La Salle University Receives Hewlett-Packard Grant to Integrate Technology into Education

Each of the HP Technology for Teaching grant recipients will use HP wireless Tablet PC technology to enhance learning in engineering, mathematics, science, computer science or business courses.

Prafulla Joglekar, the Lindback Professor of Operations Management and Chair of the Management Department at La Salle, received a grant totaling $69,000, which will be used in a required MBA course he teaches, “Effective and Efficient Operations Management.” He will restructure the course’s content and teaching method to integrate mobile computers and wireless technology for greater collaborative learning for students.

“This restructuring will represent a shift from the typical calculator-based classroom learning to simulating a true work environment where a manager has full access to current technology,” said Joglekar.  “Because each student will have access to powerful software in and outside the classroom, the student will be freed from the tedious -- and often frightful -- task of performing a series of calculations on a calculator. Students will be free to focus on the true skills he or she needs, namely structuring a problem situation properly, choosing and using appropriate software to obtain the mathematical results, and interpreting those results for appropriate decision recommendations in an organization.”

“Our goal is to make our students confident about their ability to use quantitative techniques to solve appropriate problems at their work,” said Joglekar.

He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses such as Business Problem solving and Decision Making, Production/Operations Management, Readings in Business, Management Science, Systems Analysis, and Management Information Systems.  Joglekar has been a consultant to numerous organizations, including the Eastman Commission (Canada), ESB Corporation, Gellman Research Associates, General Electric Foundation, Industrial Valley Bank, Minter Allison Associates (Australia), NASA, the National Science Foundation, SmithKline Beecham, and William Penn Foundation. He has also spent four summers at the Kennedy Space Center as a Faculty Fellow. 

A La Salle faculty member since 1972, Joglekar has published over 25 research papers in numerous top-rated scholarly journals including: Management Science, Decision Sciences, European Journal of Operations Research, Production and Operations Management, Naval Research Logistics, and MIS Quarterly.

The 2006 HP Technology for Teaching grant program is awarding grants totaling more than $7 million to 130 kindergarten through 12th grade public schools and 40 two- and four-year colleges and universities in the United States and Puerto Rico. From 2004 to 2006, HP has committed $36 million in Technology for Teaching grants to more than 650 schools worldwide to support HP’s broader education goal of transforming teaching and learning through the integration of technology.

“The HP Technology for Teaching initiative focuses on transforming teaching and learning through technology,” said Bess Stephens, vice president, Philanthropy and Education, HP.  “By integrating mobile technology in meaningful ways into their classrooms, instructors can increase student achievement and interest and prepare them for greater success in the competitive global workforce.”