Palm Pilots Grounded (Via The Current.) This article from Newport and Costa Mesa’s local paper, The Current, is not nearly as shocking as the title, or the cover image suggest. However, it documents the fate of the EETT grant that I managed for some time in the Newport-Mesa USD. The funding provided a Tungsten E handheld for 1000 middle school students and 120 faculty members, the largest handheld program in california to date. The article captures a couple of quotes from me, and despite being stripped of their context, they do present a sentiment I can stand behind. It was a qualified success at best (much of the benefit was incidental rather than intentional, at least with respect to the grant as originally written), the staff was indeed surprisingly resistant, and a pilot program would’ve helped immensely… in hind sight of course. There were many lessons learned, which Steve Glyer and I have spoken on for various occasions, and which I shared at length with the reporter. I wish the article would have passed on more of those as well. Perhaps I’ll take the time to share them on this blog someday. ;)