HP Innovation Journal Issue 05: Winter 2016 | Page 26
MAKER SPOTLIGHT
For Education and Healthcare Makers
In this issue we spend time with Sprout by HP team
members Brad Short, inventor and creator of Sprout
by HP, and Frances Ayalasomayajula, HP Global
Healthcare Solutions Senior Manager, to learn more
about how Sprout is helping teachers, students, cli-
nicians, and patients to develop new forms of collab-
orative learning and healthcare. interests, allowing
science, technolo-
gy, engineering, art,
and math to find its
way collectively into
school projects.
What makes Sprout by HP such
a universal solution for today’s
Makers? What impact
is Sprout
having on
teachers?
We are in an extremely exciting time where the
technology is catching up to the aspirations for
more seamless user experiences. With Sprout
anyone is able to create and express themselves
without hurdles of specialized skills and tools.
The natural user interface makes it very appeal-
ing to all types of users and sectors.
How is Sprout being used in
classroom environments?
Students find Sprout to be a very empowering
tool. The user interface is very intuitive espe-
cially for children who are Kinesthetic or visual
learners. With its touch interfaces, multimedia
capabilities, and numerous education applica-
tions, Sprout seamlessly blends physical and
digital learning.
Students can reach beyond the classroom
walls to bring outside objects and content into
their classroom projects and presentations.
They can also collaborate across disciplines and
At Pioneer Center for Human Services Sprout by HP helps
people with developmental disabilities learn and express
themselves
26 Innovation Journal · Issue 5 · Winter 2016
Bonsall High School students using Sprout by HP for mashups and layouts;
stop-motion animation; video capture; and tracing and stenciling
Sprout is the perfect teacher’s workstation. It
allows teachers to combine multiple tools into
one easy to use platform, instead of forcing them
to use techniques dictated by different devices.
Sprout can serve as a projector to share physical
elements that are part of a lesson plan—dis-
sections, physics, chemistry, etc.—and then
seamlessly switch to digital content that sup-
ports the same lesson.
It’s also allowing teachers to foster a
more collaborative learning environment. The
MyRoom application enables teachers and stu-
dents to share a digital canvas. Students in the
classroom or remotely can log in and contrib-
ute to the same canvas, building content live. A
remote tutor sees exactly what the student is
working on as if they were standing right next
to the student.
Is Sprout having a similar impact
on healthcare?
Yes, as with Education, Sprout is promoting
collaboration and expression in the Healthcare
sector as well. From empowering patients
throughout their healthcare journey, to enhanc-
ing care delivery, and making global population
healthcare more collaborative, Sprout is helping
patients and clinicians approach healthcare in a
more immersive way.
For example, at Pioneer Health Center for
Human Services, Sprout is helping to remove
obstacles for people with limited mobility. With
its intuitive, less intimidating interface and ap-
plications, users can better express themselves
and their creativity. With Sprout users can work
on fine motor skills and control, communicate
in new ways, and gain additional confidence.
Is Sprout helping to improve
collaboration between clinicians
and patients?
Sprout allows patients to become actively in-
volved in their healthcare journey by making it
much easier for healthcare providers to visual-
ly demonstrate instructions and offer patients
more detailed explanations of medical condi-
tions and disease management. For example,
group diabetes management programs encour-
age their higher-risk patients to participate, but
for some of those patients leaving home is a
difficult task. Sprout enables the courses to now
be delivered to them dynamically. Health liter-
acy is also a challenge around the world today.
Sprout’s ability to intuitively provide telehealth
services or serve as a patient kiosk in waiting
rooms and doctor offices helps face that chal-
lenge head on.