David Whyley is a Head Teacher who has heard the messages and has adopted the attitude I talked about before (I think, actually, he has helped shape them). He's the eLearning consultant in Wolverhampton where they have been using PDAs and other handheld devices for years.
Park your device for a while and think
Before implementing work out what learning looks like. The Wolverhampton vision saw mobile, multimedia, connected learners, learning without boundaries. They had a choice to use paper or palm, bridging learning between school and home. They wanted to raise attainment and aspirations of demotivated learners.
Admirable.
But the word project has been dropped now. Because using handheld devices has "completely changed the way [teachers] teach... [they] treat the youngsters as equal partners in learning". Kids with devices will have to have the devices "prised out of their hands", because the PDA was the only computer some of these kids had. "If the secondary school I was going to didn't have PDAs I would look around for one that did". That's no longer a project - it can't be. A long-term terrier-like attitude and determinism are required to scale this so that kids will have access throughout their education and teachers will have sufficient training to change their teaching.
By giving this device to kids their confidence went through the roof - they had been trusted with it and they reciprocated by wanting to be in lessons learning. Kids are able to show what they have learned (they're constantly producing learning products on them) and choose what they will learn. As Joe said, a young lad who managed to get his '5' in his SAT exams thanks to some extra optional study with the device and a maths programme on it:
"You don't have to, but I chose to"
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