News Release

College earns $131,000 HP Technology for Teaching Award

July 24, 2008

Penn State Harrisburg has been awarded a 2008 HP Technology for Teaching Leadership Award designed to transform teaching and learning in the classroom through innovative uses of technology.

Leadership Awards are higher-value reinvestment grants awarded to HP Technology for Teaching grant recipients whose projects have demonstrated success in their first year of implementation. Penn State Harrisburg was selected for reinvestment because of its success in using HP technology to enhance instruction – demonstrating a measurable, positive impact on student achievement – and for proposing innovative plans to expand their programs to have broader impact on student success.

Team members instructional designer Carol McQuiggan and faculty members Hossein Jula, Mohammad-Reza Tofighi, and AB Shafaye used the research gathered from last year’s initial grant to design and implement three interactive courses in the Electrical Engineering program at Penn state Harrisburg. Before using tablet PCs, interactivity was accomplished through verbal question-and-answer sessions with students. Now, by using tablet PCs, direct observation of the students’ learning process can take place. Students are asked to solve in-class problems, their solution methods are projected on the screen, and all can directly observe the way they solve the problems during classes. With the tablet PCs, difficult concepts are easier to explain by the intensive use of graphs, charts, and figures. using different colored pens to annotate illustrations and highlight important parts on lecture notes also help with explanations. Visit the project’s web page.

Penn State Harrisburg is one of 10 HP Technology for Teaching higher education grant recipients that have been selected for the Leadership Award in 2008. The award package includes $131,000 in cash, professional development, and HP equipment.

In addition to the equipment and cash, a representative from Penn State Harrisburg will attend the annual HP Technology for Teaching Worldwide Higher Education Conference to be held in San Diego, Calif. in February 2009. During the conference, grant recipients will join together to share ideas about how to effectively incorporate HP technology – such as the HP Tablet PC – into their teaching curriculums and the learning experiences of their students. Through a series of hands-on workshops, poster sessions and lectures, recipients from around the world will be invited to share their project details with peer educators across all disciplines such as mathematics; medicine and chemistry; and geological, physical, biological, and agricultural sciences. Many teachers and professors will also demonstrate their use of a variety of software solutions to support their course redesign efforts.

Dr. Jula shares, “Real-time learning supported through active learning and class assessments is much more transparent with the ability to see and hear students’ learning during class activities. The process and product of their learning become visible. In this way, the students and faculty can take early steps to identify and resolve any gaps in the learning process.”

Since 2004, HP has contributed $60 million in HP Technology for Teaching grants to more than 1,000 schools in 41 countries worldwide. During the past 20 years, HP has contributed more than $1 billion in cash and equipment to schools, universities, community organizations, and other nonprofit organizations around the world.

“Education is at the core of HP’s giving strategy, and we are devoted to providing leading universities with the technology, funding and training needed to promote student success in higher education and beyond,” said Sid Espinosa, director of Global Social Investment programs at HP. “In awarding these leadership grants, HP aims to help teachers empower students by giving them the tools and resources vital in the 21st century workplace.”

More information about the 2008 HP Technology for Teaching program and grant recipients is available on the web. More information about Penn State Harrisburg is available on the web.