Palms Part of Program to Teach Educators about Technology

Posted By: Ed Saturday, June 15, 2002 10:25:36 AM

A program developed to help education leaders in New York state begin to learn about technology will give about 5,000 Palm handhelds to school administrators. Called "Technology, Achievement, Leadership, Knowledge and Skills" (NYTALKS), the program will give superintendents and principals access to leadership and technology training.

"Our goal with NYTALKS is to demonstrate to school leaders the different ways in which they can use technology as a learning and leadership tool," said James Torrance, vice president of the Magellan Foundation, which is administering the program. "Providing each participant in the program with a Palm handheld is an investment in a tool that can help them enhance their leadership and organizational skills, resulting in more efficient and effective learning communities."

NYTALKS is the result of a $7.5 million State Challenge Grant for Leadership Development awarded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Terms of the grant require the program to use a digital tool.

The New York program is similar to one started earlier this year in Alaska, also funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

Related Information:

PIC: Bill Gates Pays to Train Educators on the Palm OS

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Bill & Melinda Gates Funding Palm Handhelds... :-)

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2002 10:41:41 AM #

I wonder what Bill thinks of this? His foundation paying to supply 5,000 school administrators with Palm OS handhelds rather than Pocket PCs?

Sometimes life is stranger than fiction. :-)

RE: Bill & Melinda Gates Funding Palm Handhelds... :-)

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2002 1:23:43 PM #

let's say it's m130 at full retail price of $279. That would be about $1.4m. Not a bad sum really.

But if it is m100 at discounted price of $60, It would be only $300k. Microsoft makes that much money less than 15 minutes.

RE: Bill & Melinda Gates Funding Palm Handhelds... :-)

cyruski @ 6/16/2002 8:54:30 PM #

they -can't- fund a PPC which is not outdated :)

cyruski!

Educators?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2002 12:34:00 PM #

Sounds like it is more to help principals and superintendents administrate than to educate.

RE: Educators?

twizza @ 6/15/2002 1:41:48 PM #

[quote]
Sounds like it is more to help principals and superintendents administrate than to educate.
[/quote]

you are probably true in saying that. but at the same time. you dont want to have situiations where students come into the schools with pdas and then administrators know nothing about them, so they make crack judgments about pdas and their uses. it is better that they learn the technology now and then later they are better able to educate and administrate.

RE: Educators?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2002 2:05:59 PM #

Oh, I agree. I didn't mean to imply this is a bad thing. I just don't think the article title fits what really is going on here.

RE: Educators?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2002 6:41:22 PM #

The next time you have a few spare hours, find a high school or college administrator and tell him you don't think he or she is an educator. You'll get a long, long talk on why you are totally wrong. If he doesn't punch you for insulting him to his face. They are very touchy on the subject.

RE: Educators?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2002 8:08:06 PM #

Well Sorry to say from what I see the bureaucrats..opps I meant administrators take way too much $ from our schools and this is one of the reasons our schhols are degrading.

RE: Educators?

twizza @ 6/16/2002 2:51:43 AM #

though i agree that there is too much "lost" money in teh school system. i do believe that handhelds are an area where all can win out. it will take the education of administrator and educators to make that possible though. this is a step. hopefully they will take the next step and educate the students. and then we will have a plan worth making having.

RE: Educators?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 7:02:00 AM #

Just curious.

Are any of you in education? Where did your opinion that a lot of money is lost in education? As an educator, I tend to disagree!

Wasnt this run about two months ago?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2002 2:35:55 PM #

I remember hearing this on PIC sometime awhile ago...

RE: Wasnt this run about two months ago?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2002 4:17:31 PM #

Yes I saw it too.

RE: Wasnt this run about two months ago?

Ed @ 6/15/2002 6:33:05 PM #

Take a look at the article again and read the entire thing this time and you'll know the answer to your question.

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News Editor

5,000 ?

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/15/2002 3:45:04 PM #

wow, five thousand is ALLOT. may i have one please?

I'll volunteer for 5 hours. :)

Just what the NY schools need

Coyote67 @ 6/15/2002 7:48:29 PM #

I can't speak from out of NYC schools, but I can say safely that the majority of department administrator, and higher administrators already have palmVxs. They got them some time ago in a grant from Dell that was supposed to create a mobile laptop lab in every Brooklyn high school. Never worked out, you see they wanted to network them via infrared (brilliant idea that was). So if all these administrators, and I do use the term loosly have palmVxs, what would giving them another palm do? Maybe the grant should have given them to the students, ones that could actually use them. Of course that would be a whole lot more money, and a whole lot better for palm.

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When you have a Clie shoved up your mouth, you can only talk in vowels.

Palms will EDUCATE!

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/16/2002 3:33:33 PM #

Those Palms will be great examples of ancient technology. Dinosaur bones and Palms, perfect.

RE: Palms will EDUCATE!

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/17/2002 5:44:44 AM #

They won't leave the box. The recipients will eBay them and keep using the Dell PDAs. Bill should pretty much abandon this foundation and get another one that isn't throwing his money away.

RE: Palms will EDUCATE!

I.M. Anonymous @ 6/18/2002 7:04:19 AM #

Actually,
In my district, which is not in NY, we are beginning to implement Palms into the classroom. A Palm 100 and a keyboard is a heck of a lot cheaper than a full computer system. The issue has been resistence from the teachers themselves. They are technophobic. They do not know how to use them, and some are so afraid they may not even be interested. I think a program such as the one described in this article could open the eyes of my fellow teachers. Teach them the benefits of a PDA and they will be crying for them.