HGSE Doctoral Student Wins PITF Award

HGSE doctoral candidate Jacy Ippolito received one of three Presidential Instructional Technology Fellows Program (PITF) awards given by Harvard University last week.

The PITF Program attracts undergraduate and graduate fellows to work with faculty and librarians, in conjunction with Harvard, on developing digital course materials for educational purposes. Each year the PITF program awards three students whose projects demonstrate a significant impact on learning and teaching a $500 gift for their work.

"It's fantastic to be recognized for the technology work that I've done," Ippolito said. "I think the PITF program and specifically these awards go a long way to highlight the enormous amount of technological support present in so many Harvard classes across the university."

Ippolito, a teaching fellow for S-460: First-Year Doctoral Seminar: Integrating Perspectives on Education, designed a website featuring a digital case study of Malden High School that includes photographs and video of students, faculty, and administrators. The site also includes course information like the syllabus, links to PowerPoint presentations, suggested readings, and discussion threads.

Through his design, the website eliminated students visiting two sites to connect course readings and content with case-study materials. The S-460 website gave students an opportunity to view case study photos and streaming video interviews, and answer course questions. Students could also add files and discuss questions on each page. Ippolito's design resulted in an integrated course and case study website, thus saving student's research time and increasing their time to work on questions.

"All of the case material such as video clips from interviews and site tours, photographs, maps, and historical information about the school was accessed via the website," said Assistant Professor Nonie Lesaux. "Without the course website and Jacy's masterful work, we would not have been able to bring the case to life for the students."

Ippolito worked on developing the site with Lesaux, Pforzheimer Professor Susan Moore Johnson, and four additional fellows. The yearlong effort to create and manage the S-460 website resulted in numerous products including an entire digital library of photos and videos of Malden High School.  Ippolito suggested that this digital case-study could easily be used in many courses at the Ed School to address a variety of educational dilemmas.

Over the course of developing the three websites, Ippolito learned how to use many technologies: iCommons, iSites, the iSites Course website, digital video cameras, Real Player, digital cameras, and html.

"We've all been fortunate beneficiaries of Jacy's incredible expertise," Johnson said. "We're delighted to see his award celebrated."

Ippolito is a third year doctoral student interested in adolescent literacy and middle school literacy reform. He received his Ed.M. in Language and Literacy from HGSE in 2001. He also works parttime as a fifth through eighth grade reading specialist for a local Boston-area school.