The University of South Dakota, PDA Initiative: A Two Year Experiment ? !. Roberta Ambur, CIO Cheryl Tiahrt, Manager of Technology Services Copyright University of South Dakota This work is the intellectual property of the USD. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author.

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USD: PDAs and Education The Concept Planning Implementation Key Issues Assessment and Evaluation Future Goals Lessons Learned

The Concept A Novel Idea Administrative Support Key Elements Spring 2001

Planning The Unveiling – External & Internal Administrative Steering Committee – Academic/Instruction – Technical Support – Financial/Procurement Summer 2001

Implementation: Phase I Early Issues/Decisions: – Who gets PDAs? – What software? – What technical support? – What training? – How distributed and billed? – What academic uses? Summer 2001

Implementation: Phase I Software Selection -- Palm OS – NearSpace – AvantGo – Multimail – MobileMentor PowerOne Calculator Documents to Go Thought Manager 4.0 Student MobileDB – Additional software for medical students Late Summer 2001

Implementation: Phase I Early Issues/Decisions: – Who gets PDAs? – What software? – What technical support? – What training? – How distributed and billed? – What academic uses? Summer 2001

Implementation: Phase I Application in the classroom Lecture schedules, syllabi, notes Quizzes Web clipping In action USD Handheld Computing Website – Late Summer & Fall 2001

Key Issues Education-driven Student & faculty experience Student access – Students without PDAs – Students without desktop PCs Connectivity and distribution of material Support Rapidly changing technology Ongoing Fall 2001–Spring 2002

Implementation: Phase II Administrative restructuring Mini-grants Faculty mentoring Designation of PDA-based sections Server solution – XTNDConnect PDA Users Group Ongoing Fall 2001-Spring 2002

Implementation: Fall 2002 Palm Required/Recommended Courses Loaded Software In House XTNDConnect Training Wireless – bluetooth classroom – b Committee Structure Fall 2002

Evaluation of Initiative Assessment of educational impact – PDAs as catalysts for academic engagement – Classroom results – Student feedback Program evaluation – Roll-out, distribution, training – Student and faculty use – Creative application Spring 2002

Future Goals Still evolving Adaptation to new technologies Faculty input Educational software development Continual assessment Two tier approach: Beyond and Beyond

Lessons Learned Change/Innovation in Higher Education Bleeding Edge / Cutting Edge / Dull Edge Information technology advances and first-year students Resources At end of Year One, more ? than ! but have made enough progress to be optimistic that at the end of Year Two, conclusion will be ! 2002 and Beyond