Handheld Computing: New Best Tech Tool Or Just a Fad?

By Andrew Trotter

Clarksville, Md.

As students wandered into Rick Robb's English class at River Hill High School here on Wednesday morning last week, they fished sandwich-size computers out of their backpacks and set them on their desks. The class was instantly connected in an electronic network when they turned on the devices, prompting Mr. Robb to launch the day's writing lesson.

"Let's rock and roll," began Mr. Robb, 41, standing at the small audiovisual equipment cart he had pushed into the room. The cart holds a laptop that orchestrates the wireless network and runs software that lets him see what is on every student's handheld computer. He told students to examine the painting now visible on their screens: the interior of a crowded subway car. Choose a person in the car and write a first-person monologue of that individual's thoughts, he instructed.

As they typed on the lightweight keyboards they'd unfolded and connected to their iPAQ handhelds, Mr. Robb could watch his screen to view any student's writing as it appeared. "I said first-person point of view," he called out to a boy on the far...