We have approached PDA integration in a three-fold manner. First, I have been studying PDA journals, Web sites, organizations, and makers. Through list-serves, Web contact, and personal emails I have gathered (and am still gathering) a plethora of information, projects, and ideas. Second, we have established a PDA Users Group (our Systems Applications Department members, administrators, teachers, and community members are learning and comparing PDAs). Finally, teachers and administrators are being encouraged to write grant proposals and to integrate the PDAs of their choice into projects on each campus, provided that the use of PDAs is crucial to the success of the project. Though barely stepping foot on the PDA battle grounds, we have moved forward.

As the initial interest began to explode, we started distributing and encouraging teachers to write for grants. I distributed information to teachers about two grants that I thought would be very appropriate for our teachers. One was to Palm and SRI, and the other was for EDS (Educational Data Services). Although the EDS grant was not specifically for PDAs, many of the teachers included PDAs in their proposed projects. Two of our teachers had projects make it to the semi-finals of the Palm and SRI grants, but none won the EDS grants. However, the interest and the ideas for integration into the classroom spurred other teachers' growing interest.

Klein ISD held its first Technology Fair in March 2001, and one of the sessions I hosted at the Fair was for PDA users. I was overwhelmed at how many people attended. We had seating for 25, and there was standing room only for some in the back. There were administrators, teachers, and parents at the session. Most participants had Palm handhelds, a few had Compaq Pocket PCs, and a couple had Handspring Visors. We discussed the ways that people use their PDAs and how PDAs could be used in the classroom. I referred back to the grant applications as examples, and this caused even more ideas to be generated. The excitement was apparent, and most asked to continue the sessions in the future. Interestingly, most were not interested in attending the sessions in order to learn how to begin to use PDAs, but how to use them better and how to integrate their use into the classroom.

Of the people having PDAs in our district, most are members of the Systems Application Department, or administrators that have made the move to electronic organizers. But more and more teachers have already begun to purchase PDAs just since March, and this summer I have become aware of support personnel (social workers, secretaries, maintenance, etc.) purchasing PDAs also. Primarily, people are purchasing them on their own, but a few have made the move to purchase them as part of the school equipment. Granted, as of this writing most of the devices are still for individual users. But in order to make the best decision about what to purchase and why they should be purchased, a few people needed to use them, become familiar with them, and learn as much as possible about them first. I personally raved about my self-purchased Palm Vx. Now, to fairly compare, I have been issued a Compaq iPAQ 3670.