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News Items January 2009 - March 2008

Community Capers Unconference (August/September 2008 update)

Following the success of our recent MirandaNet Unconference, Bronwyn Stuckey a senior Fellow from Australia has set up another kind of unconference in Face Book. The technology has suddenly come of age. Do get involved with Community Capers below.

Online Unconference: Community Capers: MirandaNet Case study 1
Conference Chair: Bronwyn Stuckey, Australia

If you are on Facebook you can reply to say that you can join us by following this FaceBook link.

Join in the activity and knowledge sharing, as a guest blogger, at Community Capers on the Wordpress blog.

After the brief introduction to the people, common ties, social interaction and place of MirandaNet, we were joined by Chrisitna as community director and now invite you as core members to be guest bloggers and later tour guides to the community in live events. Let's help welcome members, start our knowledge sharing and spread to word to interested colleagues.

Please note Facebook shows this as a past event - purely because the start date has passed (this is a Facebook bug). The activities in this event are running for for the next few weeks.

Report from the MirandaNet Unconference on July 10th 2008

MirandaNet Fellows are 'beaming up'
Digital e-technologies have finally solved the MirandaNet communication problem. Communities need to meet face to face from time to time to consolidate our collegiality. Some members will never be able to get to meetings in a physical location, but email does not quite hit the mark and neither have e-forums where members seem reluctant to go.

The answer has come suddenly through the efforts of MirandaNet Fellows and it seems to me to be as amazing as science fiction.

Do you remember the catch phrase "Beam me up, Scotty!" that has made its way into pop culture from the science fiction television series Star Trek? It comes from the command Captain Kirk gives his transporter chief, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, when he needs to transport back to the ship. Well on the 10th July MirandaNet Fellows were 'beaming' in twenty countries (because 'beaming' in English also means a huge grin).

Thanks to our sponsors, Lanway and Oracle Foundation, Think.com, we debated social networking issues in a workshop with practitioners from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm (GMT) and then from 6:00 pm to10:00 pm in our Mod Unconference.

MirandaNet Fellows joined us from twenty different countries. They could see the video stream of the events on the web - but most importantly they could comment and add questions in the side panel. This really enriched the meeting we were having on the ground and created a really good atmosphere even though we were the only ones with the beer and sandwiches. A longer report will be coming out here soon.

Huge thanks to John Cuthell, Leon Cych, Theo Kuechel and Drew Buddie who made this all possible.

Materials from the Seminars on Mapping and YouTube held on 29th May 2008

Drawing on semiotic theory to provide insights into the meanings of teachers' multimodal maps in ICT CPD contexts - Christina Preston

Do YouTube? Multimodal patterns of regularities and variation in video-interaction on the Web - Elisabetta Adami

Attendees might be interested in a podcast of the complete seminar (11.5MB) (mp3 format)

Christina Preston receives the Freedom Pass

MirandaNetters gathered recently in Croydon to celebrate the occasion of Christina Preston receiving her Freedom Pass from the Mayor of London. At this august international gathering of lecturers, professors, deans of educational faculties and other hangers-on, there was a suggestion that academics should deliver their papers to the accompaniment of Music. Read more about this jolly event and see what happens to braided learning when subject to the musical treatment.

Mapping: What’s it all about?

InspirationMembers of the Miranda Net Fellowship agree that ownership of learning processes is an important factor both in raising standards and in making learning more constructive and learner-driven. Drawing maps for individual and group analysis is important in this approach to learning. In this context the members welcome the addition of mind-mapping in Inspiration version 8. In fact, mapping has been such a successful strategy for promoting learning in classroom pilots that this professional organisation is exploring the same techniques in developing teachers' capacity to evaluate their own learning about ICT. The maps are being piloted as a key tool in action research projects both in classrooms and as a self-assessment tool for teachers. In particular this group has explored non-linear writing and multimodal literacy. By talking about the maps in groups teachers begin to understand their own concepts about ICT in comparison with the views of colleagues. Teachers' ideas about ICT change and expand in these discussion face to face and online. They also become more articulate about their ICT knowledge and understanding.

Mind Map of a Newscast using Inspiration

Mind Map of a Newscast using Inspiration

Digital communication is changing the way society communications. Using Inspiration is a real opportunity for teachers to experience the impact of the transformation in communication tools which is central to the experience of their young students.

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