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23 April 2004
March/April Newsletter
What have we learnt from the NOF ICT programme for teachers?Christina Preston
Those of you who read the draft of my TES article about the MirandaNet evaluation of the NOF ICT will know that I believe that our ICT community has moved forward considerably in understanding the ways in which change can be effectively managed in schools.
You may have noticed on the other hand that in the Online Supplement, March 12th, the TES published the majority of my article on the NOF training twice. However, both times they left out the vital last two paragraphs! Here they are again.
“Much has changed since the National Opportunities Fund programme was conceived in the late 1990s. Evidence of these changes like transformational learning, new leadership approaches, whole school ICT development, practice-based research, creativity, ownership of learning, communities of practice, and long-term CPD, appears in the report on emergent trends drawn from fifteen successful school case studies, but these were not elements of most NOF programmes.
Despite the criticisms of aspects of planning and delivery, an 80% pass rate is a major achievement for all concerned. Access is also now much improved, and the evidence suggests that the majority of teachers made progress by using the programme as a springboard for further development. The next step should now be to move from an instrumental view of ICT 'training' for teachers, into a transformational mode of learning which seems to be the way that teachers really want to go, both for themselves and for their students.”
You can pick up the full article and all three publications about the NOF programme.
Teachers like F2F teaching programmes for ICT
Christina Preston
One of the inescapable truths that emerged from the NOF evaluation was that teachers prefer to be taught face-to-face (F2F) when they are learning about computers which are new to them. The other fact which will not be new to MirandaNetters is that teachers also enjoy learning in groups and peer mentoring.
MirandaNet have just concluded a successful course teaching General Teaching Council members how to efacilitate the forums. All the participants published case studies in the MirandaNet ejournal which we are going to launch soon. However, MirandaNetters are welcome to preview this innovative new approach to professional knowledge building.
Learning in eCommunities : CPD – An Innovative Approach
This new Mirandanet ejournal will be the focus of the first free accredited courses for MirandaNet members. Whether you are a Fellow or a scholar you qualify for the new TTA- and DfES-recognised academic accreditation for school-based or work-related learning activities.
These courses focus on supporting changes that you want to make in your region, your community, your school or your classroom. The subject of your project will be using ICT as a catalyst for change in teaching and learning. You can be working with children or adults.
This is an exciting development for us as the courses are based on Action Research principles, now more often ‘practice based’ research. The MirandaNet Community has been talking about this kind of learning methodology. In fact we started working in this way in 1994 with the fifteen original Toshiba scholars, who still form the nucleus of the MirandaNet community.
The difficulty has been persuading the universities to accredit practice based courses. This has now been done. The tutors on these MirandaNet courses which are internationally recognised will be Dr John Cuthell and Christina Preston. The advantage will be that all the course members will be MirandaNet members with a similar approach to learning and sharing with each other.
If you are interested in registering for this 60 point course in October 2004 contact MirandaNet Fellowship Administrator Debra Cook for details: You will achieve a module of an Advanced Diploma or MA and an Advanced Certificate in Learning in eCommunities.
These courses are free, but because the funding comes from the British Government, we will have to charge fees for MirandaNet Members from abroad. However we do hope some of you will wish to join us. Much of the course is online so the time spent in the UK is about 3 days per term depending on the number of international points you want.
Your best experience of ICT CPD - Musings for Miranda
Chris Watkins wrote an interesting summary of a MirandaLink thread that started from a quote in the TES.
This MirandaNet discussion showed evidence of some of the hallmarks of communities of learners: engagement and ownership.
And David's Baugh’s follow-up comments about Apple Teacher Institute clarify some of these ingredients further: choice, collaboration, challenge and celebration.
They highlight matters of learners' (in this case teachers') agency - something which is fast being eroded by successive governments.
In my thinking if they had added knowledge-generation and reflection they might have moved from "community of learners" to "learning community"
"INSET" (as we should spot from the "T" in the acronym) rarely has these features, still too often being one-off workshops run on someone else's agenda. NOF could be an example in some cases from what I've heard, and it’s perhaps no coincidence that the programme which starts off from a deficit view of teachers manages to carry that through.
My best experiences of ICT CPD have yet to come as regards the classroom, but I learned about page layout more powerfully in a 30 minute workshop at a MacExpo than anything comparable.
I would bet that my best experience is likely to come from something that was building learning community - Knowledge Forum (CSILE as was) or something. But then it probably wouldn't be CPD about ICT, it would be CPD using ICT (I thought that's what tools were for).
Most of the ICT I see in classrooms is based on outdated conceptions of learning (is it OK etiquette to add attachments?), and I would expect to see the same in the INSET which relates to it. There's a lovely analysis of that by that fascinating team in Finland.
Chris Watkins
Making Professional Websites Easier to Use : Members’ Area on MirandaNet
Francis has a 24/7 job knitting the MirandaNet website and untangling the problems. He tests his changes out on the MirandaNet team fondly believing that if we can do it so can everyone else …..
Recently Francis has been working on the internal MirandaNet member areas and these are his latest words of wisdom. As you will see just being efficient was not enough, he is now into miracles.
The process of linking all the password protected areas on MirandaNet is almost complete. You should now find that you need only log on once to get a list of all the areas that you are allowed to access. Once logged on, you should have free access to all the areas without having to go through a log on procedure again. The system works with cookies, which are deleted after 3 hours or when you log off. You can change the length of time when you log on if you wish.
To log on, you need your username (which in most cases is firstnamelastname) and password. If you have forgotten your password, you can ask the system to send you a reminder email, provided, of course, that we have the correct email – but if we haven’t, you won’t be receiving this newsletter! Once logged on you can click on the Profile button at the top of the member control area to change your password, and to change your email address.
There is at present no way of linking the email address stored in the members area to the email address used to send your MirandaLink messages, but if you follow the links in the Members Area to MirandaLink you will see instructions on how to change your MirandaLink address.
You will be presented with the log on screen when you first try to access a protected area, or if you use the link on the front page or the Members Area link on any other page.
Please let me know if you have any problems, or if the system behaves in an unexpected way. We are still at the trial and error stage, a process made suddenly more difficult last month by Microsoft issuing an update to Internet Explorer which destroyed the entire basis on which the Members Area worked. The fact that I have been able to produce a work-around so soon is little short of a miracle, even though I say it myself.
editor at mirandanet.ac.uk
What is your vision for Schools of the Future?
As part of the ongoing DfES evaluation of the Information Management Strategy Ultralab have been commissioned to carry out a piece of research leading to a paper outlining a vision for the future of Schools' Management Information Systems (MIS). They are seeking to gather views from as wide a constituency as possible.
The brief is for a paper outlining the vision for the future use of learner information systems in schools, looking five to ten years hence. This vision paper will explore the potential for systems which will facilitate policy, teaching and learning, efficiency, inclusion, data exchange, indeed all aspects of the management of educational data and information relating to learners and others in schools and beyond.
Building such a vision of potential necessitates an impartial investigation into the current situation for schools management information systems. This research will include the collection and collation of views of all stakeholders. The final report will be reviewed by the department and BECTa in order to inform future policy direction in this area.
Should you wish to make comments, please feel free to contribute.
News of Fellows - Mark Bennison
Mark’s school has been featured in the Thurrock Gazette a few weeks back…(paper and online). ‘Hardly Independent on Sunday but it’s a start…’ says Mark.
http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/news/content.php?page=story&ID=631
http://www.thurrock.gov.uk/news/content.php?page=story&ID=631
Anyone else with news of pupil achievement?
New scholars
We are delighted that teachers are joining from all over the world.
Ling Hu
I am Ling Hu, a PhD student in KCL supervised by Professor Margaret Cox. I attended a MirandaNet seminar last December in IOE and was very interested in having the opportunities to share and learn from other professionals. My interest in research is about the using of ICT in higher education in the context of China which is a developing country.
Bazlur Rahman
Greetings from Bangladesh NGOs Network for Radio and Communication.
Liuyan
I am Liuyan from China, an English teacher in Shandong Agricultural University. I am very interested in MirandaNet’s efforts to promote teacher professional development in a technology-oriented education age.
Maldwyn Pryse
School Link Officer and joint Co-ordinator of ICT Support Services and Standards for Powys LEA.
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