New mobile application solutions are being adopted on campus and in the classroom to help shape the way educators teach, administer, and organize data in the learning environment. They combine compactness with the capability to store critical data. This will enhance learning outcomes and increase productivity.

These mobile solutions can be divided into in three groups: classroom collaboration, mobile learning, and mobile campus solutions.

Classroom collaboration

The first scenario, classroom collaboration, is helpful in promoting teacher and student interaction, improving participation, and increasing subject-matter retention. One successful classroom collaboration tool is the wireless student response system. In this, the teacher utilizes a wireless classroom to send a test, poll, or quiz to the students' Pocket PCs, allowing the teacher to track the class's (or individual's) progress and lesson comprehension.

Depending upon the student response system capabilities, the teacher can review the student's progress, identify what questions are answered or skipped, allow students to electronically raise their hands for assistance or ask questions, and then let the application automatically grade the handout or test. Some student response systems allow the district curriculum to be integrated into the teacher module so that state standards can be followed. Of the several student response systems on the market, one in particular has been adopted by many districts: Discourse by ETS (http://www.ets.org/discourse). You can view video case studies at http://www.ets.org/discourse/testimonials.html (see especially the fifth grade social studies example).

School districts can also use free student response systems developed at various universities, such as ClassInHand from Wake Forest (http://classinhand.wfu.edu/) or Numina II SRS from the University of North Carolina (http://aa.uncwil.edu/numina/srs), which is a Web-based student response system using Windows 2003 Server and SQL Server 2000. This system provides various question interfaces: yes/no, multiple choice, long answer, sliding scale, and graphing plot.

In addition to student response systems, Windows Mobile devices have assisted educators in many classroom functions such as attendance tracking, grade keeping, lesson plans, student assessment, and tracking progress of assignments. State and federally funded initiatives such as No Child Left Behind and Reading First are being addressed with reading assessment solutions that utilize the Pocket PC platform. Reading assessment solutions allow educators to easily track a student's progress with better efficiency than paper-based solutions. An example of this is Achieve3000 reading assessment toolset (http://www.achieve3000.com/), which, with its primary focus on reading comprehension, vocabulary, and a strong emphasis on writing, has correlated to higher gains on the ITBS reading scores.

Pocket PCs are also a platform for delivery of differentiated instruction via the Web. At River Hill High School in Howard County, Maryland, the students use their Pocket PCs to build language arts skills with TeenBiz3000 (http://www.achieve3000.com/teenbiz3000.php), a program that sends each student a news article and related activities via a secure e-mail system. The content is customized, or differentiated, so each student works at his or her own level using the Pocket PC device to read the articles and do the activities (Fig. 1). (See case study at http://www.achieve3000.com/casestudy/ppcstudy.htm.)

Fig. 1: TeenBiz3000 gives each student customized news content.

Mobile learning

The second scenario is mobile learning. Mobile learning tools enhance the ability to further knowledge both in and out of the classroom, especially when students have time for additional study on the go. The obvious examples are electronic textbooks that several major education publishers are testing with districts this year, including dictionaries, eBooks, and reference materials. Some students like the mobile capabilities of science probes outside the classroom (Fig. 2), where they can take measurements for up to 30 days from various input measurement probes and post to Pocket Excel, or the classroom Web portal (see DataHarvest case study by Miki Merritt, p. 50). Other mobile learning tools, such as business and science calculators, presentation viewers, printing applications, pictures, and media players, are always in high demand with students and teachers outside the classroom.

Fig. 2: DataHarvest science probe for data logging and analysis.

The Microsoft Class Server is a learning management platform that makes it easy for school districts to create, deliver, and grade standards-aligned tests and lessons over the Web. It helps teachers track and improve student achievement against local curriculum standards, and meet the challenges of No Child Left Behind legislation.

Microsoft Class Server works with mobile devices to access content via Pocket Internet Explorer so that students, faculty, and family can check homework assignments, grades, and announcements at any time (Fig. 3). A good example of this type of activity is at Edmonton (Alberta) Catholic School District where students from grades 7–9 use their devices to organize schedules and homework activities, complete daily assignments, gather information from the Internet, and collaborate with fellow students (http://www.ecsd.net/programs/focus.html#pele).

Fig. 3: Microsoft Class Server informs users about school news and events.

Mobile campus

Lastly, the mobile campus collection of solutions utilizes the Windows Mobile platform to increase efficiencies on campus for students, faculty, staff, and IT management. The first notable enhancement is the Scheduled Synchronization (Over-the-Air Synchronization) experience with Exchange 2003 where PIM (Personal Information Manager) data is automatically synchronized, so that Calendar, Inbox, and Contacts are kept current, together with the data and news that is important to the user. The most common mobile extension in K–12 is the Student Information System (http://www.otised.com/docs/iprofile.pdf), where administrators utilize the Pocket PC to access student data such as attendance, personal contact information, demographic information, medical needs, discipline history, bus schedules, alerts, and more (Fig. 4). No longer will the administrator need to carry a binder of paper while roaming the halls to check a student's class schedule for personal information. Student data is stored on the device or optionally stored in SQL CE where it can be synchronized with the school district's data warehouse by means of wireless or cradle-based ActiveSync.

Fig. 4: Student information system by Otis

School district departments need to keep track of important assets for inventory purposes, such as library books and costly school property. Maintenance and repair departments need to track and take inventory of important school district assets like furniture and computers, and track the materials and time it took to complete job tickets. Other examples include foodstuffs used in the cafeteria (and their nutritional content), and student participation on school bus routes.

Thus the Windows Mobile platform, together with its many partner solutions, is allowing school districts to enhance learning, help teachers save time, and improve efficiencies on campus.

A list of 100 or so common education applications that work with Pocket PCs can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/education/?ID=pocketpcapps.