Will Handheld Computers Succeed in College

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Will Handheld Computers Succeed in College?

• David W. Johnson
• Derek Rudd
• Utah Valley State College

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Motivation for Research

• Continuing Research Agenda PDAs in Education
• Need for Hands-on Classroom Experimentation
• Availability of Devices
• Student Research Goal
• Test PDA SW and HW Add-ons

3
The Class

• Senior Level
• Computer Supported Cooperative Work
• Students given loaner Dell PDA with Wireless
  Network Card
• Five Keyboards
• Use as a Potential Aid in Course Work
• Group Research Projects re. PDA

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Projects

• Extent of PDA Usage in Local Schools
• Use of Networked PDAs
• Use of PDAs in Medical Education
• PDA Software to Support Learning
• Use of E-content on PDAs and the Retention of
  Learning

5
Background for Group Project

• All our class members were given PDAs to use to
  help with our class work.
• Our group became very curious about the
  effectiveness of reading e-text on a PDA for
  learning.

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Experiment

• Our experiment was to randomly assign half of the
  students in a class to read certain course
  material using e-text on a PDA and the other half
  to read the same material on paper. We then
  administered a brief exam to test all students
  reading comprehension and retention.
• Following the exam we also administered a PDA
  Usage Survey to those students who had used a PDA
  in the experiment.

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Hypothesis

• Our hypothesis was that there would be no
  difference in reading comprehension/retention
  between using e-text on a PDA and reading the
  same material on paper.

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Classes Sampled

• The three middle school classes were all history
  classes, and their article dealt with Lewis
  Clark.
• The high school class was a finance class, and
  their article dealt with inappropriate activities
  by Enron executives.
• The college class was an information technology
  class, and their article dealt with an
  educational technology called MUDs MOOs.
• Teachers were present and helped set-up and
  perform the experimentation.

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Human Observations

• Students were very excited.
• Use PDAs for a year as a school experiment
• Not want to give the PDA back
• Save the school district money
• Save millions of trees
• Yeah, Ill trade the mitt for a PDA.

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Results
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Results

• Analysis using t-tests supported our hypothesis
  that there is no statistically significant
  difference in reading comprehension and retention
  between using e-text on a PDA and using a
  traditional paper article.

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Survey Findings

• The purpose of the survey was to help us learn
  more about the students feelings and experience
  while using a PDA and to assess any differences
  between the various educational levels.
• The questions dealt with the ease of using and
  learning with the PDA, the likelihood of PDA
  problems in education, and the value of various
  PDA software.

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Ease of Reading E-text on a PDA
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Ease of Understanding and Remembering E-text on a
PDA
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E-text on PDA vs. Textbooks
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Likelihood of PDA Games and Internet Impeding
Learning
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Summary

• No statistically significant difference in
  retention rates in reading from a PDA compared to
  reading from paper across all educational levels
  studied.
• Major roadblocks to the successful use of PDAs
  and e-books in college.
• College students found it difficult to read text
  on a PDAs small screen and were less confident
  in their ability to comprehend and remember
  content read from a PDA.

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Summary

• The survey data also suggests that college
  students are more prone to distractions from
  schoolwork such as game playing or Internet
  surfing on the PDA.
• Also, we realize that middle school and high
  school students are more excited about technology
  and may be more willing to adapt to change while
  college students are more set in there ways and
  have more difficulties with change.

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Analysis of PDA Experimentationin CSCW Class

• PDA was a valuable tool
• 36 agree or strongly agree
• 40 neutral
• 24 disagree or strongly disagree
• Mostly used for
• Scheduling, contact lists, to-do lists
• Minimally used for
• Taking notes
• Downloading content (PPT slides, Lecture notes)

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Analysis of PDA ExperimentationWireless
Networking

• Usefulness to students
• 56 agree or strongly agree
• 32 neutral
• 12 disagree
• Major Uses
• Web surfing
• Email across campus
• Problems
• Slow
• Small screen
• Fast battery discharging

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Analysis of PDA Experimentation

• Enjoyed Experimenting With
• 16 strongly agree
• 72 agree
• 16 neutral
• Plan to use in future school or work
• 52 agree or strongly agree
• 32 neutral
• 16 disagree
• Should be required of all students
• 16 agree
• 52 neutral
• 32 disagree or strongly disagree

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Overall Conclusions

• High potential for successful PDA usage in K-12
• Lack of funding will inhibit ubiquitous use of
  PDAs in middle/high schools.
• Handhelds not currently a killer app. for
  college students.
• Success in College will depend on advances in
  handheld technology
• Holographic keyboards and displays
• Software tailored to teacher-student learning
  environment
• Longer battery life