Classroom of the Future

In the future, I see (hopefully) every student having a wireless pda supplied by the school. It would have bluetooth, wifi, and broadband access for web, email, and instant messaging. Students would use these devices for taking notes, doing assignments, graphing calculator, data acquisition, PIM (schedule, assignments, contacts, etc.), web and podcasts, research, collaboration with other students and experts, assessments (sent to teacher for grading). Students would be more efficient and organized and can bring the device anywhere to do work and research. The teacher would have software on their computer to link to all the students' devices and to send and receive data, messages, assignments. Think about the collaboration and research possibilities. Think about the decrease in time for teachers to copy papers, hand out items, and grade papers. Think of the savings in paper too. The sad thing is that this technology exists today. Just look at the Palm TX, Treo Smartphones, iPhone, Blackberry, and other PDAs and smart devices. Someday though, we'll be able to use what the business community relies on as a great educational tool. Some schools and classrooms do this now, but it is no where near as widespread as it could, and should be.