Grant+Proposal+Draft

 Project Title: Project Athena [we'll need something more descriptive to go with this]

Abstract

 **Narrative ** Education is undergoing a period of intense national scrutiny, with the recent legacy of the No Child Left Behind legislation and new developments such as the Common Core State Standards Initiative, committed to the development of nation-wide educational achievement standards. The importance of teaching our students the critical 21st century skills they will need to become and remain competitive in an increasingly global and dynamic marketplace continues to grow. High-quality teachers are critical to the success of these initiatives, but teacher retention continues to be an alarming problem. Studies show that 20% of new teachers leave during their first three years in the profession, and nearly half of urban public school teachers leave in their first five years (Nieto, 2003, p. 3). New teachers are especially vulnerable, often feeling “overwhelmed” by the job, and “isolated” and “unsupported” within their classrooms (Massachusetts Teachers Association, 2009). The Education Commission of the States suggests that expanded access to professional development opportunities and access to curriculum exemplars are among the key strategies to support quality teaching (2000, p. 17-22). As cultural and learning organizations, museums and libraries have the potential to play a key role in the support of cost-effective, high-quality education at a national level. In recent years, countless museums and libraries have digitized selections from their collections, and many have developed educational supplements to support their use. These resources, however, remain scattered across the Web, with no central point of access for the time-pressed teachers who would most benefit from them.

[information on examples of past successful projects will need to go in this section]

By bringing together teachers with the resources of libraries and museums and creating an interactive web-based tool through which they may be used, Project Athena will create impact on a national level:
 * Assessment of Need **


 * Support teachers and school librarians by creating a “one stop shop” for educational resources offered by libraries and museums across the country, along with professional development and collaborative opportunities to help educators stay current and connected


 * Increase access to and usage of digitized library and museum resources, as well as the visibility of these institutions on a local and national level. This is an opportunity for libraries and museums to embrace several “21st century” traits by emphasizing audience-driven content, acting in collaborative partnerships, becoming embedded in the community, and being learning outcomes oriented (IMLS, 2009)


 * Invest in student learning and the development of 21st century skills. By working with primary resources and participating in “virtual field trips,” students with otherwise limited access to museums and libraries can grow in critical thinking and problem solving, visual literacy, information literacy, and media literacy (IMLS, 2009)


 * **Teachers Need an aggregated vetted site like ours b/c:**
 * Teachers have very limited prep time for classes/curriculum (in (Fitzgerald, Lovin & Branch, 2003, pg 26 from Swaim & Swaim, 1999)
 * Users expect everything to be easily searchable and accessible from integrated sites (Waibel and Erway, 2009 pg 324)
 * Goal was to cut down on search and evaluation time in regards to GEM (Gateway.org) project. [explains how other projects have attempted to do something like this and reasons why. However, we'll need to emphasize how our project is different/better.] (Fitzgerald, Lovin & Branch, 2003 pg 23)
 * Teachers have inadequate time to plan and integrate technology into teaching (Fitzgerald, Lovin & Branch, 2003 pg 25)
 * 43% say there do not have enough time to access credibility (Harley, 2007 pg 18)
 * Lots of resources exist on the web but they are not aggregated and unvetted (Fitzgerald, Lovin & Branch, 2003 pg 25)
 * 
 * “I personally create essentially all the digital materials that I use…I have not done much about integrating related materials created by others. I should probably do that, but time is short, and I am lazy.”(Harley, 2007 pg 16) (illustrates Principle of Least Effort)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">45% agree “digital resources are distributed in so many places that it is difficult for me to organize them and use them for my teaching (Harley, 2007 pg 18)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> 44% say “there are too many resources out there for me to take advantage; I am overwhelmed“ (Harley, 2007 18)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">36% “search engines provide irrelevant results” (Harley, 2007 18)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> 66% of faculty responded that they didn’t have time to use digital resources (Harley, 2007 pg 16)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> > (Robb, discussing Gilland-Swetland) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
 * "The research supports the construction of much more powerful, sustained, collaborative, and job-embedded learning opportunities for teachers" (Church & Swain, 2009, p. 5). [we'll want to paraphrase to save space, but for now ... ] We can also cite Darling-Hammond, L. and Richardson, N., 2009 "Teacher Learning: What Matters?" for this point, I believe ... need to check.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Learning to use these tools not only enhances the teachers' own professional learning but it will also provide direct experience with new forms of literacy that students are increasingly negotiating with ease in their lives outside of school (Church & Swain, 2009, p. 20).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Using technology in professional development can help teachers "become more familiar ... and feel more confident incorporating technology in the classroom" (Church & Swain, 2009, p. 22).
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**TEACHERS**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Gates report:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"access to high-quality curriculum and teaching resources" ... 91% say it is either [get the right wording ... absolutely essential or very important??]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Quote about the inadequacy of textbooks [get this]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">agreement that digital resources engage students and help with achievement ... more so than textbooks or other resources [ get this info] ... this was especially true among newer teachers, suggesting that this is a trend that will continue
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Despite the increasing importance, research suggests that teachers have trouble "locating, acquiring, and making use of appropriate primary documents, thus offering archivists a unique and beneficial outreach opportunity" (Robb, discussing Hendry's findings ... the Hendry article was requested through ILL)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Teachers want:"downloadable, legally reproducible, visually appealing, and directly relatable to academic content standards" also, should have "thorough descriptions and links to related materials" barriers for teachers include "a "lack of knowledge of how to work with primary sources" and a "lack of time, tools, and textual tolerance for locating, selecting, and compiling auricular materials." "
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Robb discusses how many resources remain "hidden" to teachers even when they are processed ... they don't have time to come to the archives, etc, or even if they are digitized -- the finding tools were developed for scholars and researchers, and they may not have the expertise to use them (Osborne, 1987)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;"> “The availability of primary sources has been crucial for the success of my teaching history. Students have remarked about what a difference it has made…” (Harley, 2007 pg 15) <span style="font-family: Verdana,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 12px; line-height: normal;">**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">(note this article is about faculty) **
 * **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">__Instructors use digital resources to:__ **
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“integrate primary source materials”
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Improve student learning
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Provide students with background “context “ for a topic
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Get students excited
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Obtain materials not available from their institution (Harley, 2007)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Benefits Students**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Benefits to students ... visual literacy (21st c. goal), visuals can help struggling readers (see Colorado report), preparation for standardized tests (e.g., AP history and composition) that require interpretation of primary source material, importance of a humanities education, humanities education has been given short shrift by No Child Left Behind
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"Humanities disciplines do exactly what they claim: create a richer life. They open up opportunities and equip people to embrace those opportunities. The humanities prepare people to be leaders, to see the larger contexts and consequences of things, to make subtle distinctions and create new experiences, to deal with ambiguity, novelty, and complexity." (Ayers, 2009, p. 31-32)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">**Benefits to Cultural Heritage Organizations**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Especially archives can benefit from "the possibility of building and benefitting from the support of a knowledgeable and sympathetic public." (Osborne, 1987)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">To fail to do so could be a problem: "Not making this a priority, in spite of the challenges and expenses, "will ultimately cost more because it erodes our most important capital -- an enlightened, engaged, and supportive public."(Smith, 2005)"
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">"In short, K-12 programming is an excellent form of outreach not only on the part of the library but also on the part of the university or college. It can be an influential bridge to the community that helps build both lifelong learners and library supporters.
 * “Collaboration brings new users to collections.” (Bishoff, 2004 pg 34)

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
 * Collaborations between libraries, archives and museums and how this can help teachers (and students)**

You can be a catalyst in your school **//to//** help educators understand the benefits of working with museums, which include • supporting a variety of student learning styles; • providing aesthetic and cognitive experiences not available elsewhere; • taking advantage of technological advances in image digitization; • giving students opportunities for informal learning that will lead **//to//** lifelong learning opportunities; • enabling students **//to//** see themselves in professional roles, such as those of scientists, artists, historians, and archaeologists; and • inspiring students **//to//** consider new career choices or volunteer opportunities. (Greenblatt, 2006)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“When LAM [libraries, archives, and museums] descriptions and digitized content are available on the web, they tend to be hand-crafted, isolated, and largely unvisited.” (Waibel & Erway, 2009 pg. 323)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“Users should be able to easily find everything we have on one topic of interest. There should be a single place to look for everything. They should be able to search using familiar words and have the system automatically match their words to the words we use. Users should be able to discover something and then earn how to access it. They should be able to collect things and work with them. We should support the creation of new digital works. We should have closer connections to pedagogy.” (Waibel & Erway, 2009 pg 327)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">“While LAMs are uniquely positioned to provide rich user experience in terms of content, the dilute the compelling nature of their offering by dividing their content into small puddles of information on scattered websites.” (Waibel & Erway, 2009 pg. 324)
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Collaboration between organizations can help leverage costs of building, hosting, digitizing, and maintaining materials. Additionally, it saves time and human resources Waibel & Erway, 2009 pg.324)
 * <span style="font-family: tahoma,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 17px;"> "Together, we are wiser, more gifted, and able <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">//to// provide a richer learning experience for our children. This classroom teacher and teacher-librarian collaboration resulted in a much greater variety of materials, sources of information, and points of view than any one educator could provide. The interest and motivation generated during the course of this unit seemed <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">//to// be related <span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 13px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; outline-color: initial; outline-style: initial; outline-width: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">//to// the fact that this was an area of new learning for many staff members, as well" (Greenblatt, 2006).
 * [|WHY SHOULD TEACHER-LIBRARIANS PARTNER WITH MUSEUMS?] (Quoted)

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"> NCES. (2009) “Digest of education statistics: 2009.” Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d09/ · Fall 2009-3.7 million teachers (full time) nationwide · Regarding access to technology to use Project Athena in the classroom:
 * Teacher/Student Statistics (listed by citation just to keep them straight)**
 * 94% of schools surveyed by the NCES in 2005 had “instructional rooms” with access to the internet

NCES. (2009). “State education data profiles: Maryland.” Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/stateprofiles/sresult.asp?mode=short&s1=24 · Number of schools 1465 · Total Students 845,700 · Total Teachers 59,320
 * National Assessment of Education Progress scores in Reading and Science are at or slightly above national average
 * 460,924 students in grades 6-12 [potential beneficiaries to Project Athena]

NCES. (2009). “State education reforms: Table 2.1.” Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/tab2_1.asp#f1
 * MD has adopted State Education Reform Standards in the “Core subject areas” in all education levels
 * BUT has not generated “clear, specific, and grounded in content” standards for English/Language arts at any level. Social studies has these standards but only at the middle school level

NCES. (2009). “State education reforms: Table 2.7 Use of technology and capacity to use technology, by state: 2008-09. ” Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/programs/statereform/tab2_7.asp


 * Educational standards require the use of technology by students and instructors
 * Does not require technology training or “participation in technology-related professional development” classes (few states do)

NCES. (2009). “Teacher trends: Fast facts.” Retrieved from http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=28

> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Kajder (2003) points out how difficult it is to find the relevant museums in broad based internet searches (there are even virtual museums on corkscrews, she points out (p. 107)) and believes that virtual field trips can increase interest in visiting in person and has led to real field trips in her class (p. 108)
 * In 2003-2004 school year 9% of the “teacher workforce,” 333,000, left the profession.
 * National Impact and Intended Results**
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

"The important role museums play in helping the public learn has never been fully understood or appreciated ... the root of the problem lies in the museum community's historic inability to docuemnt the educational impact it has on its visitors" (Falk, 1999, p. 259) --> special collections and archives even more so

Widespread access to museum collections can combate the impression that they are for the elite, for the "better educated and more affluent sectors of the community ... nice but much like an expensive dessert, a pleasing frill for a privileged few" (Falk, 1999, p. 272).

Discuss importance of collaborating with teachers at every step of the way:

Part of our impact will be in disseminating the results ... although many institutions have attempted this, the literature that actually details what was done and what was successful is scant (Robb, 2009). **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

Improve 21st Century Skills in "learning academic content through real world examples, applications and experiences, both inside and outside schools." (IMLS, Charting the Landscape, pg 6) quote from Martin

"In the twenty-first century environment of rapid change, the schools alone are not enough to fost the ability to learn throughout the lifetime. We need to embrace a bold new vision of learning. We need to think beyond our institutional boxes. Libraries, museums, and schools are all important elements in this web of learning," (IMLS, Charting the Landscape, pg 6). quote from Martin

"Learning beyond school walls"


 * Project Design and Evaluation Plan** **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

On the importance of including teachers throughout: "archivists -- old and new -- feel that they lack the requisite skills to mount effective public and educational programmes."(Cook, as cited in Robb, 2009) ... Cook and Robb both stress the need to involve teachers in the creation of curricular materials "both Gilliland-Swedand and Laver recommended, special attention should be paid to including experienced classroom teachers at all phases of the project" (Robb, 2009)

Phase I (6 to 9 months)

Activity: Research what features the project should have through an extensive literature review, examination and testing of existing models, and primary research (focus groups and survey) Product: Set of principles and features / best practices to guide creation of the site Costs: Focus group (moderator and possibly fees for participants; snacks; space provided by Pratt); Zoomerang (educational subscription); staff and GA time

Activity: Inventory existing digital primary sources and lesson plans in MD ... identify overlap with humanities curriculum (what's relevant) ... maybe we also look at opportunities for prioritizing other ongoing digitization work if there are things we would LIKE to have available digitally Product: Inventory of what we we have Costs: Staff and GA time

Phase II (9 months)

Activity: Working with a contractor to develop the site Product: Prototype (e.g., metadata or search capability; social tools; lesson plan template) Costs: Contractor, staff and GA time, web hosting (as a cost-sharing), Elluminate subscription [are there other apps or subscriptions we would need -- Kat do you know??]

Activity: Develop original lesson plans ... hold workshops of small teams of teachers (by application, provide them the materials in advance ... focus on one content area or small set of documents at a time ... draw on lessons learned by Robb study) Product: Sets of plans tied to standards and primary source resources Costs: Stipends for teachers (also give them CEUs); snacks and space; copying of materials to work with; staff

Activity: Dealing with copyright issues for works outside the public domain (identify need, make requests, follow up) Product: Being able to use the material! Costs: GA and staff time

Phase III (6 months)

Activity: Implementation / populating the site with content Product: A usable site Costs: Time plus the contractor's time

Activity: Usability and field testing through focus groups and observations (as well as online surveys of teachers we've already worked with), an outside evaluator Product: Feedback to create a better site Costs: Focus group payment and snacks; outside evaluator; time

Activity: Redesign of site with contractor (iterative) Product: Better site!

Phase IV

Activity: Roll out the site ... marketing and outreach, attend department meetings at schools to promote it, promote it at ALA and [find a state / local teacher conference], create materials (brochure, bags), training workshops Product: Promos, workshops, conference presence Costs: Travel money, staff time, brochure printing costs, tote bags

**<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"> Project shows that "concerted efforts are necessary in the beginning to spread the word about new programs to teachers" (Robb, 2009) ... can't just assume that teachers will come ... we may not really need to cite research on this though! :-)

Activity: Assessment (surveys, usage analysis) Costs: Outside evaluator??

Activity: Site maintenance and expansion (identification of new partnerships, summer institute for teachers to develop new and updated curriculum, inclusion of newly digitized materials, development of new online workshops, etc)

Project Resources: Budget, Personnel, and Management

Dissemination

Sustainability

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">We'll seek more grant money ... Enoch Pratt will continue to host and provide basic administrative support but we will seek other grant moneys to support annual summer institutes for teachers to develop new curriculum, provide period "refresher" workshops (or intro workshops for new teachers?), webinars, etc.


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Other Stuff that Might Fit Somewhere: **<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">

Lyons** suggests some of the limitations: "including design and maintenance problems on some sites, the inability to experience the physical object itself and the institution that houses it, and the lack of computer equipment and online access at schools with fewer financial resources.(FN13)" (Robb, 2009)

Specific features will be determined during our research and planning phase, but may include:
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">An online “marketplace” for museums and libraries to share curriculum and promote the use of their physical and digital collections through the creation of new lessons generated by educators using these collections


 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Inclusion of Web 2.0 tools to support community and collaboration (e.g., tagging; user reviews; discussion boards; facilitating partnerships between schools to bring groups of students together in a common context through interactive technology). This will result in the development of new best practices in the organization of information for educational purposes that harness the energy of educators themselves

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Online professional development workshops for teachers and school librarians run by museums and libraries to promote the successful use of their materials