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22 September 2006
Etopia – Special WEB September Edition MirandaNet Newsletter
ETOPIAMapping the world WE want
Some of the MirandaNetters have decided that it is time for some positive action in the face of such depressing international news about war and division.
We drew the idea from the Modernists. After the First World War, these artists, writers, architects, politicians and many other professionals developed designs for a cleaner, fairer and happier world. Walter Gropius justified this new Modernist philosophy in 1919 in words that have some resonance today:
Today’s artist lives in an era of dissolution without guidance. The old forms are in ruins, the benumbed world is shaken up, the old human spirit is invalidated and in flux towards a new form. We float in space and cannot perceive the new order.
So we have come up with a plan for a three year Etopia project which MirandaNetters and their pupils can participate in building a vision for a better integrated world both online and at international face to face workshops.
The draft design for the webspace is based on the London Underground map which was designed by Beck in the Modernist period just after the First World War. By 1919 artists, writers, architects, politicians and many other professionals were producing designs for a cleaner, fairer and happier world as an antidote to the horrors of that war. There is currently an exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London which brings together some of these designs for transport, textiles, buildings, clothes and other artifacts.
On the map each station represents a subject where young learners can post their designs. The map can keep growing as children add stations and extension lines when they think of something else that the new world will need. This gives all kinds of learners a chance to be inventive in areas where they are most interested or where they have most expertise.
Young learners are encouraged to offer multimodal entries and collaborative work: plans, designs, photos, videos, posters, manifestos, blogs, wikis, podcasts, sculpture, painting and drawing. Hand drawn and written work which is also welcome can be scanned for publication.
The children's work will be published in the World Ecitizens Gallery and so will be seen by an international audience. All the participants will be given a World Ecitizens certificate. Teachers are invited to publish their case studies about the work in the World Ecitizens E-Journal to help other teachers to replicate some of the processes.
The Etopia launch programme
21st and 22nd September Leeuwarden, Friesland, The Netherlands
The first project meeting in Friesland when teachers of children between 4 and 7 will be setting up multimodal literacy projects with the UK. Visits to local schools will be part of the programme.
A charity dinner: 3rd November, London
Our first event is a charity dinner, held as part of the programme for ‘Getting Better Together’, an international conference held throughout Europe every four years for 300 teachers of young people with a medical or mental health diagnosis http://www.gettingbettertogether.com. The funds raised by this dinner will be used to support the conference and to set up international projects between hospital schools, primary and secondary schools and excluded learners. If sufficient money is raised, this will also go towards bursaries for teachers to attend the inaugural Etopia Continuing Professional Development workshop and visit to Czech schools in Prague, 15th–17th February 2007.
Details on http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/etopia. You may be able to recommend some sponsors.
Prague Workshop
Thursday 15th to Saturday 17th February 2007 CTU, Prague Czech Republic
Our second Etopia event is a face to face workshop called:
Towards personalised learning: implementing the philosophy
A CPD event examining the role of ICT in building partnership projects
We had our first MirandaNet workshop in Prague in 1997 so ten years after it seems a good idea to repeat this success. If you do not work in the UK it might be a good idea to see if the British Council in your country might fund you to come.
Details on http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/etopia.
New Fellow
Congratulations to Mechelle on being awarded a MirandaNet Fellowship in recognition of her publications, case studies and research work.
Mechelle De Craene
Digital Storytelling
I wanted to forward to you all the link to a brief article geared for teachers about digital storytelling. I hope that it will be a helpful resource for teachers who would like to explore digital storytelling.
http://terry-freedman.org.uk/artman/publish/printer_804.php
New Scholars
Smita Bora
Vice Principal at the soon to open Westminster Academy, prior to that, Smita was Deputy Headteacher at Park View Academy in Haringey, not only one of the few successful schools but also one of the fifty most improved schools in the UK. As an Assistant Headteacher, Smita helped to commission a state-of-the-art ICT system at Chafford Hundred Campus, which she helped to set up as a School of the Future. Smita was one of the first E-facilitators for the GTC and is currently part of a team evaluating the Teachers TV website. She has experience of working both for London Challenge as an Associate Deputy Headteacher and for the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust (SSAT) as a consultant.
Cathy Ellis
I am responsible for the strategic direction for all ICT and eLearning developments within the college. I have led major restructuring projects of ICT to align it to deliver campus-wide eLearning strategies. My work with learning technology dates back to 1994 and the introduction of Computer Assisted Language Learning when I was Head of Languages at City of Sunderland College. I introduced the college to the concept of a VLE and in 2000 began the first phase of implementation of a VLE. Sunderland was one of the first colleges to commit to a VLE and the college won a number of awards in recognition of its pioneering work. In 2004 I founded an eLearning publication, eLearning Matters, aimed at drawing together best practice in the use of learning technologies. In November 2004 I won an international award for this innovative project. I have spoken at regional, national and international conferences and written several articles on my experience of ICT/ILT. A member of the JISC Committee for Organisational Support, chair of ALTs Further Education Committee, I am especially interested in the management and organisational challenges which ILT presents and working with all stakeholders to commit to a shared vision for IL T.
Poncelet Ileleji
Poncelet O. Ileleji, is a computer Scientist by Profession with 13 years in the field, for the last 10 years he has been involved with the use of ICT as a tool for sustainable development both as a lecturer and consultant for the Gambia YMCAs, where he his the coordinator of the computer training centre and digital studio.
He also oversees the sports unit of the Gambia YMCAs and is involved with a lot of development programs within the Gambia YMCAs, he coordinates the internship program for the Go Global program of the New York YMCAs that brings interns to serve in the computer centre of the Gambia YMCAs and also coordinates interns from the YM/YWCA of Sweden too and other international collaborative educational projects the Gambia YMCAs is involved in. He is also the ICCP recruiter (International YMCAs of New York International camp counselor program) for the Gambian YMCAs.
Poncelet is the country coordinator for the World Links program in the Gambia www.world-links.org whose pilot phase in Gambia ended in July 2005. He trained over a 500 teachers in use of ICT in teaching and learning through the world links program, in public senior secondary schools in Gambia between April 2001 and 2004 and got 47 teachers to complete the World Links e learning pilot project in the Gambia. Poncelet is also involved with School Net Africa since(www.schoolnetafrica.net) 2003, and coordinates two School Net Africa flagship program in the Gambia, namely Mtandao Afrika and Global Teenage Project.
He is a founding member of the Information Technology Association of the Gambia, a member of ISTE and is the national expert of the WSA expert panel for the Gambia . Poncelet has also carried out several presentations and publications, on ICT and sustainable development, notably, The Internet and Africa from a sub Saharan perspective - Paper presentation at the Association For The Advancement Of Computing In Education (AACE) in Orlando, Florida - Nov 2001
Poncelet is married with a son Poncelet Jr, educated in Nigeria, United Kingdom and the US. A keen reader, writer and sports enthusiast. A big fan and life support of Manchester United football club.
His major interest includes use of ICT in the classroom as a pedagogical tool for learning, content management, e learning and ICT uses as a tool for sustainable development.
Favourite Quote: - Dealing With Change
It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent. But those most responsive to change. Charles Darwin
Carol Roy
I have so much to say about my personal interest in ICT and Education that I don't know where to start. I guess the best place would be my personal excitement and interest in discovering MirandaNet through a link from the Nova Scotia Department of Education website.
I have recently to undertake a huge goal to try to help children with so called learning disabilities such as ADD, ADHD, Visual Spatial etc. due to some personal experiences concerning my daughter. When she started school 4 years ago, she was so excited. Part way through grade 2, her enthusiasm lessened and by grade 3 I had difficulties encouraging her to just get up in the morning to go to school. I had meetings with school authorities and in order to get her motivated to go to school, she was allowed to go to the learning centre each morning to do a craft for 30 minutes. I never had another problem for the rest of the year. In grade four, the problems started again. She was having difficulties in Math, was developing low self esteem and cried a lot because she felt she was stupid. We were working on a math problem at home one day and as part of finding a solution to her math problem, I asked her what 1+1 was and she said 11....five times in a row. I then asked her what 1+0 was and she said 10. I knew at this point that something wasn't right. This is when I began my research.
Through months of researching the many learning disabilities, I discovered my daughter is a Visual Spatial learner. Through this research, I also discovered that I too am a visual spatial learner which has helped me discover a lot about myself and has lifted a lot of extra baggage that I have carried with me for so many years. I no longer feel that I am stupid and had I known years ago what I know now about learning disabilities, I would have done a lot better in my school years. I am a very creative person (as well as my daughter) and am a self taught Graphic Designer of 20+ years. I decided to put my knowledge in Graphic Design and my trusty computer to work to try to develop some tools to help my daughter with her math. I approached Breanna's teacher with some thoughts on how I wanted to help my daughter with her math. My first approach was to take one of her math tests and redesign it to be more visually appealing to her. The tests the teacher was providing for the students was horrible. It looked like pieces were cut from a book, pasted on sheet of paper and then photocopied. This of course produced a sheet of Math questions cramped on a page with dark shaded areas, charts you could hardly see, cut lines etc. For the week of the Math test that I had redone, I purposely didn't do any extra math practice with Breanna just so I could see how it worked for her. I redesigned the test using color coded questions, gave her more room to work out her problems and basically just made the test visually appealing to her. Up to this point, Breanna had been scoring around 4 to 5 out of ten on her test and she made an amazing 9.5 out of 10 on the test I had done for her with no preparation for the test that week! I continued to develop some math practice sheets for her at home using color coding that I developed myself and she did very well with them. She was doing long division in class right down to the decimal point while the rest of her class was only going as far as the remainder. She was finding the least common denominator in fractions when the rest of her class was just learning what a denominator was. I had to keep moving forward with her because she was learning so quickly. I discovered a lot about right brain learners and how they need to see the whole picture to get it but I also have learned a lot of discouraging information about the left brain school system at the same time.
My heart aches for children labelled with learning disabilities and the difficulties they have in the school environment. I feel these children are all Gifted and it saddens me to see how there is so much emphasis is put on their behavioural problems. I see a problem in the system and feel there must be a better way to help these children discover their gifts.
Last year, a five step program was put into place in the school system here to try to encourage better behaviour. There was a list sent home of all the behaviours which were unacceptable and would promote steps if they misbehaved. One of the things on the list was chewing gum! I had to sign this sheet and send it back to her teacher which I reluctantly did but provided a note at the bottom of the sheet for her teacher to please send home a notice of what system they have for rewarding the students for good behaviour and good work. I have not received anything yet. It is the start of a new year and I am planning to work on developing some tools that will help Breanna and hopefully be able to work with her teachers with no problems. I know it is a huge undertaking but I feel like I want to help all students with the tools I develop. I don't have a teaching certificate but feel I have a lot to offer with my graphic design, visual abilities and creativity. I hope my membership application will be accepted so I can further my knowledge in the ICT and Education and hopefully make a difference in our community.
New Members
Ray Le Couteur
I am Head of ICT and teach both ICT and Science at King Edward VI Grammar School, Chelmsford. We have pioneered the use of the Moodle VLE at the school, and our site has been in use since early 2003. I have carried out research into the use and effectiveness of the VLE at the school. Current areas of interest, apart from the use of Moodle, include research into the prevalence and prevention of plagiarism, especially regarding the early years of secondary school and the use of Mind Tools in teaching.
Tony Kennedy
Director of Learning Television Ltd, E-learning development brokerage.
I have been immersed in ICT and education developments for 15 years. As a member of a local authority, I was City Council E-Champion and chaired the Education Overview and Scrutiny Committee leading many developments in ICT and learning. I am currently researching public procurement of Learning ICT, and developing an E-Intermediary business providing neighbourhood E-learning advice and resources based on social constructionist principles. I am interested in open source communities and networks of practice.
Yamei Shang
I am a teacher in China. I teach English in a secondary school. My students are aged at about 17. Our headmaster is very keen on the development of the ICT at school. I first came to know MirandaNet through the project about IWB and also through Inspiration.
Grant Wheatley
I have been project manager of a federally funded ICT project in Western Australia for the last three years. The goal has been to develop an online community of practice to link teachers supporting students with learning difficulties. We now have over 1000 members and have created a website based on user need. I wish to expand my understanding of online communities.
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