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using the feature. All students considered the Discussion forum a good place for sharing experience and gaining
alternative viewpoints.
As to using Bluetooth and IR, students loved its “quickness” and proved to be less troublesome because files could
be transmitted directly between two PDAs without first connecting to a computer network. The only problem
students mentioned was that the instructor had to remember to enable her Bluetooth before the transmission. All
students enjoyed sharing files with peers via IR and thought it was convenient in facilitating discussion and learning
from others. In using PicoMap software to draw concept maps, the benefits students reported were as follows: easy
and fast to draw, easy to comprehend and memorize, ready for use when a thought is generated, and the ease of
creating “clean” concept maps. Students found it inconvenient, however, in that the PicoMap only allowed 12
characters per node with only 32 nodes per concept map. This limitation was due to the small size of the PDA screen,
which also prevented students from viewing an entire concept map (which consisted of more than 8 to 10 nodes).
Table 1. Number of students reported advantages and disadvantages on the features of the handheld learning
environment
Feature advantages disadvantages
Patient’s ABC* 6 5
Symptom assessment* 6 4
Reflective journals* 5 2
Discussion forum* 6 0
Homework submission via Bluetooth 6 2
Sharing data via IR 6 0
Concept maps (PicoMap) 6 6
Note. * Accessed via WiFi network
A major problem raised by the students in using the PDA environment was the “connectedness” of the WiFi
network. Due to the somewhat dated network infrastructure of the hospital, we could only manage to set up two APs
in the hospital: one near the ward and the nursing station, and one in the meeting room. Students found it
inconvenient when they tried to access the network at other locations in the hospital. Some students attempted
working in the yard of the hospital, and found the wireless signals to be weak or even non-existent. Students also
indicated occasional slowness of the network while accessing the Internet or the course server, especially when there
were many individuals vying for access. The sluggishness of the network was attributed to the hospital’s small
bandwidth ADSL connection with the Internet, with a 768 Kb downloading and 128 Kb uploading rate. We
attempted to resolve the situation by modifying some of our application tools. For example, the Symptom assessment
scales could originally only be used when connecting to the Internet. We added the offline viewing/editing feature so
that students could also use it even without network access. Students could submit their work later when they had
access to the network. These modifications provided students with more flexibility and mobility in using the PDA
tool. This also reduced network traffic which, in turn, improved network access speed. Nevertheless, a broader
network bandwidth and wider wireless coverage would still be desirable for future implementations.
Comparison with previous practicum sessions
Questionnaires and after-practicum interviews were used to ask students, the instructor, and the four nurses about
their observed differences between the present PDA-using practicum session and the previous non-PDA-using
practicums. We summarize their comments (below) in terms of the learning process, interactions among peers and
instructor, and course management.
Learning process
The most cited differences which students stated were in regard to taking notes and recording conversations with
patients. These two features provided by the PDAs spared students from memorizing excruciating details and made
their learning more efficient. Students pointed out:
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