Through the generosity of the Thickman Family Charitable Foundation, MAGPI is excited to announce a brand-new professional development program for educators in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware. The three-year MAGPI FELLOWS PROGRAM will provide a series of experiences to foster the construction of learning communities, project development, awareness and understanding of advanced network applications among K12, higher education and museum/library/informal education educators and support their active participation in the regional, national and international advanced networking communities.

Regional, national and international advanced networking infrastructure has a tremendous amount of potential for education, but needs creative individuals to design educational programs, content and applications that use the infrastructure. K-12, Higher Education and Public/Cultural Institution educators are in a unique position to develop exciting learning experiences for students, but need time, guidance and training in order to do so. This program aims to support educators in developing content, projects and programs that meet the needs of their educational setting.

The Fellows Program is open to all educators (in the K12, Higher Education and Informal Education communities) as well as educational technology specialists in the MAGPI K20 Community, although program participation is selective and competitive. Each year, MAGPI will select fifteen educators/technology specialists to participate in the program. Selected Fellows will receive a $500 stipend along with select travel and conference expense stipends; their home institutions will receive personnel recovery expenses so that Fellows may participate in all Fellows’ experiences.

Each year, the MAGPI Fellows Program will target educators in different content areas. For Year One of the program, we are specifically looking for educators in the Arts & Humanities, Science & Technology and Career Education & Work content areas.

The Fellows’ Selection Process

The MAGPI Fellows Program is open to all educators (in the K12, Higher Education and Informal Education communities) as well as educational technology specialists in the MAGPI K20 Community, although program participation will be selective and competitive. Each year, MAGPI will select fifteen educators/technology specialists to participate in the program. Each February, we will announce the content areas for which we’re recruiting educators. The application process will close in May (dates to be determined) of the year and Fellows will be notified in June. Please note that in order to be considered as a MAGPI Fellow, the applicant must be an employee of a MAGPI member instituion.

In order for educators to successfully participate in the advanced networking applications community, they must have the full support of their school technology staff, building principal and district administrator. Therefore, each potential candidate for this program must submit:

• An application (with required supporting documents). Applications for Year One are due May 1, 2008.
• A professional resume or vita
• A letter of support from his or her principal and district superintendent or assistant superintendent (for K-12 Candidates); A letter of support from his or her department chair or director (for Higher Ed Candidates or Public/Cultural Center Candidates)

Three select volunteer members of the MAGPI K20 Community, MAGPI’s Executive Director, MAGPI’s Associate Director and MAGPI’s Applications Coordinator will evaluate each candidate’s application based on merit, creativity, commitment to the program and diversity. Applicants must have access to H.323 videoconferencing equipment and be employed by a MAGPI member institution. Applicants need not be familiar with Interent2 and advanced networking applications, but should be adventurous and interested in incorporating innovative, technology-based programming into their educational settings.

The Fellows’ Experience

As this program is designed to offer a series of experiences to foster the construction of learning communities, MAGPI has designed various educational opportunities for participants, including: collaborative project development, field visits/on-site training, virtual training sessions, online learning community, school/district presentations and the ability to participate in the national Internet2 member meeting/conference. Specifically, the MAGPI Fellows’ experience entails:

Fellows’ Collaborative Projects
Following the Fellows’ selection process, MAGPI will create three distributed, discipline-specific development teams that will involve educators from across our regional K-20 community. It is our intention that developing truly distributive, collaborative teams that work together to design educational content to be delivered over MAGPI’s network will illustrate the power of both the connectivity to MAGPI and involvement in the MAGPI community. Participation on project teams will not only provide educators with opportunities to immerse themselves into the development process, but will allow them to create educational content, programs and applications that are fully integrated into their classroom curricula. During the process of designing collaborative projects, Fellows will also create web-based and print-based resources that will be of use to the entire regional educational community.

Year One Project Teams:
Arts & Humanities, Science & Technology, Career Education & Work

Year Two Project Teams:
Global Studies, Life Sciences, Social Sciences

Year Three Project Teams:
History & Culture, Literacy & Technology, Computer Science

Each team will receive a budget of $1,000 and will be responsible for designing and implementing two projects (one for grades K-6 and one for grades 7-12) during their fellowship academic year. Collaborative projects must impact K-12 grades, but we highly encourage collaborations between the K12 communities, higher education communities and informal education communities. Each project must use the MAGPI and Internet2 networks to deliver and/or access educational content and/or experiences. Each team will meet for a minimum of four times per semester via videoconference to plan their projects. A MAGPI staff person will mentor each team throughout the project planning process. To ensure that Fellows can attend planning meetings, each Fellow’s affiliated educational institution will be reimbursed for expenses related to personnel recovery (i.e. hiring a substitute teacher) up to $100. 

Fellows Summer Institute - Thursday, August 7, 2008
The hallmark of a program such as this is providing unique educational experiences where participants can learn from experts and one another. Each year of the program, a one-day summer institute at the University of Pennsylvania will be held to induct new fellows. Fellows will learn about the various types of educational applications available over the Internet2 network (including, but not limited to: high-quality videoconferencing, high definition videoconferencing, remote instrumentation, digital library sources, virtual reality, and more), learn about the history of MAGPI/Internet2 and participate in hands-on demonstrations of the technology. Fellows will also be introduced to their collaborative project team members and will begin brainstorming possible project ideas. During Years 2 and 3 of the project, select former fellows will be brought in as small group leaders and trainers during the institute. Fellows will be reimbursed for travel expenses with a modest travel stipend.

Project Team Field Visit/On-Site Training - Dates TBD
Since creativity is the only limit for projects that use Internet2, the MAGPI Fellows Program will expose Fellows to the various projects, organizations and programs in their specific content areas that use advanced networking applications. A regional, discipline-specific field-trip/on-site training experience correlating to their project group’s interests will be offered for each collaborative project team. Possible field trip sites include the CAVE (Computer-Assisted-Virtual-Environment) at the University of Delaware, the scanning electron microscope at Lehigh University, the National Constitution Center, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the classroom of the future at Montclair State University, and more. During this one-day session, participants will hear from guest speakers and participate in an intensive training/project development session with MAGPI staff members. So that all fellows can attend this session, their affiliated educational institutions will be reimbursed $100 for expenses related to personnel recovery (i.e. hiring a substitute teacher) and Fellows will receive a modest travel stipend.

Fellows Virtual Training Sessions - Dates TBD
In order to support Fellows throughout the academic year, MAGPI will coordinate two virtual half-day training sessions (one in the fall and one in the spring). During the training sessions, Fellows will have an opportunity to reflect on their experiences, hear from guest speakers, evaluate their own programs and hear from one another. Sessions will be conducted via videoconference and Fellows will be able to participate from their home institution. So that all fellows can attend this session, their affiliated educational institutions will be reimbursed $100 ($50 for each half-day session) for expenses related to personnel recovery (i.e. hiring a substitute teacher).

Online Learning Community
Continual interaction with other fellows, MAGPI staff, and experts is crucial to developing strong communities of practice. To facilitate on-going communication, Fellows will participate in an online learning community where they can post information, lesson plans, questions, ideas, relevant websites, best practices, video clips and more. The online learning community may also be used by the collaborative project teams as a project organization/management tool.

School/District Fellows Presentation
Sharing of experiences and knowledge is the cornerstone to this program - - both within the MAGPI Fellows Community and the broader MAGPI K20 Community. As part of their commitment to the program, Fellows will be responsible for organizing one school-wide, institution-wide or district wide professional development session about their experiences during the MAGPI Fellows Program. Fellows will share information gained, resources, projects and more. MAGPI will provide each Fellow with educational materials about Internet2, MAGPI and advanced networking applications. Fellows’ presentations will be held in the spring of the academic year of the fellowship and will help promote the program to other potential Fellows.

Internet2 Spring Member Meeting - Late April 2009
MAGPI will invite each Fellow to attend the Spring Internet2 Member Meeting in Arlington, VA during the year of their Fellowship. The Internet2 Member Meeting is a twice-annual gathering of the advanced networking community to share the many exciting developments in advanced technologies for research and education worldwide. So that all Fellows can attend this two-day conference, the program will cover their conference registration fee, their affiliated educational institutions will be reimbursed for expenses related to personnel recovery (i.e. hiring a substitute teacher) and Fellows will receive a modest travel stipend. A celebratory/networking dinner will be held for Fellows during the conference to help promote the sharing of knowledge and experiences.

Fellows Program Directors

The MAGPI Fellows Program is co-directed by MAGPI’s Associate Director, Jennifer Oxenford, and MAGPI’s Applications Coordinator, Heather Weisse.

Jennifer Oxenford is the Associate Director of MAGPI. She is responsible for facilitating research and education collaborations among MAGPI members and promoting the strategic use of high speed networking technologies in the region. She is also responsible for developing valuable partnerships among MAGPI members and the broader Internet2 international research and education community. Jennifer is the Co-Chair of the Internet2 Teaching & Learning Special Interest Group and an Advisory Board Member of the Internet2 K20 Initiative. Ms. Oxenford serves on the Steering Committee of ViDe, the Video Development Initiative, an international digital video membership organization. She has presented at several conferences on the use of Internet2 networks to enhance educational learning environments including an invited presentation on Megaconference Jr. at a panel on Next Generation Schools at the Internet Global Congress/Internet Society (IGC/INET) in Barcelona in 2004. Most recently, Ms. Oxenford was a recipient of the first ever IDEA, Internet2 Driving Exemplary Applications, Award for her leadership of Megaconference Jr.

Heather Weisse is MAGPI’s Applications Coordinator. In her three years at MAGPI, Ms. Weisse has initiated and managed the development of more than 150 educational videoconference-based programs, involving thousands of students and educators across MAGPI’s tri-state community and the national Internet2 K20 community. Some of Ms. Weisse’s most well-known programs include the Stand Up. Speak Out. Lend a Hand! project, the Alex’s Virtual Lemonade Stand project, America Reads the Constitution and the Creative Minds Series. In addition to designing interactive educational programming, Ms. Weisse has been researching technology-mediated literacy teaching and learning as a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education. Previously, she has presented on tactics for designing and delivering educational programming via IP video at the Internet2 Member Meetings, CoSN and ViDe conferences. Before coming to MAGPI, Ms. Weisse directed a youth television production program at the Community Media Center of Carroll County and worked with the Carroll County Bureau of Recreation to develop co-curricular after-school programs for elementary school youth.

Questions/More Information  

For more information about the MAGPI Fellows Program, please contact Heather Weisse, MAGPI Applications Coordinator, at hweisse@magpi.net or 215-573-6417.