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Technology Innovation and K-12 Education

Hewlett-Packard education technology expert George W. Warren reveals the latest technology tools and trends and discusses their possible applications in K-12 classrooms. Included: Learn about tablet PCs, data storage and management systems, handheld devices, and more.

George W. Warren

George W. Warren is Hewlett-Packard's director of K-12 education marketing for North America. In that position, Warren is responsible for marketing HP products to public and private educational institutions throughout the United States. He leads strategic planning, marketing, and communications efforts to identify and promote those products, solutions, and services that best meet the needs of K-12 educators.

Originally from Southern Illinois, Warren graduated from New York's Columbia University. He joined HP after seven years with Dell Computer Corp., where he was K-12 marketing manager. In that role, Warren was responsible for building the K-12 business, first as an inside sales representative and then through various roles in business planning, sales, and marketing.

As the father of four, Warren has a strong incentive for keeping abreast of technology innovations, and a vested interest in providing educators with information about those innovations that can best help them meet the needs of their students.

Education World recently spoke with Warren about the latest technology tools and trends and their applications in K-12 classrooms.

Education World: First, tell us, what brought you to this corner of the technology universe?

George Warren: Ten years or so ago, I was working at another hardware manufacturer. When my colleagues and I saw Windows 95, we thought, "Man, this is something educators are going to jump all over!" At that time, there was a huge installed base of Apple Macintosh systems; today, it's very much a Windows world -- although Apple still is more of a player than we imagined it would be.

Now we're looking for the next big leap, which I believe will happen when we reach the saturation point -- the point at which just about everyone has up-to-date technology. Then we'll see how the technology can be used to create a better environment for teaching and learning.

EW: What are some of the top trends you see -- either in terms of being widespread or in terms of having the most potential to affect teaching and learning?

GW: That's what the industry now has to focus on -- which is hard, because countervailing forces are at work. On one hand, market forces are pushing technology to be priced as a commodity, so there is less and less money to dedicate to development; on the other hand, we have to innovate, because that's what leaders do.

For that reason, we talk a lot about the tablet PC. When it comes to new things that are happening, nothing is more exciting than the tablet PC. It's a wholly new platform -- the first truly mobile device we've seen in the market.

Comparable in size to a pad of paper, a tablet PC is a fully functioning computer. Users can operate it by pointing with a pen and data can be entered by writing on the screen or (in some models) by speaking. The tablet PC then converts handwriting or voice to typed copy. A tablet PC can be connected (wirelessly) to the Internet or to a network. To sit down and type with a tablet PC, users dock it to a keyboard base that also includes floppy and CD drives.

EW: Tell us more about tablet PCs. A lot of our readers might not have seen them or considered their applications for the classroom.

GW: Well, the technology is very new, so applications designed for it are still being created, but the tablet PC -- the first truly mobile computer ever developed -- is certainly the best version-one device I've ever seen.

Until now, in techno-speak, mobility has meant "not plugged into a wall," rather powered by an independent battery and connected wirelessly to the Internet. Based on that definition, the traditional notebook computer is seen as mobile -- although it's not truly mobile. Notebook computer users can't walk around while using one; they have to be sitting down (unless they're using some kind of stand on wheels). Handheld devices, on the other hand, although mobile, lack the power of full-size computers.

The tablet PC, therefore, is the first truly mobile, full-fledged computer.

Outside of education, we're going to start seeing tablet PCs everywhere, in the areas of public safety and health care, for example. For the first time, we'll have such large-scale applications as full-motion video and the ability to input data both with a pen and with voice in a device that is fully portable.

Handwriting recognition and voice recognition have been part of the market for a long time, of course, but it's only in the past three or four years that we've achieved the clock cycles [program speeds] that make it worthwhile to use those applications outside of a narrow, high-end slice of the market. You'll be hard-pressed to find any full-fledged computer today that runs at less than one gigahertz, so we now have the clock cycles to put those kinds of technologies into a low-cost platform.

EW: We'd be remiss if we didn't mention that there are other tablet PCs on the market besides your Compaq product. How does HP plan to maintain a competitive edge, especially with regard to K-12 education?

GW: First of all, the Compaq tablet PC has a better design than others. It also looks better and has a better feel. We've put a plate of hardened glass on the screen, so it will have a longer life in the classroom. We all recognize that the schoolhouse is a tough environment for any stand-alone device. Perhaps the best thing about the Compaq tablet PC is the price. These machines are inexpensive enough that every school district in the nation can buy five or ten and see what uses they can find for them. It's a very exciting new device.

EW: What about other technology trends for education? I saw an article about a school district in New Jersey that scans people's irises to see whether they're allowed on the school's campus. Is high-tech security going to be a big trend in schools?

GW: Security is a trend, but what's really interesting about where we are with technology is that we're going to start seeing uses beyond the obvious for a lot of these innovations. In elementary schools, for example, handwriting recognition will have special-ed applications. It's going to take a while, however, for schools to find the right applications for high-end innovations.

At HP, we're developing some new projects with major content folks; hopefully within a year, three or four such projects will be in the process of being publicly tested. But educators also are going to have to just put some of these technologies in place and see what they really do best.

EW: How do you stay on top of the latest trends and learn about potential applications of technology in schools?

GW: I travel quite extensively and see a lot of technology use right in the classroom. For example, last week, I was with Pomona School District outside of Los Angeles; this week I'll be in Newport News, Virginia; next week I'll be in Baltimore, Maryland. In addition, we have 50 people, more or less, in the field; our inside organization includes more than 100 people; and about 400 resellers are out in the communities. So, we stay in close touch with the school market. We also do a lot of research.

You have to stay on top of technology use in education, because it's changing fast, and what you knew yesterday is what was happening yesterday.

EW: Do any "bottom-up" innovations spring to mind -- something a teacher or school did or asked for that turned out to be bigger than expected?

GW: Sure. New things are happening all the time. Right now, some of the most interesting things are happening on the enterprise front with storage. Schools and educators are looking for ways to handle all the content their students create. So data warehousing and managing digital content are big issues. Technology companies are springing up, sometimes state-by-state, to answer those demands.

Handheld devices are another area in which innovation is coming from educators. We see more and more terrific applications for handhelds being developed all the time. When you look at a teacher managing an entire roomful of devices, it's an exciting new development that's getting wings. You've seen notebook carts -- we're extending that to handhelds. By the end of the summer, we'll have a full-blown system that will allow you to plug in and charge twenty to thirty handhelds at once. We're calling it a science cart because in one place in New York where we're testing it, they've put probes on the devices and are using them in science classes. Our system won't be limited to science, though; it will be seen everywhere.

Testing and assessment are also big trends, of course.

All in all, these are exciting times to be in the educational technology market.

EW: They certainly are, and we thank you for sharing some of your insights with Education World.

HP News for Education
Hewlett-Packard's homepage for K-12 education delivers the news about developments in educational technology.

Tablet PC Talk
This independent site contains almost everything you've ever wanted to know about tablet PCs.