2008 HP Technology for Teaching Worldwide Higher Education Conference – advancing education - CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa -
CSR in Europe, Middle East and Africa » 2008 HP Technology for Teaching Worldwide Higher Education Conference – advancing education
2008 HP Technology for Teaching Worldwide Higher Education Conference – advancing education
After a very busy week in the US, I am writing to share highlights from the 2008 HP Technology for Teaching Worldwide Higher Education Conference. The conference was held in San Diego (La Jolla), USA on Feb 18th -19th and was the biggest convening of worldwide higher education grantees HP Social Investment has ever hosted. This conference was a great opportunity to meet faculties from around the world who are similarly engaged in using HP technology to transform teaching and learning. The conference featured two days of exciting presentations, workshops, and opportunities for professional networking, and poster sessions that illustrated the individual projects of the universities.

Let me start by saying, this event was a real success.

In total, we had nearly 140 faculties representing 103 universities from 21 countries in attendance. We also had 20 university professors from our region, Europe, the Middle East and Africa in attendance. A quick scan of the conference evaluation shows that 97% rated the conference “Excellent” or “Very Good”, and more than half mentioned (without our prompting) how much they valued the opportunity for professional networking. I want to share with you some of the wonderful comments we have received:

“As I head out to the airport I wanted to send each of you a hearty thanks for everything you have done over the last two days. This was one of the best events, perhaps the best event, I have attended in the 17 years I have been a faculty member. Everything (program, people, venue, attitude) was fantastic. Thanks so much!” (DePauw Univ)

“I really enjoyed meeting so many people ... and it was really nice to see so many HP people around - with a sincere interest in what we were doing ... Loved Phil's presentation - definitely a highlight . Also very much fun to meet Jim ... his passion for this project is so very evident! ... the way he builds rapport with large groups is major strength for this project. For effective learning communities, there needs to be strong relationship building aspect ... Jim's ability to build rapport so easily - and his passion for the project are cornerstones to long-term success (in my opinion).” (York University, Canada)

“I enjoyed the conference very much. I've generated a number of strategies for continuing our work with the tablets and expanding it to other instructors here at Parkland. Our department recently bought 30 HP tablets for your Testing Center! Thanks for the generous grant and the wonderful conference.” (Parkland College)


Another interesting dimension of the conference was that participants could attend a total of three workshops in order to familiarize themselves with the expectations HP has set out concerning how to most effectively measure learning within the scope of their project.

The first Measuring Learning session gave an overview of Measuring Learning plans and illustrated best practices. HP also offered ‘mentoring sessions’ during which former HP Grant Awardees helped as mentors in reviewing the plans of this year’s grant recipients. The mentors helped in facilitating discussion among participants in order to review and add feedback to others’ Measuring Learning plans.

We also had strong engagement from our global leadership team. For example, Phil McKinney from our global laptop division (PSG) shared a glimpse of HP’s future innovations.

The global team had organised 21 HP employee volunteers that came to the conference and created a “Digital Oasis” experience for the attendees.

To me it was wonderful to see the great cross section of participation from pretty much all HP businesses. This conference really demonstrated HP’s strong interest in advancing education with the help of technology solutions.

A preview of some of the conference photos is available at http://www2.snapfish.com/share/p=344231203814606230/l=352118259/g=38890811/otsc=SYE/otsi=SALB.

I really would like to applaud my colleague Jim Vanides for the great organisation of this truly global and highly successful conference. You can read Jim’s account of the conference here.

Daniela Opp, Manager Social Investments and Economic Development, HP EMEA
Posted 02-28-2008 9:00 AM by BlogArchive
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