STEP Training
MIT STEP offers a teacher licensing program that can be done entirely at MIT or in conjunction with courses at Wellesley College. This program licenses students to teach mathematics or science in grades 5-12. The Scheller Teacher Education Program, offered through the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, prepares MIT students to become teachers who are competent to teach in their field, willing to challenge established norms, able to bridge the boundaries among disciplines, and eager to help students develop the desire to question and explore. Click here for more info on STEP and here for more info on classes.
For Educators
STEP is actively engaged in many research and development projects, designing and testing new learning technologies for use in formal and informal education. While some projects are in limited testing with partners, others are freely available for all to try and to use (some complete with curriculum and assessment). Find out more about these projects on the projects page.
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iCue
Today’s youth, especially high school students, navigate a rich, diverse, and increasingly complicated mediascape. They often do so with ease, developing skills that extend literacy, synthesis and other traditional school skills. There are challenges however – despite an unprecedented 24-hour flow of news and information, teens typically have little awareness of or regard for news and current events; students have difficulty determining the quality of online sources; frequent use of shorthand writing styles for text or instant messaging causes some students problems when later asked to write well-developed essays.
To address some of these challenges, MIT and NBC News joined forces in 2006 to develop iCue, a new media experience to support teaching and learning in AP U.S. History, AP Government and Politics - U.S., and English Language and Composition. iCue offers students and teachers access to NBC News’ coverage of important events and topics and reinforces students’ classroom learning by linking the media to the curricula for those classes. These stories are also used in games and social networking activities that allow teachers and students to explore these topics in unconventional ways.
STEP’s research for this project extends our work studying the ways that games can enhance a student’s understanding and experience of learning. We are working to extend some of the principles developed by Comparative Media Studies’ New Media Literacies project (funded by the MacArthur Foundation). In its 2006 white paper, Project NML developed frameworks to help teachers and corporate media-makers provide students with rich, powerful learning experiences in more participatory contexts. iCue is currently available to the public at www.icue.com and an article on our research into its user base is in press.
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