Too cool for school?

[Guest welsh_mark]

Hi, couple of quick questions for those of you in the know.

I'm a smartphone "veteran", but I've never had a pocket PC. I'm thinking about getting an M2000 to help me teach the little buggers. Would it help me do the fowllowing?

1. Use pocket excel to run a basic spreadsheet for registers and noting down any assesment marks - Would be great because I could do it while walking around the class/hitting kids. how fiddly is it?

2. Control my powerpoints- I know I can get bt software to change slides, what about any notes on the small screen coming up on the big screen?

3. Would BT range cover me for walking around a classroom anyway?

4. Would wi-fi be better than BT for doing the above stuff e.g. I'm at the back of the class controling a webpage that is coming up on the screen at the front.

5. Any other uses in a classroom?

You see, I like the interactive whiteboards but, as i'm tall and wide, as soon as I have to write on them the kids cant see the screen.

many thanks,

Mr Richards!

[Guest tudor]

I would really recommend a tablet PC connected directly to the projector. You'd be able to write on the screen and they would see it on the big screen, you could use the pen as a pointer, you would be able to write/draw on screen and then move the text/drawing to another part of the screen and so on... just use your imagination :D

[Guest Pondrew]

Unfortunately I've no experience of trying to do what you're proposing so all I can say is that it sounds possible in theory. Question is, is there software to do it...

Certainly you couldn't argue that the M2000 is easy to use one handed. These days I find the slide out keyboard the easiest way of entering info. So you might not be able to give the kids a rap on the knuckles as readily as usual!

[Guest welsh_mark]

cheers guys,

easy operation and portability are key. Pointless having a PPC if it takes me just as long to input data as it would to walk to my desk.

Anyone used pocket excel on an M2000 ?

Does the keyboard make it easier?

[Guest fraser]

1.  Use pocket excel to run a basic spreadsheet for registers and noting down any assesment marks - Would be great because I could do it while walking around the class/hitting kids.  how fiddly is it?

It's usable. I'd recomend making a template with your pupils names, then just add the marks and annotations. There are different data entry modes for the stylus, and the letter recognizer one is ideal for this sort of thing.

3.  Would BT range cover me for walking around a classroom anyway?

If you put the anterna in a place with line of sight to all areas, yes. Might not even mater all that much in a small room.

4.  Would wi-fi be better than BT for doing the above stuff e.g. I'm at the back of the class controling a webpage that is coming up on the screen at the front.

WiFi is generally better because it's a proper network connection IMHO, no need for a PC to act as a gateway. It's a battery hog though, if you were to use the phone all day, have two batteries.

The problem with what you ask is that any display at the front would need to be exactly the same as the phones. You'd need to have special software to render the pages differently on each display if that weren't the case, but passing the links across, running web page scripting etc would be very difficult to do technically speaking. Not to say it hasn't been done, it would be a very useful tool. Worthy of a google or two.

5.  Any other uses in a classroom?

Taking notes, the usual scheduling stuff etc that you are used to already with your existing Smartphone. I'm finding that I'm actually using it a lot more on the PDA now that it's got a more suitable interface.

You could use it to google things without changing needing to use the main display, handy for quick lookups or fact-checks.

Mr Richards!

lol, like it. Interesting times, are interactive whiteboards common in schools now, do many rooms have them? There is a lot of potential for getting the kids interested in learning, I can imagine that the schools of 2010 will be quite different from to ones of my day!

[Guest Pondrew]

Interesting times, are interactive whiteboards common in schools now, do many rooms have them? There is a lot of potential for getting the kids interested in learning, I can imagine that the schools of 2010 will be quite different from to ones of my day!

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A couple of my old school friends went on to become primary school teachers and both their schools now use the new interactive whiteboards. A far cry from blackboard and chalk when I was lad!

[Guest sprouts42]

I am a teacher as well and have not found a real use for the functions of the M2000, especially since I have a laptop to control the register and interactive whiteboard. I plan my lessons on it though when necessary and make lots of use of the schools WiFi connection.

I would imagine a tablet PC would be useful in the classroom situation though.

[Guest Rob.P]

I teach with projector onto Iwhiteboard, my laptop is rigged to the projector and Iwhiteboardand the lappy is running bluetooth, then I can use the PDA with BT to control the laptop. You can also put your excel on your laptop and use it via the PDA as a controller, although bear in mind if your technology os having an off day then you might have to have an alternative lesson plan to hand :D

[Guest welsh_mark]

I teach with projector onto Iwhiteboard, my laptop is rigged to the projector and Iwhiteboardand the lappy is running bluetooth, then I can use the PDA with BT to control the laptop.  You can also put your excel on your laptop and use it via the PDA as a controller, although bear in mind if your technology os having an off day then you might have to have an alternative lesson plan to hand  :D

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all sounds good to me, just got to try and get an m2000 from Orange now!

:D

[Guest pjh2903]

I teach with projector onto Iwhiteboard, my laptop is rigged to the projector and Iwhiteboardand the lappy is running bluetooth, then I can use the PDA with BT to control the laptop.  You can also put your excel on your laptop and use it via the PDA as a controller, although bear in mind if your technology os having an off day then you might have to have an alternative lesson plan to hand  ;)

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What software do you use to do this :?:

[Guest Rob.P]

VNC for PPC, although I have just had a thought, I haven't looked into whether it will work on an M2000/XDA2s. I presume it will, I hope it will as I have just ordered a Blue Angel device so I could be scuppering my own setup ;)

[Guest sprouts42]

VNC for PPC, although I have just had a thought, I haven't looked into whether it will work on an M2000/XDA2s.  I presume it will, I hope it will as I have just ordered a Blue Angel device so I could be scuppering my own setup  ;)

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VNC works fine on the M2000.

[Guest Rob.P]

Yay, thanks for letting me know, save me beating the students with my new device cause VNC won't work ;)

[Guest welsh_mark]

Interesting stuff,

I have got my m2000 and am still getting used to it.

Done the register a few times-certainly got their attention-

There's the wow factor (i'm teaching in the valleys where electricity has only been available since 1978)

plus I could walk over and stand next to the chatting kids,

and its quite fast using text recognition (0's and 1's).

H/T coming up, maybe I will have time to try out some more stuff....

[Guest sprouts42]

Interesting stuff,

I have got my m2000 and am still getting used to it.

Done the register a few times-certainly got their attention-

There's the wow factor (i'm teaching in the valleys where electricity has only been available since 1978)

plus I could walk over and stand next to the chatting kids,

and its quite fast using text recognition (0's and 1's). 

H/T coming up, maybe I will have time to try out some more stuff....

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I take it you have some sort of template which means you can mark off each pupil easily and then have it all sync up with you laptop?

Is there any chance I could look at the excel sheet you have set up please? When I start teaching again in September I would love to do something similar.

[Guest Rob.P]

I take it you have some sort of template which means you can mark off each pupil easily and then have it all sync up with you laptop?

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Now there's a thought, have any of you played with the devices ability to use PDF's? Reason I ask is that the latest version of Acrobat (not reader) has some great functionality for interactive form design in PDF.

My thinking being that if the reader prog for the Blue Angel is good enough to support PDF forms, then PDF registers and other docs could easily be used on the device. Assessments and Evalutions would be a great thing to do as an interactive form, you could even set it up in a way that you could more or less get immediate results from say SPOC's and such like.

Definately a market that software developers overlook.

[Guest welsh_mark]

I take it you have some sort of template which means you can mark off each pupil easily and then have it all sync up with you laptop?

Is there any chance I could look at the excel sheet you have set up please? When I start teaching again in September I would love to do something similar.

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wont let me attach my excel template. i've PM'ed you. have not had time to really get the sync sorted. just a case of backing up the files at the mo (i'm still a student-no time!) It helps to adjust the columns so you only see the first names before you use it on the PPC cos i'ts quite fiddly to do with a stylus.

I'm prob going to play around a bit more over half term i'll keep you posted.

also, try www.handheldlearning.co.uk, the guy who runs it just did an editorial in the TES digital supp.

Edited May 26, 2005 by welsh_mark

[Guest welsh_mark]

Now there's a thought, have any of you played with the devices ability to use PDF's?  Reason I ask is that the latest version of Acrobat (not reader) has some great functionality for interactive form design in PDF.

My thinking being that if the reader prog for the Blue Angel is good enough to support PDF forms, then PDF registers and other docs could easily be used on the device.  Assessments and Evalutions would be a great thing to do as an interactive form, you could even set it up in a way that you could more or less get immediate results from say SPOC's and such like.

Definately a market that software developers overlook.

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that would be great wouldn't it! a massive market. In 1994 the school I had my first placement paid £70K for a set of electronic registers that are rubbish. PPC, wireles sync, interactive forms. It makes much more sense. I'm sure its being trialed somewhere. You could link a barcode scanner to the PPC. and scan the kids tags. So many options.

Can you do forms for the PPC in MS Access? Have seen some posts suggesting it. Only thing is, i have never used access.

[Guest JTHM]

Just a thought....

How long do you expect to keep possession of your sexy new device? If the kids in my son's school are anything to go by you'll be lucky to make it to morning break!! ;)

[Guest justsomeone]

..too cool for school ? now come on... whether you use an orange spv m2000, an apple powerbook, or the usual dell desktop seen in every educational establishment throughout the uk, teachers can NEVER be cool(let alone TOO cool)... it's an unwritten rule ! sorry mate... ;-)

[Guest Rob.P]

^ I agree, can't really be assigned to teachers, different when your a lecturer (FE/HE) though ;)

welsh_mark - I'm going to have a play over the summer period with interactive forms via Adobe's PDF format, the latest version of Acrobat has some very good functionality (have Acrobat Professional) including barcode reading and our college has just switched it's student ID cards to barcodes. Will let you know if I come across anything interesting.

Wonder how many teachers of varying levels we have registered with Modaco already?

*Any developers out there looking to expand into a different market, a much neglected market might I add :D *

[Guest mupwangle]

>>You could link a barcode scanner to the PPC. and scan the kids tags.

You could get the parents to tatoo the barcode onto their necks - hide the barcode scanner above the door and do the register without them even knowing.