Orono 6th-graders use Palms to learn Hand-held computers help engage pupils

ORONO – Sixth-grade pupils at Orono Middle School are meshing education with technology by incorporating Palm hand-held computers with traditional subjects like math, science and social studies.

The pupils were introduced to the Palm Pilots at Thursday night’s annual sixth-grade ice cream social and they will begin using the devices today.

Also known as personal digital assistants or PDAs, the hand-held computers were acquired in June of last year through a grant from the manufacturer, Palm, Inc. Commonly used as organizers, date books and phone books by professionals, the PDAs were used during the last school year to help build the role of technology in the classroom through a grant from the Palm Education Pioneers program.

“A big part of what this program teaches is how technology helps us live better,” said sixth-grade teacher Valerie Shinas. “These kids were very energized to be using technology.”

Last year, pupils used the PDAs to build and interpret databases, chart their locations using a global positioning satellite adapter and build their vocabulary, math and geography skills through quiz functions.

Through the learning exercises, the PDA becomes a way for pupils to engage the subject matter, Shinas said.

“With technology, you might be able to reach the kids that say school isn’t for them,” Shinas said. “This is an alternative to the traditional note-taking and tests.”

On average, the PDAs were used for three 45-minute periods in math classes each week, while the language arts classes used them daily as a dictionary, Shinas said. In science classes, PDA use depended on the subject matter. For chemistry, children could access an electronic version of a periodic table.

This year, Shinas and the other teachers hope to take advantage of the interchange between the Internet and the PDAs. In the language arts program, Shinas plans to download current-event sources like newspapers for the section on reading nonfiction and journalism pieces.

“Kids at this age love reading fantasy, but as they move on into high school, they need to make the leap to reading for information,” Shinas said.

Having the PDAs in the classroom also provides an introduction to Gov. Angus King’s laptop program in which the middle school participates, Shinas said.

More than 1,000 schools and other groups across the country applied for the PEP grants and 83 were chosen. Orono Middle School and Shead High School in Eastport were the only schools in the state to receive PEP grants. The PEP grant provided 40 PDAs for the pupils and a one-week training course in San Francisco for Shinas.

To ensure that all of the pupils would have access to a hand-held computer, 30 more PDAs were purchased through a $10,000 grant from the Maine Space Consortium.