The Council on Educational Technology (CET), in collaboration with the Committee on the Undergraduate Program (CUP), has set a January 22 deadline for submission of preliminary proposals on projects that will enhance the educational experience of MIT students.
On December 13, Professor Hal Abelson, Provost Robert Brown and Dean Robert Redwine, co-chairs of CET, and Professor Robert Jaffe, chair of CUP, sent a letter to the community describing the Call for Preliminary Proposals.
Selected projects will receive funding through the d'Arbeloff Fund for Excellence in MIT Education and from Project iCampus, the MIT-Microsoft alliance for research in educational technology. Any member of the MIT community may submit a proposal. Proposals from student groups are also welcome and will be reviewed as a special category.
Preliminary proposals will be reviewed by iCampus and the CET Grants Subcommittee. Applicants who pass the initial screening process will be invited to submit final proposals, which will be due in February. Awards will be announced in time for work on projects to begin in late spring or early summer.
In particular, the CET and the CUP are interested in ideas and initiatives in the following areas:
- ������Cooperative initiatives between schools and departments
- ������Educational impact of wireless portable computing
- ������Educational initiatives that include alumni as key participants
- ������Improvements in advising and mentoring
- ������Increased flexibility for new learning experiences on and off campus
- ������Initiatives that improve the first year educational experience
- ������National and global resources for higher education
The proposal web site describes CET's and CUP's goals in these areas, but the organizers stress that they welcome any preliminary proposal that has educational significance for MIT. Proposals for educational innovation are not required to conform strictly to current Institute program requirements.
For more information, see the program's web site or send e-mail to ed-proposals@mit.edu.
A version of this article appeared in MIT Tech Talk on January 10, 2001.