Using a PDA

I have put together a spreadsheet that I use with my KS4 students, which shows all sorts of data about their work. Initially, this was a fairly static document, updated every month or so, when I collected all the folders in for marking - obviously this was not something that we used much.

As part of the project, I wanted the students to be able to check (as a minimum) at the beginning of their lesson what work they had to do, and so I needed some way of allowing their work to be marked "on the hoof".

The spreadsheet took some time to set up (ir calculates grade boundaries, tasks to do based on target grades, shows completed, incomplete and target tasks etc.). In order to use this I needed something lighter than my paving slab of a laptop.

A lot of the affordable PDAs have limited screen space - the best that I could find were the Dell 51 and the fujitsu Siemens loox n560. Of the 2, the loox was cheaper, but still had a (for a PDA!) large screen.

The setup at the moment is as follows:

The PDA goes everywhere with me in the classroom now. Whenever A student asks me to review their work, I can assess it there and then. The PDA syncs with my desktop, which then syncs to the shared files (I don't have wireless in the classroom at the moment).

recapping past efforts

Motivation

Since I'm coming to this having been working on this project for some time, I thought that I'd do a few posts to fill in the background.

Networked tracking software

Because I have a number of non specialists delivering ICT alongside me, I decided to try out some networked software that allows students to track their progress through units. I decided to use JAS (joint assessment software). Along side this is a teacher module that allows staff to view and edit their classes' progress and an Admin module that allows you to add pupils to units and edit and create new units, as well as a reporting tool and quiz maker.

This has worked well - students like the fact that they can record their progress, but feedback from teachers is separated out from the assessment of work. Also, the reporting package doesn't fit in with SIMS (the school admin software) and we have quiz makers already.

What I was looking for was something that allows students to test outcomes (i.e. if I do this, what will my grade be?) as well as to track their current progress. From a teacher viewpoint it needed to be easy to use, and require minimal extra effort to use. Finally, I wanted a system that allowed the teacher to assess and record the student's progress during the course of the discussion about the work.

What this is all about

I'm an ICT teacher in a small, rural high school. As with many teachers, managing student work became a real challenge - particularly when 100 or so kids all produce coursework projects running into 150 + pages.

I have experimented with a variety of approaches for myself and the department with various degrees of success. I've set up this blog to chronicle these experiments.

I appreciate that this is a kind of vanity publishing, but at least I will have a record of what I have done, for when I forget!