Hewlett
Foundation Board approves
the
LINC initiative, BLOSSOMS
August
8, 2008
The
Hewlett Foundation Board has approved
the LINC
initiative, BLOSSOMS (Blended Learning
Open Source Science or Math Studies).
The program focuses on high school
math and science students in three
countries: USA, Jordan and Pakistan.
In this pilot 2-year educational effort,
supported by Hewlett Foundation at
a level of $300,000, faculty members
and some students in each participating
country will create 15 enhanced blended
learning stand-alone educational video
modules to use in high school math
and science classes. Also, selected
high schools in each country will
utilize the 45 created modules in
their own teaching and learning. The
pedagogical model is “enhanced
blended,” which means that the
in-class teacher is a vital part of
the learning process. Voice-over translation
will be provided, covering English,
Arabic, and Urdu.
The
contextual background for BLOSSOMS
is provided in this paper: Richard
C. Larson and M. E. Murray, "Open
Educational Resources for Blended
Learning in High Schools: Overcoming
Impediments in Developing Countries,"
Journal of Asynchronous Learning
Networks, V. 12, No. 1, Feb.
2008.
The
BLOSSOMS team consists of a number
of MIT students, faculty, and staff.
Prof. Richard Larson is principal
investigator, and Prof.
Dan Frey is co-principal investigator.
The
Sloan Foundation has agreed to support
this effort at a level of $45,000.
With both Hewlett's and Sloan's support,
this will be LINC's largest non-conference
initiative to date. The program will
be Open Source, continuing MIT's fine
tradition started by OCW and MIT World.
The first BLOSSOMS module has been
created, and additional modules are
scheduled for September.
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