Gaining Mobility

"Mobile University provides a standardized, one-on-one device that mirrors the ThinkPad program and all manner of campus services," said Crouch. "This pilot gives us a chance to work through the logistics."

It's likely students don't mind being the guinea pigs in the process, Swofford said. "This is not a luxury device; it's their whole life."

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It's likely students don't mind being the guinea pigs in the process, Swofford said. "This is not a luxury device; it's their whole life."

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Since 1996, WFU has distributed ThinkPads and printers to all incoming students, and those costs are included in tuition, increasing it $1,000 per year. After two years, that laptop is swapped out for a brand new one.

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convenience

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LaundryView application allows students to monitor which laundry machines are available and where their own laundry is in the cycle.

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In addition to working as phones and PDAs, the devices are equipped Microsoft Word, Excel and Outlook Express.

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and an entire freshman-level chemistry class and its professor received the device for free with the expectation of full integration in the curriculum.

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"You can download your school schedule from the school portal so it could be saved on your Outlook calendar. I used it mostly for organization and in-class research because at times, it's tedious to carry your laptop everywhere," said Kilemi. "I could also download files from my laptop to the PDA. It just increases the mobility a student has in terms of being able to access information."

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In the pilot's first phase, students were more likely to use the PDA as their phone, class calendar and music player than for direct academic purposes, noted Crouch. But this time, some faculty members will test the PDAs to help pass along notes to students during the day, such as study tips, and others will apply for mini-grants.

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Information services created a polling application compatible with the device for Swofford to conduct short surveys on the fly. The software allowed students to privately answer the questions, and depending on the answers, the instructor could see if students were on track or if he needed to slow down. Swofford also gave students some time to stop and discuss their answers with each other.

Swofford's goal was to get real feedback from students. During the last few minutes of class, he stopped the lecture and presented the class with a few questions: What was the most important idea of today's class? What left you most confused? What questions do you have?

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I got paragraphs of anonymous responses every day from students, perhaps due to its novelty, but also because they felt empowered, could communicate with the instructor, and the immediacy was important," Swofford said. "One day, the network hiccupped and they couldn't connect with my PDA. I told them to do the same thing later on the Web site. On that day, I got zero feedback. This tells me that immediate feedback for students was important, before they moved on to something else."

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