Speaking of grants and awards, those of you who teach engineering related courses may find the Premier Award to be of interest. If you’ve developed some innovative courseware that you’d like to share, this could be a great way to disseminate some best practices and gain some recognition. Read on for the full announcement from our friend, Joe Tront (Virginia Tech, and Editor of the Premier Award). Submissions are due July 11^th…

*******************
Dear Colleague,

We are seeking exemplary courseware for our annual international awards competition called The Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware. Our definition of courseware includes all technology-based materials developed to support engineering learning environments. We believe that our thorough peer review process, equal in rigor to a research journal review, has been successful in highlighting and rewarding the efforts of faculty members working on improving engineering education. We would be pleased to have you participate and also ask you to pass this announcement on to other interested colleagues. Please see the call for submissions below. You may also want to review the freely available engineering learning resources cataloged in the Engieering Pathway digital library at http://www.engineeringpathway.com/
Thanks.

---Joe Tront, Editor Premier Award


Call for Submissions
2008 Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware
(see http://www.needs.org/premier/ )

NEEDS, John Wiley & Sons, Microsoft Research, Techsmith and Autodesk are pleased to announce the 2008 Premier Award competition. The Premier Award recognizes high-quality, non-commercial courseware designed to enhance engineering education. Beyond just recognizing outstanding courseware, the Premier Award evaluates and acknowledges exceptional learning experiences. Since 1997, twenty-eight outstanding courseware packages and learning experiences have been rewarded. If you or someone you know has developed non-commercial courseware or exceptional web sites designed to enhance engineering education, please consider submitting for the Premier Award.

Please visit our website for information regarding submissions, prizes, past winners, sponsors, etc. http://www.engineeringpathway.com/ep/premier/ You may download the Premier Award call for submission flyer at http://filebox.ece.vt.edu/~jgtront/PA_flyer_08.pdf The winner(s) will be announced and prizes awarded at the 2008 Frontiers in Education Conference on October 22-25, Saratoga Springs, NY.

Important Dates:
July 11, 2008 - Submissions Due by 5 PM MT
October 22-25, 2008 - Winner(s) Presented at the FIE 2008 Conference http://fie.engrng.pitt.edu/fie2008/

For More Information:
Please contact, Joe Tront, jgtront@vt.edu, (540) 231-5067 or Brandon Muramatsu, brandon.muramatsu@usu.edu, (435) 797-2703.

*****************************

Great news! My colleagues at HP Labs have just launched a global Call for Proposals as part of their HP Labs Innovation Research Program. This is an open and competitive Call for Proposals, where HP labs is “…soliciting your best ideas on a range of topics with the goal of establishing new research collaborations…”

The call for proposals is organized by region, where each region has specific research themes of interest. Start by identifying your region:

...then view the research topics of interest for that region.

There are several topics that I think might overlap with education and/or the creation of a rich IT infrastructure in an education setting. For example, in the Americas there are research topics such as “Social Computing: Methods for Harvesting the Collective Intelligence of Groups” (topic 7) and “Next-Generation Multimedia Communication and Collaboration Systems” (topic 9). In India, they are seeking collaborators to explore “How do we design compelling experiences based on pen, touch and hand gesture-based interaction for the key user activities on small form factor devices? For family-oriented systems used in the home?”

If you have any questions, check out the FAQs. The proposals submission deadline is 18 June 2008.

Good luck to all of you who apply!

This is our 5^th year of funding HP Technology for Teaching grants for K12 teachers and Higher Education faculty around the world. By the end of 2008, HP will have supported more than 1000 schools and higher education institutions in 41 countries, where educators are using technology to redesign the learning experience of their students.

I am very pleased to announce our 2008 grant recipients…

• K-12 Schools – U.S. & Puerto Rico
• K-12 Leadership Schools – U.S.
• K-12 Schools – Canada 
• K-12 Schools – Latin America (coming week of June 23)
• Higher Ed – North America
• Higher Ed Leadership – North America (coming June 30)
• Higher Ed – Europe, the Middle East, and Africa
• Higher Ed – Asia Pacific
• Higher Ed – Latin America (coming June 1st)

As always, we received MANY more excellent proposals than we could fund. This made the selection process very challenging and competitive. We would like to extend our thanks to everyone who applied – and we want to express our heartfelt gratitude for all that you ALREADY do to help your students succeed…

With the deadline fast approaching, I thought I’d post a quick reminder to K-12 teachers in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, and higher education faculty in North America (Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S.) that applications for HP Technology for Teaching Grants are due February 14, 2008.

Read on to review the original announcement...

www.hp.com/go/hpteach

Application Deadline: February 14, 2008

It is with great pleasure that we announce the 2008 HP Technology for Teaching Grant Program. Through this grant program HP will award grants totaling nearly $7 million in cash and equipment to K-12 public schools and two- and four-year universities in 2008. This grant initiative is designed to support K-16 educators who are using mobile technology in innovative ways, and to help identify K-12 schools and higher education institutions that HP might support with future grants. Based on the outcomes of the projects funded through this initiative in 2008, HP may offer grant recipients the opportunity to receive higher-value grants in 2009. The specifics of the two offerings are as follows:

• K-12 2008 HP Technology for Teaching - targeted to public schools in the US and Puerto Rico.
• Higher Education 2008 HP Technology for Teaching - targeted to public and private, two- and four-year colleges and universities in Canada, Puerto Rico, and the United States.

The attached flyers and slides may be used to inform internal and external partners and customers about both the K-12 and the Higher Education grant. A media alert will go out this week to publicize this opportunity with media outlets and philanthropy trade publications. Please forward this message as appropriate:

· To eligible schools and campuses that may be interested in this grant opportunity

· To HP employees throughout your organization who may like to share this grant opportunity with schools they personally know

· To HP and channel partner sales and marketing teams who are calling on education customers

The application deadline, February 14, 2008.

Visit http://www.hp.com/go/hpteach for additional information and to access both the K-12 and Higher Education RFP.

We look forward to receiving your proposals!

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

The HP Technology for Teaching Grant Initiative for 2008 is now underway! Public K-12 schools in the U.S., as well as two- and four-year colleges and universities throughout North America (Canada, Puerto Rico, and the U.S.)  are welcome to submit proposals for transforming teaching and learning with technology.

For more information about the program and school eligibility, visit:
http://www.hp.com/go/hpteach. The application deadline is, February 14, 2008.

For examples of higher education projects that have been funded in the past, visit our "hied gallery" at http://www.hp.com/go/hpteach-hied.

We look forward to seeing your proposals...

If you are engaged in education research in digital media for learning, you may be interested in a recent announcement by the MacArthur Foundation. The Digital Media and Learning Competition has two categories – “Innovation Awards” ($100K and $250K), and “Knowledge-Networking Awards” ($30-75K).

From their website, http://www.dmlcompetition.net/home.php

“Innovation Awards will go to pioneers who are exploring new digital models of learning that build upon and enhance the informal, networked, and collaborative styles today, especially but not only among youth. These projects will demonstrate new modes of learning in many environments.

Innovation projects:

• explore new digital models of learning that build upon and enhance the informal, networked, and collaborative learning styles of youth today, extending them more broadly.
• demonstrate new modes of learning.
• bridge diverse communities, in most cases reaching across generations and enabling youth (and those who teach them) to learn from one another.

Learning environments addressed by Innovation projects include any and all of the emerging contexts used to facilitate learning in a digital age, such as:

• the physical environment and how it is mediated;
• learning tools (text-books, toys, technologies);
• the involvement of peer learners;
• the role of adults, as well as learning by adults;
• the deliberate activities used (i.e., curriculum).

Knowledge-Networking Awards will go to proven communicators. Applicants will already be networking with others and are dedicated to digital learning through blogs, social networking, social bookmarking, podcasting, world-building environments (such as Second Life), or other on-line communities.

Knowledge-Networking projects:

• do not simply convey information.
• promote collaborative thinking.
• translate great ideas.

The deadline to apply is October 15th, 2007.

Good luck!

While I’m passing out congratulations, let me also mention the new HP Technology for Teaching higher education grant recipients for 2007 in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa!

Exciting new projects are being launched at campuses in Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Slovakia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. To learn more, visit http://h41111.www4.hp.com/globalcitizenship/uk/en/bulletin/16/news2.html

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

It is with great pleasure that I announce the recipients of the 2007 HP Technology for Teaching U.S. Higher Education Leadership grant...

This grant opportunity was extended to recipients of 2005 and 2006 U.S. HP Technology for Teaching higher education awards. Each of the 10 U.S. selected campuses reported exemplary project results to date and will receive cash and equipment award valued at more than $120,000 in support of exciting plans to expand the impact on their campus. These 10 campuses are listed below with a brief description and links to project webpages. Congratulations!

Needless to say, it was very difficult to finalize the list, as we received many excellent reinvestment proposals that we could not fund. We are very proud of our entire HP Technology for Teaching community and the commitment faculty have made to enhancing teaching and learning on their campus. The hard work and investment in students appears to be worthwhile: Of the 71 project updates we received from HP Technology for Teaching projects around the world, nearly 90% report a positive or extremely positive impact on both student learning and on teaching. Fantastic!

I wish to extend my sincerest thanks and appreciation to all of you…

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

Clemson University
Clemson, SC

Current Project: http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=6083563832644; also http://www.clemson.edu/~mreba/HPGrant

Extension Project: Mobile Instructional Technology for Integrating Classroom and Laboratory Activities for STEM Students (MITICLASS) (pronounced “Mighty Class”)

Mathematics; Engineering; Chemistry; Computer Science

"Introverted students and students afraid of making mistakes in front of their peers are more willing to contribute to class activities since submissions are anonymous…The degree to which Tablet technology ignites student interest and the spirit of openness and collaboration in the classroom was totally unexpected. Students are motivated to come and participate and as a result are more successful in learning the subject matter…time and over again, students state how ‘this is the first time any math class was relevant and exciting for them’. Students from past classes taught with technology always seek me out and fondly recount our time together learning with the Tablets."

DePauw University
Greencastle, IN

Current Project: http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=82870413533291

Extension Project: Broad and Deep: Building a Critical Mass of Tablet Teachers Led by Tablet Deployments in Cognitive Psychology and Foundations of Education Courses

Cognitive Psychology; Education

“…It is encouraging to note that out of the 44 initial enrollments in the redesigned offering of Computer Science One and Computer Science Two, only one student failed to complete the course with credit [compared to the expected 5-6]… By collecting student work and looking at the process by which they have solved a problem, using the playback feature [of DyKnow], I have been able to provide a different kind of feedback to [the students] about how to logically approach problems.”

Diablo Valley College
Pleasant Hill, CA

Current Project: http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=78702393992527

Extension Project: Calculus with Tablets- An experiential approach

Mathematics

The success and retention rates in the classes taught with the redesign were compared against the historical data from all 120 sections of Calculus II that were offered at DVC since the summer of 1999 (the earliest time success and retention data are available). The retention rate of the redesigned courses was 87.0%, up from an average of 76.7%. The success rate was 78.3% up from an average of 68.7%. It is worth noting the record high 95% - 100% consistent attendance rate in the redesigned classes, unprecedented in the PI’s past experience in the college. The effect on student performance was also studied by comparing student overall grades in the first 3 weeks of each term, before the redesign kicked in, with their overall grades in the next 3 weeks, when the redesign was active. It was found on average 20% of the students improved their performance by 1-2 letter grades after the deployment of the redesign.

Student Testimonial Video: http://voyager2.dvc.edu/faculty/dprapavessi/HP%20thank%20you%20.mov

Eastfield College
Mesquite, TX

Current Project: http://www.eastfieldcollege.com/smpe/chemistry/HPGrant/index.html

Extension Project: Using Networked Tablets to Enhance Interactive Student Learning

Chemistry

“The treatment group for this study was taught using POGIL pedagogy and the networked Tablet technology. The control group was taught by a different full time instructor in pure lecture format using no technology of any kind. The class that used the tablets with POGIL pedagogy experienced a 86 percent success rate (ABC vs DWF). The control class -- lecture and no technology experienced a 29 percent success rate... This system can be used to poll students in free response, share electronic files on the fly, project student work and chat for group collaboration. This project also clearly demonstrated for me the impact of the networked tablets on student engagement in class, and the relationship of student engagement in the classroom with increased success, while at the same time increasing student enjoyment of the learning process.”

Montgomery County Community College
Blue Bell, PA

Current Project: http://faculty.mc3.edu/prahmlow/HPGrant/index.html

Extension Project: Collaborative Problem Solving using Mobile Teams, Visualization and Digital Ink

Computer Science; Communications

“The drone of a lecture, sleeping students, and deafening silence too often characterized the computer science classroom of the past.The computer science major of the past could best be described as a loner - hovering over the keyboard coding the latest assignment with no one other than the mouse to keep them company! The computer science major of the future will readily work with classmates designing, coding and testing systems. Sharing of files and ideas is easy with the use of mobile technology. Flowcharting and brainstorming can be fast and furious with digital ink and tablet PCs.”

Student Testimonial Videos: http://faculty.mc3.edu/prahmlow/HPGrant/videos/Student%20Experiences/studentVideos.htm & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLif-ktZAl8

Parkland College
Champaign, IL

Current Project: http://grade.csit.parkland.edu/ & http://natsci.parkland.edu/che/hp/TFT2006/Progress.htm

Extension Project: Parkland College/HP Chemistry-Physics-Computer Science Collaboration

Computer Science; Chemistry

“Students earning an A in tablet sections of first semester course is about 12 percentage points higher than A's in non-tablet sections (10% compared to 22% in tablet sections)…Students in tablet sections performed remarkably better on a final exam question specifically designed to test for molecular understanding as learned through a tablet based activity…”

Seattle University
Seattle, WA

Current Project: http://www.seattleu.edu/scieng/me/hp

Extension Project: Tablet PC’s for integration of cooperative learning groups with a dynamic visual context: animations, simulations, and information mining

Chemistry

“By being able to manipulate the data in the lab, students gain a better understanding of the physical phenomena… Immediately after the test, the student can analyze the curve to determine engineering material properties. This bridges the gap between theory and experiment... When compared with past classes in which the TabletPC’s were not used, faculty reported a substantial increase in student interaction and engagement...Once other faculty learned what we were doing, they began borrowing our equipment for other classes. The original project served only the Sophmore/Junior level strength of materials lab. We now are using the Tablets in several Chemistry courses and Sophomore level engineering Statics and Dynamics courses.”

University of California, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, CA

Current Project: http://www.soe.ucsc.edu/tablets/

Extension Project: Tablet Computing, Enabling The Interactive Classroom

Computer Science; Biomolecular Engineering

“During 2006-7, this best practice using Camtasia and Presenter has continued to have overwhelming student enthusiasm. By breaking the temporal/geographic requirement to attend lectures, students are better able to manage their class attendance. While other such efforts have reported a drop in student attendance, our experience has been exactly the opposite. Students choose to pay attention, knowing they can take notes later, increasing comprehension and fact retention. They review the lectures several times before exams or homework, and repeated exposure has demonstrated significant increases in student learning.”

Valdosta State University
Valdosta, GA

Current Project: http://valdosta.edu/~bhojjati/snapshot_valdosta.html

Extension Project: Using Mobile Technology to Improve Visualization, Technical Communication, and Analytical Skills of Engineering and Science Students and to Facilitate Student Learning

Engineering; Biology; Geoscience; Dental Biomaterials

“It is evident that the number of students receiving a grade of "A" or "B" was increased significantly and in general, the number of "C"s and "D"s decreased when Tablet PCs were used in the classroom…”

Student Testimonial Videos: http://valdosta.edu/~bhojjati/snapshot_valdosta.html

Washington University
Saint Louis, MO

Current Project: http://www.cfkeep.org/html/snapshot.php?id=14952022316821

Extension Project: Enhancing Student Learning using Spatial Technologies, Computer-supported Collaborative Learning, and Group Work

International Development; Education

“The wireless tablet PCs allowed us to introduce in-class active-learning exercises for chemical modeling and resulted in an increase in class participation and improved homework scores in the solid-state course. The introduction of the electronic laboratory notebook has improved the teaching and learning of efficient organization and management of experimental data and observations, and has encouraged students to modify experimental procedures to obtain better results, which mimics research experience but in a class situation…the instructor added more in-class exercises this past spring and can not envision teaching this class without the use of the tablet PCs…”

Yes, my blog is focused on “Teaching, Learning, and Technology in Higher Education”. However, I thought I’d take a moment to let you that our 2006 HP Philanthropy Annual Report has just been released – and you may enjoy reading about the OTHER initiatives we have been supporting.

A PDF of the 2006 HP Philanthropy Annual Report is available online at http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/grants/reports/index.html. Feel free to pass along the link to other educators or eligible organizations that you know.

Little Known Fact: HP founders Bill and Dave made their first recorded charitable contribution in 1939, during the “start up days” of the company. Jim’s Commentary – you don’t have to “go public” before starting to make a positive contribution to the communities in which you do business!

 

Joe Tront, Editor for the Premier Award, has put out a call for “…technology-based materials that faculty have developed to support their engineering learning environments.” If you are using technology to enhance instruction in engineering, it may be worth at the call for submissions…

Key Dates:

July 13, 2007 - Submissions due by 5:00 p.m. PDT
October 10-13, 2007 - Winner(s) presented at the FIE 2007 Conference in Milwaukee

Dr. Tront’s full message is reproduced below. Best wishes to those of you who submit!

Dear Colleague,

We are seeking exemplary pieces of courseware for our annual international awards competition called The Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware.

Our definition of courseware includes the technology-based materials that faculty have developed to support their engineering learning environments. We believe that our thorough peer review process, equal in rigor to a research journal review, has been successful in highlighting and rewarding the efforts of faculty members working on improving engineering education.

We would be pleased to have you participate and also ask you to pass this announcement on to other interested colleagues. Please see the call for submissions below. Thanks.

Joe Tront

Editor, Premier Award

2007 Premier Award for Excellence in Engineering Education Courseware

Call for Submissions

The National Engineering Education Delivery System (NEEDS), John Wiley & Sons, Microsoft Research, The Mathworks, and Autodesk are pleased to announce the 2007 Premier Award competition.

The Premier Award recognizes high-quality, non-commercial courseware designed to enhance engineering education. Beyond just recognizing outstanding courseware, the Premier Award evaluates and acknowledges exceptional learning experiences. Since 1997, twenty-five outstanding courseware packages and learning experiences have been rewarded. If you or someone you know has developed non-commercial courseware or Web sites designed to enhance engineering education, please consider submitting for the Premier Award. Submissions are due by 5:00 p.m. PDT.

The winner(s) will be announced and prizes awarded at the 2007 Frontiers in Education Conference, October 10-13, in Milwaukee.

For more information
For more information regarding submissions, prizes, past winners, sponsors and more, please visit our Web site. You may download the Premier Award call for submission flyer here.

Or please contact Joe Tront at (540) 231-5067 or jgtront@vt.edu, or Brandon Muramatsu at (435) 797-2703 or brandon.muramatsu@usu.edu.

The $10M HP Technology for Teaching Grant Initiative for 2007, targeted to public K-12 schools, as well as two- and four-year colleges and universities, has been launched in the US and Puerto Rico.

Faculty who are using Tablet PCs in the classroom, especially HP Technology for Teaching grant recipients, may be interested in this grant opportunity from Microsoft Research! Proposals are due November 27^th…

Microsoft is planning approximately four awards of up to $100K each! Some quotes from the Microsoft Research webpage are included below.

Good luck!

http://research.microsoft.com/ur/us/fundingopps/RFPs/TabletPC_RFP_2006.aspx),

We are just beginning to learn how to maximize these new communication and collaboration resources. When adding the Tablet PC technologies to undergraduate education, we must rethink how this will improve teaching and learning. Many questions arise. How does a Tablet PC alter teacher and student interaction? How will teacher-only tablet class differ from a setting where all students have one? How will this affect the content of the course or curriculum? What strategies, tools, and techniques can scale across large numbers of teachers and students? Are these new pedagogies and strategies applicable to other disciplines?...

…This is open to all disciplines with the focus of the project on the evaluation of tablet technology in the classroom. This is not meant for curriculum development. Proposals with well-developed content and detailed research questions and evaluation plans are required. Projects may be course specific, tool building and/or educational model building…

I’m going to take a risk by posting the following invitation: Help me design a worldwide grant initiative for higher education.

As a college or university educator, your feedback is valuable to me. After all, the fundamental purpose of our grants is to increase student success, a goal we all have in common. HP’s approach is to support innovations in the effective use of technology that enable the transformation of teaching and learning.

This is, of course, easier said than done. Hence, the invitation.

I’m not asking you to fill out a complicated survey – just post a comment and share your thoughts about what a grant initiative needs to include in order for it to truly support your goal of improving teaching and learning on your campus.

Some “creative constraints” to consider:

• Our grants are modest in scope – we’re not a large government organization!
• Think worldwide – would your suggestion replicate on campuses across the globe?
• Focus on high-tech disciplines – we can’t “boil the ocean”, so we’re likely to continue focusing on students pursuing engineering, computer science, and other degree programs relevant to the world of high tech

Some questions I’ve been asking myself (and educators I talk to):

• What keeps your students from succeeding?
• How do you measure “student success”?
• What motivates teaching excellence?
• How do exemplary teachers learn to teach?
• What role do/should campus administrators play when it comes to “innovations in teaching and learning”?

Clearly, HP grants cannot solve all the issues facing higher education today. But we do hope a well-designed initiative can be a positive catalyst – and your voice, as an experienced educator, is a welcome part of the dialog currently underway.

Recommendations that include an articulate rationale/explanation will be the most helpful. If you can include which country you are from (and the name of your institution, if you’d like), that would provide some additional context for your suggestion. (Note: please don't post a specific grant proposal! At this point, I am looking for general suggestions about the characteristics of a potential HP grant initiative).

I look forward to your comments!

Jim Vanides, 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