Preliminary Results of PDA’s in the Classroom

     As technology grows and expands, it is important to explore its advantages to assist learning and the ways this can be incorporated within schools. For this reason, we have researched student attitudes towards technology in the classroom and the influence it has on student learning. In order to measure this, a survey was developed and tested to evaluate the impact of introducing Personal Digital Assistants (PDA’s) in a traditional college classroom setting. This survey was designed by similar constructs from previously published surveys and assessed attitudes toward the handhelds in six different areas – confidence, liking, anxiety, enthusiasm, usefulness in general, and usefulness in the classroom. Exam scores and assignments throughout the course were also taken into consideration. The particular testing for the research was taken place in an introductory class in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University.
     Preliminary results provide evidence that the students are favorable of the introduction of PDA’s. On all scales, the mean scores were between 3.64 and 4.08 on a five-point scale where a score of 3.0 would indicate a neutral attitude.
     Once the PDA’s were considered favorable, the attitude data was further analyzed to determine whether or not different student populations responded similarly. The different populations studied were the students’ gender, age, and ethnicity. The data gathered suggests that student attitudes may vary based on these demographics.
     When the data on the six different attitude areas were summarized, the average scores for women were lower than the average score for men for all six scales. Previous research on the role of gender in computer attitudes has been mixed; therefore the results from this study suggest that additional research may be necessary to rule out a relationship between attitudes and gender.
     Age was found to be significantly related to enthusiasm. Students of age 23 or older tended to rate their enthusiasm for the PDA’s much lower than their younger classmates. This was a particularly notable result because such a small number of students self-identified as being older than 23 years.
     Ethnicity was found to have a statistically significant relationship with confidence. This finding cannot be distinguished from other potential sources such as computer experience or socio-economic background.
     Evidence gathered supports a relationship between the introduction of PDA’s in a traditional classroom and improved student performance as measured by scores on a midterm exam and student self-evaluation of learning objectives. Since this research was carried out in actual classroom settings, variables (such as instructor or the actual exam used) may provide alternate explanation for the differences seen. However, these findings do point to the need of further study to provide a deeper and broader understanding of this potential relationship.
     Overall, the introduction of the PDA’s in the classroom was favorable and presents evidence for having a lot of potential in the future. At the same time, the results of the attitude analysis of the different populations clearly shows us that we still have much to learn and develop to improve the use of these technologies as teaching tools.