Grant Spotlight: $10,000 Teacher Grants for Blended Learning
- By Dian Schaffhauser
- 05/14/18
Educators have until the end of the month to put their best online and blended learning ideas forward as possible recipients for grant money from the Foundation for Blended and Online Learning. The organization will be awarding up to $10,000 to winning proposals. The 2018 Innovative Educator Prize (IEP) recognizes and offers support to licensed K-12 educators developing practices or programs for addressing achievement gaps, boosting student engagement and personalizing learning through online and hybrid approaches.
Winners will document their projects as well as the outcomes for sharing with other education leaders. Previous recipients have developed an online credit recovery program, an open educational resources physics curriculum, and a blended dual-language kindergarten.
The foundation focuses on expanding technology-infused personalized learning models for students through research and funding programs.
The latest grant program isn't intended for hardware purchases or facility costs or salary or payroll expenses. The funds may be used, according to the application, for non-hardware technology as well as professional development, curriculum, software, classroom supplies and other materials.
"A great deal of excellent work is happening in technology-driven learning environments benefiting the educators and schools running these programs as much as their students. But creating and implementing digital learning programs often require funds beyond what a school or district is able to allocate and finding money outside of the operating budget is not always easy," the website for the program stated. "Through IEP, we are able to capture some of the powerful best practices and share these strategies with the community at large. In keeping the voices and experiences of the educators in the foreground of conversations about system-wide changes to educational policies and practice, we can help ensure decisions are well-informed and aligned to a collective vision for individual student success."
Applications are being accepted now through May 31, 2018. The portal can be accessed at https://www.blendedandonlinelearning.org/grant-program.
About the Author
Dian Schaffhauser is a former senior contributing editor for 1105 Media's education publications THE Journal, Campus Technology and Spaces4Learning.