HP announced Monday it awarded 170 schools across the United States and Puerto Rico more than $7 million in mobile technology, cash and professional development as part of its 2006 HP Technology for Teaching grant program.
Grant recipients include 130 kindergarten through 12th grade public schools and 40 two- and four-year colleges and universities. During the 2006-07 academic year, projects through this program will impact nearly 45,000 students (bold added).
Jeff Hunt, principal at Surprise Lake Middle School in Milton, Wash., a 2004-2005 grant recipient reports, “Our results after just one year of applying the grant include increased student attendance, teachers observing students working harder and producing more detailed work, and student scores in math have improved.”
Kudos to HP and to grant recipients. Watch for recipients at NECC and other education conferences. It’s like bird watching. You can spot them by their features, a Tablet PC on a lap in a conference hall, on a table rooms, under an arm in hallways, and shuttle buses. I’ve found that most will gladly talk about using their Tablet PC and other mobile PC for school work. I hope you applied so your students could take part in this years program.
This is a minor symbolic point. I wish HP would rename their program Technology for Learning. That would put the emphasis where it belongs, on student acquisition of new information and skills rather than on teacher performance. Hopefully, teacher performance is a means rather than an end, so name the program for its intended result, student learning.
Whatever the name, three cheers for HP and for school personnel who took the time and made the effort to apply for HP assistance. We look forward to reading your reports of increased learning rates resulting from use of advanced technologies in your schools.