I just received word o fan exciting hied conference called EduComm. The program looks like it is FULL of practical and interesting presentations. Read on for more info…

From the EduComm team:

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EduComm Conference 2008. When it comes to ensuring that higher education institutions are taking advantage of the latest technologies to delivery instruction and manage facilities, individuals attending the EduComm Conference are ahead of the game. From smart classrooms to lecture capture systems to distance learning, EduComm at InfoComm provides administrators with the latest insights into modern technologies and their implementation within higher education. Keynote speakers David Pogue, New York Times personal technology columnist, and Gary Kayye, founder of rAVe Publications and chief visionary at Kayye Consulting, will entertain as they share a vision for excellence in higher education.

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See http://educommconference.com/ for more information. If anyone has attended before, please post a comment and tell us more…

The annual HP Technology for Teaching Worldwide Higher Education Conference is one of my all-time favorite events. It seems like just a short time ago we met in February for 2 days – 138 faculty from 21 countries, sharing their expertise and excitement about using technology to enhance the learner experience in their courses. I wish ALL of you could have been there.

Thanks to ISTE.org, our conference partner, you can now view the video archives of the 7 featured presentations, and view the posters from the poster session...

Featured in this set of videos that you can stream and view online from ISTE:

• Assessing the Effectiveness of Tablet PC’s in a Higher Education Environment - Featured speakers:Joseph G. Tront, PhD, Deborah Olsen, PhD, Virginia Tech
• Beyond the Prototype: Generating Campus-Wide Buy-in for a Tablet Option - Featured Speakers: Dr. Dave Berque; Carol L. Smith, Terri Bonebright, PhD, DePauw University
• Introducing Tablet PCs to the Classroom: Course-Specific Impact in Engineering and Computer Science - Featured Speakers: Lisa G. Huettel, PhD, Duke University
• Improvement of an Information System’s Course Through the Application of Mobile Learning Technology - Featured Speakers: Alejandro Orero, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid
• Tablet PCs as Mobile Multimedia Data Collection and Analysis Tools - Featured Speakers: Malu Roldan, PhD, San Jose State University
• Teach and Learn with Technologies in a Mobile Campus for Engineers - Featured Speakers: Luc Mariaux and Jean-Pierre Berthet, L'Ecole Centrale de Lyon
• Measuring Learning Instructional Presentation - Featured Speakers: Gloria M. Rogers, PhD, Associate Executive Director of ABET

The conference also included a poster session where new grant recipients could discuss their project plans. If you are interested in seeing the breadth of projects that are underway (most are just getting started, so the posters are “works in progress”), feel free to download the “Poster Book” (27Mb PDF) and the companion “Index by Keywords” (100Kb PDF).

Enjoy! Post a comment and let us know what you think of the conference archives!

PS: The 2009 HP Technology for Teaching Worldwide Higher Education Conference is scheduled for 22-24 February 2009. New grant recipients are funded by HP to send one representative – but there are a limited number of spaces available for self-funded participants. Feel free to contact us for more information.

If you are using technology to enhance and redesign engineering education, I highly recommend that you consider submitting a paper for the 7^th annual ASEE Global Colloquium on Engineering Education. One of the three tracks is on “Successful Practices in Engineering Education”. The deadline for Abstracts is 16 May 2008.

I include a reprint of the email announcement from ASEE below…

We invite you to attend the 7th Annual Global Colloquium on Engineering Education present by Autodesk in Cape Town, South Africa on October 19-23, 2008. This year's theme is "Excellence and Growth in Engineering Education in Resource Constrained Environments - Learning from each other and working together to produce quality engineers for every part of the world in the 21st Century". This event will take place at the Arabella Sheraton Grand Hotel and Cape Town Convention Center. For more information please visit http://www.asee.org/conferences/international/2008.

In conjunction with Cape Town University, ASEE is inviting you to submit an abstract for the following tracks:

Research Track

Inferring and Designing Engineering Education Practice from Research and Societal Context: To what extent should engineering educators collaborate globally to re-engineer their programs?

Practice Track

Successful Practices in Engineering Education

Quality Assurance Track

Securing a Vibrant Global Economy - Building Capacity through Sustainable Accreditation Policy and Practice in Developed and Developing Nations

All abstracts are to be submitted online through the SmoothPaper system.

If you would like to submit an abstract, please visit SmoothPaper

(http://www.asee.org/smoothpaper) and select the 2008 Global Colloquium.

Please be sure to view the 2008 ASEE Global Colloquium on Engineering Education Author's Kit, which lists all of the deadlines as well as helpful information to guide you through the submission.

If you have any questions regarding submitting an abstract or SmoothPaper, please contact me direct or via email.

Sincerely,

Wayne Davis

Program & SmoothPaper Coordinator
American Society for Engineering Education
1818 N Street, NW
Suite 600
Washington, DC 20036
202-331-3530 (direct)
w.davis@asee.org
www.asee.org

If you end up presenting at the conference, let us know!

Speaking of conferences, if you are currently using or investigating pen-based technology, I highly recommend that you consider attending WIPTE, the premiere education-focused conference on pen technology. The conference is scheduled for October 15-16, 2008, at Purdue…

Over the past two years, the WIPTE attendee demographics have been:

• 100 institutions represented
• 5 countries represented
• 25% K12, 70% HiEd, 5% other
• 15 academic disciplines represented

In the plans for 2008:

• Keynote Addresses
• Poster Presentations
• Video Sessions
• Expert Panel Discussions
• Vendor Booths
• Special Sessions

For more information, visit www.purdue.edu/wipte. Proposals for papers are due June 16, 2008 (not a year in advance, like some conferences!).

For those of you who are interested in GPS, GIS, and field data collection, you may be interested in a short course being presented at the Geological Society of America annual meeting, 5-9 October 2008…

Peter Knoop (University of Michigan) and Mark Manone (Northern Arizona University), both HP Technology for Teaching grant recipients, will be presenting “"Teaching Field Methods in Geology Using Rugged Tablet Computers, GPS and Digital Data". In and email, Peter explains that they will be

“...focusing on the use of Tablet PCs and Pocket PCs in geology and environmental sciences, with an emphasis on field settings, but we'll also touch some on best practices for using such equipment across the curricula, including in the classroom. The meeting is 5-9 October, and the short courses are usually held in the days prior the meeting. Our one full-day course is likely, therefore, to be on the 3rd or 4th; hopefully they will post scheduling information soon on the main meeting website: https://www.acsmeetings.org/”

If anyone else knows of GPS or GIS related workshops or courses for faculty, please post a comment!

A)      excited by the possibilities

B)      energized by the people

C)      exhausted by the intensity

D)     all of the above

 For me, the recent 2008 HP Technology for Teaching Worldwide Higher Education Conference, sponsored by HP and hosted by ISTE, was definitely “all of the above”…

My head is still spinning with the variety of exciting projects being shared by faculty from around the world, most of whom are using notebook pcs with digital inking (tablet pcs) to redesign their courses. I will be blogging about some of the examples I saw in the weeks to come, and hopefully we’ll be posting the videos of the presentations soon. In the meantime, l’m thrilled to see that there is no shortage of innovation and enthusiasm for helping students learn better.

As I flip through the posters that were presented during the two poster sessions, I see many projects where GPS enabled tablets and GIS mapping software give students an opportunity to do real science in the field, from urban ecology to characterizing the migration of wildlife through semi-urban corridors.

Numerous projects address how mathematics is taught, with a common theme of letting students talk and work together. Moving from pure lecture to studio style instruction is enhanced by using tablets to enable rapid sharing of solutions and questions. The result is rich discussions are now occurring, and student success is increasing.

Faculty are using a variety of software solutions to support their course redesign efforts:

• DyKnow, Classroom Presenter, and Ubiquitous Presenter for interactive presentations and note-taking
• NetSupport School for desktop monitoring
• Moodle and Blackboard to support hybrid and online coursework
• Stella and Mathematica for modeling
• Camtasia and ePresence for podcasting and vodcasting presentations
• Cmap for concept mapping
• Google Earth and ArcGIS for mapping data
• Microsoft OneNote for electronic science notebooks and general note-taking
• … the list goes on!

I know it’s not the same as being there, but we do have some photos from the event that you can view, if you’re interested. Perhaps you can join us next year? Stay tuned to my blog for announcements.

Congratulations to everyone who participated! Keep up the great work. In the meantime, I think I’ll unplug and catch my breath…

Jim Vanides, B.S.M.E, M.Ed.
Program Manager - Worldwide Higher Education Philanthropy
Hewlett-Packard

For information about the HP Technology for Teaching philanthropy initiative in higher education, visit www.hp.com/go/hpteach-hied

As you know, we are always looking for ways to share best practices and increase the visibility for the wonderful ways faculty are transforming teaching and learning through the effective use of technology. I’m hoping you might consider submitting a proposal to speak at the EDUCAUSE conference. The challenge is that the deadline is today, 11 February!

I wouldn’t be at all surprised if EDUCAUSE selected several of our HP Technology for Teaching grant recipients to present, and many of you who have not received a grant from HP also have innovative stories to share. If you have a moment, start by going to http://www.educause.edu/14767.

Let us know if you have submitted a proposal. I would enjoy sitting in on your presentation next October...

Proposal Due Date: 14 January 2008
Conference Dates: 22-25 October 2008
Conference Location: Saratoga Springs, New York, USA

As described in their website, http://www.fie-conference.org, "…FIE is devoted to improvements in computer science, engineering, and technology (CSET) education…. Globalization calls for engineers and other professionals who are innovative. Engineering education must meet this challenge innovatively with new pedagogies; new approaches that improve student learning of technical and cultural skills; integrative approaches to problem solving; study-abroad; curricular reform; and partnerships among academia, industry, government, and K-12 educators…"

They are looking for papers on topics that are common themes among HP Technology for Teaching grant projects:

• Active Learning
• Distance Learning
• Diversity
• Innovative Engineering and CS Courses
• Learning Models
• Pedagogies
• Uses of Technology in the Classroom
• …and more!

Good Luck!

Jim Vanides, B.S.M.E, M.Ed.
Program Manager - Worldwide Higher Education Philanthropy
Hewlett-Packard

For information about the HP Technology for Teaching philanthropy initiative in higher education, visit http://www.hp.com/go/hpteach-hied

Jim Vanides, B.S.M.E, M.Ed.
Program Manager - Worldwide Higher Education Philanthropy
Hewlett-Packard

For information about the HP Technology for Teaching philanthropy initiative in higher education, visit www.hp.com/go/hpteach-hied

Many of you may be aware of Educause and their annual “IT in Hied” conference scheduled for this September in Seattle, Washington (USA). But have you heard about the Educause Learning Initiative (ELI)? It is the subset of the Educause community that is focused on Teaching and Learning. The next ELI meeting is in January 2008, and the deadline for presentation proposals is September 17^th. This is a great venue for sharing successes from HP Technology for Teaching grant-supported projects.

Perhaps we should propose an entire session dedicated to “Using Tablet PCs as a Catalyst for Course Redesign and Improving Student Achievement”. Anyone interested?...

The ELI organizers are looking for proposals for presentations, “innovation demonstrations”, and posters. The title of the conference this year is, “Connecting and Reflecting: Preparing Learners for Life 2.0“, and they say:

Join us as we explore:

· What skills prepare us for Life 2.0?

· What educational approaches will best prepare students for Life 2.0?

· How will we update our definitions of learning as well as rethink many of our assumptions about teaching, learning, and our profession?

· What unique capabilities does IT offer to help colleges and universities ensure today’s learners are successful?

It all sounds good to me – and their selection criteria dovetails nicely with most HP Technology for Teaching projects:

The ELI Annual Meeting Program Committee will review all proposals. Criteria used in evaluating proposals include:

· Quality of the proposal, including merit of the topic, clarity of expression, and relevance to the conference theme and ELI’s mission {JV: HPTFT projects are all about rethinking our assumptions about teaching and learning!}

· Evidence of a research base (for example, the project team has collected two years of quantitative data on the project) {JV: HPTFT projects that have been underway for a few years have some great data – especially our Leadership Grant awardees! Let’s go tell the story!}

· Clear linkage between learning technologies and learning {JV: couldn’t be clearer!}

· Active learning strategies involved in the presentation (for example, does the proposal's design demonstrate greater potential for fostering learning than a traditional lecture-style presentation?) {JV: HPTFT projects represent hundreds of examples of this!}

· Involvement of a team, either from a single institution or among institutions {JV: We could submit a joint proposal for a panel discussion or dedicated poster session, or…?}

· The overall balance of topics, institutions, and approaches {JV: HPTFT projects exist in more than 250 campuses located in 36 countries; would that be enough “balance”?}

We don’t have much time to put together our proposals! I hope many of you submit a paper or poster – and contact me right away if you want to work with me to submit a group proposal!

I frequently get asked for examples of how tablet PCs can be used in the classroom. In addition to my own “Gallery” of higher education projects funded by HP grants, there is a second edition of what I call The WIPTE Books – featuring exemplary papers presented at Purdue earlier this summer…

This most recent edition is a compilation of the best papers from the 2nd annual WIPTE conference, entitled “The Impact of Tablet PCs and Pen-based Technology on Education, 2007: Beyond the Tipping Point” http://www.amazon.com/Impact-Tablet-Pen-based-Technology-Education/dp/1557534616/ref=sr_1_2/002-9463136-9119202?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184166156&sr=1-2.

The first edition was published under the title, “The Impact of Tablet PCs and Pen-based Technology on Education: Vignettes, Evaluations, and Future Directions” (http://www.amazon.com/Impact-Tablet-Pen-based-Technology-Education/dp/1557534349/ref=sr_1_1/002-9463136-9119202?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1184166156&sr=1-1).

I highly recommend both books. When you get a chance to read them, let me know what you think!

I just received the final Program for the “1^st International Workshop on Pen-Based Learning Technologies” (PLT), being held next week in Catania, Italy 24-25 May, 2007. How wonderful to see three HP Technology for Teaching grant recipient teams presenting at the conference!

Obviously I’m a bit biased, but I do think it’s great to the HP Technology for Teaching community sharing its experiences with other faculty around the world. Bravo and congratulations!

• Marilyn Reba & Barbara Weaver, Clemson University (HP TFT 2006, http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=6083563832644)
• Stefano Giordano, Gregorio Procissi, and Stefano Lucetti, Universita di Pisa (HP TFT 2005, http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=38199742360227)
• Joe Tront, Virginia Polytechnic (HP TFT 2006)

For more information about the conference, go to http://plt2007.ing.unict.it

I look forward to hearing all about it!

Details from a recent AACE newsletter are included below:

>> Extended Call for Participation Deadline: May 15th <<

http://www.aace.org/conf/elearn/call.htm

E-Learn 2007 - World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, & Higher Education

October 15-19, 2007 * Quebec City, Canada 

CALL FOR PARTICIPATION ** Submission Deadline: May 15, 2007 **

Organized by: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) (http://www.aace.org)

Co-sponsored by: International Journal on E-Learning (http://www.aace.org/pubs/ijel)

If you have ever attended an AACE conference, please post a comment and let us know if think the audience would be interested in hearing from our Tablet PC user community.

Just a reminder - if you're looking for a great education technology conference and you're using or considering using Tablet PCs, you may want to sign up for WIPTE 2007 at Purdue (June 11-12, 2007). Apparently if you sign up by May 14th, you may win a prize! I think the real prize is the conference itself...

Below is the announcement from the WIPTE mailing list:

------------------------------------------

The Schedule for WIPTE 2007 (the Workshop on the Impact of Pen-based Technology on Education) is now posted at http://www.purdue.edu/wipte. Taking place on June 11th and 12th at Purdue University, WIPTE leverages a shared passion of Tablet PC's and similar pen-based devices as tools for the radical enhancement of teaching and learning. The goal of WIPTE is to identify best practices in the educational use of Tablet PC's in a variety of disciplines so that all educators may benefit from this next generation of technology.

Registration is open on the WIPTE website. Everyone who registers by May 14 will be entered in a drawing, with winners to receive cool prizes from our WIPTE corporate sponsors! Prizes will include digital cameras, software, and hand-held devices. Winners must be present at the drawing (at the end of the workshop) to collect their prizes.

I look forward to seeing you there!

The 1^st International Workshop on Pen-based Learning Technologies, to be held 24-25 May 2007 in Catania, Italy, has extended the call for papers deadline to 30 March. It sounds like an interesting conference, so I hope some of you can attend – or even give a paper! The theme is “Enabling advanced graphical, multimodal, and mobile learning interactions”.

From their latest email:

Handheld technology and pen-based input devices (e.g.,Tablet PC, PDA, Origami-UMPC, digital pen and paper, graphic tablets, pen-mouse) provide novel opportunities to develop:

1) more natural interaction and collaboration

2) multimodal, multi-party feedback and communication

3) mobile learning.

This workshop brings together researchers and practitioners interested in any aspect of design, development, deployment and evaluation of the next generation of pen-based learning technologies (PBLTs). We seek original contributions that will advance our understanding of how to make optimal use of PBLTs, and that will elucidate the relationship between pen-based interfaces and pedagogy, learning tasks, and learning settings.

The workshop is held in technical cooperation with the IEEE and IEEE Computer Society and is supported by the EEC Minerva – Socrates grant N. 223434-CP-IT-Minerva-M.

Post-Proceedings will be published by IEEE Computer Society Conference Publishing Services. Authors of selected papers will be invited to submit an extended version for a special issue of an internatinal journal.

Important dates:

30 March 2007 (EXTENDED DEADLINE): Submissions due (Full papers - up to 6 pages; Short papers - 2 pages; Panel proposals, Practical sessions proposals)

20 April 2007: Notification of acceptance

24–25 May 2007: Workshop

PLT 2007
1st International Workshop on Pen-based Learning Technologies:
"Enabling advanced graphical, multimodal, and mobile learning interactions"
24–25 May 2007
Catania, Italy
http://plt2007.ing.unict.it

Is anyone planning on attending? Submitting a paper? Let me know!