Themes strongly agreed
upon by students, parents, and staff. It was strongly agreed that
PDAs enabled students to work more effectively (see Figure 1), improved
student collaboration, and helped students learn more about computer
technology.
Themes moderately agreed
upon by students, parents, and staff. It was moderately agreed
that PDAs provided digital communication between students and the Internet;
PDA screen size was adequate; student writing on a PDA was free of spelling
errors; and the PDA program could be considered successful because students
wanted to continue using PDAs and wanted other schools to follow their
lead. On the contrary, participants did not support statements suggesting
that PDAs could have best been used in mathematics or language arts.
Figure 1: Agreement by staff,
parents, and students that PDAs enable students to work more effectively.
Themes weakly agreed
upon by all participants: There was only weak agreement that PDAs:
enabled students to be better organized; assisted students in problem
solving; were useful devices at a minimal cost; or were useful for word
processing.
Themes staff members
strongly agreed on: Staff members felt that students: did their
schoolwork more effectively when using PDAs; collaborated through PDA
use; were comfortable working with their PDAs; and were more fortunate
than their parents in having computer technology to assist them in their
education.
Themes parents strongly
agreed on: Parents felt that students: could readily access the
Internet with their PDAs; were happy to be part of the PDA program;
and were comfortable using PDAs. Parents did not strongly support any
statements suggesting PDA use in specific subject areas. Rather, they
appeared to focus on functions of PDAs, such as the supposed improvement
in spelling through a PDA spell-check function. Parents had more faith
than students or staff members that Internet information was readily
accessible. Parents even expressed the belief that students solved problems
more easily when using their PDAs.
Themes students strongly
agreed on: Students were glad to be a part of the PDA program; knew
more about technology because of PDA use; preferred to continue using
PDAs; and would be pleased if other schools followed their lead.
Themes divided on the
basis of student gender: Females were more likely to use their
PDAs to communicate with each other. Ninth grade females did not believe
that it was easy to access the Internet with PDAs. Seventh grade females
didn't think that PDA calendars and organizers would be of much assistance
to them. Males strongly agreed they could create tables, charts, and
graphs when using their PDAs, while females disagreed. Males
had a stronger belief in the technical functions of a PDA, and were
more comfortable using PDAs than females.
Themes
that were noticeably divergent between the grades (See Figure 2):
Ninth grade students were split in beliefs that PDAs were preferable
to laptops. Seventh grade students held a strong belief that PDAs were
preferable to laptops.
Figure 2: Seventh grade students
had a preference for PDAs over laptops
Themes staff members
showed strong perceptual differences to: (Staff were grouped by ten-year
intervals of teaching experience.) There was strong divergence
of beliefs between staff members of varying years of experience. Staff
members held strong perceptual differences on approximately 50% of the
questionnaire statements. Although
there were only six staff members, the strong divergence of perceptions
suggested possible concern for the PDA program. For example, when asked
to rate the item “students are better problem solvers when using their
PDA”, there was equal rating between disagree, no opinion, and agree.
