PDAs in the classroom

PDAs or Personal Digital Assistants could be a very useful tool in the classroom for some grades, but not all. After reading the article http://campustechnology.com/articles/39225_2/, I think that PDAs would be of better us for children in the upper middle school grades like 7th or 8th because I think they would be too hard for younger children to operate. Basically PDAs are little tiny computers that are used to help manage calendars and address books, but can also run certain applications. Newer PDAs run using the Microsoft CE operating system and contain the familiar Microsoft Word and Excel programs. PDAs can be useful in the classroom because they are much smaller compared to regular computer and can perform many of the same functions. PDAs can be used to record data, make calculations or graphs, and even take notes (when paired up with a keyboard). PDAs are also good for classroom use because they can't perform non-educational actions like downloading/listening to music or instant messaging like some other tech tools like the iPod touch can do. The only problems with PDAs are that they can be difficult to use sometimes. For example the Palm PDA has its own language called Graffiti that is difficult for many to understand. The screen is also very tiny so using a PDA could be hard when you are used to programs like Microsoft Word on a full computer screen. Some PDAs also don't even have a print option. I feel like PDAs can be useful for certain tasks in the classroom. They are good for interactive exercises, but I feel that a regular computer would be more useful in general. Since PDAs also can be tricky to use, I don't think they would be of much use for elementary students, but they would work well with middle school students who are more tech savvy.