HP has announced three secondary colleges as the winners of its Innovation in Education (IIE) grants program for Australian and Pacific schools.
The three winners, Immanuel Lutheran College in Buderim, Queensland, Our Lady of Mercy College in Parramatta, New South Wales and St Mary’s College in Adelaide, each received a $150k package of desktop, notebook and tablet PCs and All-in-One printers coupled with a professional development program for teaching staff through the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE).
The grants program is designed to reward schools fostering technological innovation in teaching and curricular development, with staff of the winning schools to attend workshops on best practices for effective technological integration.
Deputy CEO of ISTE, Leslie Conery, said that the combination of new resources and training would give the winners a flying start on their proposals.
“Research shows that when technology infusion is combined with effective professional development, the impact on teaching and learning is far greater than when either component is offered in isolation,” she said.
St Marys College in Adelaide won a grant for its Robotics application, an extension of an engineering and IT program for senior students that introduces robot construction and programming into the science curriculum.
College technology coordinator, Giovanna Iannicelli, said that the grant will develop the program by allowing students hands-on access to computer resources.
“The change will be that the students will have the technology at their fingertips in a classroom while they’re doing the programming for the robots - rather than having blocks of programming in a computer lab, away from what they’re actually building,” she said.
HP has awarded grants with a combined value of over $470,000 to 28 institutions throughout the Asia Pacific over the course of the IIE program.
Director of Global Citizenship HP Asia-Pacific and Japan, Peter Ekstedt, said that the company was proud of the winning proposals.
“The successful proposals put forward serve as lighthouse examples of how technology-enabled schools, students and teachers can lead the way in transforming education in this country,” he said.