Selected Newsletter
News | Diary | Newsletter | Newsletter Archive | Seminars
29 June 2005
Summer Newsletter about MirandaNetters
Collaborating on the Boundaries of the PossibleBath 1st – 2nd Septemberwww.mirandanet.ac.uk/bath
We now have over 50 people coming to our Bath ICT CPD workshop. We only have a few rooms left so hurry if you are still planning to participate.
The main aim is to find partners, plan ICT projects and discuss potential funding. We have a good mix of government policy makers, company partners, teacher educators, teachers and researchers. The conference will not be talk after talk but an attempt to stimulate a dialogue between all these groups. Neil Selwyn who is well known for his perceptive writing about the political and commercial construction of digital learning will be observing and writing a paper about the results of our endeavours to work together not only across national borders but across boundaries within the ICT world.
In case you fear too much intellectual stimulation Oracle are funding the cocktails and Promethean are funding the Salsa dancing! In the breaks you also have free access to the leisure club. For those who stay over until the Saturday there will be a walk through historic Bath.
The Laurel Award for Paulet Brown
Congratulations to Paulet Brown who has been given the 'Laurel award' by London University Student Union.
This award is one of the highest awards give to students who have been of notable service to the Union. It also recognise students who have performed outstandingly in their field of study and contributed significantly to the enrichment of University life or overcome personal difficulties in order to achieve academic excellence.
Paulet has overcome a serious illness recently. We hope to see her in Bath representing Bermuda where she is setting up a chapter called Sunshine.
Mirandanet Rose Website Awards for Lawrence Williams and Maldwyn Pryse
Lawrence Williams, whose Integrated Web Site was built specifically to support STAR teachers who wish to develop science-based cross-curricular projects using ICT, has just received a MirandaRose Award for Excellence.
Lawrence says, “I am truly delighted to receive this prestigious award. Some NASA scientists see the Holy Cross STAR Project as creating a new paradigm in science education on-line, but the creation of appropriate classroom activities has for many teachers proven to be very demanding task. Accordingly, the new Holy Cross web site aims to provide lesson plans and links to useful resources, as part of our new Teacher Training School status. It also accords, of course, with our status as a Specialist Science College. I have been asked jointly by the DfES, NATE and Becta to develop these lessons for the National Curriculum Key Stage 3 Strategy for English and ICT.”
Maldwyn Pryse has also won a MirandaNet Rose – congratulations.
Members may be interested in internet projects I've uploaded on our IT Team support website for schools. The emphasis is both educational and fun. Tasks include using databases, spreadsheets, graphing software, creating a newspaper, multimedia presentations and developing entrepreneurship.
If you are interested they are freely downloadable (Roar 1-5) from the Document Library.
Please let us know about other websites that should be nominated for the MirandaNet Rose.
Promethean World ACTIVAmbassadors for ACTIVLearning
Enrich, enlighten, inspire
A Promethean/MirandaNet project
Promethean, leaders in interactive technology, are working with the MirandaNet Fellowship to make a difference to the education of learners.
These long-term partners are undertaking one of the largest world-wide studies ever, to evaluate the impact of Promethean's interactive whiteboard technology on pupils' achievement and on the transformation of the learning experience in schools. A core ACTIV teaching community of 24 ACTIVambassadors – expert practitioners from the global membership – is being created in this pilot to investigate the links between classroom technology and achievement. UK MirandaNet Fellows who are already expert Promethean ACTIVboard users are supporting teachers in this action research study in China, Mexico and South Africa over three years. Four ACTIVambassadors in each country are working with their UK mentors. There will be at least 300 learners involved, as well as universities and government agencies.
The MirandaNet ACTIVprojects in Mexico, China and South Africa
We are running our second Promethean workshop in Cape Town, South Africa from 8th – 10th July. MirandaNet Fellows, Kirsten Lowe, John Cuthell and David Jordan are mentoring colleagues in China, Mexico and South Africa. The practice based research in classrooms follows:
China
Three ACTIVprojects are under way in China: two in Beijing and one in Shandong. At the Beijing Academy of Educational Sciences (BAES) the research focus is on transforming teaching, learning and attainment in primary schools. The Academy have selected thirty people from the Academy staff and pilot primary schools in urban and rural Beijing, who will participate in workshops and training sessions focusing on changing classroom teaching. The research will examine the impact of ACTIVboards on learner motivation, interests and academic performance and relate this to changes in classroom management and teacher praxis. BAES will produce training manuals and resources to support the project.
The second ACTIVproject in Beijing is No. 50 Secondary School. 152 students from three Grade 11 classes (some 30% of the total of Grade 11) will use the ACTIVboards for their English lessons. The researchers will examine the attainment and achievement of those taught English through the medium of ACTIVboards, and the remaining 70% of Grade 11 taught traditionally. Data will examine all the language competences.
Shandong Agricultural University have also chosen to focus on the affordances of ACTIVboards for English language teaching and learning. The use of multimedia with flip charts is seen as a powerful language teaching tool, with the ability to freeze-frame the video and then annotate the frame. Writing frameworks will also be developed in the flip charts to develop student performance. Students will then progress to the creation of flip charts and resources to support colleagues and pupils in Mexico through collaborative projects on the theme of Citizenship.
Mexico
All three Mexican projects are in the Nuevo Leon province, of which Monterrey is the capital: the Antonio Martinez de Castro Primary School, Leopoldo Narranjo Primary School, and Simon Salazar Mora Primary School. All the ACTIVambassadors work in the evening sessions of the schools, and their projects examine different aspects of Citizenship.
Jesus Gomez is the ACTIVambassador at Antonio Martinez de Castro School. He is using the ACTIVboard in a project that links literacy, storyboarding and Citizenship with improving moral values of pupils who belong to street gangs and often lack positive role models. The ACTIVboard will become a stage on which a variety of narratives can be constructed: comic books, reading campaigns, posters and dramatic productions.
At Leopoldo Narranjo School the ACTIVproject is on global citizenship themes, and Fabiola Araiza Rodriguez is examining the impact of the ACTIVboards on the motivation and attainment of pupils who have no previous experience of IT. The impact of ACTIVboards on teaching and learning the subject of Citizenship in students from a low socioeconomic status will be evaluated, as well as wider issues relating to pupil learning and conceptual change. The project involves 179 pupils.
The ACTIVproject at Simon Salazar Mora Primary School is led by Yazmin Garza. Her investigation is focused on ways in which the ACTIVboard can contribute to pupil learning in history. As an ACTIVambassador in her school she is keen to change attitudes towards the teaching and learning of History, and use it to consolidate literacy. As she says, “We study history to know the past, to understand the present and to change the future. In this way, we can change our teaching methods and to develop a global citizenship education.”
South Africa
There are two schools running ACTIVprojects in South Africa, in the Johannesburg area of Gauteng Province.
At Auckland Park Preparatory School two ACTIVambassadors are working with the whole school, supporting a range of curriculum projects, as well as implementing their own case studies.
Gail Rossini has just completed a project with a Grade 1 class. One class worked through a reading book in the conventional manner while the other did the same work using the ACTIVboard. Grade Six pupils were involved in gathering evidence of the Grade 1 pupils’ sight word vocabulary, both before and after the lessons. A questionnaire also completed to find whether the comprehension of the two groups differed. Again the Grade Six pupils were involved with the Grade Ones and pupils were tested on a one-to-one basis. The initial results show that those who interacted with the ACTIVboard had better scores. This study will expand its scope during the year.
The second ACTIVproject at Auckland Part Preparatory School is led by Gill Barnard and involves Grade 6 pupils, whose involvement with the projects has already been mentioned. Their specific work is based on data handling and interpretation of information relating to Conservation. A range of the ACTIVboard tools are used to enable pupils to visualise and transform data.
The second school, St. Mary’s, Waverly, is examining the impact of ACTIVboard technology across the curriculum. Jenny Ketley Is the ACTIVambassador within the school, and she has trained and supports most staff. Exciting projects underway combine sound, video and text in the teaching of poetry and plays, images and video for teaching human biology and images of the pupils themselves for hockey coaching. St. Mary’s is also working with colleagues from a range of local schools in its outreach programme.
At the forthcoming workshop in Cape Town, July 8 & 9, colleagues will be presenting their work and developing their projects.
Another three countries will begin this action research in 2007 and then every two years after that as an ongoing study. The plan is to create a knowledge base online that shares international teachers' ACTIVboard experience and resources in all curriculum areas.
Stephen Jury, Chief Executive Officer of Promethean says: 'Pupil accomplishment and performance will be measured at critical points in the schools' syllabus, analysing achievement in classes with interactive whiteboards and those without. It is important that this study is undertaken over a number of years so that a benchmark can be established and considered in the coming years. This is important research, which will evaluate the role of technology and in particular, interactive whiteboards, in the learning environment.'
Visitors to the MirandaNet website will be able to follow the progress of this ACTIVboard project by following the link to Promethean Ambassadors. Teachers will even be able to advise on best practice in implementing and using this interactive technology. An ACTIV community of users will have an internal online link to exchange ideas, newsletters and invitations; to present at conferences and seminars; as well as opportunities to publish and use the World Ecitizens environment.
Details of the work that MirandaNet undertook from 2002 - 2004, funded by Promethean, can be found on the the MirandaNorth web site. This builds on earlier work, which is reported in detail on the Interactive Whiteboard Project page.
These Case Studies will be updated as the project continues.
A MirandaNet Academy Forum about teachers writing for other teachers
Central to the MirandaNet philosophy is encouragement for teachers to write up their action research in ways that other teachers want to read. John Cuthell has spent the last couple of months extracting the ejournal ones so that they can be easily found on the left hand menu in the notice board.
We now have a chance for you to join a forum of Mirandanet Fellows supporting each other in writing for assessment as well as for others on the web. This has come about as a result the invitation for MirandaNet Fellows to provide the authors for this first edition of a new journal for educators called Reflections. The overall editor is Norbert Pachler. Rupert Wegerif is one of the guest editors.
The best papers have been drawn from the course on elearning for teacher researchers that John Cuthell and I ran last year at the Institute. The marks were exceptional: out of the 19 completed submissions from 25 course members, 11 teachers gained A grades. You will find them all in our case studies. It seems that one of the reasons for this high level commitment was the requirement to publish online.
You can now join the forum that these teacher authors are running about teachers writing for others. Rupert Wegerif has now contributed his outline of how to write for journals for discussion and our best teacher authors are sharing ideas in the in the MirandaNet Academy.
Go to www.mirandanet.ac.uk/academy where you can explore the public areas of the MirandaNet Academy E-Journal. You do not need to log on to read the case studies or to contribute to the Forum. The Case Studies can be read from the 'Case Studies' menu link, while the Discussion Forum is accessed from the kaleidoscope. Visitors can explore the password protected part of the site by logging in as 'guest' using the password 'guest'. This will allow you to see how the site works without actually being able to add anything - only registered members of the MirandaNet Academy can do this.
We plan to publish the best advice from this forum in a paper for Reflections.
CAL 05 presentation at Bristol
Several MirandaNet Fellows gave papers at this event. John Potter has shared his summary. You’ll notice that these are some of the ideas we debated on June 22nd.
Digital video editing: Creativity and the social practice of representation in new media by John Potter, Goldsmiths College, University of London
My paper at CAL described a series of related case studies of young learners and beginning teachers working with digital video editing in the context of new literacy and curriculum change. Learners moving from one phase of education to another used digital video editing to make short films which expressed sophisticated and complex ideas about transition and change. Beginner teachers were given the same kind of opportunity to express ideas around curriculum practice in creativity in new media education. There were parallels between the two experiences and the paper will explore how these relate to each other in the context of a set of intersecting theoretical frameworks.
The frameworks were mapped out and discussed in relation to the concepts of “creativity”,” Media literacy” and teaching and learning as it applies to work in digital media. Frameworks for analysing the video texts produced were drawn from emerging intersecting discourses around moving image literacy (Burn and Parker 2003), multimodal literacy (Kress and Van Leeuwen 2001), from studies of ICT in Education (Loveless and Ellis 2001; Loveless 2002) and from some relevant literature around young people’s media productions (Sefton-Green and Sinker 2000; Buckingham 2003).
In particular, the following questions are addressed: Which particular features of the technology allow for new forms of media literacy to be expressed and experimented with and for new forms of representation to take place? How can we use the different frames of analysis of the media texts produced to inform curriculum design and innovation? What does this tell us about the possible design for social processes of learning around new media authoring in the curriculum? How does this impact on our notions of identity and representation more generally?
The discussion afterwards was really interesting with a number of member of the audience identifying themselves as researchers in the field. The conference as a whole was very interesting and the facilities were excellent. Showing video clips is always risky in such settings but the technical support was first-rate and my laptop didn’t let me down!
We’d like to publish more Fellows’ paper abstracts in our newsletters as a way of keeping up with new thinking. The next MirandaNet presence will be at WCCE05 in Stellenbosch, South Africa, in July.
Steven J Coombs reports on SITE05 at Phoenix, Arizona
Attending the annual SITE conference was a highly enjoyable affair for someone such as myself interested in learning and knowledge technologies. I had the chance to meet up with many of my old colleagues from the US as well as fellow MirandaNet friends Tina Preston and John Cuthell. It was interesting to note that the new US research funding agenda for Educational Technology now requires more 'impact-based' evidence, i.e. the LEARNING impact of future Ed Tech research and CPD programmes upon schools, teachers and students. Similarly, the TTA (soon to become the Training Development Agency, or, TDA) is also requiring that all future funded programmes for qualified UK teachers under the new Postgraduate Professional Development Programme (PPD) from 1st September 2005 must also produce impact evaluation evidences. For all those educational agencies (MirandaNet included) interested in applied and 'useful' research, such 'impact' requirements will be seen as welcome, with new value and impetus given to genuine research programmes located within the professional domain of schools and colleges, e.g. the MirandaNet Interactive Whiteboard programme.
The SITE05 paper that I authored jointly with my colleague Sarah Fletcher from Bath Spa University was entitled 'Technology-assisted mentoring using critical thinking scaffolds'. This is available as a download paper and presentation at: www.bathspa.ac.uk/schools/education/cpd/cpd-articles.asp along with several other useful articles related to CPD, teacher development and learning and knowledge technology in general. Given the new 'impact' agenda above, critical thinking scaffolds aim to support teachers, trainers and students as learners by providing them with thinking tools to support on-the-job action research projects in the workplace. These 'scaffolds' both guide, manage and record self-evaluated experiential learning evidences and, hence, can be used by teachers as a cornerstone for CPD Impact-related evidences for a variety of purposes, including: school Ofsted; performance management 'learning points' for career promotion; and, accredited CPD projects for university postgraduate accreditation at either Master's or PhD level. Bath Spa University offers practical work-based Master's and PhD qualifications through action research. See details at:www.bathspa.ac.uk/schools/education/cpd/
A Box of Tricks for Supply Teachers
Many thanks to Dai Thomas, Jonathan Wood, Stella Cattini and Anne Pleshkova who provided useful hints and tips about working with supply teachers as well as classroom ideas.
At Ringmer College in Brighton Dai and Jonathan have come up with a comprehensive solution for supply teacher support.
Jonathan explains that "Initial research and feedback of supply teachers and managers showed that some basic needs were not being catered for:
* Supply staff felt undervalued
* Lack of feedback systems
* Lack of information and basic equipment
* Cover work some times goes missing and uses geographically disparate resources
* Most supply staff are ICT aware and would enjoy using ICT as a tool for lessons
We developed solutions to these needs which were:
* Every supply member of staff receives a basic toolkit containing pens, pencils to staff security passes and vital school information
* Feedback systems are incorporated into the toolkit
* A package of Interactive lesson starters have been devised to trail within Mathematics cover work
* The use of virtual learning environment and Web Log (BLOG) have been trialed for absent staff communication of cover
Although both these toolkits, electronic and manual, are at the pilot stage of development early evidence suggests that they may have a dramatic effect on organizational efficiency, supply teacher moral and Teaching and Learning within covered lessons."
See the MirandaNet research report which gives more ideas for working creatively with supply teachers.
An exciting New Post at Nottingham for Mike Sharples
Well done to Mike Sharples who is leading an exciting new initiative. Here is his news:
I shall be leaving the University of Birmingham in September to take up the post of Chair of Learning Sciences at the University of Nottingham. I shall also be succeeding Professor David Wood as the Director of its Learning Sciences Research Institute. The LSRI is an interdisciplinary Institute involving, primarily, Education, Psychology and Computer Science, with the aim to advance scientific understanding of how psychological, educational and technological processes can support human learning, knowledge and intelligence.
This is an exciting opportunity for me, since the University of Nottingham will be making a substantial investment in the Chair and in building the Institute as a world centre of research excellence as part of its strategic research plan.
I shall be sorry to leave Birmingham, and especially my good friends and colleagues in CETADL and the Ed Tech Research Group. But it is an opportunity to build new partnerships, as well as continuing to work with Birmingham and our other close partners. I look forward to seeing you in my new role.
Professor Mike Sharples
Who is using Blogs in MirandaNet?
A piece in the NAACE news caught Tina’s eye.
The development of Blogs as a mechanism for developing freedom across the globe is highlighted this week. The use of the internet as a means of providing information both about and for otherwise closed societies has been a major teaching point about the social impact of the internet. The use of Blogs as a simple and easy method for individuals to do this has now been highlighted.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4099802.stm
How qre MirandaNetters using blogs? Is this something we should be doing on World Ecitizens? Let us know your thoughts on Mirandalink.
Next stop WCCE South Africa
Tina will be at the Pretoria Hotel Stellenbosch from 29th June – 7th July and is looking forward to seeing the MN members who will be there too. She will fix up an evening meal for you all if you get in touch with her. Her mobile is 07 801 336 048.
New Scholars
AnneMarie Mosert
My interest in E-Learning and co-operative learning merged in the management of the Free State Professional Working Group Project of which I am the project manager. The project allowed me to create opportunities for Learning Facilitators in the five districts of the Free State Province to obtain their ICDL (ECDL). Two of the E-Lapa project schools are also Professional Working Group schools, where emphasis is placed on school management support to the development of e-learning material and the professional development of teachers by sharing information electronically. One of the most interesting challenges to me is to combine my training as an English Second Language teacher, my research in applied linguistics, and my interest in E-learning. Nelia Buys (my daughter) and I have adapted my research on the role of formal instruction in the communicative approach to a computer-based language learning programme based on South African short stories. I am also a training facilitator for the INTEL Teach to the future course, which enables teachers to develop their learners‚ computer skills, especially on-line information gathering and presentation.
Nelia Buys
I finally had the chance to combine two of my biggest passions in life, language teaching and computers, during my post-graduate studies at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa. The MPhil course in Hypermedia for Language Learning enabled me study the impact of the personal computer, multimedia, the internet and human-computer interaction on language learning. My first attempt at utilizing computers for language teaching was when I converted a text-based research project into a computer-based programme. This programme aims to develop a better understanding of the present- and past-perfect tenses in English, based on a communicative approach. My studies culminated in a research project in which I involved my first-year English Studies students. For this project, I developed a web-based, interactive programme to enhance their reading skills in four genres: short-stories, poetry, the novel and news media.
At present, I still tutor more or less 60 first-year English Studies students. I am also fortunate to be the research-assistant/part-time lecturer and technical assistant for the MPhil course in Hypermedia for Language Learning. My involvement and interest in how computers and online technology can be used to enhance learning, remains an integral and vital part of my life.
Theresa Rivera
I am a PhD in Communication student and is presently reviewing for my Comprehensive Examinations prior to my dissertation year. Before I went on study leave, I have been teaching in the University for 20 years, although not continuously. I chaired the Department of Development Communication, a Bachelor's course in a Jesuit-run university south of Manila specifically in Cagayan de Oro City in Mindanao island, Philippines. At the same time I also do trainings and consultancy work for both government and non-government organizations in the field of Communication, Social Change, Social Marketing and research. More recently I took an interest in the use of ICT for Development and has done research on e-governance, e-participation and social networking using the Net. I am interested to study how ICT can further be used by rural communities in our island and how it can leverage information and education to benefit majority of the marginalized communities. My dissertation would be focused on this area.
I got interested in what MirandaNet is doing and I think it can help me understand further my interests in ICT and the revolutionary way it transforms the society. Thank you for giving me this opportunity to participate and be in fellowship with your members!
[Back]
