Fermilab Leadership Institute Integrating
Internet, Instruction, and Curriculum

The LInC Online Dissemination Project is a pilot project to look at the effectiveness of offering the LInC staff development course in three instructional modes: face-to-face, partial online and full online.

The Fermilab LInC Course is an innovative approach to instruction designed to challenge teams of lead teachers, technology coordinators and library media specialists to create engaged learning projects that incorporate the best uses of technology. In addition, the participants, as school/district leadership teams, will create a staff development plan for their school or district. Our goal is to create a network of educational leaders who will effectively use technology to support engaged learning.

Selected projects from past LInC courses are available at /linc/guide/topten.html. Approximately 100 educators from 15 school districts have participated during the seven semesters that LInC has been offered since November of 1994.

LInC course topics include: Investigating Engaged Learning, Exploring Effective Strategies for Using Telecommunications in Education, Finding Information on the Internet, Authoring Web Documents in HTML, Adding Graphics to Web Pages, Designing an Engaged Learning Curriculum Unit, and Writing a Staff Development Plan.

Application Process: The application is available online (at bottom of page) and is due Wednesday February 11, 1998 at 5 PM. We will notify teams by February 16. Applicants may apply for only the Winter 1998 LInC course, only the Facilitators' Academy, or for both. Applications will be accepted from any state in the United States. An effort will be made to select teams from varied geographical areas. Preference will be given to Facilitator teams which have one or more members who sign up for the Winter 1998 Full Online LInC course.

Requirements for all Participants:

• Administrative support for student participation in classroom Internet projects.
• A team from your school, district, or region.
• Basic computer skills, Web browser skills, and E-mail skills.

• A full Internet connection with file transfer (FTP) privileges and e-mail at home and at school with a 28.8 Kb/s modem or better.
• A computer with 16 MB of RAM (preferably 32 MB).
• An operating system: Mac 7.1 or later OR Windows95.
• Netscape 2.0 or greater or Internet Explorer 3.0 or greater and E-mail Software.
• Adobe PageMill 2.0 or greater, which is a Web/HTML Editor ($50 Educational Price).

This is not an introductory level course. Based on previous courses, we know participants have spent substantial time in order to design, implement, and publish their own Engaged Learning project on the Web. In order to benefit from participation in LInC Online you must have:

• 8 to 10 hours available per week for 12 weeks.
• Availability from 6:30PM to 8PM CST (7:30 to 9PM EST) on Wednesdays for online discussions.
• A team of two to four applicants from a school, district, or region (preferably including a classroom teacher, a library media specialist, and a technology coordinator).
• A willingness to participate in a new "full online" LInC course format, and the motivation to keep up with course work in the absence of face-to-face meetings.

Jump to Application and Contact Information

Summer 1998 LInC Facilitator Academy Participants:

There are two ways to apply: four-member teams can apply or an educational service agency can submit an application with two people from the educational service agency, and several two-person school teams. The LInC staff will select from among the school team applications to complete a team of four.

Facilitator Academy Team Commitment:

• If possible, one or more of your facilitator team members will take the Winter 1998 full online LInC course.
• The entire team will take one of the three-day Summer 1998 LInC facilitators' academies at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois.
• Your team will offer two LInC courses in two different formats in Fall 1998. Your LInC courses each will be taught by half your team (two team members). The participants of your LInC courses must try out their classroom projects during Spring 1999 and complete an evaluation form based on that instruction. In order to ensure a fair pilot, your team will be assigned course formats based on your team's preferences. (We may not be able to accommodate all first choices, but expect to assure first or second choices.)
• Your team and your LInC course participants will participate/cooperate in evaluation activities to compare formats.

District/Regional Support Needed for Facilitator Academy Participants:

• Travel money for three-day Summer 1998 Facilitators' Academy at Fermilab in Batavia, Illinois.
• Facilities for team to conduct two LInC courses
• Classroom computer lab space with Internet connected computers for each participant (if face-to-face or partial online)
• Web server and FTP server; facilitators must be able to add/modify their curriculum pages, and participants must be able to add/modify their project and portfolio pages.
• Mailing list software
• Software for online discussion forums
• Software for online chats
• Participants who have Internet connections (preferably in their classrooms)
• Incentives for participants and/or facilitators (such as stipend, promotional credit, graduate credit, release time, recognition, computer equipment or Internet connections, ...)

Application and Contact Information

Laura Mengel (lauram@fnal.gov), Fermilab Education Office, 630-840-8107