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28 November 2004
AUTUMN MIRANDANET NEWSLETTER
I would like to welcome new members from a wider range of nations this year than usual. You will hear more about them in later newsletters and about new MirandaNet projects in Mexico, China, South Africa and Bangladesh.Many of you have commented on the our vision statement this year and this is the final version which includes all your ideas :
The MirandaNet Fellowship spans national, social, cultural, commercial and political divides. Together members create an inclusive forum to develop innovative continuing professional development programmes for educational change. Individual learning patterns and varied experiences are celebrated through peer mentoring and practice-based research strategies. Dissemination and web publication are central to the Fellows’ learning process. Through this shared knowledge base Fellows across the world are sharing emergent trends in the use of new media and technology to promote education and citizenship. Partnership with the education industry and with policy makers is at the heart of these activities.
Events
Winter solstice – Tuesday 30th November – Royal Overseas League, Park Place near Green Park
16:30 – 18:30
Supporting Supply Staff
We will be presenting our new research into the talents and skills of Supply Teachers. We will be hearing from supply teachers and presenting ideas about using them creatively. Early copies of research publications will be available.
All supply teachers, assistant teachers and managers of supply teachers who attend this seminar can claim their fares to London from Select Education.
We hope those of you who attend the seminar will stay on to join our party
18:30 – 21:00
The MirandaNet Winter Solstice Celebration
Meet scholars and fellows from MirandaNet and enjoy the festive buffet where you can network with other professionals.
Dr John Cuthell has just been appointed Director of our new MirandaNet Academy. He will have information about the MirandaNet Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Knowledge Technology which several Fellows have already piloted with us.
Fellowships will be awarded for publications from:
Mark Bennison at Chafford Hundred Campus
Peter Calder at Leek High School, Staffs
Eddy Jackson at Highfurlong School, Blackpool
Emmaline Wood at Cheam School
Also our new e-consultant Fellows who are setting up a new online support service for supply teachers will be rewarded for their case studies (more details to follow at a later date).
Benjamin Semwayo
Anna Pleshakova
Katya Toneva
Raheem Olsasunkanmi
Stella Cattini-Muller
Sandra Weinreb
Shirley Gonsalves
Eric Reid
David Jordan our curriculum adviser on the South African e-Lapa project will receive his Fellowship for the detailed advanced work he did before our visit in October.
Some of the other consultants will be at the Winter Solstice to answer questions about their work.
BETT05
If you cannot get to the Winter Solstice do try to catch up with us at BETT05 at Olympia, 12th to 15th January. There is also a research day in London on 10th January where we are running workshops on Interactive Whiteboards. You can find all the details under the BETT05 logo on the front of our site.
On our stand on Thursday 13th January at lunchtime we will be awarding World Ecittzens certificates to 50 teachers and 30 children from Free State, South Africa who will also be singing!
The MirandaNet seminar Thursday 13th January at 3:00 pm is about new ways of teaching and learning. MirandaNet Fellows will demonstrate ways in which they have used Interactive Whiteboards and Virtual Learning Environments as a catalyst to transform classrooms and staffrooms. There will be a reception after the seminar on our stand where you will be able to meet MirandaNet members from Mexico, China, Friesland, South Africa and many other countries. We look forward to seeing you there.
If you cannot come to BETT05 on Thursday call in any day to meet your colleagues on the stand. You are welcome to use us as a meeting place and leave messages for friends.
World Yearbook of Education 2004
Digital Technologies, Communities and Education
Edited by Andrew Brown, IoE, UK and Niki Davis, University of Iowa, USA and MirandaNet Fellow
Examining a different topical subject each year, the World Yearbook of Education series provides a wide range of perspectives and dialogue from all over the world. With authoritative contributions to each volume from a wealth of respected educationalists, this series provides a valuable resource for MirandaNet Fellows who have an eye on developments across the world.
The book this year includes chapters from MirandaNet Fellows Gunther Kress, Bridget Somekh, Michelle Selinger, Niki Davis, Laura Lengel, Pedro Hepp, Enrique Hinostroza, Ernesto Laval and Christina Preston.
For list of contents and ordering details www.routledgefalmer.com
Niki Davis and I will be holding a seminar about the topics in the book on 22nd July 2005 at the Institute of Education, University of London so keep an eye open for more details when we publish next years national seminar programme.
A new administrator
Just to remind you that Christine Knight, our new administrator, started in August. Christine has already been with us to South Africa on the E-Lapa visit.
New Fellows
Read their personal statements and look at their profiles on our website
Mark Benison
Peter Calder
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=367
Katya Toneva
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=83
Stella Cattini-Muller
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=390
Benjamin Semwayo
I obtained the Secondary Teacher's Certificate from Gwelo Teachers' College, Zimbabwe, in 1980 and taught at two secondary schools before transferring to St Augustine's High School in 1980, where I was to remain until 2002. During the course of my service my stay at St Augustine's I assumed a number of positions of responsibility, including Head of department of Guidance and Counselling, sixth form boys' Housemaster, Careers Counsellor and Tennis Coach. I was very successful as an English teacher, winning the Teacher-of-the-year award in 1995 when my class of forty 'O' level English pupils passed with 36 As and 4Bs.
While I was at St Augustine's I also actively engaged myself in personal development, academically. I obtained a diploma in Business Studies, a BA degree with majors in Industrial Psychology, Sociology and Communication, and a diploma in Personnel Management. I plan to do more studies, and in fact I think I will be learning for the rest of my life. I am currently reading for the Post Graduate Certificate in Educational Technology, and hope to proceed to the Masters level. I am also studying Computers.
In my research study for the Post Graduate Certificate in Educational Technology I studied Supply teachers and Information Technology, with particular reference to educational discussion forums. I had observed that supply teachers do not use IT much in their professional work, and I sought answers to questions such as the following: What is the general level of supply teachers' IT skills? How many of them have personal computers at home? How many are connected to the Internet? How much do they use computers in their work? Have they ever heard of discussion forums? Do they participate in discussion forums? I have completed the study, and the results will be published by Mirandanet.
In my spare time I enjoy fishing, playing tennis and playing my guitar. I am a practising Christian and I spend some of my time attending Church services and functions.
Eddy Jackson
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=372
My full time post is Headteacher of Highfurlong School, Blackpool. I'm the teacher responsible for ICT and PE. This specialist work has been described as best practice and outstanding. The new 2004 school web site and prospectus illustrates this. I have won the North West Teaching Award and last year became a Farmington Fellow, Harris Manchester College, Oxford.
Here I designed and produced the DARE eLearning project: online resources for assemblies, PSE and circle time. The NWLG have purchased the licence. It can be found in the KS1 and RE area. I also write for national trade journals and run a media agency.
This page and the links have detailed rationale that you may wish to consider (over two thousand words).
The work we do using assistive technology has been rated as some of the best practice in the country.
This work features on www.nwlg.org/pages/resources/highfurlong
The NWLG have also bought the licence for the DARE project – as featured in the TES In November 2002.
As stated before I am a Farmington Fellow – HMC, Oxford. In 2002 I was awarded the ‘Teaching Trust’ NW SEN Teacher ‘Plato’ award. I do lots of other things as well – special access technology reviews for teaching journals etc.
New Scholars
Steven Coombs
An overview of Dr Steven Coombs can be found on personal and academic profiles at the BSUC Website.
He is currently Head of CPD and Chair of the Professional Master's Programme at Bath Spa since August 2002. Steven is in the throws of setting up a new Centre for Educational Innovation and Technology (CEIT) in partnership with MirandaNet. MoU currently being negotiated, with mission to be given later.
Steven worked at Sonoma State University, CSU, California from July 2000 until Aug 2002, setting up a new Ed Tech Master's programme and also worked on the Digital Light Bridge authentic video project for teacher training website.
His interests and contributions include:
Critical Thinking Scaffolds.
Knowledge Elicitation Systems.
Social Parity research ethics for action research/enquiry modes.
Professional Development of teachers/trainers etc.
Anne Gould
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=403
I have recently taken up a post as E-Learning Consultant for UCST/ULT, a company which owns 9 independent schools and sponsors several City Academies. My husband and I have been taken on primarily as trainers for staff in using the ACTIVboards and other technologies to enhance learning. All the academies and schools have Promethean ACTIvboards in their classrooms as well as broadband internet access. Some schools are also equipped with VC equipment.
Anthony Jones
For more than three decades Tony Jones has worked closely with teachers in exploring and evaluating various educational uses of digital technologies. A consistent theme has been the development, implementation and evaluation of strategies for using ICT with the goal of leading to better teaching and more effective learning. The majority of this research has been extremely practical in nature, has been school-based, and has been in the context of a specific school or curriculum area.
He was involved in the Sunrise School and the Navigator Schools projects, especially in creating and providing ongoing classroom based professional learning for teachers and pre-service teachers. Much of this teacher professional learning has concentrated on developing strategies for improving student numeracy and literacy through cooperative classroom use of ICT, and has covered all primary grade levels from Prep to Six and all curriculum key learning areas.
For many years Tony was at La Trobe University, and in 2003 moved to the Department of Science and Mathematics Education (incorporating IT in Education and Health and Physical Education) within the Faculty of Education at the University of Melbourne. In addition to teaching postgraduate subjects concerned with theories and practices of online learning, he has supervised research theses in this area. He is currently supervising a number of doctoral students, and a masters student who is investigating the effectiveness of selected modes of synchronous communication, especially web-based text chat and video-conferencing, in linking students with a chronic illness has are absent from school, with one of their teachers.
Tony is a trained teacher who has taught in both primary and secondary schools. He has an undergraduate degree in Pure Mathematics and a PhD that focused on an aspect of Educational Computing.
Edna Aphek
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=402
Jes Roddy
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=401
Mythili Ramchand
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=398
My interests in IT pertains to developing courseware/training classroom teachers for effective use of computers. Most schools in India (at least in Southern India) have been provided with computers - but their use is being limited to imparting computer skills to students.
Zhang Ming
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=381
We hope to have a project to set up links with a college or university. That is to have some activities such as exchanging students, teachers and leaders with them.
Another thing I understand that Chinese teachers might be needed in your county. I would like to be a Chinese teacher in any school or college in your country even a far-away village or a little town for one year or half a year to enrich my teaching experience. I pay for my travelling costs and any other of my own fees.
For your reference, please allow me to introduce myself briefly as follows:
My name is Zhang Ming, female, healthy, graduated from Shanghai International Studies University, teaching English in a high school in China for 19 years. I am a qualified and excellent English teacher and got many honours and achievements during my teaching, for example, I took part in BETT 2004 in London.
I will really appreciate you if you help me.
Andrew Field
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=385
I am a secondary school ICT coordinator who has a background as a history teacher. Through my www.SchoolHistory.co.uk website I have developed a great interest in the potential of ICT, which has driven me forward!
Sean M Keogh
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=382
I've been working with IT for over 20 Years. Initially in banking and finance in the City of London, but since mid-1999 I've been running IT here at OXILP. As well as the day-to-day maintenance of systems, I define and control the IT Strategy and work with the Learning Resources Group on furthering the use of IT in Teaching and Learning.
Anne Winter
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=386
I have been a primary teacher for 10 years. For the past 4 years I have been working part-time, specialising in ICT. I have been teaching all the classes in the school in the ICT suite or using the interactive whiteboard.
Tauseef Lateef
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=388
I am currently finishing my Masters in Anthropology of Development and Social Transformation from Sussex University. I was the Project Coordinator and Documentation Officer of Citizenship Rights and Responsibilities Project in Pakistan (CRRP). I am interested capacity building with various organisations that are involved in Citizenship and Curriculum Development.
Hewley Ching
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=387
I am involved in some education projects in the Caribbean.
Michael Henderson
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=380
I am currently an independent consultant in the areas of: Learning Management Systems (eg. Blackboard, Digital Brain), professional development of staff in the use of ICT, intranet and internet learning portals, as well a web marketing Management and integration of laptops, handhelds and other ICTs
Lesley Lababidi
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=389
Lesley Lababidi is a mother, wife, friend, writer and lover of Africa, where she has lived for over thirty years. Lesley received her BS from University of Colorado. She is the founder and chair of Ma'an Foundation for Youth Development, Cairo, Egypt, a trustee in the Girl Child Empowerment Association in Lagos, Nigeria, and a member of PEO, Chapter GJ.
Ian Taylor
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=384
I worked as a production engineer then a factory manager for many years and took up teaching in 1990. I am particularly interested in how students learn and autonomous learning.
Judith Lisgarten
www.mirandanet.ac.uk/profiles/profile.php?prof=400
I am the Becta award winner for Inclusion, Post 16 for 2004. I am passionate about teaching adults with profound and complex learning disabilities, and have used the computer to write a 2 year syllabus, make all the materials, which are suitable for adults. I have involved students in using computers themselves, as well as heavily using digital photography. I am on a 12 hours a week contract and have done everything in my own time. I am currently trying to promote my course, and do freelance work, whilst continuing my part time work. This year I am working on the difference It resources make, as for the first time I have some resources, things which I spent the £2500 prize money on.
Some useful websites
LTSN Centre for Information and Computer Sciences
The Centre for Information and Computer Sciences is part of the Learning and Teaching Support Network. The website provides access to relevant teaching and learning resources, information about professional development activities, news and links.
A couple of DfES announcements from Geoffrey Scott- Baker
The Department for Education and Skills has given the go-ahead to the full launch of a dedicated interactive digital television channel for teachers in early 2005, after originally planning a go live date for this Autumn. The decision follows positive feedback from the pilot of the 'Teachers TV' service, which trialled 44 programmes during February and March. The service will initially launch on digital terrestrial and satellite television platforms, with discussions said to be ongoing with cable TV operators NTL and Telewest. With a budget of £20 million per year, the channel will broadcast a mix of education news, classroom resources and training and development programming, as well as offering a number of interactive services allowing viewers to access further information onscreen. Some programmes will be available online which will also provide links to online resources, discussions forums and lessons plans. See the 9 July announcement.
Department for Education and Skills: Five Year Strategy for Children and Learners. The DfES has published its plan to fundamentally change the education system, which incorporates moves to give state education establishments greater freedoms to run their own affairs. Included in the document are a number of proposals on Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in education. They include developing more integrated systems to facilitate better information sharing to assess children's needs; ICT to assess and support individualised teaching and learning; extending the government's commitment to investing in interactive whiteboards and handheld devices to support classroom teaching for the next five years, plus further development of ICT-based learning for adults. The document also identifies the department's future priorities for investments in technology and how they will support the DfES's strategic goals.
Link (RTF file - 480KB)
Annual Survey of Trends in Education
This survey, the tenth Annual Survey of Trends in Education from NFER, based on responses from over 600 primary headteachers, provides a unique insight into their views on a variety of current issues in education. The 6pp summary report can be downloaded.
New Report on "Youth as E-Citizens"
Youth as E-Citizens: Engaging the Digital Generation, a groundbreaking study by the Center for Social Media at American University, challenges the tired cliche that young people today are unconcerned about and uninvolved in civic and political affairs.
Eileen Freeman
Launch of UK Children Go Online survey report
Surveying the experiences of young people and their parents', a nation-wide survey of 1,500 children aged 9-19 and their parents. The report is available to download from the website. Direct links:
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/bober/UKCGOsurveyexec.pdf (Executive summary)
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/bober/UKCGOsurveyreport.pdf (Full report)
http://personal.lse.ac.uk/bober/PressReleaseJuly04.pdf (Press release)
To order your free copy, please email Magdalena Bober.
Warm good wishes to you all.
Christina Preston
Chair of MirandaNet International
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