iPads at the Forefront in Engineering Education: UTEP Ahead of the Curve in Using Next Generation Teaching with Mobile Technologies

October 18, 2010 | UNIVERSITY COMMUNICATIONS

Oscar Perez prepares students to use iPads in his engineering-themed section of the freshmen core UTEP seminar class.

Today marks the start of the pilot phase of mobile learning technologies use within a Foundations of Engineering-themed section of UNIV 1301: Seminar In Critical Inquiry. This deployment is the first of its kind in a core curriculum class within the College of Engineering at UTEP.

The pilot project is a joint venture between the College of Engineering and the Undergraduate Learning Center (UGLC). The work will provide a pioneering study of the analysis of iPad-mobile technologies in STEM-based learning. This work will yield results for applications in a wide variety of classroom teaching environments.

Introduction of iPad mobile devices was rolled-out in Oscar Perez's Foundations of Engineering classroom yesterday. Oscar's class was selected to take advantage of a unique linkage: he is a full-time network systems administrator in the Undergraduate Learning Center and during his free time he teaches a UNIV 1301 seminar in critical inquiry course.

The outcomes of this project will determine the next steps in mobile technologies utilization within 1301 classrooms. It is hoped to present the results of this work at the next annual meeting of the American Society of Engineering Education, to be held in Vancouver, British Columbia. The roll-out of the engineering classroom teaching project follows the successful introduction and use of iPads in the summer institute for high school teachers, which occurred during the recent summer of 2010.