GearBits

PDAs in Wichita Schools

David Rothman over at TeleRead posted an interesting story about how 1,580 PDAs are now being used quite successfully in a Wichita school system.

Without mentioning e-books in particular, an ed-tech specialist at one Wichita school says the results with Tungsten-E's have "knocked my socks off. The parents are very interested and want to use the handhelds too. Teachers send notes home to parents via the handhelds, and the parents respond. They are great school-to-parent communication tools." Plus, the kids use the machines to be better organized, not just for a variety of subjects.

I'm still a firm believer in the near-term (next 5 years) growth potential for PDAs, but they have to be cheaper, more durable, and definitely no harder to use than your typical Palm OS device is right now. Just my opinion, of course.