Personal+information+managers

**1. Who needs this assistive technology?**
A personal information manager (PIM) is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. As an information management tool, a PIM's purpose is to facilitate the recording, tracking, and management of certain types of "personal information”. PIMs can be useful to really just about anyone. Busy parents can use them to keep their children’s activities organized. Business men and women can use them to keep track of dates and meetings. College students can use them to keep track of Birthday parties for friends, exam schedules and everyday reminders.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personal_information_manager http://www.essentialpim.com/

**2. What is the history of the assistive technology?**
There is no real history behind Personal Information Managers. Really, they are a 21st century development. There have always been ways of organizing personal information, but now it can be integrated into all of the great new technology we have available to us. Instead of keeping track of dates and events, things to remember, etc. on a calendar, in a planner, on a To-do list, you can now keep track of it all on your desktop! You can have entire technological calendars devoted to separate parts of your life. PIMs have become so popular that there are many different types available to the public. Here are just a few:

1. Palm Computing 2. Interoperability of PIMS with Unix/Linux 3. Linux Scheduling Tools and vSchedule 4. Linux PIM Stuff 5. Various Conceptual Approaches to Personal Information Management 6. Scheduling and Project Management 7. GTD - Getting Things Done 8. Hipster PDA

http://cbbrowne.com/info/pims.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_personal_information_managers

**3. What benefits does the assistive technology provide?**
This technology has many benefits. As long as you are technologically savvy, all of your organizational needs can now be met with ONE device. Whether you choose the blackberry, a desktop calendar, or a palm pilot. Your information is all in once place. Another benefit is that it is easily accessible. If you are in a rush and need to find contact information for somebody, you can just look it up in your PIM, rather than digging through your desk drawers. You will never again forget another Birthday party, assignment for class, or special event you have to be at. It not only works as a personal organizer, but a personal datebook, an assignment planner and a phonebook/address book. The ultimate benefit of a PIM is that you can have all of your information in one place, at your disposal, at any time you should need it.

http://www.treepad.com/

**4. How does the assistive technology work?**
Since there are so many different type of Personal Information Managers, which all work in different ways, I'll explain how one very popular PIM works and attach a URL of somewhere where you can find many others and see how they work.

//Blue Smiley Organizer://

Blue Smiley Organizer is a personal information manager and a Web-based organizer. Blue Smiley Organizer lets you store your favorite bookmarks online and access them from any computer with Internet access, the online calendar reminds you of important appointments, add reminder for specific dates, weekly or recurring events, manage your prioritized to-do list, and save email addresses and telephone numbers with the contact manager. It runs just like any program on your desktop. It's easy to download and keeps track of all your information at the click of a button. It is highly recommended because of it's user-friendly style.



//Interested in getting Blue Smiley Organizer?// http://www.bookmark-manager.com/

//Want to know where you can find other Personal Information Managers?// http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_personal_information_managers

**5. Exemplary examples of how the assistive technology would be integrated into an english classroom.**
This technology could be used by teacher or student. It's not necessarily useful for a lesson or for teaching purposes but could be used in many other ways.

For the **teacher** it could be used for:

-organizing due dates for assignments -holding contact information for students and their parents -cataloging student grades over the course of the year -keeping track of papers, poems, etc. that you have liked and want to keep for future use

For the **student** it could be used for:

-keeping track of when assignments are due -holding onto drafts of papers so that you always have them on hand -keeping track of daily homework -holding contact information for students in your class (in case they ever need help or have a question about classwork)

Here's a link about students using their Blackberry's to access their school email account: http://forums.crackberry.com/f61/verizon-blackberry-we-school-email-account-22090/

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