With the HP Catalyst' 2010 initiative, HP built a global network of consortia to explore more effective approaches to STEM education
Hewlett-Packard (HP) has organised first ever HP Catalyst Summit 2011 from 10th to 13th March,2011 at The Lalit, New Delhi, India bringing together over 100 global education leaders from across 11 countries, Indian policy makers and government representatives. Catalyst initiative is a part of HP's CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) to address the critical challenges in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education in India and globally.
Co-organised with the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE), the summit explored topics such as the effective use of tablet PCs for teaching and learning, cloud computing in education and converting textbooks into a social media platforms for conversations and assessment. Agastya International Foundation conducted a hands-on mobile science learning event to families and students.
The summit was an expansion of previously announced education initiatives in India such as the HP Lab-in-Box in 2011 and BASE Sankya Learning Laboratory. By the end of 2011, HP will have invested more than US $10M globally in the Catalyst initiative.
With this initiative, HP built a global network of consortia to explore more effective approaches to STEM education. The goal is to create collaborative “sandboxes” of innovation that will explore what the future where students use their technical and creative ingenuity to address urgent social challenges in their communities and around the world.
The HP Catalyst Initiative funded five consortia in 2010, each exploring a specific area for making STEM education more effective and relevant. Each consortium received more than $1million in technology, cash and professional services, consists of six member organizations, plus a lead organization selected by HP to facilitate the consortium.
the Education Innovation Challenge Fund is meant to motivate institutions and students to think out-of-the-box for solutions
The Multi-Versity has demonstrated new and best practices in online education for STEM students and the professional development of instructional faculty. The long-term goal is to provide students with new learning opportunities from a variety of institutions. This consortium was led by the Sloan Consortium (USA). Pedagogy 3.0 created new models of teacher preparation that will better equip teachers to facilitate powerful 21st century learning experiences for students. This consortium was led by Futurelab (UK)
To employing the power of collaborative grid computing, Global Collaboratory consortium enabled students to participate in collaborative problem-solving to address urgent social challenges. This consortium was led by the CSIR Meraka Institute (South Africa). The New Learner engaged formal and informal education institutions as they explored how to build a network of learning opportunities for students. This consortium was by the Agastya International Foundation (India)
HP has also announced the plan to initially invest US$1 million in support of a new Education Innovation Challenge Fund for India, led by a consortium of leading education organizations in India. The fund will grant public and private (not-for-profit) education institutions the opportunity to pursue novel approaches to STEM learning for the 21st century.
Madhav Chavan, CEO and President of Pratham Education Foundation, Ashok Kamath, Chairman of Akshara Foundation, and Sridhar Rajagopalan, Managing Director of Education Initiatives, are serving in an advisory role as the fund gets established at an independent non-governmental organization (NGO). The goal is to operationalise the fund by August 2011 and encourage other private sector organisations to support and promote innovations in STEM education.
“HP is committed to empowering students and teachers globally improve the models of STEM education and enable them to address some of the bigger social challenges around the world and in their communities. The Education Innovation Challenge Fund is meant to motivate institutions and students to think out-of-the-box for solutions and ideas that are both collaborative and creative in furthering STEM education in India,” said Jeannette Weisschuh, Director of Global Education Programs, Office of Global Social Innovation, HP
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