MIT and Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation collaborate to transform teaching in the digital age

"Collaboration will support pre-K-12 teachers in using emerging digital learning tools." according to MIT News.

MIT Professor Eric Klopfer is co-leading MIT’s new teacher training initiative, along with ODL’s Vijay Kumar.

MIT, through its Office of Digital Learning (ODL) and the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation, today announced a new collaboration aimed at supporting teachers in their efforts to use emerging digital learning tools and environments, especially in the areas of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The effort will promote new ideas, technologies, and curricula along with research related to educator preparation with a focus on STEM subjects for students from pre-kindergarten through the senior year of high school.

Specifically, this collaboration brings together the Woodrow Wilson Academy for Teaching and Learning (WW Academy) and a new research effort within ODL called the MIT PK12 Initiative. It is designed to fill a growing need in education by providing new capabilities to teachers as they transform their classrooms into the technology-enhanced learning environments of tomorrow. The MIT PK12 Initiative has been created with $9.9 million in seed funding from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation to bring together educators and researchers at MIT interested in learning from infancy through the secondary level.

“Hands-on, problem-focused, curiosity-driven learning is squarely at the heart of an MIT education, and it will be central to MIT’s work with the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. Together, we will combine MIT’s ‘mind and hand’ approach to learning with recent breakthroughs in cognitive science and digital learning to inform the Woodrow Wilson Foundation’s efforts to develop and support excellent STEM teachers and school leaders,” said MIT President L. Rafael Reif. “We are thrilled to begin this effort to reimagine the classroom experience.”

The WW Academy was developed by the Woodrow Wilson Foundation to change educator preparation in the United States. The WW Academy will begin by launching a teacher preparation program first and expanding later to school leadership preparation. Candidates will engage in blended learning modules, simulations, and intensive clinical experiences grounded in program competencies and curriculum. Multilayered assessments will be used to determine proficiency...

Founded in 1945, the Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation (woodrow.org) identifies and develops the nation’s best minds to meet its most critical challenges. The foundation supports its fellows as the next generation of leaders shaping American society.
The mission of MIT’s Office of Digital Learning (odl.mit.edu) is to transform teaching and learning at MIT and around the globe through the innovative use of digital technologies.
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MIT in new collaboration to transform teaching in the digital age  (MIT OpenCourseWare news and information.)

Source: MIT News