Palm Pilots: Cool Tool!

Tammy Buchanan
Lab Technician, Tolbert Elementary
Gordon County Schools
Resaca, GA

Mr. Keith George of B.B. Comer HS gave an excellent one hour course on the uses and software available for handheld palms. He was very knowledgeable and informative. Mr. George had his classes attention right from the beginning with a presentation projected on the board from his palm pilot! It was unbelievable at all the software Mr. George had loaded on his handheld. He showed us software application for management, organization, spreadsheets and presentation skills to use in your classrooms.

The only prior usage of handheld palms I had seen was by doctors and lawyers. I knew they were used for appointments and notes but never in a million years did I think palm pilots would be used for teachers and students. Mr. George demonstrated effective ways teachers could get students excited about organization and studying with this means of technology. Image one day beaming your homework assignments to students, going on a field trip with questions loaded for students to answer and students beaming in for attendance at schools. Think of all the paper beginning saved by this little device.

This course hit close to home for me, since this past summer Gordon County now has three Reading First schools that all have acquired via a grant, Tungsten palm pilots for the teachers and administrators. Change is a scary issue with most of us and using a palm pilot was a challenge at first. Currently, teachers use their handhelds for Dibel benchmark testing. In the past, this test was done manually. It took lots of valuable time and hand writing. Now, with aid of the palm, it takes less time and is more effective. The software used for this testing has collated the data for effective graphs on each student. We now have new terms to use like beaming and syncing. We have sync stations to upload testing information from the palms.

After this course, I realized the power of the palm pilot. Some day I image it will take the place of the laptop and desktop. There small size and price range make them convenient for your pocket rather the lap or desk.

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