During the past few years, Spring-Ford Area School District has been investigating the use of handheld technology as a teaching tool.  After much research and planning the District implemented a pilot program in the fourth grade classes at Upper Providence Elementary at the beginning of the 2004/2005 school year.

So what exactly is handheld technology?  Handhelds are small wireless electronic devices, often called a PDA or personal digital assistant, which do all the functions of a personal computer.  Fourth grade students use handhelds in a variety of subject areas, especially Language Arts and Math.

In the Language Arts curriculum, students also use a special camera feature to enhance learning.  They are able to create videos and still images that can be incorporated into their own PowerPoint presentations, news story productions, and field trip documentations.

In addition to being used in the Language Arts curriculum, the camera feature has been applied to math instruction.  During a unit on geometry, students were given the opportunity to use the camera to take pictures of real life examples of geometric shapes and concepts they learned in class.