When introducing handhelds into the classroom, you do not have to buy all of the gadgets and accessories that go along with them. Just get the handhelds. Buy as many as you can, so that you can put handhelds in the hands of as many students as possible.  Sure, you can spend lots of money on software, but that’s not necessary for success. If you plan for students to enter more than a sentence at a time on their handhelds, you’ll definitely want keyboards. I would also recommend getting a document camera so you can display the handheld’s screen for the students to follow along.  You’ll also need power strips - lots of power strips for charging.

If you have money for software, consider using it on cross-curricular titles. There are applications that are specific to the curriculum. But speaking solely about cross-curricular applications, I’d say you should have:

eReader (with plenty of eBooks and a copy of eBook Studio for making your own eBooks)
Quizzler (for making and taking quizzes)
Dropairs (for matching pairs of items for any topic for which a teacher creates pair boards)
Sketchy (from GoKnow for making animated cartoons about any subject)

Click here to see other software that Tony has used and recommends:
http://www.learninginhand.com/articles/software.html

If you are having difficulty getting your handheld project funded, keep trying! It may take several tries before you actually get any funding. However, what you can do with handheld computing is worth the time and effort spent rounding up the money.

Here are some great funding resources provided by Tony. http://www.learninginhand.com/links/grants.html

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