Pebbles Classroom Technology
Uses of Hand-Helds in the Classrooms
Pebbles project is investigating many uses of hand-held computers in classrooms.
In one set of investigations, we are looking at how hand-helds may help
instructors evaluate the students in a lecture. One semester (Spring, 2000)
we collaborated with Prof. David Yaron of Chemistry using 120 Jornada hand-helds
donated by Hewlett-Packard. Each student in Chem 107 received a hand-held
and a Wireless Andrew Wavelan card, and Prof. Yaron gave them "concept
tests" at multiple points during a lecture. Students answered on their
hand-held, and a bar chart of all the answers was projected for the class
to see. If students did not know the answer, the material could be discussed
more thoroughly, whereas if students were correct, the lecture could move
to new material. Student evaluations showed the hand-helds were popular.
Results of this experiment were reported in a technical
We hope to expand on this research in the future.
Some of the Pebbles applications may be useful in an
educational setting. In particular, the Slide
Show Commander runs on a
PDA while the
PC is running
PowerPoint. On the PDA, you can see the notes of the current slide and
all the slide titles. There is also a timer and clock on the PDA. You can
move forward and backward or jump to a specific slide. You can also use
the PDA to scribble on the slides, and we are working on various ways to
the scribbles so the students can see the results later.
In the future, we want to investigate further uses of hand-helds in classrooms,
possibly to support laboratory experiments, to support real testing and homework
grading, and to enable lecturers to hand-write on the screen.