MIT Haiti Symposium

By Invitation Only

Agenda
Thursday, October 21, 2010 – Friday, October 22, 2010
Marriott Cambridge, Massachusetts

DAY ONE

8:30 am – 9:00 am Introduction

This session will introduce the meeting participants and process, orienting all to the approach to be followed toward the objectives of the Symposium.
9:00 am – 11:00 am The Current State of Higher Education in Haiti

Through presentation, question and answer, and small group discussion we will come to a more common and complete understanding of the current state of higher education in Haiti. Beyond intellectual and humanistic benefits of the discussion, we will define acceptance criteria to measure the likelihood of success of action plans created at the Symposium.
11:00 am – 11:20 am BREAK
11:20 am – 12:00 pm Framing the MIT Approach, Resources and Opportunities

The projects, processes, pedagogies and resources developed by MIT faculty members may provide benefit to the process of re-building higher education in Haiti. This overview will provide the education leaders from Haiti with an overview of the MIT approach and terminology to aid in assessing the ability to build upon the MIT work.
12:00 pm – 1:00 pm LUNCH
1:00 pm – 2:15 pm Possibilities to Consider: MIT Projects, Part One

MIT faculty will present exemplar projects. The final result of this session will be a common list of possibilities for action, spurred from these projects, that build upon our collective experience and research interests AND match the needs defined to re-build higher education in Haiti. Presentations by OpenCourseWare, Blossoms, Mathlets & Math CI, followed by  discussions on the possibilities.
2:15 pm – 2:30 pm BREAK
2:30 pm – 3:45 pm Possibilities to Consider: MIT Projects, Part Two

MIT faculty will present exemplar projects. The final result of this session will be a common list of possibilities for action, spurred from these projects, that build upon our collective experience and research interests AND match the needs defined to re-build higher education in Haiti. Presentations by iLab, TEAL, HyperStudio, and STAR, followed by  discussions on the possibilities.
3:45 pm – 4:15 pm Prioritizing Possibilities

Using a software-based strategy lab, we will identify the relative priority of the possibilities identified in both the solution set one and solution set two discussions.
4:15 pm – 5:00 pm Overcoming Challenges to Achieve Success

Again using the strategy lab, we will define and prioritize the challenges and obstacles that must be overcome in Haiti and at MIT for the possibilities to come to reality.
5:45 pm – 6:30 pm Reception, MIT Faculty Club
6:30 pm – 8:00 pm Dinner, MIT Faculty Club

DAY TWO

8:00 am – 9:00 am TEAL Classroom Tour

We will take a tour of one of the TEAL physics classrooms, 26-152.
9:00 am – 9:30 am Review Day One

We will revisit the prioritized results from the previous day to allow us to bring the priorities and challenges into the break-out session discussions.
9:30 am – 9:50 am Overview: Faculty Development and Policy, Governance and Technology Infrastructure

Leaders from Haiti and MIT will frame the key elements of opportunity and need in the areas of faculty development, policy, and technology infrastructure.
9:50 am – 10:00 am BREAK
10:00 am – 11:15 am Break-out One: Faculty Development and Break-out Two: Policy, Governance and Infrastructure

Discussion groups will identify successful practices that have been employed in Haiti, successful practices that have been used at MIT and in other contexts, and identify opportunities to bring these together for widespread impact in Haiti.
11:15 am – 11:30 am BREAK
11:30 am – 12:00 noon Break-Out Summary Presentations

The break-out groups will briefly share key take-aways with each other.  These will be helpful in action planning.
12:00 noon – 1:00 pm LUNCH
1:00 pm – 3:00 pm Action Planning

  • Open Educational Resources
  • Immersion in Technical Environments
  • National Library of Digital Educational Resources
With the information from the first day and a half of content and discussion synthesized, we will move toward creating concrete action plans for the projects with highest potential. Action planning will be completed in topic-based sub-groups.
3:00 pm – 3:15 pm BREAK
3:15 pm – 5:00 pm Summary Presentations, Open House

Symposium participants will briefly share the consolidated results from the symposium and perspectives on the process and the path ahead with other MIT faculty and staff and with interested parties outside MIT.

All sessions will be held in the Marriott Cambridge, Two Cambridge Center, 50 Broadway, Cambridge, Massachusetts.