Handheld Computing in Education
Bill Penuel and Phil Vahey, SRI International's Center for Technology in Learning (CTL), Kelly Pope, Classroom Connect, and Kenyon Scott, Palm Inc.

Meeting Notes are available in PDF format. (Requires the free Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

Original Announcement

How can handheld computers improve teaching and learning? What educational activities do handhelds make possible, and what are the drawbacks of this new technology? How can handhelds be adapted to exploit their full potential in the classroom? Join BayCHI-Kids for an evening panel discussion on these and other issues surrounding the use of handheld computers in K-12 education.

Some of the topics we will discuss include the new types of assessments that handheld computers make possible, innovative uses of handheld computers in K-12 education, and the potential for handhelds to render computer use pervasive and integral to the curriculum. The panelists will highlight examples from SRI's Palm Education Pioneers program, Classroom Connect's Pocket CU, and SRI's SimCalc project.

Dr. Bill Penuel is senior educational researcher at the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. His research focuses on the assessment and evaluation of technology-based projects in schools and after-school programs. He is particularly interested in the study of how best to prepare professionals to use handheld and other technologies to enact inquiry-based science practices in schools and community-based settings. Currently, he is working as an evaluator on the GLOBE Program, the JASON Academy, and the U.S. Department of Education's Community Technology Centers Program.

Kelly Pope has served as the Vice President of Internet Technology for Classroom Connect since October 1997. Prior to that, from 1995 to 1997, she was Vice President of Multimedia Development at Tenth Planet Explorations, a company dedicated to bringing CD-ROM-based curriculum to the classroom. From 1993 to 1995, she was the Director of Development in the Advanced Technology Group of Electronic Arts and was responsible for defining the technical and strategic direction for a new generation of interactive software products. Prior to that, Ms. Pope held engineering development and management positions at Borland and Sun Microsystems. Classroom Connect, an acclaimed pioneer in the use of emerging technologies in education, recognizes how handheld computers, such as the Palm, can benefit today's schools. "Pocket CU," Classroom Connect's professional development program available for Palm handheld computers, takes advantage of the Palm's mobility, giving educators the flexibility to read course content whenever and wherever it's most convenient.

Dr. Phil Vahey is a research social scientist at the Center for Technology in Learning (CTL) at SRI International. He is currently investigating innovative uses of handheld computers in K-12 education. Dr. Vahey leads the Palm Education Pioneers program, which administers and evaluates a grant program that is providing full classroom sets of Palm computers to over 175 classes throughout the United States. Dr. Vahey is also an investigator on the SimCalc project, which is designing software and curriculum that uses handheld computers to teach middle school students the fundamentals of calculus. In addition, he is the Industry Alliance manager for the Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT), and an investigator on the MathLab project. Prior to coming to SRI, Dr. Vahey received his PhD in Education from the UC Berkeley School of Education, and worked in the software industry for eight years as a software programmer, project manager, and engineering manager, most recently for FileMaker Pro at Claris Corporation (now FileMaker, Inc.).