1,000 Superintendents and Principals Receive Palm Handhelds and Keyboards in Leadership Training Program

MILPITAS, Calif., March 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- More than 1,000 Michigan school administrators are well on their way to making handheld technology an integral part of their school leadership. Palm, Inc. (Nasdaq: PALM) today announced that 1,500 Palm(TM) handheld computers and keyboards have been purchased for school administrators participating in LEADing the Future, an innovative program dedicated to professional development in which technology is transparently integrated as a natural part of leadership.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030317/SFM061 )

A collaborative project of the Michigan K-12 education community, LEADing the Future targets superintendents and principals from Michigan public schools, academies and nonpublic schools. The program is funded by a State Challenge Grant for Leadership Development from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and is expected to reach 4,000 superintendents and principals during the three years of the grant.

"LEADing the Future is a focused, long-term and ongoing opportunity for administrators to learn to access and use accurate and timely data to make informed decisions," said Marion Ginopolis, director of the Michigan Gates Project, who manages the program. "Components of the program include both face-to-face and online learning activities that will result in a network of Michigan educational leaders who are data-driven powerhouses. Palm handhelds will help us accomplish this."

"Michigan is one of several states using Palm handhelds as tools for achieving greater organization, learning and access to information," said Mike Lorion, vice president of education at Palm, Inc. "The power and mobility of Palm handhelds put the information necessary for organization and decision making within easy reach of administrators, whether they are in meetings, on the school grounds, in their offices or anywhere in between."

LEADing the Future brings together major administrator and professional associations in the state, including the Michigan Association of School Administrators, Michigan Association of Intermediate School Administrators, Michigan Association of Secondary School Principals, Michigan Elementary & Middle School Principals Association, Michigan Association of Non-Public Schools, Michigan Association of Public School Academies and the Michigan Virtual University.

The ultimate goal of LEADing the Future is to make sure that all students succeed, an objective that can be accomplished only with strong leadership, according to Ginopolis, and one that is closely aligned with the No Child Left Behind Act, federal legislation enacted in 2002 to ensure that all children get a high-quality education. Other goals of the program include the following:

1. Building intellectual and technical infrastructures for leadership so
that administrators can effectively lead whole system improvement in a
changing environment.
2. Accessing current and relevant data and sorting through various
information sources.
3. Using data to make and present informed strategic, instructional,
organizational and public leadership decisions that move schools
forward and satisfy federal and state guidelines.
4. Sustaining the infrastructures to let administrators process what they
learn, network, share information and use online resources that
support continuous change and leadership development over time.

The handhelds come preloaded with Documents To Go(R) from DataViz and other productivity applications. In addition, the handhelds are customized with curriculum applications designed by the University of Michigan's Highly Interactive Computing in Education (Hi-CE) program. In conjunction with LEADing the Future, GoKnow, Inc., a company that evolved from the Hi-CE program, developed a specialized channel to deliver educational resources through AvantGo, a major provider of mobile enterprise software. The custom channel is available to all administrators who participate in LEADing the Future and will be hosted by technology developed by GoKnow and will bring 10 web-clipped journal articles biweekly to participants' handhelds. In addition, LEADing the Future plans to develop specialized software to access information such as testing and financial data in state and district databases.

Palm handhelds for the program have been supplied by CDW Government Inc. (CDW-G), a leading provider of technology products and services to educational institutions and government agencies, and a wholly owned subsidiary of CDW Computer Centers, Inc.; and Insight Enterprise, Inc., a leading provider of information technology products and services in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.

More information on LEADing the Future can be found at www.leadmichigan.org.

About Palm, Inc.

With shipment of more than 20 million Palm handheld computers, many carried in pockets, purses and briefcases around the world, Palm delivers devices that make it easy for people to use and keep track of what matters to them.

Information about Palm, Inc. is available at http://www.palm.com/aboutpalm .

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NOTE: Palm OS is a registered trademark and Palm Powered is a trademark of PalmSource, Inc., a subsidiary of Palm, Inc. Palm, is a trademark of Palm, Inc. Other brands may be trademarks of their respective owners.

SOURCE Palm, Inc.