Meet Mike Fortune – SLNeducation’s new intern
Introducing Mike Fortune and our new internship program with the UAlbany ETAP Department.
Mike Fortune from UAlbany’s Master of Science in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology (CDIT) program has joined SLN education for an internship that will run through May 2011. We are very excited to have an internship program (details below) and to have Mike with us. Mike will be working with the SLN education team until he graduates from the program in May. We are thrilled to have him!
check out his blog! – http://mikefort1.edublogs.org/
follow him on twitter – http://twitter.com/moodlemike
The SLN/CDIT Internship Program
The SUNY Albany department of Education Theory and Practice (ETAP) and the SLN education team have partnered to create an opportunity for their Master of Science in Curriculum Development and Instructional Technology (CDIT) program students to participate in a 3-credit internship program with the SUNY Learning Network (SLN). ETAP’s objective is to enhance the appeal of their CDIT program with an opportunity to complete an internship at SLN, a well-known, award-winning, internationally respected online teaching and learning program. The CDIT program becomes more attractive to their current and prospective students when the program can offer them an opportunity to apply theoretical skills in the real world. An internship at SLN with the education team will have significant appeal from the student perspective. This includes an opportunity to demonstrate to potential future employers that they have experience in the support of online faculty in higher education, a common pre-requisite for positions in the field.
SLN Internship Program Overview
The SLN/UAlbany Education Department Internship program’s mission is to:
1. Provide graduate students from the UAlbany CDIT program the opportunity to gain real world experience in our award winning online teaching and learning faculty development program.
2. Create a program that contributes to the development of a qualified entry-level workforce pool of online instructional designers, technologists, and faculty development and support professional staff for the education pipeline.
3. Apply the Intern’s and his/her skills as a resource to assist the SLN education team in projects and initiatives to improve our support and services to campuses, faculty, and the program.
The internship benefits CDIT, SLN, and the intern in several ways:
Benefits:
Benefit to UAlabany
• Enhances attractiveness of UA academic programs.
• Increases the usefulness of the academic program.
• Helps the department maintain and grow enrollments.
• Creates a pool of more competitive applicants to the program.
• Keeps the program relevant in the face of changing teacher certification requirements.
Benefit to Students:
• Provides a bridge between theory and practice, creating a significant opportunity to apply what they have learned in their program.
• Provides the opportunity to gain practical experience in the real world.
• Results in experience that can assist students with their employability after graduation.
Benefit to SLN:
• Access to a resource for entry-level work, freeing professional staff for higher-level work and projects.
• We assist in the development of a cadre of graduates ready to for the entry-level workforce in ID positions (in SLN and SUNY wide).
• Gives us the opportunity to offer entry-level supervision and program management experiences to internal staff.
• Gives us the ability to enhance our services to campuses, by for example, providing us with an additional resource that can create instructional captivate and written documentation, or participate in QM/course reviews.
Logistics:
Internship: 3-credits in the CDIT program.
Hours/timeframe/location: 10 hours per week, with one day in the SLN office on the UAlbany semester calendar, August – December and January – May.
Process:
-Short term: interns are nominated by UAlbany for participation in the program.
-Long term: a more competitive program can be developed where SLN develops specific objectives based on current SLN education needs where Interns apply for specific internship projects.
SLN internship program admin and mentor (supervisor): Dan Feinberg
Physical location: SLN office, education unit.
UAlbany contact: Peter Shea is the UAlbany internship admin and advisor, and SLN program liaison.
The intern will:
1. Review SLN education current needs, projects and initiatives and propose learning objectives for the internship
2. Be required to keep an internship reflections blog documenting experiences and learning, and
3. Produce a final written report on lessons learned from the internship experience.
4. Provide suggestions to improve the internship program for SLN.
5. Produce a comment about the internship experience for the SLN internship webpage.
Metrics for UAlbany’s success of the internship program will be:
1. The intern’s self-assessment and written report.
2. SLN’s report and satisfaction with the intern.
3. Increased interest in the program due to the internship opportunity (applicant self reports; increase in applications)
4. Interns report greater success in getting interviews and/or getting hired due to completion of internship (intern self report)
Metrics for SLN’s success of the internship program will be:
1. Intern’s contribution to the education team.
2. Enhanced productivity of SLN education team (additional useful work is completed)
3. Increased ability to serve the needs of the campuses (because work is completed more efficiently or additional services can be provided, e.g. course reviews etc.)
4. Intern’s, UAlbany, and staff satisfaction with the program.
5. Ease of supervision of the intern.
Tags: CDIT, Dan Feinberg, ETAP, internship, Peter Shea, Ualbany
