Today I want to tell you about another fabulous social investment initiative the German Team has supported for the second consecutive year.

HP Germany’s initiative “Mobile Learning” targets schools to submit concepts for innovative use of mobile technology in class. Concepts that break new ground in mobile learning and teaching are awarded with mobile HP equipment.
The concepts are applicable to other schools, too. At HP Germany, the initiative is driven by the Human Resources apprenticeship department and Corporate Marketing in collaboration with HP Government Affairs and Social Investment Teams in EMEA. More than 600 schools participated in the competition in 2007. The locally conducted competitions gave HP a “face in the region”, created significant public awareness, proved HP’s technology leadership and attracted future young talents for HP.

The campaign gave HP the opportunity to demonstrate not only its technology leadership capabilities but also its commitment to Global Citizenship.

First of all, it was important to get the support of the respective Governmental authorities (Ministry of Education, Media Centers for schools) which were responsible for establishing the contacts to schools. The criteria for the school concepts were developed in collaboration considering criteria like innovation, adaptability for other schools, documentation, presentation, and - new in the current competition - the environmental and climate protection approach.

To generate a high awareness and participation in the competition, HP has provided related marketing material.

The jury consisted of government representatives, teachers and HP to ensure different perspectives were combined to select the best overall concepts. Four months after the start of the competition, the finalists were invited to HP to present their concepts. On the day, they also had the chance to get an insight view of HP as a company. The ranking of the winners was decided and announced at the HP facilities in different regions of Germany. In each regional competition, the winners were awarded with HP hardware worth EUR 50.000 (Tablet-PCs, digital projectors, printers, digital cameras). So we contribute to a high-quality education of pupils and prepare them for mobile working after school.

On November 26th, I attended the official award presentation of the Bavarian school finalists at HP’s Munich office, which was the fifth and final regional award presentation in Germany in 2007.

This hand-over ceremony was attended by four schools, which presented their projects, a representative of the Bavarian Ministry for Education and Culture (“Staatsministerium fur Unterricht und Kultus”) HP Germany’s Managing Director, Uli Holdenried as well as other internal and external partners.

The pupils of the four schools presented their projects, each addressing an important issue in their school.

Two schools were awarded the main prize. The Center for Special Needs (Sonderpädagoisches Förderzentrum) in Landshut won with its film project called “Respect – working together for a safe school” (“Respekt – gemeinsam für eine friedliche Schule”) – a project that started with abstract concepts like ’respect’, ‘honesty’, ‘integrity’ and then visualized them in form of a film. HP notebooks were used to realize this project. The pupils presented this film in a mobile fashion, on a notebook to inhabitants of Landshut and asked them how they would define and judge those values. A second film was produced and resulted in an ‘ethical code of conduct’ for their school. More information on this project can be found on http://www.sfz-landshut-stadt.de/ (German only).

The second winning project was by the Columbia-Neef- Realschule in Neustift, called “Fit and healthy at school” (”Fit und gesund durch’s Schuljahr”). This project aims at creating awareness about health and fitness behavior of all pupils in this school. All pupils of this school will be able to actively participate in this project that runs for the academic year 2007/2008. Each month focuses on a different health topic such as ‘sports in different cultures’, or the ‘fat detector’. Our mobile technology is used in many ways, e.g. for documentation and presentation of the project, to create personal food/health diaries as well as statistics and diagrams of their internet research, monthly newsletter for all pupils and general information to the individual projects. The pupils used HP digital cameras to capture the nicest moments and the beamer to show these impressions internally. At the end of the school year, the ‘fittest class’ is going to be rewarded. More information on this project can be found on http://www.columba-neef-realschule.de (German only).

Those two winning schools each received a NetEducation Center, consisting of 10 laptops for the pupils, 1 Tablet PC for the teacher, a digital projector, a printer, a digital camera and a laptop cart to support their project work.

The runner-up prize went to Staatliche Realschule Arnstorf and the third prize went to the Staatliche Realschule Grafenau.

I was so impressed to see how these pupils used HP mobile technology addressing such important issues in our society. Well done!

More information can be found on the website (German only) and a podcast called “Mobiles Lernen an Schulen”.

Daniela Opp, Manager Social Investments and Economic Development