Loyola College in Maryland was selected as one of 39 two- and four-year colleges and universities in the United States and Puerto Rico to receive a 2008 HP Technology for Teaching grant, which is designed to transform teaching and improve learning in the classroom through innovative uses of technology. 

Loyola College will receive an award package of HP products and a faculty cash award valued at more than $77,000.

Each of the HP Technology for Teaching grant recipients will use wireless HP Tablet PCs to enhance learning in engineering, math, science, or computer science. Loyola will use the grant to fund the integration of tablet PCs in its engineering computational tools courses.

The team will be led by Loyola engineering professors Robert Pond and Robert Bailey.

“The PC tablets will be employed by all students in four different engineering courses, and these tablets will allow the students' and teacher's computers to be continuously connected,” said Robert Pond, chair of Loyola’s engineering science department. “The course material will be delivered and personally annotated by the student in their digital files, and the students' class work will be available for review and feedback by the instructor in real time. The approach will allow us to efficiently teach problem-intensive courses while maintaining close, efficient interactions between the instructor and each student. We believe that the tablet PCs will enhance and extend the quality of teaching in our program.”

HP is awarding 149 two- and four-year colleges and universities, and K-12 public schools in the United States and Puerto Rico more than $7 million in mobile technology, cash and professional development as part of the 2008 HP Technology for Teaching grant program. Since 2004, HP has contributed a total of $60 million in HP Technology for Teaching grants to more than 1,000 schools in 41 countries worldwide. During the past 20 years, HP has contributed more than $1 billion in cash and equipment to schools, universities, community organizations and other nonprofit organizations around the world.

“Around the world, HP partners with pioneering professors and schools to discover how technology can improve student success,” said Sid Espinosa, director of Global Social Investment programs at HP. “While technology is not the answer to every educational challenge, we have witnessed its incredible and transformative impact in the classroom. This innovation is happening every day as teaching and learning are fundamentally changing.”

More information about the 2008 HP Technology for Teaching program and grant recipients is available at www.hp.com/go/hpteach.