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Mirandanet Spring E-zine

International Viewpoints

Ireland

Eileen Brennan-Freeman, one of our Irish Scholars, drew my attention to a web essay by an American professor about colleagues who have been sacked for talking about peace. It is a well argued essay that many of you will want to read about the lack of critical thinking in US education.

(Democracy, Freedom, and Justice after September 11th: Rethinking the Role of Educators and the Politics of Schooling - www.tcrecord.org/content.asp?ContentID=10871)

On that theme I attended a conference on Thinking Skills run by Questions, the magazine publishers. I had been really keen to find out about this much praised new approach to learning. The keynote speaker who is Canadian, Sharon Bailin, suggested that in all subjects children should be encouraged to weigh up the evidence and come to opinions of their own. I was horrified. All the techniques she suggested were second nature in my classroom fifteen years ago. Have things changed? Is it all information transmission now? Surely not? To be able to access the 'teaching thinking' website www.teachthinking.com you will have to take out a 'teaching thinking' magazine subscription
Tel: 0121 212 0919 fax: 0121 212 0959 email sales at quetpub.co.uk or www.education-quest.com.

Czech Republic

So on to Prague where Czech Miranda Fellows are devastated by the new government plans to spend large sums on hardware, resources and ICT professional development for teachers. The news of this new funding seemed very positive last year, but now a deal has been done with a consortium led by Microsoft who will do all the supplying. CPD will be delivered in the first year to all teachers by means of customised handbooks on Office and Access. Our colleagues have tried to protest, but been ignored. Totalitarianism by another name, Gates.

We will be holding a Czech Miranda seminar in Prague on Tuesday May 7th, half term week, and would love more MN speakers. There is no funding although we can find inexpensive university accommodation. There may be time for a British Council travel grant.

Let Christina know if you are interested in presenting your work to Czech teachers.

Bulgaria

Meanwhile, Katya Toneva, MirandaNet Fellow and ICT professor at a teacher education university accepted an invitation with seven of her teaching colleagues, to teach in a South Coast secondary school. The Bulgarian Teachers had the highest regard for our system and hoped to learn more, as well as support school which was desperate for staff. The head's wife is Bulgarian which is how this came about.

The eight very experienced teachers are being paid as instructors which means that the school has a good deal. But I could not believe my ears when I heard what has happened. These Bulgarian teachers have been racially abused, not only by the children, but the teachers. What is happening to tolerance in this country?

Katya has written a reasoned essay about their observations of the English State system which asks fundamental questions about the way we see ourselves called:

A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PEDAGOGICAL PRACTICE IN THE SECONDARY SCHOOLS OF THE UNITED KINGDOM AND BULGARIA

She says that she has written this paper

"to compare the strong sides and the weaknesses of the British and Bulgarian pedagogical practice in the secondary schools of the United Kingdom and the Republic of Bulgaria.

The main point is to define a model of pedagogical practice, which should be a multicultural one, or in other words to represent the result of intercultural interactions between two basically very different educational cultures. By and large, this is a difficult task, so the authors will not offer a ready-made recipe, i.e. a ready-made model, but will just outline the way to forming such a model through examples, case studies and episodes from their own pedagogical practice.

We plan to base this multicultural model on the basis of a wide-scale discussion on the pages of the specialized periodicals in Bulgaria and the United Kingdom as well as in other European countries participating in the project MirandaNet.

We would like our Bulgarian, British and, in a word, European colleagues, to publish their opinions, evaluations and examples from their own experience, which would help elaborating the multicultural model of the pedagogical practice in future unified Europe.

Katya's ideas are very close to pedagogical models that Bryn Holmes, Marilyn Leask and I have been developing in relation to communities of practice. Katya will be presenting at the next MirandaNet seminar on Thursday 16th May with us. If you would like to come please contact Karen Glass. I hope there will be enough of you there to prove that their experience on the South Coast is not the rule in this country.

Miranda China

We have just had confirmation of the British Council funds to set up a Chinese Miranda with some very keen teachers there. I'd like to know who would like to be involved. Please send me school details and a small description. The Chinese will be coming here first but I do not know when yet. It would be a good project for the British Council International Professional Development Scholarships and the DFES Best Practice Research Bursaries. Ask Kaz about how to apply for these.
Washington

Mara Chrystie and I will be out in Washington at the end of March sorting out the final details of the Fulbright scholarship exchange with Fellows from the North and London.
We have found that the US Teachers are reluctant to travel. All children and teachers have been grounded in Washington since September 11th and hope that our presence will help them to think more positively.


We have tagged this Washington visit onto our attendance at the SITE02 conference, Nashville, Tennessee which we are funding ourselves. Niki Davis is the president of SITE which is like ITTE for teacher educators. We are working with international colleagues on building on-line communities of practice. Carol Webb, Bryn Holmes and John Cuthell will also be there. We will give you all feedback after Easter.


Miranda North News
A number of MirandaNorth members are in the process of moving schools, so during the next two terms names and addresses are bound to go astray! So, the best of luck to those seeking promotion. I'm sure that you'll be able to expand MirandaNorth participation in your new schools.

Except, that is, for Fiona Garret. She's got married, moved back to London and changed her name, so colleagues in the south who meet Fiona Dorman will experience a slight change of deja-vu. Fiona is still working on Think.com projects.

Six MirandaNorth scholars completed their DfES Best Practice Research Awards during 2001. Some of the case studies are already on the MirandaNet site, and it's hoped that the others will be available before too long. Tim Farr, from Rainhill Learning centre, has just submitted an extremely exciting proposal for this year's awards. It's to be hoped that he's successful in his application.

Links with MiraNet Bulgaria are continuing. Liz Smith, from Boston Spa Comprehensive School is collaborating with the High School for Mathematics and Science in Varna on a web-based Mathematics project.

The shock waves from the September 11 attacks on the United States have delayed preparations for the Fulbright Exchange with schools around Washington. Colleagues from Hartlepool and Leeds hope that arrangements will be made in time for their exchange in May and June.

On a final note, Promethean are offering significant discounts on whiteboards, together with free training. If any colleagues wish to take up this offer for their schools, contact Karen Glass or John Cuthell.

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Updates on MN projects

DO: Digital Opportunities

E-learning achievements by Gifted, Disaffected and Disadvantaged students

Summary

During the academic year 2000 - 2001 five teachers in Yorkshire built up classroom evidence that indicates that e-learning is a significant learning tool for learners with special needs: particularly students who are gifted and those who are disaffected by the school system.

E-learning was not used as a tool for information transmission but as an effective means of encouraging unconfident young people to publish their interests and to engage in participative dialogue and debate with others. The impact on their self-esteem was a major reason for the progress that they made. The opportunity to publish and communicate online about subjects that interest them personally appears to have a significant effect on their school performance and on their relationships with teachers and other students. In some cases, using e-learning as a catalyst, teachers were able to build up a rapport with difficult students that they had not thought possible. Two detailed DFES Best practice action research studies have been written by Fiona Garrett and Richard Robinson. You can find them on the Mirandanet web site.

The project will use an e-learning web space designed to create active magazines on line called webzines that attract reluctant learners, raise self-esteem and reduce the sense of difference. During this year teachers will draw on citizenship materials and on developing thinking skills, both areas where disadvantaged young people may benefit from engagement. The webzines which will be created on Think.com will be an ideal tool to promote discussion and thinking in these areas. Publication areas for interesting extracts will be developed on the MirandaNet website so that more schools are encouraged to develop webzines as well. Students will be encouraged to invite students all over the world to engage in discussion and information sharing in specialist topics that interest them. The greater number of students involved the better will be the opportunities for interaction.

One focus funded by Toshiba will be the use of notebook computers by the students both at school and at home, exploring the impact on engagement and learning progress. Another focus will be the place of interactive whiteboards in learning progress used by students rather than teachers funded by Promethean. Tower Hamlets and Kent LEA are funding mobiles and extra equipment including digital cameras which may be a third focus of activity.

MirandaNet members are encouraged to attend the ICT CPD workshop on May 16th to meet the teacher participants and to plan to join the project in the Third stage starting in September.

Second stage teams

MirandaNet North
Liz Smith, Richard Robinson, Keith Briggs, Julian Taylor,
Boston Spa Comprehensive School, Yorkshire
Working with Bulgaria and Washington Schools

MirandaNet South East
Carol Webb, Cornwallis School, Kent
Working with Czech Republic

Web Wise Wapping
Patrick Robbins, Bishop Challoner, Wapping
Miranda Ross, Shapla School, Wapping
John Moran. St Patrick's. Wapping
Bernard Stitt, English Martyrs, Wapping
Marion Scott Baker, Cheam School, Berkshire
Working with Washington schools

With mentors

John Cuthell, School of Education and Professional Development, Huddersfield University
Chris Warren, Actis
Christina Preston, MirandaNet
Mara Chrystie, Hermitage School, Wapping
Fiona Garrett, Haverstock School, Camden

Tools for Schools

I am now a Trustee of the Tools for Schools recycled computer charity and Toshiba kindly sponsored some of these Compaqs for MirandaNet students. MirandaNet have recently bought 100 recycled Compaq mobiles donated by Morgan Stanley. For the DO project. We are loading the Sun Star Office integrated package on which is free to Schools. Kaz has the details.

Trevor Matthews at Tools for Schools reports that the BBC has just donated a large number of systems. These machines are mainly Pentium IIs with 17" monitors. Once Tools for Schools has fully refurbished the kit and upgraded it to multimedia, it will be available with an operating system, three-month warranty and delivery for £95 per system. You can also buy Internet and networks cards. See: www.tfs.org.uk

The site gives details on how schools and LEAs can apply.

DO : Digital Opportunities
for the gifted, the disaffected and the disadvantaged

Web Wise Wapping

We have three years to prove the value of communities of practice in Wapping. This is a sensible time scale and one in which we expect to prove that long term attention to teachers' ICT professional development needs does have measurable results and can produce a sustainable community.

The enthusiasm of colleagues in the Web-Wise Wapping project is a joy. Yes of course they are busy, but they are managing to fit this into their programme because the benefits for children's learning seem clear. The MirandaNet team do not underestimate, however, the effect of going into a community which is already resolved to share and co-operate. It is this spirit which is driving it forward, a well as a safe environment for risk talking and a willingness to make mistakes.

A group of the class teachers are working on "Using ICT to enrich the National Curriculum for classroom teachers" with projects such as: history of the school area, settlements in Wapping, Literacy and astronomy. Bigland Green and Cyril Jackson are working on Family Books with Bengali mothers which they are demonstrating for the DFES Roadshows. Another group of Teachers are using ICT to extend beyond the National Curriculum" with Francis Howlett. They are developing a WWW public web page some wonderful links to easily access each school's website.

Miranda Ross, from Shapla Primary, a new MirandaNet scholar, was invited by Oracle, to San Francisco to learn more about Think.com and through her expertise has set up some links on Think.com so that everyone can look at each others school page and work together on similar projects. She has also developed a Quick Links page so that you can access each school's information quickly and share ideas together.

The Head Teachers in conjunction with John Cuthell are working on ideas for "Using ICT as a catalyst for change in teaching and learning for heads and senior managers." as well as being involved in some of the classroom projects. We hope to link this in with our MirandaNet Chinese senior managers who have also identified change management as an area where like us they have much to learn.

All the WWW participants have mastered Think.com which is proving a really useful framework for developing and publishing the project information. Here are some of the school links
(If you are not registered on Think.com you can do this via the MirandaNet site).

Shapla Primary School
Miranda Ross from Shapla says "You can use think.com to share ideas and collaborate more easily ie. Via stickies"
Link to Shapla's site to contribute to Year 5 interactive stories and phone book character hotseats, and Year 1's local area project

Hermitage Primary School
Get involved with local area studies focusing on exploring community sculpture or developing the local environment, and find out about our mentoring project for Year 6 and younger children, as well as many other projects
English Martyrs RC Primary School
Collaborate on a local area study
St. Patrick's RC Primary School
We aim to archive the records, diaries and school logs along with photos, gathered over 125 years

Mara Chrystie, John Moran, Miranda Ross and Fiona Garrett are now leading teacher groups and we hope that gradually more teachers on the ground will take over the reins to run this exciting project.


GTC Web-based Community E-Facilitators Mentoring Programme

You will remember that we ran a Mirandalink conference on the General Teaching Council recently in which some strong opinions were expressed. The Fellowship does have an understanding of the challenges.

I take the view with many of my teacher education colleagues that the GTC professional body is an important step in making the profession self-regulating like doctor and solicitors who tend to have higher standing than teachers. I was very pleased, therefore, to win the tender to provide a three-year e-mentoring programme for the e-facilitators engaged in the websites online community.

The first challenge we have to face is the determined campaign to destroy the GTC forums by three people who purport to be practising teachers, one an NUWSA (I need to check this) representative. They have published their intention to destroy the forums on the TES, GTC website and gather there like ghouls to chuckle over their success. There is as yet no registration process so these people cannot be traced. The e-facilitators who have just started have found these vicious attacks hard to handle. We had a long discussion about how to deflect this kind of assault on our democratic freedom whilst not losing cool and not putting off the hundreds of fair minded teachers who want to have their say. Ideas on mirandalink would be welcome.

The pilot phase from January to September 2002 will be the design, planning and running of a 24 hour residential workshop, the development of an accreditation framework and process; e-mentoring support for the 9 GTC e-facilitators on their online work. There will be recruitment of further GTC e-facilitators in a national competition from September to December 2002. During this phase a web based resource pack and online course will be designed and the frameworks developed, and an online journal will be set up for use during the lifetime of the project. From 2003 a one-year programme will be repeated each year by a growing number of e-facilitators who will make up the community of practice. The programme will commence with an e-facilitators induction workshop: development of key skills and pursuit of professional development opportunities in year 1; establishment of links with other communities in pursuit of further professional development and research opportunities in year 2; and promotion of self-sustainability of the online community in year 3.

Many MirandaNet fellows are already experienced in e-mentoring so we hope you will look out for this opportunity.

Domex - Unity of Identity Project
With DFES Domex project, the MirandaNet Fellowship is currently undertaking the first stage of a Conflict Resolution project which concentrates on the wider new National Curriculum subject, Citizenship. You will not be surprised that we take an International view in the proposed post NOF-ICT professional development programme for teachers and web-based resource pack which will be available to all schools who are registered on Think.com from the end of March. I hope this will be one of the initiatives that encourages you to take a new look at Think.com and it's role in your school.

The overall aim of UnITy is to create a wider and richer sense of identity for students in East London in the six London boroughs covered by Domex. Students will build a of a learning environment where key participants in the teaching profession and the students themselves come together to

- To envision a sense of a shared future.
- To jointly create a sense of shared history
- To capture and share learning experiences

The first phase from February to the end of April 2002 focuses on the building of a framework for a managed learning environment - an ongoing web based work pack on Citizenship.

DFES Roadshows

As you will know e-learning is now an important government initiative. The MirandaNet Fellowship has been chosen to present sessions on e-learning in the DFES Roadshows that will be held in partnership with the Broadband consortia in the Midlands, the South West and in Cumbria. The dates are will be confirmed later in the month.

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MirandaLink

Mirandalink has been a source of shared information over the last couple of months. Some of the topics recently discussed were Interactive Whiteboards that seem to be becoming more user friendly and in more and more workspaces. Curriculum online topics such as web based resources and how to access them and of course it has been a great guide to upcoming courses and information that may be of interest to the mirandalink members.

Don't forget if you know something or have something of interest to share with your fellow MirandaNetters than please don't hesitate to share it with everyone else.

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MN Scholars

We are delighted that so many new scholars that have recently joined MirandaNet.
Here is the list of the new people on mirandalink. You can look them up on the Mirandanet website to see what they specilialise in. I am looking into an effective method of introducing them to you. Again I hope many will attend the MirandaNet CPD day on 16th May.

This month I will focus on two of our new scholars and give you an idea of where their interests lie:

Dominic Clare

Websites: www.demi.org.uk; www.talent.org.uk

Personal Statement
Dominic has been working in computer/ICT education since 1979; initially as a secondary school teacher (to 1988) then as a local authority advisory teacher (to 1991) and a lecturer in initial and continuing teacher education (BAEd, PGCE and MA). He is now on secondment with the London Borough of Lewisham Education as an ICT consultant (secondary schools) providing NOF training (from 2001) and supporting school improvement. In these roles he has provided continuing and initial professional development supporting and extending the effective use of ICT in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions and across a wide range of disciplines.

ICT Interests
Dominic's roles in higher education have included specifying, planning and providing in-service training and research and development in ICT education. He has recently developed material for key stages 3 and 4 for the Science Museums ICT-focussed Digitopolis Gallery co-authored the Folens 'ICT for Primary Maths' book and CD-ROM series. He has also developed science and technology multimedia resources for key stage 2 (Renewables in View a CD-ROM on renewable energy), keystage 3 (a CD on communications technologies for one2one) and managed a TLTP project developing and producing a web site for university students on sustainable design (http://www.demi.org.uk).

Recent Projects
With colleagues from Lewisham Education and Lewisham College, Dominic represented Goldsmiths College in defining and establishing the TALENT NOF training consortium. He managed the secondary training elements outside the London Borough of Lewisham until joining the Lewisham team as ICT consultant and he has been responsible for elements of the TALENT distance learning, web-based materials and he developed the award-winning user interface (http://www.talent.org.uk).


Publications
Dominic has published a number of national and international publications on ICT education, most recently Information and Communications Technology: Teachers and Students
Preconceptions and the Implications for Teacher Education presented at SITE 2000: Society for Information Technology and Teacher Education International Conference, San Diego, California, USA; February, 2000.

Meng Guangyou

Personal Statement
My school is a common junior high school. There are 55 classes, 3400 students and 170 teachers in our school. The age of the students is about 13 to 17 years old. And each class has about 50 students. The subjects the students learn in our school are: Chinese, Maths, English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Geography, History, Politics, Working
skills, Computer Science (Information Technology), etc. We often use the computers as tools in our teaching, to manage the routines of school management, such as to manage the grades of the students, etc. to make CAI software, to download the data about teaching via the Internet, and so on. Now our school is building an intranet in order to share the resources of teaching material in full. We speak Putonghua, just like the TV announcer speaks.

ICT Interests
I am from P.R.China, and I am keen to have the answers to all about IT or ICT on education, the hardwares and softwares. We Chinese teachers esp.college teachers, are researching on how to integrate with IT and other subjects.

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MN Fellows

Congratulations to Tim Farr, Anne Gilleran, and Jacky Elliott who have become fellows in February. Jacky Elliott has published a very interesting article on the MirandaNet website about the innovative project that is happening at her school at the moment. She describes how her school has loaned computers and printers to students and their families in the Northwood Neighbourhood of Kirby. Read all about Ruffwood@home on the MirandaNet website.

Basia Korczak

On a sad note we must once again convey our condolences to Basia, who recently lost her husband, Stan. By one of those cruel ironies, Stan died of heart failure on the day the hospital told him that they had a bed for him for bypass surgery. Basia is one of our most imaginative scholars who has been keen to share her knowledge with others. Our thoughts are with her and her family. It's a long hard road through bereavement with all kinds of inevitable stages. We hope that MirandaNet collegiality will offer some small relief.

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Keeping you up to date with government policy

DFES Bursaries for primary teachers for summer conference

Professor Bridget Somekh has invited MirandaNet members to apply for bursaries for this conference. We will be delighted to help you with your applications and your presentations. Scholars can qualify as Fellows by going through this process.

Learning with Technologies in School, Home and Community
IFIP WG 3.5 Working Conference in Manchester, June 30 - July 5 2002

The DfES has just agreed to sponsor ten primary teachers/head teachers to attend this conference. We are absolutely delighted as this will ensure that our many international visitors hear about the work of teachers in the UK.

Please would you draw this to the attention of any teachers in your authority who are currently engaged in innovative work using ICT. Procedures for applying for a bursary of £500 are set out below. The bursary will cover the registration fee of £350 and provide £150 towards travel and accommodation.

The conference is being organised by IFIP WG 3.5 on Informatics and Elementary Education. Full information is available on the conference web-site:
www.did.stu.mmu.ac.uk/conference/conferences.shtml

All participants are asked to contribute a paper for presentation at the conference. The organisers wish to encourage a wide diversity of contributions related to the following focus, themes and perspectives:

* The focus: Early Childhood and Elementary Education.
* The themes: social contexts of learning, learning styles, conditions for learning, organizing for learning, changing sites of learning, changing roles and relationships.
* The perspectives: research, policy, curriculum, evaluation, development, standards, assessment, leadership, teacher education, professional development, collaboration, networks, inclusion, equity, developing countries, special education.

We are not sure how much you know of the work of IFIP. It is an international federation of national computing/information processing societies established by UNESCO to address international cooperation and development in ICT in education, business, research and society. It is committed to building partnerships and developing strategies for improving the effectiveness of ICT in education across different national contexts. IFIP WG 3.5 focuses on ICTs in Elementary Education. IFIP Working Conferences bring together leading international professionals and researchers to exchange knowledge and engage critically with current issues of importance for policy and practice. This one will be particularly important, coming at a time when digital technology is having a major impact on social, political and economic institutions and structures round the world.

Yours sincerely
Professor Bridget Somekh, MMU, UK
Chair of Organising Committee

To Apply for a DfES Bursary
Teachers should apply by letter to Professor Bridget Somekh, Chair of the Organising Committee, either by email (j.davidson at mmu.ac.uk) or by post to The Research Centre, Institute of Education, Manchester Metropolitan University, 799 Wilmslow Road, Didsbury, Manchester M20 2RR, UK.
Please give:
* a brief description of your work using ICT in teaching and learning within the age range 4-12 (about one side of A4)
* the title of the presentation you are offering to give at the conference
* a one page CV, including the name of your school, full home address, email address and fax number

Applications should reach Bridget Somekh by Friday March 22, 2002.

Notification on the award of bursaries will go out to all applicants by Friday April 5, 2002.

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Auntie plays fast and loose

BBC Curriculum Online

Below I've pasted in a simple version of what the BBC offer is about. But do not be fooled. This is a political minefield as Auntie plays fast and loose. Is she a charity or a mult-million pound global business? Is she a self-regulating body or an uncontrolled license to print money. Is she giving us a free present or is this actually an order to secure a new license fee? And if we all have free materials what happens to companies like Espresso and Actis who have invested in web based resources? And when they are gone where will the choice and diversity be? Difficult questions we should all be engaged in unless we want our curriculum decided by Auntie. Democracy is a delicate flower, even in UK and nothing kills it quicker than apathy.

"The BBC vision for curriculum online is to give teachers easy online access to a wide range of digital learning materials, which they can support their teaching across the curriculum. These materials will form a consistent, coherent and comprehensive educational service for teachers and pupils.

These materials will help free teachers to do what they do best - teach- by making lesson planning and administration easier and faster and will help teachers make a reality of individualised learning for all pupils. Curriculum Online has been formed by a major consultation (April 2001) with many responses received from a large number of individuals, from educational institutions and from industry, the majority supporting the main thrust of the vision. The programme was officially launched in December 2001 when the Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Education and Skills announced £50 million worth of investment for the first school year of operation 2002/2003.

Materials for Curriculum Online will be provided by a number of educational content providers. Key industry figures have been involved in discussions throughout the consultation process. They are continuing to work with the Government to agree advancements in technical standards and develop approaches to partnership aimed at making Curriculum Online a reality."

For further information contact:
Email: curriculum.online at dfes.gsi.gov.uk
www.dfes.gov.uk/curriculumonline

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Transforming the way we learn

A vision for the future of ICT in schools:

Most government confine themselves to what can be done. Our NGFL division has looked into the future of where we should be going. I think this is a good read

Transforming The Way We Learn presents a vision of how new technology can help to transform the delivery of school-age learning in the next few years.

The vision is based on reviews and emerging research and evaluation being conducted by the NGFL. This application becomes effective if e-learning is used alongside established teaching, learning and management techniques. It must encourage and enable individuals to realise their academic and creative potential.

For more information please go the websites www.dfes.gov.uk or www.ngfl.gov.uk

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New web resources

Two new sites of particular interest to SEN teachers

www.specialschool.org is a site designed by an ICT Coordinator & ICTS NOF trainer to help parents, new teachers and students understand the workings of a special school. The site is based in Northern Ireland but will be of interest to all concerned with this area of education.

www.dyslexics.org.uk is a site aimed at parents interested in home schooling for dyslexic children.

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A creativity debate

Think.com is one resource that we have available to explore new approaches to creativity and thinking skills. It would be excellent to have some feedback on mirandalink if any of you join the BECTa creativity debate below.

Following its trial the new Becta ICT web advice service was launched recently at the Education Show: www.ictadvice.org.uk

The site is designed to meet the everyday ICT needs of classroom teachers, senior managers, subject co-ordinators and ICT co-ordinators. Services available from the site include a monthly newsletter, ask an expert, discussion forums, advice guides, ICT latest, an online conference and timesavers.

During March the site will focus on "Creativity with ICT in the Classroom". A panel of experts including school practitioners, education advisors, Becta Education Officers and academics, will be available to answer questions on the nature of creativity and the potential offered by ICT for stimulating creativity. As previously announced an online conference is planned with the theme Transforming Management and Learning with ICT. It takes place on 1st/2nd May.

There's also a chance to win a PDA computer - see: www.ictadvice.org.uk/competition

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Up and coming events for your diary

SITE CONFERENCE

The Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE) is hosting
the next SITE Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, March 18-23, 2002

Full details including the Call for Presentations are available on the AACE web site
at www.aace.org/conf/site

EWAA - European Women of Achievement Awards

European Women of Achievement Awards are hosting a Friends of the EWAA seminar at the Institute of Education on Monday 8th April 2002

Titled "Online Community -The Secret of Success is Participation" It will commence at 2.30pm and finish at 6.45pm with a supper and networking.
If you are interested in coming along please contact Peta Payne on ewaa at btinternet.com

MIRANDANET SEMINAR PROGRAM

NEXT SEMINAR IS THURSDAY 16TH MAY

MirandaNet Seminar

May 16th 2002

E-Learning Seminar Series

DO: Digital Opportunities

E-learning achievements by Gifted, Disaffected and Disadvantaged students
in international citizenship and social inclusion contexts.

Primary and secondary teachers who attend this seminar and workshop will be offered an opportunity to join ICT CPD web based classroom projects in September 2002.

2.00 - 4:00 pm Seminar
Virtual Learning : what can young people can teach us about using computers for learning?
John Cuthell, Huddersfield University

Not School: web based learning for the disaffected
Jean Johnson, Ultralab, Not School

Grid Club: web based homeowork support for 7-11 year olds
James Bloomfield, Intuitive Media

A common future for the Irish: An e-journal for peace
Sarah Quilty and Bryn Holmes, Ulster University, London Derry and Trinity College, Dublin

Clashing learning cultures: a Bulgarian teacher's experience in a UK school
Kateya Toneva - Testwood School, Southhampton

Workshop 4.30 -7:00pm
DO:Digital Opportunity
Starting ICT CPD project in your school
Christina Preston, Francis Howlett
MirandaNet Fellowship

In the workshop teachers will be showing their web based projects including:

Further DO seminars and project workshops will follow in early July and late September. If you would like to attend the seminar and/or workshop please email Karen Glass.

Workshops and seminars can be attended individually.
Participants are invited to supper at Poons afterwards : approximately £15. Reserve a place please.

Follow up seminars for teachers planning DO projects are planned for early July and late September.

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Promethean Interactive Whiteboards Special Offer

Promethean Whiteboards have made a special offer to MirandaNet members on their interactive whiteboards. They are offering discounts on the price of the boards, free training for staff on how to use it and support for the production of a case study. This case study could be used for a MirandaNet scholarship, a DfES Best Practice case study, or as part of an MA.

If any school is considering installing whiteboards then this offer is one that should receive serious consideration.

The prices are:

Size Fitted Do It Yourself MirandaNet Discount
60" £3925 £3375 £250
75" £4295 £3695 £400

This offer applies to orders placed before the end of April 2002.

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