Summer Journeyers Opportunity
Applications are now closed but we hope to offer this opportunity again next year!
2019 Call for Applications
MIT’s newly established Playful Journey Lab will be opening up during the summer to a few fellow Journeyers in education. Much like a fellowship program, Journeyers will be members of the lab, working on a combination of current lab projects and their own independent explorations. The goal is to create a community of practice where we build, play, experiment, and innovate in assessment and learning. The opportunity is for around 20 hours/week for 8-10 weeks during the summer, with a paid stipend. Applications are now closed but we hope to offer this opportunity again next year!
The Opportunity
Our Summer Journeyers program is an 8-10 week summer fellowship program for undergraduate and graduate students as well as educators or other professionals who are interested in working with the Playful Journey Lab.
3-5 Journeyers each summer will spend around 20 hours/week during June-August as a fellow or visiting scholar. Part of their time will be spent helping out with our current educational design and research projects, with project assignments being determined collaboratively. The other part of their time will be dedicated to working on an independent project that is closely connected to the lab’s research interests. This will be an idea or concept that Journeyers come in with and are passionate about. They will benefit from the time and space to experiment and take risks on innovative ideas in education, and the feedback and support that come with a collaborative design team.
Examples of the type of work that might be done on existing lab projects include:
- Design and coordinate
- a game jam event, a global hackathon for games
- workshop ideas for community development of professionals to promote assessment for learning
- Design and develop
- a game that supports Social and Emotional Learning through Play
- assessment tools for student-driven, hands-on, project-based learning programs
- equity-conscious onboarding activities for student-led assessment in classrooms
- Research and curate
- a playful learning and assessment reading list and put together a guideline for new project partners (members, educators, or other stakeholders)
Commitment
Part-time (around 20 hours/week) for 8-10 weeks (depending on availability) during June-August. Exact start/end dates are negotiable but we expect Journeyers to be physically present in the lab on MIT campus in Cambridge, MA the majority of the time. Journeyers will likely have other part-time commitments during the summer, but as much as possible we hope to align their schedules with those of lab members. This is important as we want to foster a social and collaborative community of practice not just by working hard but also through exploratory and playful activities. The activities may include participating in lab meetings and Lunch and Learns, running group game sessions, leading maker projects, sharing interesting resources, tweeting about your work, facilitating workshops, representing projects at conferences, giving and receiving constructive feedback, suggesting improvements to our processes, and many more things we haven’t thought of yet. As this is the first year of the Summer Journeyers program, we will be relying on the Journeyers themselves to greatly contribute to the shaping of the experience for everyone.
Stipend
$4,000-7,000 /summer depending on the Journeyer’s qualifications. For internationals, the possibility of covering travel and housing instead of direct pay can be discussed.
Who Can Apply
Anyone who can legally work in the U.S. for the duration of the program. Or for internationals who don’t request pay, anyone with a valid visa.
Application
To apply, please submit this form which includes:
- A brief resume (complete CV not necessary)
- Your current professional status (e.g., a recent graduate looking for a job, an educator looking for a summer professional development opportunity, a postdoc seeking complementary research opportunities)
- Your work preference/availability
- Preferred starting date
- Preferred weekly work schedule or any constraints (length of hours, day of the week, time of day, etc.)
- A personal statement including
- Reason(s) why you are interested in being a Summer Journeyer
- Any learning/teaching approaches and pedagogical philosophy that informs your work
- Contributions you feel you can make to the lab that align with its mission and goals
- Skills and experience you want to build during this summer opportunity
- Hint: Feel free to get creative in terms of format and content of your personal statement. And please do let your personality shine through here, we want to get to know who you are!
- A description of ideas or areas of interest for your summer independent project (500 words or less)
- Work samples from your past projects in whatever format that you think best describes your work. (e.g., a website of artifacts you designed or built, articles you have written, a video clip introducing the class/workshops you have coordinated)
Application Deadline
May 15, 2019
Journeyer Qualifications
A few of the qualifications we hope to see in our future Journeyers are:
- Passionate about creative student-centered learning, and bringing those opportunities to more learners
- Creative and eager to try out new ideas that are outside the box by creating, experimenting, and taking risks
- Excited to work in a community of practice and get and give feedback, even when it is outside your comfort zone
- Experience working in the field of education. Teaching experience in formal or informal learning spaces is a plus.
- Playful!
There are many ways you might fulfill these criteria, and we would encourage you to apply if you feel you would be a good fit for this opportunity. If you’re excited about this opportunity, we are open to hearing from you especially if your background contains things that we might not have thought to put in a list!
Contact Information
If you have any questions, feel free to contact Louisa and Yumiko through summerjourney@mit.edu.