Welcome to MirandaMods
This resource was created by Dr John Cuthell, MirandaNet.
What is a MirandaMod?
A MirandaMod is a form of unconference, a generic term for an informal conference among peer professionals, who come together to set their agenda and determine the format and content of their conference, rather than having to accept the more formal agenda of traditional conference committees and organisers. Participants are seen as equals, regardless of status, culture and nationality. The unconference mode of informal learning has recently been modified by professional educators from the MirandaNet Fellowship in a version called a MirandaMod. In these events a wide range of education professionals choose a theme for a face-to-face meeting. But others join in across national boundaries, using a range of such digital communications technologies as video conferencing, microblogging and collaborative concept maps that emphasise the social element of learning.
MirandaMods are a key element of the MirandaNet professional knowledge sharing activity which owes much to Dr John Cuthell who has developed this aspect of MirandaNet Fellowship activity. A ‘mod’ is a form of ‘unconference’.
Dates of any future MirandaMods will be published in the MirandaNet Diary along with other forthcoming activities and events.
A MirandaMod. A group of people come together in a room. They are joined by others: not present other than as words writing themselves on a screen; as a low-resolution images and voices echoing across continents; as symbols on a growing map of concepts and ideas. Some will have made their mark earlier, leaving traces from which others will build. After the group has left, gone away from wherever to wherever, the words, images, voices, symbols and ideas will remain, to be re-purposed by the passing strangers who will bind themselves into this community of liminal space, wandering scholars through a virtual digital world of visual learning.
Borrowing its name from the MirandaNet community and the Gaelic word for a ‘gathering or assembly’, MirandaMod acknowledges its indebtedness to other unconferences, especially Teachmeet, under whose banner the original MirandaNet unconference was going to fly. However, organisational considerations mean that MirandaMod has to meet a different set of criteria to Teachmeet. We see MirandaMod as an addition, rather than a competitor, to Teachmeet in the educational unconference world, and it is more than likely that members of the MirandaMod community will be involved with Teachmeet events and vice versa.
Historically Mod comes from the Gaelic word for a gathering, assembly or parliament.
It is always free to attend a MirandaMod: there will be a Wifi connection, so please bring your laptops etc.
You can learn more about how to participate in a MirandaMod here
