THE PALM PILOT PENPALS PROJECT

For parents - why encourage your child to do this project?

This project is about drawing and computers. When it was carried out in two primary schools in London, the teachers found some unexpected benefits. First of all, using the palm pilot seems to free many children from the fear of drawing which is common in this age group (9 to 11 years). Because drawing on the palm pilot is fun, the project is like a game. But while the children are playing this game, they are learning to look closely at what they have chosen to draw, to condense and select the most important features. It is not possible to draw in great detail on the palm pilot, so the children have to figure out how to represent something in a direct and simple way.

Secondly, the children learned a great deal about how computers work, from the idea of a line being made of pixels, to how email works, to the technical challenge of manipulating a new kind of digital device. The National Curriculum in schools encourages every subject to include an information technology component. The palm pilot is an ideal mix of Art and IT, as it teaches hand drawing and observation as well as computer skills.

The third benefit from the project is a social one. Drawings are exchanged with others by email. In schools this seemed to encouarage the children to locate themselves in relation to children in another school. They had to think through what was similar and different about these other children and their school experience, from what they were studying to the nature of the school building. If the project is carried out at home, children will have the opportunity to make new friends online, by exchanging visual information about their home environments. In theory the penpals could come from anywhere in the world, and there could be the excitement
of finding out about another culture and way of life.

 

The Palm Pilot

A palm pilot is a mini computer that is normally used for keeping a diary and address book. It can also be used for drawing. Because it is small enough to carry around, you can use it the way you would use a small sketchbook.

When you press onto the screen with the stylus, it makes a black line. This line is not like a line you make with pencil or charcoal. It is a line made by the computer out of 'pixels'. Pixels are tiny black squares. On the screen, you can't see the pixels and the line looks fairly smooth. But if you hook the palm pilot up to your computer and make the drawing bigger, you can see the pixels. They look like building blocks. The bigger you make the drawing, the more you can see the pixels and the more 'squared off' the line looks

Because the drawing is made and stored on a computer, it can be sent to other computers just like word messages are sent - by email. Email is part of the internet, which links people's computers together through the telephone line. Your drawings can be sent as information down the telephone line to another computer. That other computer will translate the information back into a drawing. So if you email a drawing to your penpal, they can look at it on their computer screen.