STUDENT USE OF PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANTS IN A COMPUTER ENGINEERING COURSE

STUDENT USE OF PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANTS

IN A COMPUTER ENGINEERING COURSE

Robert Avanzato1

Abstract --- Penn State Abington has integrated the student use of personal digital assistant (PDA) technology to foster active and collaborative learning experiences in the classroom and laboratory. Palm™ PDA technology was introduced into a sophomore-level digital systems course in the fall of 2000. The students have investigated handheld software tools for enhancing learning and instruction in both the lecture and laboratory components of the course. Handheld databases, simple CAD tools, C programming, image capture, web-based tools, and robotics applications have been explored.

at home. Reference materials that supported digital circuit construction were created for access in the laboratory sessions. Experiments with interfacing the Palm PDA to microcontroller technology were explored, and an operational autonomous mobile robot was designed and constructed using the Palm as the ”brain” of the robot. Software could be entered and modified directly on the Palm device allowing modifications to be performed in locations where desktop or laptop PCs were not available.

Student teams constructed and evaluated a variety of course tools based on existing PDA software products, and

in a few cases, custom solutions were attempted. Student Index Terms  active learning, digital design, handheld PDA projects included a digital circuit schematic database computer, Personal Digital Assistant, PDA. (see figure 1), IC reference database, software for truth table

and K-map generation, and simple digital circuit schematic

OVERVIEW entry (CAD). These tools were used to support individual

and team design exercises in the classroom and lab.

In the fall of 2000, 24 students in a sophomore-level digital

systems course at Penn State Abington were each provided a Palm IIIx[1] personal digital assistant (PDA). The goal was to explore active and collaborative learning enhancements in the classroom and laboratory. The Palm PDA is an inexpensive, handheld computer which supports a wide array of software tools including database, spreadsheet, document viewing and editing, graphics, programming, and web-browser applications. The devices possess a serial port allowing connection to external devices, such as data acquisition systems and other computers. Additionally, there is support for close-range, IR communication and transfer of FIGURE 1 programs and data between PDA units. PDAs can be

synchronized with a PC system during which data files, Circuit Diagram on a Palm PDA using InfoView [3] programs, web pages, and other resources can be exchanged.

CONCLUSIONS

The PDA system software and overall operation are highly

intuitive, making it an ideal tool for educational use. Penn The use of PDA technology as an instructional tool in the State Abington has also integrated handheld computers in digital systems course was highly rated by the students and an Information Sciences and Technology program and a the instructor. The investigation and testing of software tools French III course [2]. demonstrated the usefulness of the PDA to enhance active

The students utilized their PDAs in all class and and collaborative learning in the classroom and lab. Based laboratory meetings for the digital systems course. Course on the preliminary success of this project, the PDA topics include Boolean algebra, combinational and integration is planned for a future offering of this course to sequential logic, state machines, and programmable logic build on the experiences discussed above. devices. Class notes and quizzes were distributed to the students via the infrared beaming feature. Classroom REFERENCES activities included the creation and execution of small C

programs that were designed to highlight course topics. [1] Palm, Inc., Santa Clara, CA. URL:www.palm.com

[2] Avanzato, R.L., “Handheld Computers in the Classroom and

Class materials and tutorials that existed on the web were Laboratory,” to appear in the Proceedings of the 2001 Annual ASEE also downloaded to the Palm devices for access in the Conference, Albuquerque, NM, June 2001.

classroom, and in other locations, such as the lab, library, or [3] The HandTop Company; URL:www.handtop.com

1

Robert Avanzato, Penn State Abington, 1600 Woodland Road, Abington, PA 19001 rla5@psu.edu This project was supported in part by a grant from Palm, Inc.

0-7803-6669-7/01/$10.00 © 2001 IEEE October 10 - 13, 2001 Reno, NV

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