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Session 1420

A PROGRAM FOR STUDENT EDUCATION AND EVALUATION OF PERSONAL DIGITAL ASSISTANTS

Charles McIntyre, Prajesh Kondaskar, and Gary Smith

Civil Engineering and Construction North Dakota State University

Introduction

During the summer of 2002, Steve Nellis, Vice-President of Recruiting for Centex Homes (Dallas, Texas) issued a call for proposals from a number of colleges and universities offering programs in construction engineering and/or construction management. The proposal consisted of an offer from Centex Homes to provide a number of Personal Digital Assistants (m105 Palm) to select construction programs throughout the country. Their intention was to provide the students with an example of the type of tools that are used in the day-to-day operations of the home building industry. A limited number of m105 Palms were available. The exact number distributed to each applicant was dependent on the requested use and student interest. On average each applicant received ten (10) m105 Palms. The units were shipped on July 15, 2002, in time for the start of the 2002 Fall Semester. The Division of Construction Management and Engineering (CME) at NDSU applied for, and received, 10 PDAs. The contents of this paper: 1.) describe the Palm Education and Evaluation Program (PEEP), 2.) provide an overview of the student use of the Palm functions, 3.) give a breakdown of the learning strategies that were employed by the students, and 4.) document student assessment in the form of comments that were summarized from the interim reports (2002 Fall Semester), and 5.) present conclusions.

The Proposal

The initial proposal sent to Centex Homes attempted to: 1.) formalize the PDA distribution to the students based on merit, 2.) document the student learning processes involved with PDA technologies, and 3.) evaluate and assess the overall PDA program. After receiving the PDAs from Centex Homes,

Proceedings of the 2003 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2003, American Society for Engineering Education

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McIntyre, C. (2003, June), A Program For Student Education And Evaluation Of Personal Digital Assistants Paper presented at 2003 Annual Conference, Nashville, Tennessee. 10.18260/1-2--12303