HANDHELD NETWORKS
So much for slouching at the back of the classroom. Students who have mastered the art of avoiding the teacher's eye may soon be faced with Texas Instruments' Navigator system, a twist on the company's signature graphing calculator. Set to roll out by August, these amped-up number crunchers double as networked handhelds. Their interactive capabilities allow an instructor to check on the progress of any student's work at any time.
The Navigator system connects TI's calculators to hubs around a room. Students transmit data encrypted at 40-bit wired equivalent privacy (WEP) to and from a master hub, which feeds the information into a Net-enabled PC on the teacher's desk. The teacher can use the PC to track an individual's work or to transmit multiple-choice questions to the whole class. Homework can be downloaded to the calculators, then uploaded the next day for grading. The browser-based system, which will be used by about 50,000 high schoolers this year, helps instructors plan daily lessons with customizable forms.
The calculators let students communicate freely with the teacher, who decides whether they can use the system to correspond with one another. Such control may rule out wireless collaboration among students, but it enables instructors to more easily reach self-conscious kids. "The student who might have slipped by can respond and not worry about being embarrassed," says Jim Kozman, a calculus teacher in Columbus, Ohio, who's been testing the system for two years.
TI's calculators lack some of the more sophisticated features other PDA makers are pushing onto the education market - but at less than $100 a pop, they're more affordable than a souped-up, Net-connected Palm. And they come with a built-in user base: About 36 percent of US high school students already own one.
A classroom Navigator system that includes a PC and nine hubs (on average, one for every four students) costs about $10,000.
Handhelds may blur the line between Game Boys and academics, but they also allow kids to experiment with technology. "I was one of those kids who used to doodle in the back," says Tom Ferrio, Texas Instruments' VP of educational and productivity solutions. "If I had been expected to answer a question every 10 minutes, I might have paid more attention."
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