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10 December 2005
December Newsletter
Dates for your diaryWe are trying to let you know the dates of events as soon as we can so that you can begin to seek funding. Here are some 2006 events.
Christina Preston
BETT06 at Olympia January 11th – 14th
We look forward to seeing you at BETT06 on January 11th – 14th at Olympia. Our stand is P30 in the National Hall, same as last year, Use our stand to take a rest and to make appointments with each other. In particular you may want advice on taking one of our action research modules. We have funding from the TDA for the fees so these qualifications, at any level, are free.
Contact Bath Spa University CPD.
The BETT06 MirandaNet seminar 4:15 on Wednesday Jan 11th
Our seminar is at 4:15 on Wednesday January 11th followed by a Mexican reception on our stand. Do join us in a meal out afterwards if you have time - about £15-20.
My mobile is 07 801 336 048. It is quite noisy in the hall so it might be best to text me. John Cuthell and Modupe Opaleye will also be on the stand to help you.
Next workshop and seminar : April 27th : Bath Spa
The next concept mapping seminar will be at Bath Spa University on April 27th. We are likely to include more work on our interactive whiteboard research as well. We hope that many of you will be able to come. We have been given several suggestions by the participants which we will aim to cover. Look out for the information after Christmas. Email Simon Boyce to book a place.
Prague Spring workshop 2006 : May 29th – 2nd June
We are probably bringing our annual workshop forward to the Whitsun half-term – May 29th to 2nd June. I shall be out in Prague this week to see the Minister for Education, book the dates and see about prices for families. The programme is likely to be school visits on 29th and 30th May. Workshop on the 3rd May, 1st June and a public seminar on 2nd June when we hope many Fellows will present their work.
I will let you have the confirmed dates as soon as possible because many UK teachers will qualify for British Council and EU funding. I will let you have information about this.
The Inspiration workshop and seminar report – 28th November
Thanks to the MirandaNet Fellows who contributed to a thought-provoking evening seminar on 28th November. Called ‘Using concept mapping as a tool for learning’ it was chaired by John Potter, a long-standing Fellow from Goldsmith College. Talking about their classroom evidence were other MirandaNet Fellows : Michael Smith, Jane Finch, David Thomas, and Nigel Riley.
About 20 of us had been in a workshop on concept mapping all day. Thanks to Di Mavers whose talk about concept mapping in identifying children’s work was inspirational. There were many complimentary remarks which are summed up by one who said,
‘Di Mavers provided a wonderful insight into how to use semiotic analysis and provided inspiration about using drawings, pictures and graphics in ‘representations’ of knowledge, learning, creativity.’
Evaluations also commented on the friendliness of the group and the interchange. ‘I enjoyed the feedback of others - research ideas that interface with my thoughts and expansion on idea which to me were peripheral.’
Participants had many variations on the learning and/or thoughts they would take away from the session. I’ve listed some of these as the enthusiasm for concept mapping as an action research tool is palpable.
‘I shall be looking more closely at using concept mapping as a component of learning scaffolds which can include more informal visuals elements – particularly when used will interactive whiteboards.’
‘I need to work harder at encouraging multi-modal responses when working in schools.’
‘Interesting that spheres of thinking can be visualised for teaching purposes and for knowledge acquisitions.’
‘Concept mapping = thinking picture; however perhaps this should become talking picture with a sound/vision commentary on their meaning from the creator.’
Meanwhile John Cuthell explains below how to get into the Miranda Net/Inspiration e-journal and see what is happening and join the debates.
If you are a MirandaNet Scholar or Fellow you will already have a user name and password. At the MirandaNet front page, click on ’Members’ Log-on Area’. You will be directed to a screen to enter your User name and Password. When you have done that you will be taken to the MirandaNet Member Control Centre. There you will see the eJournals to which you have access.
Select the Inspiration eJournal, and click on ‘Enter the Members’ Section’. Each of the sections has information to enable you to find your way around. The MirandaNet Rose, (top left) has a wheel underneath it. Select ‘Forums’ and join the discussions. I look forward to meeting you there.
If you would like to join the discussions and do not have access to the Inspiration eJournal then notify the Editor.
Note
Action research is now called evidence-based or practice-based research to show that the research is not just locally based but includes wider perspectives.
Proposals of the project SEN-NET
From Bozena Mannova Chair of the Czech Miranda established in 1994
I am pleased to inform you that our proposal of the project SEN-NET has been selected. I just received the letter from Brussels. The partner countries are England, Czech Republic, Ireland, Austria, Sweden, Portugal and Slovakia. This is very exciting as this is one of the first projects to encourage Silver Surfers – our senior citizens. We will be in touch with MirandaNetters to get Granny and Grandpa involved in this. Here is a summary of the bid.
EU Project SEN-NET (Seniors in Network)
The project in frame of Socrates Programme Grundtvig 1 – European Cooperation Projects
Main targeted thematic area of the proposed project SEN-NET is support seniors education in ICT skills and creation of network of educators.
In frame of the project we will create suitable models of this education and we will integrate distance learning, blended learning and e-learning into the models.
Experts in the field of seniors ICT education will provide the following elements:
-To develop a set of modules or learning objects that look at required skills for educators who work with seniors at educational and training institutions.
-To provide content for pilot courses run by partner countries.
-To build useful teaching tools (an interactive CD ROM and e-learning community) and a course manual that will help training establishments deliver effective ICT training for seniors.
-To create an interactive website Virtual Centre. It will act as a catalyst for the building and sharing knowledge among teachers and trainers of seniors on national and international level. It will comply with the Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI) Guidelines.
-To specify seniors needs on ICT HW and SW and put down recommendations for ICT industry.
The target groups include educators and other personnel involved in the training and social assistance of seniors.
A strong focus will be on including members from the seniors community who will be asked included in the project design and creation of materials from conceptualisation to delivery.
Bangladesh 1st Grassroots Educational Video Festival - 2005
A report from Shahjahan Siraj
With huge participation of the students and youth the first part of the ‘Bangladesh 1st Grassroots Educational Video Festival –2005’ has been finished at Muktagacha and Kushtia, from 23-30 August, 2005.
I have uploaded the experiences, photos and video clips on the festival.
For your information, ‘this time I have discovered a serious problem in the Kushtia region. The area's youth generations are grasped by drug, crime, arms and boarder based illegal business. The low quality 'Heroin' come from India which generally used to kill dog...after take this drug the blood veins become soft, contaminated blood pull out...whole body covered by sores... ‘ However, if I get support from any organisation, I would like to research on this issues and would like to make a documentary/ media story on this area's youth generations problems and life style.....
Now I am talking with friends organisations to organise the festival in Chittagong, Khulna and Barisal area. I have plan to organise the festival more widely with big arrangement next year. I wish MirandaNet will join and help to organise the Grassroots Video Festival 2006 and key partner organisation.
The common feedback from the audience is to organize the festival every year and cover more schools and colleges. It is also suggested both from teachers and students to establish a ‘Local Media Center’ where the students and youth will get access regularly to watch the documentaries on life issues and problems.
p.s.: this year I have organised the festival by my personal and local contributions. For next, I will take preparation from the begining and collect the fund for big arrangement...
Teachers' TV - Stephen Heppell
With eldest daughter embarking on a PGCE (you'll have to check your registers to see if it's with you!) interesting things pop up from time to time...
..and one such thing is how few lecturers seem to know about Teachers' TV . So this is just a short awareness note, apologies to the many of you who are already glued to it. You might forward this on to colleagues perhaps?
Teachers' TV (note position of apostrophe!!) is public service, DfES funded, TV for teachers although a lot of parents, NQTs, aspiring teachers, governors and children (!) watch it too. You can find it on the web.
...or broadcasting on satellite and digital terrestrial. Programmes are in 15 minute segments in General, Secondary or Primary zones and most are bespoke, commissioned by the channel specifically for teachers. Quality is high, content is often candid and useful (for example Estelle Morris's TTV interview...). On digital TV it is available on Sky 592, Telewest 240, ntl 803, KIT 70, HomeChoice 845, Freeview 47 (12-6am), but the channel is a streaming video pioneer with currently 453 programmes available to download right now from the website. Searching for primary and ICT for example would currently find ten good programmes. On-line video will also soon be available in multiple formats (so you can watch on your phone maybe during playground duty!!) as a next development.
If you don't want to use the web, or record from Freeview, and can't wait for FreeSat, then there are deals for schools, teachers and others too.
With myself and Angela McFarlane both on the board of governors ITTE is very strongly represented.
Update by Tony Fisher
The current archive on the TTV web site now runs to over 600 programmes which you can download and re-edit for your own teaching if you wish. To download the programmes you need to register - and you can now identify yourself as a 'teacher educator' among the role choices, which is a welcome development. If you have registered previously you can now update your profile to accurately reflect your role.
I use some of their programmes in my teaching and recommend TTV to you and your colleagues if you haven't tried it yet.
Becta Ask an Expert
This month Becta is running an Ask an Expert theme aimed specifically at trainee teachers. It is entitled: Training teachers - making ICT part of your school experience.
This is what BECTA said about it
Can you please draw this to the attention of your students and encourage them to submit questions if they have particular queries relating to integrating ICT into their school experiences.
Even if students don't submit questions of their own, they may like to monitor the site over the course of the next month as it evolves to provide a useful bank of questions and answers. I am sure that many of them will relate to some of the questions that are being asked. I hope that this will prove to be one of the most active Ask an Expert sessions, but we do need your help in spreading the word.
New Fellow
Albin Wallace
Albin is a new Fellow who is publishing a paper in the MirandaNet e-journal which will be of interest to many of you.
Here is a summary
Digital Literacy: Are the new technologies changing the way we read and write?
By Albin Wallace, Group ICT Director, United Church Schools Trust and United Learning Trust
After studying linguistics as an undergraduate, I became a primary teacher with a major interest in literacy. Since 1984, I have been involved in the learning opportunities offered by ICT and the unique place it has in education. As the Group ICT Director of the United Learning Trust, I have strategic responsibility for the educational use of ICT across all our schools and academies, and the implications of digital literacy are key to our decision-making on learning and teaching, especially in the context of reading and writing.
My paper discusses critically whether the new technologies are changing the ways in which we read and write, and examines some of the important issues raised by this possibility for teaching policy and practice. It makes reference to key theorists and draws upon primary, multi-media and other texts to substantiate the argument. My particular focus is literacy. The paper examines literacy broadly as a social practice and in some further detail as a digital phenomenon.
The paper concludes by discussing the ways in which technologies change the way we read and write along with implications for teaching policy and practice. The topic is a crucial one for me to investigate as not only must we drive ICT from the educational perspective, we must also be open to the opportunities afforded to us by ICT to change and improve the literacy experiences of our learners.
It is my conclusion that the advent of Internet Protocol-based technologies inevitably and profoundly impact on current and emerging literacy practices.
New Scholars
Wendy Lawson
Wendy Lawson works in interpersonal and intercultural communication, specialising in promoting the understanding of GRASSROOTS HUMOUR – the humour of everyday interaction. Despite playing such an important role in furthering interpersonal and intercultural understanding, 'grassroots humour' has received very little attention. Wendy began developing her systematic approach to understanding humour while carrying out an M.Ed research project at Cambridge University, England in the 1990's. Through her programme of presentations, teaching and writing, and through her website she has since sought to raise the profile of interactive humour. She believes that because humour plays such a key communication role in so many interpersonal and intercultural situations, it is essential for practitioners of all kinds to understand how it works and what it means.
Paul Miller
Paul Miller is a Jamaican teacher teaching Religious Education (Key stages 3/4) and Philosophy (Key stage 5) in Highglands School, Enfield in North London. He has two children, a girl aged 8 and a boy aged 2.5 years.
Paul is currently researching for his 2nd Ph.D. in the Institute of Education, University of London. He is looking at 'Teacher Migration from the Rest of the World to England'. After receiving his Bsc in Management Studies from the John-Mil Institute of Communications and Management Studies, he went to read for a Ph.D. in Biblical Studies and Literature, which he received from the European Theological Seminary, UK at aged 22. He also has a Master of Religious Education degree (MREd) from the European Theological Seminary, UK, the Diploma in Business Administration (The University of the West Indies) and a Master of Business Administration degree (MBA) in Human Resource Management (The University of the West Indies).
Prior to taking a post in England in 2003, he lectured in Ethics in the Jamaica Police Academy; Career Development and Professionalism (Vocational Training Development Institute) and in World History, Management and Sociology (The Liberal Arts College of Jamaica). He was also founding head and Chair of RE in Tacius Golding High School.
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