The Possibilities Are Endless

Our assignment for this week is to tailor some uses for the built-in applications of the Palm. I think the biggest plus of the Palm is that you can keep almost everything you need in this little, handheld computer. You don't need a yearly calendar, an assignment notebook, a journal, or any of the other items that students often carry with them; it can all be tracked by the Palm. The other huge plus is the ability to beam. Teachers can beam assignments to students; students working on a group project can beam their section to the other members of the group. Here are a few ideas I think would work well in my classroom.

Address Book
Each month we study a different composer or musician of note. The one difficulty I have with this ongoing activity is that once I tell students, for example, that Stevie Wonder is blind, they begin to think it’s true of the next composer and the next...Beethoven was our composer in December 2003 and, after that, every time we discussed a composer, they asked if the composer was deaf!

Their address book could become kind of a database for our musicians. They could keep track of the musician’s home country, web sites about the musicians, and their birthday. The customizable sections could include facts about the musicians, or song titles. What would make this perfect would be linking sound to it, so they could also play a representative composition.


Date Book
The date book, of course, is perfect for keeping track of assignments and class projects. With the ability to color code events, students could delineate between classes. It could replace their assignment notebook. I think one of the most valuable aspects of the Palm is that it can handle so much! This is the first time in about 8 years that I have not carried a day planner everywhere I go. It is invaluable for students! The ability to add a note to any entry into your daily calendar gives the date book more flexibility for recording assignments, ongoing projects, events, and so on.

Memo Pad
I would like to retitle this the “Idea Pad.” I think kids (and adults) need a place where they can jot ideas, thoughts, wishes and hopes, frustrations and feelings. As we encourage students to improve their writing skills and explore their creativity, it would be wonderful to have one spot they go to for some journaling. Again, having all of their information in one place would make it so much easier than carrying a journal, calendar, assignment notebook, and so on.

To Do List
I’m not having much luck thinking of how to use this in music, other than the obvious way of keeping track of things that need to be done for class. I think there is an obvious advantage to the palm because the kids could always have them with them. There are always kids who forget to wear their chorus t-shirts on a singing day; if the information was in their palm, they’d have a better chance of remembering. The same holds true when they need to remember to bring something to class, or a costume for the musical, or any of those sorts of things. I’m afraid I’m not very imaginative in this area!


Note Pad
Is there a way to install additional fonts into the Palm? I’m sure there must be. My thought for the note pad is to make it literal for music - it could become their “note” pad. There are a couple of fonts that print in notes and musical symbols. If those fonts could be imported into the palm, the students could have their very own composition book. They could store rhythm patterns, song ideas, even lyrics, and could beam their information to classmates when we work in groups to write music.

To take things a step further, if there was a way to import any music notation program, they could then add staves and write melodies. And - those melodies could then be used when the kids work with Garage Band.

The Palm could help students to develop their organizational skills, learn to categorize, improve writing skills, and channel their creativity. There's something about "ownership" as well; putting your thoughts and feelings on your own handheld and always having it with you. Kids want to use it - they want to record things on it - and it provokes an enthusiasm for exploring, creating, and learning.