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23 January 2007
January 2007 Newsletter
Report on BETT07Congratulations to our partners, 2Simple, who won another BETT award for their software.
International members who stopped by for wine and pannetone included Alla Kratsova from Russia, Olivia Flores from Mexico, Jan Lepeltak, The Netherlands and Kathy Epps from Switzerland. We also met groups from Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Turkey.
If there had been a prize for the prettiest stand we would have won it!
Our new MirandaNet front page
Francis, John and I have freshened up the MirandaNet front page and responded to some excellent suggestion from Members.
This redesign now makes our mission statement much more prominent. As many of you will know we reconsider our mission statement every year. I have made some changes myself before I publish this as the new 2007 version.
The MirandaNet Fellowship, established in 1992, strives to span national, cultural, commercial and political divides to provide an innovative and inclusive forum for professional educators and to influence worldwide agenda on the use of digital tools in transformational learning.
Fellows who share their experience and expertise are building a professional interactive knowledge base about the use of advanced technologies in transforming teaching and learning. The individual learning patterns of learners of all ages are celebrated through practice-based research strategies, peer e-mentoring and e-facilitation. Self-assessment, peer review, dissemination and publication are central to the Fellowship process.
Partnership with universities, industry, government and other professional organisations is at the heart of the research, development and evaluation processes that underpin and support evidence-based theory, practice and policy.
Etopia- Mapping the World WE want
Prague Workshop 15th – 17th February 2007
Groups of teachers who are attending include delegates from schools in Russia as well as Kirklees, Orpington, Sunderland and Worcestershire. Chelsea Hospital School, London is also exchanging with the hospital school in Prague.
There is still time to book for the workshop. Contact John Cuthell.
Put an entry in the Peace Room
If you would like to be involved, in the Prague workshop events but you are unable to come to the workshop, why not join in our first activity which is the Peace Room. This was designed by our Fellow, Andree Jordan. This is a place where you can nominate a person who you think has made a positive difference to the world, read about the people who have been nominated, vote for nominations and read about the people who have ‘made a difference’.
The site includes materials for teachers to use to introduce the project to their classes. Teachers’ and students’ entries are welcome. We would also welcome your thoughts about this activity for the newsletter.
A Fellow published in the Reflecting Education e-journal
Maulfry Worthington, one of our Fellows, has a paper in 'Reflecting Education' which is edited by Norbert Pachler. Her paper is based on her MirandaNet/GTC practice-based course work. It's good. Have a look.
The Good Guide to Interactive Whiteboards
Shamina from the TDA sent Graham Jarvis the following message about the Good Guide to Interactive Whiteboards:
I just wanted to let you know that we have now got 4000 copies of this CD remaining. It may now be slightly outdated. However we do still receive requests for copies. Could providers email me their details if they would like copies to be posted to them.
Working with schools in China INSET
Please see below details of an INSET day to which you are invited by Lawrence Williams.
Working with Schools in China
A cross-phase INSET session with Lawrence Williams
Thursday 1st March 2007 am or pm
To be held at:
Holy Cross School
Sandal Road
New Malden
Surrey, KT3 5AN
There will be two options, each lasting two hours, exploring how London (and other) schools can make contact with schools in Beijing, and develop effective collaborative projects. Holy Cross is currently building an on-line community with partners in China.
Session 1 10.00 until 12.00 am
or
Session 2 2.00 until 4.00 pm
The session is suitable for primary and secondary teachers, and advisers.
The school’s previous work with Japan will be used as models for schools to adopt/ adapt.
See background information here.
Contact Lawrence to book a place.
The latest news about Seymour Papert
Education technology pioneer Seymour Papert was gravely injured in an accident in Hanoi last year. He was attending a conference there and was hit by a motorbike, sustaining significant head trauma.
Mike Sharples wrote at the beginning of January:
The latest news on Seymour Papert, via Richard Noss, is that he has had a second brain operation and might be medivac-ed to Boston. He is still in a deep coma.
One of the many MirandaLink messages came from Douglas Butler, who was at the Hanoi conference and who had heard Seymour speak. Douglas also sent Francis a couple of pictures and he has published these on the front page of MirandaNet with Douglas's message. Francis proposes to compile the other messages into a single web page at some time, but you will all understand his reluctance to publish a tribute when we are all hoping for a recovery. Which is why Francis put Douglas's forward-looking remarks on the site as well. At the moment we hear he is still in a deep coma.
Fellows in Conference 2007
Please recommend conferences and workshops that you think will interest members. Below are the ones which we are connected with so far this year.
NAACE conference Torquay 27th February- 1st March
John Cuthell and Christina Preston will be running the ICT CPD strand at this conference. Several MirandaNet Fellows will be talking about models that have been effective in their schools and regions: Mark Bennison, Dai Thomas, David Litchfield, Michael Smith and Margaret Danby. Many thanks to them for sharing their knowledge and experience.
SITE conference, San Antonio, Texas, US 26th – 30th March 2007
John Cuthell and Christina Preston will be giving papers at this conference. Will any other members be there? Let us know.
Conference in Greece 2007
ICICTE 2007 - A conference that will seek to address the many challenges and new directions presented by technological innovations in educational settings.
If you wish to present at ICICTE 2007 and have your paper published in the Conference Proceedings submit your proposal to Nancy Pyrini by February 7th 2007.
See here for more information.
New Scholars
Allison Allen
I have a background in school improvement, training, transformational ICT, and medium-scale project management. I am the Consultant for ICT projects and school improvement in Croydon and as a Cocentra Excellence Chain Associate.
As part of the London Learning Through ICT team - DfES/LGfL (L2tICT), I appreciate helping to make change across the London education community and beyond - my role as chair, L2tICT Learning & Teaching action group is exciting and challenging! I am happy to be an executive Director, London Grid for Learning Trust and a firm supporter of LGfL's visions and values.
I started my career as head of Art and became hooked on ICT in the 80s. I get a real joy from seeing children and adults use ICT to do something they couldn't otherwise do. I hope I never stop hearing a pupil saying Look what that (computer) helped me do; I didn't know I could do that!
Chris Cocker
I have been teaching for 27 years and have been a deputy headteacher at Holmfirth JIN School in Huddersfield for 10 years. ICT is very important in my school, we have a strong ICT vision, our staff are very keen to embrace new technologies and our children are very excited about using ICT in their learning. My personal journey with ICT has been a gradual one until I had the opportunity of using an interactive whiteboard with Activprimary software by Promethean in my classroom. Since then I have become very enthusiastic and excited about the impact ICT has on children and their learning. I know that I have now reached a 'mission critical ' stage in my use of ICT for teaching and learning because if ever my whiteboard isn't working I am at a loss and very upset! I am particularly interested in using Activote for assessment for learning and also in the use of multimedia. I am keen to promote the use of ICT with children as peer tutors and passionate about children maximising their use of ICT for their learning. What gives me a buzz is when children ask, 'Can I go in the ICT suite I have an idea I want to work on?' I can't get over how quickly even our youngest children develop their ICT skills and use them so creatively and confidently.
Julie Frankland
Most of my teaching career has been in primary schools but I have worked in early years, secondary and special schools. I was a teacher adviser in a large local authority before setting up the School House Partnership (SHP) with two colleagues in 1999.
I have written a lot of learning and teaching materials for QCA, Becta and DfES as well as developing resources for use in the classroom. I lead the SHP team for the Strategic Leadership in ICT Programme (SLICT). This is a programme for head teachers that has been developed by the National College for School Leadership and Becta.
I am also a director of Partnership Matters. This organisation is creating a support network of, and for, independent consultants throughout the UK to support schools in their use of ICT.
Chrysoula Hadjichristou
I studied mathematics in the Aristotelion University in Greece and I possess a Masters Degree in the didactic of maths from the Cyprus University. I am a mathematician in a secondary school. Now for the 5th year I am a trainer in the pedagogical institute in the department of mathematics. I am teaching since 1984 with the same enthusiasm like the first day but with much more experiences and teaching methods that make my job a hobby. I took part in many seminars about mathematics in the Cyprus and Greek Mathematic Society, CASTME and ICTM2. I Presented articles about Venn diagrams, Plato polyhedra, differentiation method of teaching of maths, project method as a tool of the inter-multi-trans disciplinarity etc.
I have three daughters: Nastasia who is studying medicine in her second year, Christina who is going to study next year and Argyro who is only 12 months.
Last September I possessed the 7 modules of ECDL (Syl 4.0). Now I enjoy teaching projects to the primary/secondary school teachers and exploring with their students.
Elizabeth Hartnell-Young
I am always interested in how people of any age can use ICT to achieve their personal and collective dreams. As a teacher I encouraged creative and productive uses of software and hardware. I established my first major project to develop digital portfolios with adults – women @ the cutting edge – in Australia in the 1990s. Since then I have written extensively on portfolio development, including the recently-published second edition of Digital Portfolios: Powerful Tools for Promoting Professional Growth and Reflection (with Maureen Morriss; Corwin Press). I have a longstanding interest in teacher learning, and while conducting research with teachers using computers in schools I recognised they were developing communities of practice and supporting each other in their work and learning. Soon I encouraged teachers to consider mobile phones as small computers, and to incorporate them into curriculum uses. Nokia continues to support this work. I am now a research fellow at The University of Nottingham, pursuing my interest in teachers as designers of new learning environments, students as co-creators of curriculum, how we might value and assess the new literacies, and how ICT can support all this, as well as a host of other things.
Mike Holroyde
Mike has considerable experience of working at Senior Adviser and Principal Adviser level with responsibility for School Improvement across Primary, Secondary and Special phases of education since 1996. In addition, he has designated responsibility for the development of ICT across all phases in the LA.
He is Link Adviser for a group of Primary schools and Secondary schools and is also a member of the LA planning team which sets the strategic direction and formulates the action plan for the work of the Local Authority. Mike is responsible for the Local Authority ICT strategy for schools, he directs the work of the consultant team, and is responsible for the dissemination of good practice. Mike will be leading on the further development of provision within schools in the Local Authority in relation to new Technologies and the introduction of Learning Platforms.
Mike enjoys excellent relationships with his colleagues and schools. He is able to challenge and support schools from a position of knowledge and understanding of the issues that they are facing, in an objective manner. He is an accredited Ofsted inspector and is also an accredited facilitator for the SLICT programme.
Achilleas Kapartzianis
I am a Physics teacher and also an ICT trainer. My job besides teaching physics in secondary education, is to try to embed the information technology into the curriculum in a way that is easy to implement and also cost effective. I haven't heard about MirandaNet until recently, when I attended a seminar about online teacher communities. I am willing to share my experience and opinions in ICT with others in the community and be an active member in this community.
Damien Norris
I am currently doing a research project for the award of PhD, my interest area is the Foundation Stage and the use of ICT, both PC's and IWB. My background is in Information Systems, programming, web, ienternets; so some of my observations and opinions are taken from that perspective and sometimes seem to clash with educators views.
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