Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education
Course Development Grant Proposal
Internet Delivery of EDCI 589: TELL
Purdue University
Abstract
Teachers Encouraging a Love for Literature (TELL) is a Tippecanoe County-based consortium of classroom teachers, media specialists and university faculty committed to enhancing the teaching and learning of children's literature in public school classrooms. For the past five academic years, TELL has offered a graduate course through Purdue University's Office of Lifelong Learning, EDCI 589:TELL. The course emphasizes recent trends in children's literature and teachers, librarians and professionals in child care have attended Saturday morning sessions on the Purdue-West Lafayette campus. The on-campus course has traditionally drawn teachers from the limited geographic region contiguous to Tippecanoe County. Since its inception, interest in EDCI 589:TELL among teachers outside this region has greatly increased. This proposal seeks $10,700 to research, develop, implement and assess a pilot, web-based delivery system for EDCI 589:TELL. This delivery system would have five main components:
- development of an EDCI 589 course HomePage,
- EDCI 589 Threaded Discussion List,
- collection and digitizing of speaker-related media including video/audio tapes of author workshops and of interviews with the authors,
- EDCI 589 Web Conference Board and
- an 'Ask-the-Expert' listserv manned by a recognized expert in children's literature who is not a member of Purdue's faculty.
WebCT would be the primary tool used in the development of these components and the course would be housed on Purdue University's Multimedia Instructional Development Center's campus-wide WebCT server. On-going evaluation of the pilot will be used to determine its ease-of-use, student reactions to the pilot, review from project personnel and expert feedback. These results will be used to improve the next on-line version of EDCI 589:TELL.
Narrative
Need to be addressed and rationale for course technologies to be used. EDCI 589:TELL emphasizes recent trends in children's literature. Teachers, librarians and professionals in child care have attended Saturday morning sessions on the Purdue-West Lafayette campus. During the sessions, participants either discuss shared readings and activities or engage well-know children's authors and illustrators in a common conversation about literature. Sponsored by the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, EDCI 589:TELL has been offered at the Purdue University (West Lafayette campus; hereafter, WL) campus through the Office of Lifelong Learning for the last five academic school years. Because of EDCI 589:TELL's unique design (no other inservice course in the country has components similar to these) and access to noted children’s authors, the course has attracted many elementary and secondary teachers from the eight Indiana counties immediately contiguous to Tippecanoe County. The reaction of these participants to the course has been unflaggingly positive. However, the EDCI 589 course coordinator (Professor Jill P. May) has--during the last two years--received more than 60 inquiries about the course from Indiana teachers outside the Purdue University--WL region. These inquires have come primarily through the TELL discussion list located at the TELL web page (URL) and have focused on the possibility of taking EDCI 589 through either a distance learning environment or in a web-based course format. In an attempt to satisfy this increasing demand among Hoosier teachers, this proposal requests funds to develop a web-based pilot delivery system for EDCI 589.
Institutional capacity and commitment to the course. The proposed course will be developed primarily through WebCT. WebCT is a tool that facilitates the creation of sophisticated World Wide Web-based educational environments. At Purdue University, the Multimedia Instructional Development Center (MIDC) computing center provides a campus-wide WebCT server that is available free of charge to any faculty member who is or will be teaching a course at Purdue University. Currently the campus-wide server has 305 courses and approximately 14,200 student users. MIDC support the faculty and staff by offering workshops in the use and development of WebCT courses.
Robert Evans, Coordinator of Technical Services for the School of Education, Purdue Unversity finds the pilot project feasible and exciting. He has offered School of Education resources for the creation of streaming video and audio of TELL speakers and teachers and the placement of these multimedia resources on the World Wide Web, assistance in the use of WebCT, and real-time interactive conferencing among students and speakers using the Internet. A letter of support is appended.
Also appended are letters of support from Jerry Peters, Curriculum and Instruction Department Head, Charles Elster, TELL Advisory Board Member and J.D. Stahl, the project's first "expert-in-residence.'
Instructional design and delivery plan. As described earlier, EDCI 589:TELL was developed to allow authors and illustrators of children’s literature, and classroom teachers to join together in conversations about what children’s literature is, how quality literature is created and interpreted and how to encourage the use of literature in classrooms with young students. The course has afforded teachers the opportunity to expand their expertise and their repertoire for teaching children’s literature. The web-based version of EDCI 589 will continue to be guided by these important goals. However, the web-based version of EDCI 589 will harness the Internet as an efficient, relatively low-cost delivery system for exposing many more Indiana teachers than previously possible to the important conversations about children’s literature. The proposed web-based pilot of EDCI 589 will provide teachers across Indiana with access to types of on-line experiences that closely parallel those of the on-campus course offered at Purdue University-WL. However, participants will not be obliged to travel the distance to the West Lafayette campus. The pilot should attract more teachers from across the state because the need to travel and the time spent in the on-site classroom will be eliminated. Students in the web-based version of EDCI 589:TELL would be enrolled in two hours of graduate credit--with an option for a one-hour research project--offered through the Office of Lifelong Learning at Purdue University-WL.
With these goals in mind, the proposed project will develop a pilot web-based version of EDCI 589 that will focus on two of the four speakers scheduled for the 1999-2000 TELL meetings: Michael Tunnell and Emily McConnell. Michael Tunnell is a noted scholar in the field of children’s literature who has written a number of journal articles, book chapters and two textbooks that critically examine children’s literature and its uses in the elementary school classroom. His scholarly perspective will challenge participants to expand their views of children’s literature. Emily McConnell is an author/illustrator who has written several award-winning books, including Bobbin Girl, a study of the life of mill girls in the Northeastern US in the 1840s. Her expertise as a contemporary author/illustrator will give participants an understanding of the resources and preparation needed to write and/or illustrate for children. It is important to focus on both a recognized scholar and an author/illustrator in the pilot Internet course. These experiences will be evaluated for the appropriateness of the Internet as a medium for facilitating the various types of common conversations around children’s literature that are currently available only at Purdue University-WL.
Using the work and campus visits of these two speakers as focal points for student activities in the on-line pilot, the professionals designing this project will develop a web-based course with five major components. (NOTE: each of these components would be developed in consultation with experienced web developers and integrated using a WebCT-type model.) A brief description of each component—and its contribution to the project—follows:
- Development of an EDCI 589 course HomePage. This web page would be the initial destination for those enrolled in the course, those who wanted more information about the course or about TELL. The page would contain links to the EDCI 589 course page; web-based resources for teaching literature with children; a clearinghouse for teacher book reviews and lesson plans; and a link to the TELL HomePage. This will be developed using WebCT and housed on the Purdue University WebCT server.
- EDCI 589 Threaded Discussion List. This list would be accessible only by those registered for the web-based pilot course. This list would serve as the primary means of delivery of reading assignments, discussion questions and other course assignments. Students could follow various ‘threads’ of discussion and re-visit past discussions through the list archives. In addition, students would post assignments such as book-sharing experiences with their students (for common books such as Bobbin Girl). EDCI 589 course packets would be accessible here and could be downloaded/printed from this section Course instructors would periodically post additional assignments via the list as well. WebCT easily allows the development of this type of list.
- Speaker-Related Media. Currently, all speakers for EDCI 589 give a general ‘talk’ as part of the course. This talk is videotaped. For the pilot course portions of the videotapes of the Tunnel and McCully talks would be digitized and posted for student access. Most likely, this would involve posting a complete audio file of the talk along with short excerpts of the video. The full videotapes, which are the property of TELL, will be available for purchase by students through TELL. Currently, every speaker invited for EDCI 589:TELL is interviewed by WBAA’s David Naylor. In the past, TELLing Stories (TELL’s journal) has received permission to publish edited transcripts of those interviews. The developers of the pilot course will work with TELL and WBAA in order to digitize these interviews and to post these files in this section of the course page.
- EDCI 589:TELL Web Classroom. As part of the pilot course, a real-time Internet Relay Chat (IRC) room would be established for EDCI 589:TELL. All students would be expected to log on at posted times throughout the semester. Students and the course instructors would then ‘chat' on a variety of course-related topics: readings, reactions to author talks, book-sharing experiences, etc. Again, WebCT has the capability of creating and monitoring IRC rooms.
Ask-an-Expert. The pilot of EDCI 589 will have a resident on-line expert in children’s literature who will make periodic appearances on the Web Conference Board. Students in EDCI 589:TELL will be encouraged to post questions and interact with Professor J.D. Stahl, an expert in children's literature who is the Children's Literature Association's webmaster and who teaches children's literature courses at Virginia Polytechnical University and at Hollins College.
Course evaluation plan. Assessment of the pilot will be on-going and iterative. Periodic questionnaires will be sent to course participants during the semester. These will focus primarily on the logistical successes and failures of the pilot (format, technical problems, etc.). In addition, project staff will collect post-course evaluations of the pilot using on-line forms. These will focus on the content of the course, the assignments and the topics/speakers chosen. Project staff will review these data and systematically integrate findings into the next on-line version of the course.
Marketing plan. Currently, the TELL web page has been identified as a key educational site by the ACCESS INDIANA Teaching and Learning Center (AITLC). AITLC has been developed to provide K-12 students and teachers with improved access to important content on the Internet. As the pilot course begins to develop, project staff will contact the AITLC webmaster (Mark Whitman) to seek recognition for EDCI 589 on the AITLC site. In addition, project staff will post course information on the various content organization (e.g., National Council for the Social Studies, Children’s Literature Association) listservs. J. D. Stahl, the pilot course’s first expert-in-residence, is the webmaster of the Children’s Literature Association web page and will promote the course. Notices describing the pilot course will be published in TELLing Stories, the TELL journal as well as through the Purdue University’s School of Education and Office of Lifelong Learning.
Proposed Project Timeline:
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January ‘00 |
April ‘00 |
May ‘00 |
June ‘00 |
July 15-Aug. 15 ‘00 |
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EDCI 589 PILOT OFFERED |
Key project personnel. Professors Jill P. May and Phillip VanFossen will be responsible for the development of the EDCI 589 pilot. Professor May teaches courses in Language and Literacy at Purdue University and has taught the on-campus version of EDCI 589 for five years. In addition, she was one of the founders of TELL and has been responsible for the TELL course since its beginning. She was also responsible for instituting the TELL web site and for designing the collaborative TELL program for teachers and faculty in Tippecanoe County.
Professor VanFossen teaches courses in Social Studies Education and Economics. His expertise in the integration of technology into the social studies classroom has caused TELL to invite his participation in their outreach program. He has worked with TELL and The Ackerman Center for Democratic Citizenship Education on the design and implementation of a variety of web sites and technical programs. He has been a web developer for more than five years and has developed on-line curriculum as well as web pages for all his courses. During the Spring, 1999 semester at Purdue University, VanFossen taught and authored all web documents for EDCI 624: Teaching Social Studies Using the Internet; a somewhat less ambitious undertaking than the proposed pilot (http://www.soe.purdue.edu/fac/vanfossen/624page.html).
Loralee Foerster is the Director of Media Services for the Lafayette (IN) School Corporation. Mrs. Foerster was a founder of TELL ten years ago and has served on the TELL Advisory Board ever since. She worked as a consultant on the design of the first TELL course. Mrs. Foerster will bring valuable experience to the project and will serve as the TELL liaison for the project.
Ann Ernst is a doctoral student in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at Purdue University and will serve as the EDCI 589 pilot course liaison. In this role she will interact with both EDCI 589 students and with the course instructors/developers. She will also coordinate the on-site (at Purdue University-WL) technical support and she will assist in materials conversion and collection.
J.D. Stahl is an established scholar in children's literature who teaches graduate children's literature courses at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and in the Children's Literature Master's Program at Hollins University (Roanoke, VA). He has given invited papers on children's literature in the United States and in Europe and has published several papers in the field. In addition, he is the webmaster for the Children's Literature Association and for the Hollins University children's literature WWW site.
Proposal Budget and Narrative
Salaries and Wages.
Project Co-Director Jill May will be paid .375 month summer salary at 1.00 FTE and will be responsible (with Project Co-Director VanFossen) for overseeing all planning, organization, facilitation and follow-up associated with developing and implementing the pilot course, EDCI 589:TELL. As the primary instructor of the current EDCI 589:TELL, May will be primarily responsible for decisions about course content, materials and assignments.
Project Co-Director Phillip VanFossen will be paid .375 month summer salary at 1.00 FTE and will be responsible (with Project Co-Director May) for overseeing all planning, organization, facilitation and follow-up associated with developing and implementing the pilot course, EDCI 589:TELL. As an experienced web developer, VanFossen will be primarily responsible for decisions about course delivery and technical issues.
Project TA Ann Ernst will be paid 2 months summer salary at .50 FTE and will be responsible for day-to-day administration of the project including coordination of the collection and digitization of all course materials. She will also monitor the course's threaded discussion list and chat room and coordinate on-going evaluation of the project.
Expert-in-Residence J.D. Stahl will be paid a consultant fee of $250.00/day for eight days ($2,000). He will be responsible for monitoring the 'ask-the-expert' portion of the course's threaded discussion list, for 'appearing' on-line at various times over the course of the pilot and for sharing his experience and expertise with the pilot designers.
TELL Liasion Loralee Foerster will be paid a consultant fee of $500.00 for assisting with course promotion and with materials gathering.
Supplies and Expenses
Video Capture Card. In order to convert the TELL speakers' video tapes into streaming digital files, the project will purchase an Intel Smart Video Recorder III video capture card for $150.00.
Other
Postage/FAX/Photocoping. $250.00 to cover various mailing expenses, etc.
APPENDIX
Project Co-Directors' Experience
Jill P. May
Professor May is Professor of Literacy and Languages in the School of Education at Purdue University where she teaches courses in children's literature. She has been an active member of The Children's Literature Association, Modern Language Association, Midwest Modern Language Association, and National Council of Teachers of English, serving on committees and executive boards of these groups. In addition, she has served as the elected Vice President of the Children's Literature Association (1988-89), Chair of the Children's Literature Division of the Modern Language Association (1987-88), and Chair of the Elementary Education Program and the University Senate's Educational Policy Committee at Purdue University (1995-1996).
Professor May has published the following books: Films and Filmstrips for Language Arts: An Annotated Bibliography (NCTE 1981), Lloyd Alexander (Twayne 1991) and Children's Literature and Critical Theory: Reading and Writing for Understanding (Oxford University Press, 1995). She has edited Children and Their Literature: A Readings Book (ChLA Publications 1983) and co-edited Festschrift; A Ten Year Retrospective (ChLA Publications 1983).
Professor May has published over 55 articles in national professional journals of education, English, library science, and folklore. She has served on the editorial boards of journals for the Children's Literature Assembly, the Children's Literature Association, the National Association for the Preservation and Perpetuation of Storytelling, the Indiana Library Association and the TELL (Teachers Encouraging a Love for Literature) Newsletter and TELLing Stories. During 1989-91, as the Purdue Snodgrass Fellow, she received a two-year half-time leave to develop a theory for model literary criticism programs, grades k-6. She has served as a consultant on language arts and children's literature programs in the elementary and middle school programs in several states during the past ten years.
Phillip J. VanFossen
VanFossen has also taught graduate courses in using the Internet to teach social studies, authored several informational and research articles on the use of the Internet/WWW among social studies teachers, and serves on the Advisory Board of the National Council on Economic Education's MCIWorldCom-sponsored EconEdLink. He has created dozens of Internet/WWW-based lessons and given dozens of local, state, national and international presentations on using the Internet in the classroom.
Over the last three years VanFossen has developed and implemented a course HomePage ( http://www.soe.purdue.edu/faculty/vanfossen/316page.html) for use by students in EDCI 316 at Purdue. Not only has this use of instructional technology increased students knowledge about and use of the WWW and the Internet for teaching elementary social studies, but a number of students have actually implemented rudimentary WWW activities in their 316 unit plans. VanFossen created and maintained a similar HomePage for ECON 219: Economics for Future Teachers ( http://www.soe.purdue.edu/fac/vanfossen/219frame.html) . VanFossen also created a self-paced Internet workshop ( http://www.soe.purdue.edu/faculty/vanfossen/316page.html/sslinks.html) that students in EDCI 316 are introduced to during our in-class Internet workshop, but can "take" at their leisure.
