Palm Handhelds -- Resources and Grants
Palm makes the handheld computers popular with business people all over the world...
Links
Workplace to the Classroom
http://www.education-world.com/a_tech/tech083.shtml http://www.palm.com/us/business/solutions/education_training.html
Palm makes the handheld computers popular with business people all over the world. What's less know is that these handhelds are a fully functional computer and many school districts are looking at them as a replacement or supplement for expensive PC based systems.
The Palm's portability and low cost make it a natural for "a computer for every student" projects and it's programmability allow it to do most of the tasks of it's much larger cousins. The Education Week article documents this trend.
Palm provides a number of grand and professional development programs aimed at educators. The Palm Education Pioneer (PEP) grant awards is part of a project in conjunction with SRI International's Center for Technology in Learning to study the learning uses, experiences and effectiveness of Palm handhelds in K-12 education.
The Palm Education Training Coordinator Program (free to Educators) helps school districts and educational organizations to create in-house staff development programs for basic handheld computer skills. The program includes a three-day trainer certification course for qualified trainers, a trainer starter kit of hardware and software, a ready-to-use curriculum, and ongoing support and update training for trainers.
The Palm in Education site explains their current programs, along with ideas on using the Palm, success stories and contact information.
Annotation
While everyone agrees that computers will be in every student's future, not every school district or parent can afford the $600-$800 for a personal computer. The sub-$200 cost of a Palm Pilot removes one of the barriers to a computer for every student.
