Covid-19 and IHE Initiatives

In March, we were thrilled to award 11 small grants for professional development in heritage education.  Thus far, only one event has occurred.  On March 10, the Southwest Colorado Canyons Alliance and the Bureau of Land Management teamed up to offer a workshop for heritage educators in Dolores, Colorado.  Most of our awardees have postponed their workshops until next year and a few are pondering the possibility of offering professional development online.  Our original deadline for project completion was set for March 2022, to give everyone time to recruit participants, conduct the event, and report results.  We know that there are many opportunities for slipups when coordinating schedules, finding appropriate learning spaces, and planning field learning options.  It is complicated as it is and a pandemic certainly makes everything far more difficult. 

We will certainly support all our awardees as they navigate the difficult waters of our times and will be happy to accommodate alternative plans for offering professional development. We will offer additional time for projects that may need it.

For our 2021 grants, we are hoping to offer assistance to heritage educators who are finding innovative ways to offer professional development, whether it be online or through face-to-face (or should I say mask-to-mask) workshops with appropriate social distancing.  We want to support heritage educators as they adapt materials for their use in online formats or within safe classrooms. 

Stay tuned as we navigate this new territory and continue to assist educators with bringing high-quality heritage education to classrooms, online learning, museums, and many other venues.  We need to understand our shared cultural heritage now more than ever. 

Jeanne M. Moe, IHE Board Chair

IHE Headquarters, Bozeman, MT