WIPTE 2010
WIPTE 2010 announces conference date.
October 25-26, 2010 at Virginia Tech.
Please check back later for information on WIPTE 2010.
WIPTE 2009
Latest Registration and Vendor Giveaway News
Online registration is now closed.
Corporate sponsors will be providing giveaways including two HP 2730p Tablet PCs, a HP iPaq 910 Business Messenger cell phone, a Fujitsu LifeBook T5010 Tablet PC, and a Fujitsu LifeBook T2020 Tablet PC. Your low registration fee gives you a chance of winning one of these prizes:
HP 2730p Tablet (two available)
HP iPaq 910 Business Messenger Unlocked Cellphone
With an estimated 120 attendees, you have a one in forty chance of winning!
WIPTE 2009 will be held on October 12-13, 2009
WIPTE is open to anyone with an interest in instructional technology. A wide variety of disciplines are embracing Tablet PC's and similar pen-based devices as tools for the radical enhancement of teaching and learning. This conference is intended to leverage this shared passion and to identify best practices in the educational use of pen-based computing so that all educators may benefit from this next generation of technology. Each WIPTE paper presentation includes an assessment component as an important part of the presentation. The WIPTE program also includes keynote talks, poster presentations, vendor booths, panels, and special sessions.
WIPTE announces the 2009 keynote speakers
Eileen M. Lento Ph.D.
Government and Education Strategist, Intel Americas
Currently at Intel, Dr. Lento is developing and implementing holistic models to meet the needs of state and local governments as well as school systems in the United States. In the area of government, she supports transportation, health and human services, public safety as well as data center consolidation. In each pillar of government, she brings to bare uniquely tailored solutions that provide intelligent and appropriate infrastructure that reduce costs while increasing efficiencies. In the current economic climate, the government initiatives are more critical than ever as the data clearly demonstrates that these projects will pay off substantially in reduced operation costs, e.g. consociation through virtualization, energy efficiency as well as intelligent performance. In the education space, she is expert at guiding school systems along the technology adoption curve. These models recognize that such efforts demand more than simply providing students and educators with laptops. The work addresses the need for quantitative and qualitative results, visionary leadership, creative funding, rich digital content, ongoing professional development, all supported by a solid infrastructure. Additionally, she brings awareness to the need for advocacy around policies necessary for such systemic reform efforts to gain real traction (i.e., scale and sustainability). A retired US Air Force Officer, her previous work includes the Director of Learning Technologies for PASCO Scientific and an Assistant Professor of Research in the Learning Sciences at Northwestern University. Having worked on several large scale NSF and DOE projects, she is dedicated to transforming learning experiences via teaching and learning processes that take full advantage of technology so that all students can achieve the high standards essential for them to be successful. Dr. Lento has won a number of awards as well as published in several peer-reviewed journals.
Talkin' 'bout Mo' Generation
Generative Technologies for a Mobile Generation
One of the problems with the way computers are typically used in education is that they are most often just an extension of the idea that education is synonymous with learning accepted facts.. But, what is truly compelling, when reflecting on learning environments and the learners in them, is the more profound use of computers to transmit ideas, points of view, and new and innovative ways of thinking. You don't need a computer for this, but just as with a musical instrument, once you get facile in this way of using them, then the computer is a powerful amplifier for learning. Moreover, there are design affordances on and in computing devices, like tablets with pens, and software, such as student response tools, class capture functionality, collaborative learning tools and anytime-anywhere access which enhance both teaching and learning in and out of the classroom; thereby, further augmenting educational processes.
Ananda Gunawardena Ph.D.
Carnegie Mellon University
Ananda Gunawardena is an Associate Teaching Professor of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). A long time advocate of Tablet PC’s in education, Ananda was part of the Microsoft Research focus group on the use of Tablet’s in 2004 and 2005. He directs several research projects that study and develop smart and usable pen based applications. In 2007, he developed a pen-based computing course and has taught the course since. A very popular upper level computer science course at CMU, his pen-based computing course had been responsible for developing number of pen applications that were deployed as research software to schools in several states. He is the co-author of two textbooks in computational linear algebra published by Springer-Verlag and Brooks-Cole. His textbooks have been translated into several languages. He has won grants from NSF, Microsoft research, HP, Qatar Foundation and several other organizations. He has published over 35 referred research articles in Journals. He is involved with number of startup companies and is the founder of Textcentric, Inc, a company providing customized textbook publishing software to major software publishing groups and he holds several patents. He serves on several boards and has won many awards including teaching awards, Jesse Jones service award, and Sri Lanka foundations exceptional achievement award, the highest honor given to a Sri Lankan expatriate. He received a B.Sc Mathematics special honors degree from University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, M.S. in computer science and Ph.D. in computational mathematics from The Ohio University and studied software Engineering at University of Texas at Austin.
Potential of Pen Technologies in K-12 Education and Opportunities for Higher Education Involvement
K-12 perhaps holds the most promise in yet-fully-untapped potential of Tablet PC’s in education. Students who have not yet-fully-mastered typing skills are more likely to embrace the natural unrestricted expression modality provided by pen and touch computers. The concept of communicating with a computer as if there is some smart paper that is able to understand student sketches and provide feedback is highly appealing. The ability of pen computers to act as smart paper and collaborative platforms opens a new dimension of technology in education. In this presentation, we will share our experiences working with k-12 teachers to develop pilot projects around pen technologies and will demonstrate some innovative pen-based applications developed at Carnegie Mellon University. We will emphasize the need to develop frameworks and networks that allow k-12 teachers to partner with universities to jointly collaborate on research projects. We will emphasize the need for new smart pen applications that are developed using solid human computer interaction principles. We also need innovative ways of looking at the utility of pen-based computers in education. We invite the community to join our efforts to share this wonderful technology through blogs and social networking sites. We can, and we should mobilize and show the world the potential of this new technology.