EAFIT University

Creating new ways to learn

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At the Universidad EAFIT in Medellín, Colombia, the academic focus is math and science, with technology playing a key role in this elite academic institution. By teaming with HP to create an advanced wireless campus, EAFIT has put technology at the very heart of the learning experience. Students and professors have been freed to interact in a wide variety of ways, from linking back to campus during field-work assignments, to participating in lectures from different points around campus, to tapping into virtual demonstrations of advanced mathematical concepts. By experimenting with new ways of learning and collaborating, EAFIT’s community of educators and students has found that when the boundaries of technology expand, the connections between people grow.

Medellín is Colombia’s second largest city and home to more than 30 universities, including EAFIT University.

The EAFIT program was made possible through HP’s Technology for Teaching Grant, a program that helps educational institutions more easily integrate technology into the learning environment by providing money, equipment and support. From handheld devices like tablet PCs, cameras and iPAQ’s, to the wireless systems that support and connect them, students and teachers were given new ways to interact and learn in a more fluid way. For example, in one case students were able to visit a civil engineering project that had received lots of media attention, create their own reports and send the reports to campus electronically, where they were compiled into a small newspaper issue of their own. Instead of the students coming to the classroom, the classroom followed the students.

Beyond classroom walls

“We were able to establish what we call a ‘mobile classroom’, through which we tested some of the course activities, some experiments, and some special projects,” commented Felix Londoño, Director of Research and Education. “This allowed us to experiment and apply the technology of the grant directly into classroom development.”

Being freed from traditional classroom constraints, students whole-heartedly embraced the concept of mobile learning, quickly making their new tools a part of their daily lives. As a result, the educational environment at EAFIT has transformed an already dynamic community into an even more vibrant and progressive place to learn. Students have been able to take a more active role in shaping and steering their educational experience because of HP technology. For example, by taking PC tablets and other handheld devices with them wherever they go, they are able to interact with their subject matter while in the “real world.” As a result, they are able to make stronger connections between the theories they learn in the classroom and what they see in the working world around them, especially in the areas of math and science.

Technology leads to inspiration

“Once the technology came to the classroom, it was the students who started to change the dynamics of the activity in a way that was much more common, more natural, taking part in these processes collaboratively,” said Juan Luis Mejía Arango, President, EAFIT University. “Not just participating in the way that the professors asked them to, but also complementing and contrasting with what the professor asked of them. This created a situation that went beyond the traditional outline prepared for that class. That led us to construct a teaching model we had never done before, because we had never been in this situation.”

One of the most exciting aspects of the EAFIT and HP relationship is how it has inspired professors and students to try out new approaches to education. It has elevated and expanded the school environment by actually encouraging new ways to learn. Students have been able to divide into smaller working groups, collaborate on a specific topic and then share their work with other groups. Professors have been able to create customized programs that demonstrate advanced concepts in three-dimensional ways, something that would be impossible to do on a traditional chalkboard. They can then share those concepts with students wherever—and on whatever mobile device—they choose.

Professor Helmuth Trefftz has created an “augmented reality” lab that allows students and teachers to participate in virtual reality simulations and to interact in real time from remote locations.

Collaborative learning

Perhaps the most remarkable outcome is that EAFIT has shown how the learning process can be strengthened when it becomes a collaborative exercise. As a result of campus-wide technology and Internet access, the student body has been brought together, communicating and sharing ideas in real time. Through the Internet—blogs, e-mail, instant messaging—and other channels, the students are able to talk to each other and to professors, sharing their findings and asking questions as they go. The interactive part of learning has become much more immediate and accessible, allowing for a more dynamic exchange of knowledge and perspectives.

“Mobile classrooms and technology are benefiting our students in several ways. One thing is just the fact of having the technology—we believe and it has been proven—gives comprehensive capacity for students to come together with all the development of the learning process,” said Felix Londoño, Director of Research and Education, EAFIT University. “Computer technology and, in this case, mobile technology allows students to have access to more resources. And one very important thing that came through these projects, is that technology encourages a more social interaction and a more natural interaction among students and between the students and the professor.”

HP Technology enables collaboration, which builds connections. Connections that make it possible for EAFIT to bring students, professors, and academic administrators closer together to form tighter bonds as they explore how to achieve greater educational goals. With the help of HP engineers, HP and EAFIT are working together to show how the intelligent application of technology can free individuals from the constraints of a wired, stationary world, creating a more dynamic and productive knowledge-based community.