photo by Robert Stewart: Connor Rees, left, and Ty Sackett, sixth graders at Westfall Elementary School in Malcolm, demonstrate the personal digital assistants or PDAs that Malcolm fifth and sixth graders use for some classwork.

by Robert Stewart

    Students in the fifth and sixth grades at Westfall Elementary in Malcolm are keeping on the cutting edge, technologically speaking, when it comes to taking quizzes and performing some class work.
     This school year marks the third that members of the classes have had access to personal digital assistants (PDAs), but the first that there have been enough PDAs for each student to have their own.
     Doug Mahoney, a fifth and sixth grade teacher at Westfall, said that the reason for providing the PDAs to students was to give them a head start when it came to encountering emerging technologies.
     "It was just to help motivate students and get them familiar with the technology that's out there," he said.
     The initial PDAs purchased for the students proved to be popular enough to warrant the purchase of a PDA for each fifth and sixth grader.
     "We were using them a lot and just wanted to continue to use them because students love technology," Mahoney said.
     The first PDAs were purchased with funds provided by the Malcolm Foundation and the Malcolm Parent-Teacher Organization.
     Some of the more recently purchased PDAs were acquired with money raised through an economics project performed by last year's fifth grade classes.
     The PDAs are kept at the school where students have access to them throughout the day.
     The devices are used for a variety of functions from typing to taking quizzes, but see the most use during math class.
     "The class we use it mostly is math, but we use it in almost every class," Mahoney said.
     Sixth-grader Ty Sackett agreed.
     "I use it probably most for MathAce, which is a timed quiz for math problems, but there are a lot of other things I like to use it for," Sackett said.
     The devices are also used to teach responsibility, Mahoney said.
     "They're (students) in charge of basic maintenance. They keep them charged," he said.
     But it isn't all reading, responsibility and arithmetic for the students. During study periods and downtime, the students also use their PDAs for entertainment, playing games provided by Mahoney that are available as free downloads online.
     "I play Yahtzee," sixth-grader Connor Rees said.
     "It's fun because when I find a good piece (of software) I can bring it back to them," Mahoney said.
     Mahoney also said that some students now have their own PDAs and occasionally bring in downloads to share with the class.
     Teachers keep an eye out to make sure students are using the devices appropriately during class time.
     "Otherwise it gets taken away from you and nobody likes that," Sackett said.
     Both Rees and Sackett said they had had some experience with PDAs before being allowed to use them in the classroom last year.
     "I saw them because I have an older brother and he told me quite a bit about them," Sackett said.
     "I did (have some experience with PDAs) because my dad got one when I was in fourth grade and I kind of messed with that a little bit," Rees said.
     Rees may have had a bit of a jump on his classmates when it came to using the PDA, but he said there were new things to learn on the devices at school andhe prefers those PDAs to his father's.
     "He doesn't have as much fun stuff on it," Rees said.
     Both Rees and Sackett said that having the devices in the classroom has shown them some of the possibilities that the technology offers. Sackett said he has been campaigning to get a PDA of his own.
     "I don't (have one), but I have been asking for one for my birthday and I asked for one for Christmas," he said.
     This type of enthusiasm has been good for keeping students interested in learning their regular class work while also allowing for the introduction of new ways to learn, according to Mahoney.
     "It's been a huge plus for us," he said. "It's been a really positive thing."