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14 February 2005
MIRANDANET NEWSLETTER
MirandaNet Fellows as World EcitizensIn this traditional period of celebration, MirandaNet members in the UK have been very conscious of our material fortune when there is currently so much suffering in Asia and Africa. MirandaNet is particularly aware of the challenges the world faces from poverty and disasters, as a result of our international membership which is online, and news updates reach us quickly from our chapters in Bangladesh and South Africa.
Throughout 2004 Fellows have taken a more hands-on approach to supporting colleagues by working in partnership with colleagues in Free State, South Africa. This focus on schools in challenging circumstances, called E-lapa, has been a very successful pilot. Ten schools in Free State have had extended visits and this activity now culminates in a workshop at Chafford Hundreds School, Thurrock. Fifty-six Free State teachers and learners from the ten pilot schools will be working with UK teachers and learners from 6th – 8th January. The Free State and UK Fellows have discovered that we all have much to give, and much to learn. They plan to raise money to arrange more exchanges between schools in 2005 through our World Ecitizens charity.
The pilot website can be seen on our Mirandanet site. Free State teachers and learners were on the MirandaNet stand throughout BETT talking about their work. Free State learners’ pictures of Lapas, a meeting place in the veld, will also be sold to raise money for the schools. Look out for more news on this.
We are grateful to Companies who have sponsored many of the Free State BETT05 events: BESA, Crocodile Clips, Promethean, Microsoft, Inspiration and Sherston.
Promethean World
Fellows John Cuthell and Francis Howlett have built a new learning environment where Promethean Interactive Whiteboard users can share their experiences. We are now in the second year of a three year international study to evaluate the impact of Promethean’s interactive whiteboard technology on pupils’ achievement and on the transformation of learning.
The study to investigate the links between classroom technology and achievement is taking place in China, Mexico and South Africa and focussing on the impact of interactive whiteboards in classrooms.
Three UK Fellows Kirsten Lowe, David Jordan and John Wood are mentoring a core user community of 24 expert practitioners and 300 pupils as well as local universities and government agencies in these countries. This community will collect action research data about attainment and transformation and publish case studies for other teachers.
The 2004 case studies are recorded on: http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/associates/interactive.htm
and the detailed 2005 project plans are recorded here: www.mirandanet.ac.uk/associates/promethean_ambassadors.htm
The press release can be found: http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/associates/promethean.htm
The MirandaNet International Research Centre at Southhampton
Dr Rupert Wegerif is the co-director of the International MirandaNet Research Centre at Southampton University which focuses on research about elearning. This new centre launched two research publications by Christina Preston and Margaret Danby at BETT05. Professor Liu Yan from Shanding is our first research fellow who is looking into Virtual Learning environments for 6 months. Her report should be interesting.
1. The European Driving Licence (EDCL) for Educators
The first report is EDCL for Educators: a formative evaluation of ICT skills in context. This evaluation is timely as the MN evaluation of the NOF training concluded that many teachers were unable to take full advantage of the pedagogical training because their skills were not good enough. The findings indicate that teachers found that EDCL for Educators was a good approach to learning computer skills.
http:www.mirandanet.ac.uk/ftp/swann_A4.pdf
http://www.educatorsecdl.com/
2. Who are the Supply Teachers?
The second report “Who are the Supply teachers? Research into the characteristics of supply teachers and their professional needs”. This research questioned supply teachers about the challenges they face. The conclusions help to break down some of the stereotypes about supply teachers and suggests ways of using supply teachers creatively.
The research findings have been used to plan CPD seminars for supply teachers which focus on topics that will help to make their job easier. During 2004 Fellows were also training supply teachers to efacilitate web based forum subjects that supply teachers say they will find useful. There is also a series of seminars run by MirandaNet Fellows. Travel for the supply teachers to attend is paid for by Select Education.
As a result of the findings, MirandaNet has developed a one year programme of workshops to develop teaching assistants’ skills to facilitate progression to ALTA status. This blended learning programme combines workshops, web based discussion forums and online portfolios in 2005. Teacher assistants who would like a free place should contact Christine.
The MirandaNet Academy in Bath
MirandaNet are now offering free accreditation for ICT action research projects in classrooms at the MirandaNet Academy at Bath Spa University College, which is co-directed by Steven Coombs. We are also planning an ICT conference for practitioners in September - so keep an eye open for the dates.
Several members have already started on this TTA funded route and some of their work is published in our new ejournal. We are looking for reviewers and editors for this publication which will have editions on different subjects.
Let us know if you are interested in these roles or in the free accreditation. Dr John Cuthell, the Research and Implementation Director, will give you more information.
Will Pearson requests our help - ICT Research Network - Digital Comics research project
Dear Colleagues
I wonder if I could appeal for any help and support.
I am writing today with a simple appeal, to you and to the students you support. I need letters and emails of support for a project I have initiated which will create exciting, accessible, free Daisy comics for download from the net, with direct relevance to citizenship, literature and history. A full description of what I am doing and how to help is at:http://www.virtualsen.com/synchronhistory.htm
Essentially, I need to show the funding body, Culture Online, that free resources such as those proposed would be fantastic to students with sight difficulties. I took as one of my starting points the Birmingham University research by Chris Arter in 2000 which highlighted that downloading internet books, particularly comics, was ranked high as an access issue by students and LEAs across the UK. There is lots of momentum gathering around Daisy too as an accessible format, and it would be great to have some free, flagship resources free on the net.
I need letters from students, parents, teachers and support professionals to help boost the profile of what the target end-users would gain from the project. Perhaps it would be skill in using Daisy, perhaps an understanding of history, perhaps they would get switched on to literacy through comics: there are a variety of points. I would dearly love to hear from you about what you might be able to gain and enjoy through the project.
I really look forward to hearing from you
Will Pearson
Congratulations to Keith Phipps
Keith was awarded an MBE in the New Year's Honours list and will be travelling to London for the investiture sometime in the next 5 months. Keith says:
It was tremendous news to hear that I was to receive an MBE and I was overjoyed by the news. As a teacher, still in the classroom after 31 years of service, this was a novel reward. However, I know that however hard I have worked in the classroom in that time, the award has come about because of my use of the technology during the last six years. From a standing start, I taught myself the skills I needed to make the most of the opportunities the technology offered. The first development was of a number of web sites that served my pupil’s needs. I built a site to help transition students, another to provide online support for learning in and out of the classroom. Two of my sites, www.geoworld.co.uk and www.pupilvision.com have been awarded NGfL badging. The greatest revolution afforded by the technology has been in the classroom where it is used to engage pupils with multimedia presentations and, more importantly, to facilitate pupils to produce their own stunning PowerPoint and digital video presentations. I have been proud to take the opportunity to spread the word about e-learning to a wider audience and I presently serve on the DfES ICTIS committee.
Welcome to the New Fellows and Scholars in 2005
New Fellow
Dr Rupert Wegerif
Dr Rupert Wegerif, who is a Reader in Education at Southampton University, has researched and published widely in the field of technology supported educational dialogue. Before moving to Southampton in September 2004 he headed up the Educational Dialogue Research Unit at the Open University which specialised in the analysis of interactions mediated by computers. His latest book 'Thinking and Learning with ICT' (Routledge, 2004, with Lyn Dawes) is a practical book about computers and learning dialogues in primary schools. He also researches and writes about dialogue and development, about online collaborative learning and about teaching thinking. Rupert has held several grants for projects investigating learning dialogues and ICT and is currently working on three such projects. He is co-editor of the Elsevier book series 'Advances in Learning and Instruction', lead editor of the International Journal of Teaching for Thinking and Creativity which will launch in April 2005 and a columnist for the practitioner journal: Teaching Thinking. This background is relevant to his new role as director of the International MirandaNet Research Centre.
NewScholars
Diana Battersby
My background is in ICT & Science teaching of secondary students with emotional and behavioural difficulties. This milieu allowed me freedom to experiment with content and styles and also led to my developing an interest in computer games and their role in learning and motivation. I have since been a writer on the QCA ICT online assessment project, the moderator for BECTa's games and education list, a reviewer for British Journal of Educational Technology, and, most importantly, a mentor for notschool.net. My recent interests include the Building Schools for the Future project. I am concerned that the schools are being designed by men in suits without reference to practitioners within or the wide-ranging effects of the new technologies from without.
Geoff Day
I have had two main parallel careers in my 39 years of teaching and the educational world; one with the Toronto District School Board and it's predecessors, and one with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education (University of Toronto).
I am now retired from the former but I am still a part-time instructor in the initial teacher training department at OISE. I am also the principal in the same organization for both online and in-class courses for qualified teachers for the Computers in the Classroom and the Computer Science series.
I was an ICT Coordinator in the TDSB and have been involved with computers in educational settings in central positions since 1980 and am still an active member of various local educational computing associations.
I remain intrigued about how all technologies fits into the learning equation, at personal, societal and in some ways, the necessary political levels.
Keith Edwards
Twenty years of teaching experience in Sandwell and Birmingham Secondary schools, including seven years as ICT Co-ordinator at Moseley School, Birmingham. Appointed as an ICT Consultant to Birmingham LEA in January 1994 and subsequently lead a team of twelve ICT consultants supporting all Birmingham schools. Currently I am e-Innovations Manager in the e-Development Team of Learning and Culture IT, Birmingham City Council. Web site - www.bgfl.org/edevelopment
The e-Development Team, using the innovative technologies available via the Birmingham Grid, is committed to provide Birmingham with:
- a wealth of high quality local digital resources on BGfL
- increased personal access for children to a range of portable learning devices
- a safe personalised learning environment through BGfL PLUS supported by e-tutoring and e-mentoring.
Shirley Gonsalves
Shirley teaches religious Education in secondary schools. Her study, God Online, can also be found in the MirandaNet case studies.
Jiao Jianli
Jiao Jianli (Johnnie for friends who speak in English) is an Associate Professor of Educational Technology at School of Information Technology in Education, and Deputy Director of Future Education Research Center, South China Normal University. He was a Project Consultant of ICT in EU-China Gansu Basic Education Project and English Teaching and Internet Project cooperated by British Council and GuangDong Department of Education as well as FERC. He is interested in research on Educational Technology, Web-based Learning, Teachers' ICT Training as well as Instructional Design. He would like to discuss the opportunity of international collaboration of different institutes working on Instructional Technology.
jiao@doctor.com
Franka Kalvelage
Germany is the country I grew up in. After I completed my MA in Fine Art at Berlin Academy I moved to London. For a while I had my own studio in the East End and painted. The new responsibilities that came along with motherhood encouraged a slow drift into education. After completing my Art Teachers Certificate at Goldsmith College I worked for five years in a secondary school in Tower Hamlets followed by another five years at the PRU in the same borough. During this time I added two certificates to my qualifications one in SEN and the other in Citizenship. I then was recruited to the Tower Hamlets Healthy Schools Scheme as an advisory teacher with specific focus on Citizenship. I still enjoy the arts but find little time to do my own drawings and paintings.
Raheem Olsasunkanmi
Olasunkanmi is from Nigeria, and is another of the e-facilitators to complete the Select course.
André Pilon
André Francisco Pilon is an Associate Professor, at the Faculty of Public Health, University of São Paulo, Brazil. He was the publisher of the journal ‘Academus’ (BLISSN 0001-4230). He served as a Psychologist, at the São Paulo Court of Minors and was a former Director of the Health Education Department, of the Ministry of Health in Brazil. He is a member of the World Council for Curriculum and Instruction (WCCI) (Alliant University, San Diego, U.S.A), of the International Union for Health Promotion and Education (Paris, Fr), of the Centre for Research, Documentation and Development on Healthy Cities, Communities and Settings, (S. Paulo, Br) and of the Inter-American Consortium of Universities and Training Centers in Health Promotion and Health Education (San Juan, P.R.). His proposal for an "ecosystemic model of culture" is a theoretical and practical approach to the integrated treatment of the problems of culture, education, environment, citizenship, health, peace and quality of life in the contemporary world.
Anna Pleshakova
Dr. Anna Pleshakova has completed the Select e-faciliation course. Her research project looked at the involvement of supply teachers in e-learning within the context of the DfES e-learning initiatives. Her case study, Supply Teachers and the e-Learning Process, can be read in the Case Studies section of MirandaNet.
Lola Pwasanga
I am a graduate with a BA, MSc and PGCE in Information Systems Engineering. I currently work as a Supply Teacher with my specialist subject being ICT. Previous to this I was a Computer programmer/ Senior Operator working on The Telegraph newspaper Data.
Eric Reid
Eric is undertaking post-graduate study, as well as having completed the Select e-facilitators course.
Richard Smith
I work as a Hands on Support ICT Consultant in Telford (Shropshire). I am enjoying the work because it is very practical and is helping develop teacher's use of ICT in their lessons. The approach is designed to support individual teachers and the departments they work within.
My work has focussed on sharing ideas for use with Interactive White Boards, use of video-conferencing and digital video for in lessons, and methods of sharing information electronically.
I have an interest in the way in which ICT is evolving worldwide and am studying French as a way of improving my own communication skills. I have started to create a website to enable ideas to be shared. I would be delighted if you would introduce yourself via info at handsonsupport.co.uk
Sandra Weinreb
Sandra is a Drama teacher. In order to establish her research project Sandra set up a discussion forum that invited responses from Drama teachers to look at ways that ICT could be integrated into drama lessons.
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