PDAs

Perhaps you have already encountered this scenario: Your child comes home from school complaining that all the other kids have PDAs and insists that s/he should have one as well. Do you relent and buy one?

If you are a parent who is not especially familiar with computer technology, it may be hard to tell whether or not a PDA is really an educational necessity. Just what is a PDA, anyway? What are they used for, and how much do they cost?

Select a question below to learn more about PDAs. Use the navigation to the left to learn about other technologies.

1. What does "PDA" stand for?
2. What does a PDA look like?
3. What can a PDA do?
4. How could my child use a PDA for school?
5. How could my child misuse a PDA at school?
6. Aren't PDAs too complicated for children?
7. Are there different kinds of PDAs? Who makes them?
8. Will my child be required to have a PDA for school?
9. How much does a PDA cost?
10. What is the difference between a PDA and a handheld computer?
11. Where can I buy a PDA?

Are there different kinds of PDAs?

Yes. The PDA market has boomed in recent years, giving consumers a wide variety of choices among makes and models:

Palm (http://www.palm.com/us/) is an industry leader in the PDA market; this brand of PDA has its own operating system that is capable of exchanging information with your home computer (PC or Mac). Sony PDAs also make use of the Palm software platform.

Compaq/Hewlett Packard (http://www.compaq.com) and Toshiba (http://www.toshiba.com/) offer PDAs that make use of a version of Microsoft's Windows PocketPC operating system. Because Microsoft and Apple are direct competitors, Windows-based PDAs cannot communicate with Macs.

Sharp (http://www.sharp-usa.com/) makes PDAs that use the open-source LINUX operating system. ("Open-source" means that the code comprising LINUX is freely available to anyone and everyone, unlike Windows, a product sold by Microsoft Corporation).

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