Dick Tracy Goes Digital
Educators take to personal digital assistants
By Todd Leeuwenburgh
Take Dick Tracy's wrist radio, add a secret decoder ring, an
alarm clock, and a calculator, and you're still not close to the
functionality of today's personal digital assistant, or PDA. These
handheld electronic organizers have grown in popularity over the
last few years among educators as well as in the corporate world.
Teachers and administrators say they like the convenience of the
PDA, and many intend to acquire and use more miniature computing
features as they become available and affordable.
PDAs can replace appointment books, address books, notepads,
and spreadsheets. Teachers and administrators use them to keep
their schedules and update handheld calendars, to maintain "to-do"
lists and address books -- even to send e-mail. PDAs function
using handwriting-recognition software, a stylus, and a pressure-sensitive
screen or with an optional keyboard. They uplink and downlink
to desktop computers, which allows you to transfer the latest
version of, say, your calendar from one to the other.
Because they weigh only grams and are small enough to fit in
your pocket, PDAs have a size and weight advantage over laptops.
They also beat laptops in terms of battery life: Most PDAs run
for about two weeks on two AA batteries. After about three hours
of use, most laptops are running on fumes.
The PalmPilot by 3Com of Mountain View, Calif., was the first
commercially successful PDA to replace the keyboard with handwriting-recognition
software, stylus, and screen; an optional keyboard can be plugged
in. (Apple's now-defunct Newton MessagePad pioneered this category
but never caught on with the public.) Newer models have improved
handwriting recognition by teaching you how to write in the simplified
alphabet the PDA is programmed to recognize. This allows you to
take notes much more rapidly than was possible on the miniature
keyboards of the previous generation of handheld organizers.
Cut through complexity
"The PDA has been invaluable to many of us who deal with the
digital world," says Ferdi Serim, author and middle school teacher
at Princeton (N.J.) Middle School. "We have invited levels of
complexity we would never have accepted or planned for. We base
our activities on the availability of people who are half a world
away. So when scheduling meetings with classes, or attending a
satellite-transmitted conference, it's the thing to use."
Serim says he uses his PDA mainly so "I don't blow appointments."
At the beginning of the school year, he entered the school calendar
into his PalmPilot so he could avoid "the embarrassing situation
of booking myself into a corner." Similarly, PDAs with modems
can connect to school networks so users can find out what schedules
are.
Joe Villani, an associate executive director of the National
School Boards Association, uses advanced PDA features to get and
send e-mail when he's on the road. With a wireless modem and a
subscription to Metricom's Ricochet service, Villani says he can
download his e-mail while riding in his car. Villani's PDA is
equipped with both a wireless and a conventional modem.
"There are lots of ways to connect to your office using these
modems," he says. "I can be in San Francisco and get a message
from Florida and answer it in a few minutes. I don't have to lug
[a laptop] around in a suitcase.
"PDAs are an excellent tool for personal productivity," Villani
adds. "They cut down on duplication of effort and input and give
users their latest schedule changes and messages, helping them
avoid being at the wrong place at the wrong time. And they do
not take a lot of work to learn."
Savor synchronicity
One of a PDA's most useful features is its ability to talk to
your PC. Villani says he particularly likes the fact that his
Palm Professional can interface with the Microsoft database, spreadsheet,
and word processing programs on his office computer.
Some models let you transfer information from the PDA to a PC
with infrared beaming. For most PDAs, though, data transfer is
done by parking the device in its port, which is wired to the
PC. Don't forget to back up information from the PDA to your PC
regularly, though -- you don't want to risk losing the data if
the PDA's batteries run out.
Villani's favorite features are the calendar, because it synchronizes
with Microsoft Outlook on his office computer, and the to-do list,
which beeps at him when it's time to do something. He also relies
on the contacts list and the calculator. He uses e-mail to read
messages and send replies and the notepad to input text. Using
the e-mail program, he cuts and pastes names and phone numbers
from his office file server.
PDAs are also standing in for the ubiquitous loose-leaf organizers.
Liz Glowa, director of instructional technology support for the
Montgomery County (Md.) Schools, says PDAs are great for committees,
when recording resolutions or planning future meetings. Glowa
uses Apple's discontinued Newton, but the other directors in the
district's technology office have early PalmPilots.
"Whenever we go to meetings, every single one of us whips out
[our PDA] and marks the date," she says. "Since we are so mobile
and so involved in meetings, it's vital that we have access to
calendars and to-do lists." Like most PDAs, the Newton gives you
the option of having the device "dinging" you to remind you of
appointments, she says.
Glowa put her division's calendar on the web, so everyone can
access that information no matter where they are. "I am looking
forward to the added convenience of accessing that with a [PDA],"
she says.
When it comes time to invest in a new PDA, Glowa says she will
probably use the PalmPilot because it can interface with both
Windows and Macintosh platforms.
A few limitations
As useful as they are, PDAs aren't perfect for all functions.
Screen size keeps the PDA from replacing the laptop and desktop
computer. If you're dealing with graphs, lots of numbers or lots
of text, the screen size of the handheld device is not sufficient,
users say. But "if it's quick-retrieval or if you're going to
send something to a computer that has a larger screen," Glowa
says, PDAs are adequate.
With their small, black-and-white, low-definition screens, PDAs
are also not the best device on which to surf the web. "You can
get what you need from the net on a PalmPilot, but the quality
is not good," Villani says. "If I were trapped on a desert island,
I guess I would use it."
Obsolescence has not been a problem, though. Even the oldest
PDAs still do what people bought them for, most users say.
Favorite features
Many PDA users plan to tap into additional features. Fred Morton,
superintendent at Montgomery County (Va.) Schools, is working
to equip his four assistant superintendents with PalmPilots, and
he is deciding which calendar software to use so items can be
simultaneously uploaded to all of their PDAs.
His Palm Professional interfaces with Lotus Organizer, his desktop
software. While on the road, he can get updates to his calendar
from his home office loaded on his PDA. "It's a handy way to keep
a master copy of the calendar," he says.
Morton's next step is to use group software that will load the
master calendar to numerous people's PDAs through a process called
"multiple scheduling."
Under multiple scheduling, his secretary will make a change
on the master calendar -- perhaps setting up an appointment with
three people. Then, if there are no scheduling conflicts, that
entry will be electronically replicated in those three people's
calendars. The function will replace the multiple paper copies
being made now.
Equipping PDAs with voice recognition would make inputting new
entries into the calendar even more convenient, Morton says. (Some
PDAs do have voice recorders, he says, but voice entry is still
years away.)
Being able to connect wirelessly to the home office (as Villani
does) would be "phenomenal," Morton says. But adding features
such as modems, wireless service subscriptions, and software can
drive costs up.
Follow the leader
The success of 3Com's PalmPilot -- which reportedly seized two-thirds
of the market in its first year of existence -- has prompted companies
to market a half-dozen devices that run on Windows CE, a scaled-down
version of Windows. Windows CE is now in version 2.0 and offers
support for color screens and voice memos, among other features.
3Com offers the Palm Personal for $199; the PalmPilot Professional
for $249; and the Palm III for $369. The high-end Palm III's 2
MB storage capacity doubles that of the PalmPilot Professional,
with room for about 6,000 addresses, 3,000 appointments, 1,500
to-do items, 1,500 memos, and 200 e-mail messages.
Devices that run on Windows CE 2.0 include the Casio Cassiopeia
E-10, Everex Freestyle, and Philips Nino, which lack keyboards,
and the Hewlett-Packard 620/660LX, NEC mobilePro 700/750C, and
Sharp Mobilon, which have keyboards and wider screens.
The Windows CE-based machines offer more features, including
voice recording. But many users prefer PalmPilots, which run longer
before needing new batteries and have a simpler, non-Windows operating
system.
Now, models offering similar capabilities to the PalmPilot are
appearing at about half the price. The daVinci handheld device,
introduced by Royal Consumer Business Products, looks and functions
like 3Com's device but, at $99 and $150, costs only about half
as much. The basic daVinci model includes 256 KB memory, handwriting
recognition software, docking station, PC synchronization, and
optional keyboard. The high-end daVinci Pro sports a 1 MB memory,
built-in e-mail and fax software, and a docking station with a
PC card modem slot.
Which features -- and which price point -- are right for you?
"It's always a race between how quick the technology will shrink
and how quick the price will become affordable," says Princeton's
Serim.
Adds Glowa: "The field keeps changing rapidly, and the whole
emphasis is increasing the portability and flexibility of access
at more reasonable cost -- an important factor."
Todd Leeuwenburgh
is editor of Education Technology News in Silver Spring, Md.
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