For the first time in its history, the Georgia Department of Education this month will hand out grants for schools to pioneer the use of “handheld computing” to see if it engages students better than traditional book-and-paper methods.

The move goes beyond the use of computers and the Internet for class work, now a common occurrence in schools.

Rather, it endorses for public schools the idea of mobile learning through small devices such as an Apple iPod Touch or Microsoft Zune — devices that connect wirelessly to the Internet and have the capability for Web-based research and e-mail but heretofore have often been banned from use during school hours as distractions.

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