As we begin to enter into the core of our TLT Faculty Fellowship work for the Summer a whole new line of thinking is emerging about how to continue to expand our network. Two weeks ago I got an email from an instructional designer at one of the other Penn State campuses looking to discuss one of the things I’ve been banging through that was really helpful and particularly insightful. What was great was that it inspired a whole string of discussions that culminated with her submitting a proposal to be part of a Hot Team on mobile learning. I’ve been really excited about the notion of including people from outside ETS on our research projects and have to some degree — but it has been mostly folks from University Park and it hasn’t really stretched into what I would consider a long term relationship.

Credit tracyhunter via Flickr

With all that in mind, I invited Allan Gyorke into the conversation and over the course of a week or so we started to really toss around the idea of inviting a Learning Designer to spend a week with us here in ETS during the summer … sort of an extended conversation to open our mutual eyes to the realities and opportunities inherent in our very different working environments. I’m not announcing that we’ve settled on anything, but I am soliciting thoughts on this extension of the Faculty Fellow concept by bringing in a week long Learning Design Fellow. I’ve outlined the goal in a position paper that I am sharing with folks, but thought I’d make this an open conversation for those interested. Here is what I am thinking …

The goal of the Learning Design Fellows program is to provide a residential experience to a learning design professional not currently working for ETS at University Park. Each year ETS will select one Learning Designer from across PSU based on the content of a simple proposal to spend a week engaging with ETS around a proposed practical research question. The residency will occur during the week of the Learning Design Summer Camp on an annual basis. The Learning Design Fellowship will be funded by ETS and will require outcomes that can be shared throughout the following year.

So with all that in mind, does anyone have any ideas to throw into the mix? I’d love to hear what you might have to say!