Illinois State University Associate Professor John Rugutt, from the College of Education, was awarded one of 60 fellowships by the Carnegie African Diaspora Fellowship Program. Rugutt received his K-16 education in Kenya, and this fellowship will allow him to return to the country this summer to engage with the University of Kabianga. His efforts will be focused on maximizing the available resources for teachers and teacher educators throughout the nation.
Among Rugutt’s roles will be to help mentor faculty and graduate students with establishing their research agenda. He will also be involved in conducting surveys and interpreting data that will be used by the county and national governments to develop strategies needed for successful technology implementation in public schools.
Technology seminars and workshops for K-12 teachers and administrators will be led by Rugutt covering topics such as teacher technology preparation, staff development, hardware, software, technology security, technology infrastructure and facilities, copyrights, financial planning and technology implementation.
“I am looking forward to learning new ways of delivering instruction and making it accessible to a diverse group of learners and researchers particularly in environments where instructional resources are limited,” said Rugutt. “Collaboration that this fellowship has ignited will make it possible for future learning and research opportunities to be shared through online programs such as Blackboard and Skype.”
The University of Kabianga project is one of 59 projects that will pair African Diaspora scholars with higher education institutions in Africa to collaborate on curriculum co-development, research, graduate teaching, training and mentoring activities.
