While most wireless companies are targeting either the consumer or the business market with their technology, a select few are targeting a new and rather unlikely area for wireless services and devices-the classroom.
The vision these companies have consists of students keeping up with new homework assignments through their personal digital assistants; teachers keeping parents abreast of their child’s development through quick mobile phone e-mails; and students learning about weather, current events and other, more complex topics through wireless devices of all kinds.
While widespread use of mobile technology in such instances is probably still years away, it is beginning to show up on the educational radar screen and some think it will become a must-have for every school-bound kid.
“We very strongly believe this is just the beginning,” said Rich Turner, vice president of sales and marketing at APTE Inc., which develops and publishes multimedia educational materials, including wireless applications.
And as always, there already are a few early adopters dishing out the cash for the latest wireless gadget, and many of the schools now using wireless technology swear by it.
“The technology itself … has had a dramatic impact,” said Kevin O’Malley, the director of technology at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Jackson, Miss.
While the title “director of technology” seems more applicable in some IT corporation, the post is warranted at St. Andrew’s-a school that is, to say the least, an early adopter. St. Andrew’s boasts a recently installed wireless network and is the site for a wireless technology pilot program sponsored by Motorola Inc., SkyTel Communications Inc. and APTE Inc.
Under the pilot program, select students, teachers and parents at St. Andrew’s and Stephen K. Hayt School in Chicago received Motorola’s Timeport P935 personal interactive communicator working over SkyTel’s data network. The devices feature tailored learning applications from APTE, which allow students to check on the weather, news headlines and their homework assignments. Teachers can send messages to students and parents, and can create various tasks for the students.
O’Malley said St. Andrew’s teachers, who are not dedicated computer programmers by profession, have quickly embraced the devices, and have even started writing their own projects.
“They have really taken off on their own,” O’Malley said.
The program also features a sophisticated learning project created by APTE involving ecology and endangered species.
Byron Vytiepo, vice president of operations at APTE and a former teacher, said wireless technology is in fact a good way to cross the “digital divide,” allowing children of all socio-economic backgrounds to take advantage of technological advances.
“There is a move toward smaller devices that are more cost effective,” Vytiepo said. “There is a movement to get technology into the hands of students at a low cost.”
Cheap PDAs cost a tenth of what cheap laptops generally run, proponents say. Also, many schools don’t have the funds or facilities to put in wires to connect to the Internet, but wireless LANs overcome that problem with little effort or cost.
Another unique aspect of wireless technology in classrooms is that kids have little fingers-a helpful asset when using some wireless devices.
“They have the right-sized hands,” O’Malley said.
The pilot program at St. Andrew’s has been a success so far, O’Malley said, with teachers and parents embracing the technology. Also, the devices give the school’s students a step up into the 21st century.
“They’re definitely learning real-world experience,” O’Malley said.
St. Andrew’s students aren’t alone in the field of wireless education. A variety of other companies are offering wireless products and services specifically designed for classrooms, and are also giving their offerings a test run in pilot programs around the country.
Texas Instruments, a company quite familiar with classroom products, recently launched its TI-Navigator, which it bills as a wireless classroom system that “facilitates student-focused learning.” The system uses the TI-83 Plus, a standard device in math classes across the country, and turns it into a wireless Web browser. This, the company said, allows teachers to wirelessly send out assignments and check up on what individual students are doing.
In an effort to make its product more available to cash-strapped schools, Texas Instruments is offering 100 grants to cut the price of the system from its regular $9,800 to $5,500.
Another company, MindSurf Networks, works specifically on offering affordable mobile computing infrastructure to schools. It is a joint venture between Sylvan Learning Systems, Aether Systems and Critical Path. MindSurf also introduced a pilot program aimed at studying the effectiveness of wireless technology in the classroom.
Under its program, 100 schools across the nation will receive wireless service and devices, allowing students and teachers to access MindSurf’s education network. The network, the company said, creates a forum for teachers to share information and gain insight. The Center for Children and Technology also plans to conduct a longitudinal research study to evaluate the program and MindSurf’s offerings.
Texas Instruments, MindSurf and others are not alone in the wireless classroom market. Isopia Inc., NetSchools Corp., Symbol Technologies, Microsoft Corp. and Palm Inc. all offer products specifically for classroom use.
While it may seem strange that schools, which always appear to be strapped for cash, would dish out money for wireless technology, it may be in their best interests, said Barbara Stein, senior policy analyst for the National Education Association.
“We believe that schools need high levels of technology,” she said. “If it’s part of an overall plan, it will be helpful.”
The world will continue to become more technologically advanced, Stein said, and wireless services and products will likely be a big part of that world.
“There probably is some value in equipping those children for that world,” she said.
