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7 July 2003
JULY NEWSLETTER
Reminder - Next INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD SEMINAR
MirandaNet is in the second stage of a research and development project with Promethean and MirandaNet Schools. Dr. John Cuthell, Chair of MirandaNorth, has reported on the progress so far.
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/ftp/whiteboard.pdf
The next workshop will be held on:
Tuesday July 15th at 10.00 to 16.00
The workshop will cover:
The learning story and the ideas: types of narrative. Primacy of The Word. Text: its presentation and its role. The Movie of the Book. Structuring the presentation: words, images, sound & animation. Consolidation: timing and sequencing. Pushing the envelope. Integrating with other technologies: video-conferencing; PDAs; SMS; electronic voting; body morphing and avatars. The case study: writing and mentoring.
Held at The Institute of Education, University of London, 20 Bedford Way, London WC1H 0AL
Places are limited. Please contact Dr. John P. Cuthell to book.
01937 541015 0787 981 2004
john.cuthell at virtuallearning.org.uk
www.virtuallearning.org.uk
Full details will be on the MirandaNorth website, which can be accessed through the MirandaNorth link on MirandaNet. www.mirandanorth.org.uk
MAKING THE INTERNET SAFE
One of our Fellows, Geoff Scott Baker, has submitted this info about an important EU initiative. Are any Fellows interested in joining with us to respond to the July EU call?
EU - EU moves against illegal and harmful content online
The EU Council has agreed with the European Parliament to accept the Commission's proposal for a two-year extension to the Safer Internet Action Plan.
www.europemedia.net/shownews.asp?ArticleID=16560
In the same area, Kidsmart are promoting Internet Safety for children
Mary Louise Brown has been in touch to bring to the attention of members the Kidsmart Internet safety awareness programme run by Childnet in schools throughout the UK and beyond. The aim of the programme is to ensure that good safe school use of the Internet is mirrored by good, safe home use. Kidsmart leaflets for parents and young people have been ordered by over 400 schools all over the UK. Kidsmart offers 120 leaflets free to schools in the UK. Schools can order now using the online order from the Kidsmart website
www.kidsmart.org.uk
Also check out the teachers section of the website for lesson plans, and an Interactive quiz called Staying Smart Online
www.kidsmart.org.uk/guide.htm
The Select Education Project by Margaret Danby
MirandaNet is working in partnership with Select Education to build a supportive community of supply teachers and, at a later stage, teaching assistants. Select Education is an agency that provides temporary or longer term staffing solutions to schools. The community, which will develop on-line and face-to-face, aims to extend professional development opportunities for teachers and teaching assistants who register with the agency and provide helpful information for staffing managers in schools.
Initially, research will be carried out, through questionnaires and focus groups, to build profiles of the range of Select Education teachers and teaching assistants and identify their professional development needs. Resources will be researched and tailored to match these needs and made easily accessible to teachers and teaching assistants on-line.
The community will build from a pilot group of supply teachers who will develop their e-mentoring skills through a Community Leaders e-teaching course run by MirandaNet in conjunction with the Institute of Education in London. The community leaders will provide on-line support to colleagues and help to stimulate the building of an on-line knowledge base about supply teachers’ needs and opinions.
This project has reminded us that MirandaNet should be inclusive of supply teachers and ASTs. If you know any who would benefit from being in the Fellowship, why not suggest they look at our website?
www.selecteducation.co.uk
danby at soteme.freeserve.co.uk
The European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) for Educators Project by Margaret Danby
MirandaNet is managing an independent research project to investigate teachers’ acquisition of ICT skills. The project, instigated by Aston Swann and supported by the British Computer Society, will follow the progress of more than a hundred teachers undertaking the European Computer Driving Licence (ECDL) for Educators training course. This course is a customised version of the standard ECDL course and includes examples and activities that relate directly to educational contexts.
The research project will investigate:
Whether teachers are encouraged to enrol on the ECDL for Educators course as a result of its education specific content.
The benefits of the ECDL qualification in relation to the Continued Professional Development of the teacher
How using ECDL for Educators has raised the participating teachers’ ICT knowledge
How using ECDL for Educators has raised the standard of teaching
How perceptions of the professional uses of computers changes during the training course
What kind of learners the teachers are, their preferred learning methods and levels of satisfaction.
Teachers in four local authority areas are taking part in the project: Birmingham, Cardiff, Herefordshire and Trafford. The researchers will evaluate evidence of the impact and effectiveness of the training by comparing questionnaires and concept maps produced by teachers at the beginning and end of their training and conducting interviews with selected teachers.
www.astonswann.co.uk/
www.educatorsecdl.com/
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/associates/astonswann.htm
Two new MirandaNet Chapters in Africa
Francis Olabampe, a relatively new MirandaNet Scholar, is Coordinator of Crab Island Upper Basic School Computer Training Center, Banju, La Gambia, Africa. Francis has set up two MirandaNet African Chapters.
olabampefrancis at hotmail.com
KORA Chapter, The Gambia
Kora is the name of a very popular Gambia musical instrument. More information on the Kora is found on:
www.coraconnection.com
MOREMI Chapter, Nigeria. Francis explains:
MOREMI was a beautiful woman who made a vow to the deity of the river Esinminrin. She would make any sacrifice ,to free her people from the continous raids and plundering of the terrifying being that kept ravaging it. She succeeded in her plan and had to fulfil her vow. She was asked to sacrifice her son. In her honour, there is celebration of Odun Edi/Moremi festival held yearly in Ile-Ife, the cradle of Yoruba Civilization and the mythical cradle of the Universe. She was a heroine indeed.
These chapters are starting a project on Citizenship in Early Childhood Education in some slected schools. Francis will be doing this with a new member, Elizabeth Mboge, who has been in early childhood education. They will be extending the same project to post secondary schools later. Other proposed projects are, The Impact of ICT on our Educational System, Citizenship Development for the Culture of Peace, Training in Selected post primary schools and the use of ICT for acculturation.
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/internat/africa.htm
We are hoping to raise funds for the Africans to visit MN schools in England. You will also hear more in later newsletters.
LAWRENCE WILLIAMS STAR PROJECT
Becta have kindly given STAR an "advert" in their very first Science and ICT Newsletter, with a live link to NASA, as they promised. See: Becta link to Katie's story
www.ictadvice.org.uk/index.php?section=il&cat=008003000#stars
Lawrence Williams, Assistant Head Teacher, The Holy Cross School 65 Westbury Road, New Malden, Surrey KT3 5AN
Artists-in-School
From Georgina Gurney at Logotron comes news of a competition organised in partnership with Artists-in-Schools which has as part of the prize the opportunity for a school to work with an artist in residence. To enter, pupils need to submit a portrait picture created on a computer using whatever software they choose. Entries should then be marked RNA KS1 or RNA KS2 and send them via email to
RNA at logo.com
Sarah Hutchinson of Artists-in-Schools, will judge the submissions. Visit
www.artistsinschools.co.uk
for details of the artists available and the kind of one-day projects which could be undertaken with their help. Closing date is July 31st 2003.
We will be reporting on our first Artists in Residence project in the next Newsletter.
Tools for Schools
Non-profit making charity, Tools for Schools, would like to notify members that they currently have an excellent supply of mid-range Pentium II machines available for schools, thanks to on-going donations. For further details and an application form see
www.tfs.org.uk
or call Trevor Matthews tel: 020 7689 1990.
Promoting Poetry Day
The Poetry Society are currently promoting national Poetry Day, which will take place on October 9th 2003, and have mailed primary and secondary schools to direct them to their website.
www.poetrysociety.org.uk
Part of the site provides a poetry resource for teachers
www.poetrysociety.org.uk/education/edindex.htm
Someone in MirandaNet must be good?
Christina Preston thinks we should be proactive here and do our own nominations. Any ideas for innovative teachers who should be nominated? Nominate yourself to us if you are doing something amazing – lots of you are.
Becta 2004 ICT in Practice Awards
Richard Hammond writes: “Becta is pleased to invite entries to the 2004 ICT in Practice Awards. Building on the success of previous years, we will be using the Awards scheme to develop evidence about effective practice using ICT, to gauge how this is impacting upon teaching and learning, and to share this information with the wider teaching community. The ICT in Practice Awards cover England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, and we are now seeking nominations from headteachers, principals, governors, advisers and members of Subject Associations. The Awards aim to promote and reward exemplary practice amongst teachers, lecturers and ICT advisers. They aim to discover practice that can be widely emulated.
The success of ICT is determined by the vision of those responsible for its planning and implementation. ICT in Practice can take the form of doing traditional things in new and better ways or of expanding the boundaries of what is possible. For these awards we are looking for practice that is replicable, that will say to teachers, “you too can do this”. Above all we are looking for practice that will make the experience of learning even more relevant to students.
Each award winner will receive £2,500, with an additional £2,500 going to their school or organisation. Each runner-up will receive £500, with an additional £500 going to their school or organisation.
CATEGORIES
Inclusion (primary, secondary and post-16)
Subject Teaching (primary, secondary and post-16)
Innovation and Change
Leadership
Advice and Support
Learning Assistance - NEW! (foundation level/early years, secondary and post-16)
New to Teaching - NEW!
SELECTION CRITERIA
A full set of criteria specific to each category is available on the Becta web site:
www.becta.org.uk/practiceawards/
Broadly, nominees should be able to demonstrate:
commitment to the use of ICT for teaching and learning;
an understanding of how their work has contributed to raising standards:
the ability to inspire and motivate students and colleagues:
visionary and sustainable ongoing plans.
The closing date for nominations is 25 July 2003. E-mail:
practiceawards@becta.org.uk
We will help you write up the nominations. Be brave. Have a go. Alistair Wells and Lawrence Williams have both won awards like this already. Any girl MirandaNetters?
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