) to explore ways in which they can assist us with developing software tools for the Pocket PCs. La Trobe university Computer Studies students are to begin developing Flash animations that support our units of work. We are to create video files of class activities rendered to the Pocket PC media player so that students may revise work at home or on the run.

 

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