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Imagining Future Technology through Seamless Mobility Abstract

This article discusses the development, implementation, and evaluation of a company sponsored competition, MOTOFWRD by Motorola, into a course project for engineering graphics technology students that encourages creativity, critical thinking, and imagining future technology. The project involves completing a myriad of activities to engage the students in the process of finding solutions for seamless mobility, where the most innovative technologies can deliver uninterrupted, seamless communications, connectivity and entertainment, as described by Motorola. One of the ten finalists and People’s Choice winners of the competition describes his personal involvement with the competition, why he became involved and the experiences he has drawn from the overall project.

Introduction

The field of engineering technology is constantly evolving and ever-changing. As technology advances, so do our curriculums, teaching methods, and typical students. Often our engineering and technology curricula attempts to cover so much material in such a short time that we can overwhelm the student with a myriad of information and tend to lose the creative process and critical thinking development. Our challenge as educators in the graphics field is to keep up with constantly advancing technology and new platforms (PDAs, cell phones, HDTV, etc), yet still inspire our students to combine creative aesthetics with competent technology.

As Richard Felder states in his paper “On Creating Creative Engineers”,

…Our job as engineering educators…should not be merely to impart facts but to prepare students to solve problems. If we are doing our job well, our graduates should be equipped to define problems and devise strategies for attacking them, determine the information they need to implement these strategies, figure out where or how to get the information, and evaluate the implications of their solutions beyond their immediate technical context.

If we are to develop and nurture critical and creative problem-solving skills in our students, we must provide periodic opportunities to exercise these skills, a classroom atmosphere that lends itself to such exercises, and recognition and encouragement of those who display talent along these lines.

In an effort to enhance creative thinking, the author discovered a new scholarship competition by Motorola, called MOTOFWRD. The goal of the competition was for students to “imagine the future – a time when the world will leverage the most innovative technologies to deliver uninterrupted, seamless communications, connectivity and entertainment”1. The key to the project was seamless mobility, which is “…about creating a new world of uninterrupted access to information, entertainment, communication, and more…The challenge with seamless mobility is getting different technologies to work together. It’s not about one operating system or one device. It’s about crossing the boundaries of multiple networks, services and products”1. As engineering graphics technology students are primarily concerned with how to effectively communicate all types of information visually and graphically, this competition was an ideal way to inspire technology students.

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Kilmer, L. (2006, June), Imagining Future Technology Through Seamless Mobility Paper presented at 2006 Annual Conference & Exposition, Chicago, Illinois. 10.18260/1-2--624