Handhelds are quite simple to learn. It’s somewhat ironic, but as desktop and laptop computers become faster and more feature-rich, one of the best things about handhelds is that they are simple. The Palm Operating System in particular is very intuitive. You can get to most anything in three taps or less on the screen. In contrast, think about desktop word processing.  In Microsoft Word, you have menus, pallets, helpers, tools, and options galore. Word processors for handhelds are not nearly as complicated. The simplicity allows students to concentrate on their writing, not the software they are using.

Now, I’m not suggesting that handhelds completely replace desktop computers.  Desktop computers with their large screens and fast processors are the best tool for things like browsing the web, working with large spreadsheets, and creating multimedia. It’s just that those big and fancy computers can be reserved for those things at which they are great. Think about this: with handhelds, students can write, revise, and edit a writing piece. There’s no need to use expensive and complicated machines for this task. Now if that writing piece is going to be emailed or put into a slide show, then students can transfer the writing to a desktop and continue working on the bigger and more powerful computer.

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