Title of Study:  Palm Education Pioneers Program:  Final Evaluation

Author(s): Phil Vahey and Valerie Crawford of SRI International

Summary:

This report documents the results of the Palm Education Pioneers Program, a pilot program to determine teacher perceptions of using handheld computers as an educational tool.

Sponsoring entity(s): Palm, Inc.

Date conducted: 2002

Location of the study: This study can be accessed through the SRI website.

Setting(s) addressed:

• Classroom

Targeted population(s):

• Elementary
• Middle school
• High school

Primary sources of evidence used in the study or report:

• Multiple surveys of participating teachers during the course of the program
• Survey of students from 25 of the 102 projects
• A few site visits
• Project self-evaluations by participating project teams

Primary Technology Application(s) Addressed:

• Handheld computers

Major education topic(s) addressed:

• Science
• Cross-curricular
• Language arts
• Physical education
• Social science
• Math
• Music
• Special needs

Major findings/conclusions:

• More than 80% of teachers reported that handhelds are an effective instructional tool, and have the potential for positive effects on student learning, on teaching practices and on the quality of learning activities.
  
  
• More than 70% of teachers found that handhelds were more easily integrated with the flow of learning activities than desktop computers.
  
  
• Although teachers from all grade levels were enthusiastic about handhelds as instructional tools, elementary teachers had a higher level of enthusiasm than middle or high school teachers.
  
  
• Although teachers from all disciplines were positive about the potential of handhelds to improve the quality of learning activities for their students, science teachers in all of the scientific disciplines were more enthusiastic about handhelds than teachers in physical education, social sciences, math or language arts.
  
  
• Teachers also found drawbacks to the use of handhelds, including inappropriate use of the handhelds by students, equipment management issues, and potential for damage or loss.

Practical implications of the findings:

• The major benefits teachers cited from using handhelds as instructional tools were increasing students’ proficiency with technology, motivating students and increasing collaboration and cooperation.

Reviewer Comments:

Participation in this program was competitive.  Successful applicants were awarded class sets of Palm handheld computers.  So participating teachers were both more technically savvy and more motivated to make the technology successful than a random sample might have been.  Each of the 102 teachers used the handhelds for a different project.  The study focused on teacher attitudes toward the technology rather than effects on student achievement.