Uploaded March 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Lindsey Fallow joins a group of school children on a field trip to the Birmingham canals, to test out a prototype portable, touch-screen computer that incorporates a mobile phone, internet access, handwriting recognition and even a camera. It's called a Handler, and has been designed for just this type of scenario by a group of engineers at Birmingham University, including Professor Mike Sharples, who is on hand to observe how the children use the techology. What will the kids themselves make of it, and will it help them with their project?
Introduced by Philippa Forrester and Peter Snow.
Clip taken from Tomorrow's World, originally broadcast on BBC One, 12 January, 2000.
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Lindsey Fallow joins a group of school children on a field trip to the Birmingham canals, to test out a prototype portable, touch-screen computer that incorporates a mobile phone, internet access, handwriting recognition and even a camera. It's called a Handler, and has been designed for just this type of scenario by a group of engineers at Birmingham University, including Professor Mike Sharples, who is on hand to observe how the children use the techology. What will the kids themselves make of it, and will it help them with their project?
Introduced by Philippa Forrester and Peter Snow.
Clip taken from Tomorrow's World, originally broadcast on BBC One, 12 January, 2000.
You have now entered the BBC Archive, a time machine that will transport you back to the golden age of TV to educate, entertain and enlighten you with classic clips from the BBC vaults.
Make sure you subscribe so that you never miss a single stop on our amazing journey through the BBC Archive - youtube.com/c/BBCArchive?sub_confirmation=1
You can also dive into plenty more BBC Archive on our website - bbc.co.uk/archive
