MirandaMods: January 2009, at the BETT Exhibition

Several timed round table discussions took place at the BETT09 show, which were broadcast and twittered in the usual way.

Live Streaming and videos from BETT MirandaMod seminars

Terry Freedman wrote about the MirandaMod sessions in his blog ICT in Education.

Leon Cych has written about these sessions on his site Learn4Life (www.l4l.co.uk):

Another major part of my activity at BETT was the live streaming and filming of a series of MirandaMod discussions going on throughout the exhibition, culminating in the seminar below given by Dr. John Cuthell of MirandaNet and Dr. Norbert Pachler of the WLE Centre, IoE. Leon has chosen to show the seminar first because all the discussions during the show follow on from that research. It gives an excellent context for the debate.

ICT CPD

John Cuthell, MirandaNet and Norbert Pachler, Director, WLE Centre, IoE

Terry Freedman also did an excellent job of chairing two sessions and introducing the ICT CPD seminar.

During 2007 the MirandaNet Fellowship worked with members of the Naace,
ITTE and MirandaNet communities to identify effective models of ICT CPD,
and the critical incidents that had proved formative in respondents’ lives.
Look at the Seminar and see how much of that prefigures what is happening
with the TeachMeet phenomenon …

TeachMeet and MirandaMod – a place for reflection

In many ways these discussions are widening the scope around TeachMeet
(which I also filmed on the Friday at BETT and coming soon!). The MirandaMod
Moots encourage a space for reflection by practitioners, which perfectly
complement and embrace that growing grass roots movement.

If you see both John and Norbert’s presentations below you will see
how their research findings echo activities going on now in the teaching
community. Their research really does seem to have its finger on the pulse.
That is why MirandaNet is so important.

But more than that – it was a joy to see practitioners from around the
world pop in and join the discussion not only in person at the BETT exhibition,
but also virtually as well. In fact Dai Barnes’ class were viewing
a session remotely at one point (despite the patchy 3G connection for streaming)
and even managed to ask a question.

CPD – Critical Incidents – Lightbulb Moments

John Cuthell, MirandaNet – Chair: Bernard Dady, BSF Programme Director, Tribal Group; Christina Preston, MirandaNet; Lawrence Williams, MirandaNet Fellow and Assistant Head Teacher, Holy Cross School; Lloyd Mead, Lambeth College; Dai Thomas, MirandaNet Fellow and Director of ICT, Warden Park Specialist School; Theo Kuechel, MirandaNet; Leon Cych, Learn4Life.

This discussion leads on directly from the seminar above – the Critical
Incidents or lightbulb moments that people had are fascinating – the
personal narratives start with Bernard Dady, BSF Programme Director of
Tribal Group

He talks about his early opportunities as a teacher in Sheffield to do
action research and curriculum development. Learning through doing, learning
through networks and learning through collaboration. He’s working
with MirandaNet on Action Research and Accreditation as part of the BSF
rollout.

Christina Preston’s Lightbulb Moment was when she was working as
a consultant for ILECC an realised that one day courses had neither the
depth or the breadth of her experience up to that time internationally
and academically.

Lawrence Williams‘ lightbulb moment was in his ground-breaking work
with the NHS with his colleagues when he could share the same aims but
have different objectives and the collaboration between agencies.

I won’t précis everyone’s contribution: you’ll just have
to view the videos below and go along to MirandaNet and join. You’ll
probably find a few people you know there and many you don’t.

Visual Learning, Multimodal Learning

Christina Preston, MirandaNet – Chair: Erin Antonius, Inspiration;
Mark Oronzio, Inspiration; Jane Finch, MirandaNet Fellow and local authority
adviser; Lawrence Williams, MirandaNet Fellow and Assistant Head Teacher,
Holy Cross School; Lorian Meade, NHS; Theo Kuechel, MirandaNet; Leon Cych,
Learn4Life; John Cuthell, MirandaNet.

The increasing understanding of the importance of visual learning and multi-modality is having a profound impact of the learning of young people.
Many MirandaNet fellows are involved in projects that explore the ways in which the technologies and techniques can be embedded in the curriculum.

Project Learning

Terry Freedman, Chair: Christopher Binns, Oracle Education Foundation;
John Cuthell, MirandaNet; Theo Kuechel, MirandaNet; Leon Cych, Learn4Life;
Dughal McCormick, MirandaNet Fellow and local authority e-learning adviser;
Olivia Flores, Monterrey Research Institute, Mexico; Christina Preston,
MirandaNet; Andrée Jordan, MirandaNet Fellow and International Co-ordinator,
Ravensbourne School; Andrew Oreiki, Barnfield Academy.

Participants explored the ways in which ICT could be embedded in Project
learning to enhance outcomes and improve the learning experience for young
people.

Projects in Mobile Learning

Terry Freedman, Chair: Olivia Flores, Monterrey Research Institute,
Mexico; Ingemar Johannson, Gothenburg University, Sweden; Daithí Ó Murchú,
Gaelscoil Ó Doghair, Caislean Nua Thiar, Contae Luimnigh, Éire;
Markku Rissanen, eHR:fi; Norbert Pachler, WLE Centre, IoE; Leo Kuechel,
MirandaNet; Leon Cych, Learn4Life; John Cuthell, MirandaNet; Dewi Lloyd,
Steljes; Christina Preston, MirandaNet.

This session explored the differing concepts and approaches, looked at
a range of technologies that could be used for mobile learning, together
with ways in which they have been deployed in projects across the world.