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11 October 2007

October Newsletter

Dear MirandaNetters

In this newsletter you will find two presentations that were made at the Naace strategic conference about our thinking on ICT CPD and on Visual Learning. We'd be keen to hear on MirandaLink if any members have good practice to cite in either of these important areas.

We are busy putting together a seminar and CPD programme for 2008 that we will be announcing soon. In addition we are just completing two journals on multimodal concept mapping. One journal, Reflecting Education is around linking theory with practice for the WLE Centre at the Institute of Education, University of London. The other MN ejournal, called Inspirational Mapping, is by teachers talking about the use of maps in their classrooms. They are both free. We will send you the URLs as soon as they are ready.

Thanks to Inspiration, our partners, for funding the workshops and seminars that have lead to this impressive output from members. Those who are currently scholars will be given Fellowships next month.

Meanwhile we have rounded up some interesting events, as well as projects being run by members. We would love to know more about what you are doing so that we can share good practice in the newsletter. We also welcome all debates started by members on MirandaLink. If you are nervous about starting a thread but have a good idea just send me an email. We can work on the idea together. We have many new members from all over the world so the more we can exploit our international advantage and share our knowledge and practice the better.

We do now own an island in Second Life that Dai Thomas is populating. Some time we plan to hold some virtual meetings there. Meanwhile let's talk on email.

Best wishes to you all.

Christina

What is new? Visual Learning and ICT CPD

Members have been working in both these areas and coming up with some new thoughts. You will find a presentation on ICT CPD and an article about our current views here:

http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/visual/

Look for the 'other links' at the end of the page.

All questions and comments welcome

ICT projects about Beijing links, Health and Science

Lawrence Williams is developing two new projects this term that are innovative in the ways in which he is developing partners. If anyone has any ideas or would like to support in any way please let him know. These projects may give people ideas for how they can set up their own.

  1. Visual Learning Project Number Two. Holy Cross is working with the NHS (an Occupational Therapy group) to support community links, visual learning, and healthy eating.
  2. A new International Science Research Project, using email and video-conferencing with that lovely Taiwanese school you already know about. A series of conferences linked to ‘Real World' science research in the two countries. Topic: Global Warming.

We are looking forward to results from Lawrence in 2008.

Lawrence Williams also talks about learning together with children in Beijing. For ideas about how to work across nations have a look here:

http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/phorum/read.php?32,2196

Communities of Practice

Mechelle De Craene has written an article on Communities of Practice. They are starting one for the top teachers in the US. 1% of teachers in the US are nationally board certified: http://eduspaces.net/mechelledc/weblog/196349.html

Free mobile learning publication

Dr Norbert Pachler's publication is now available

Pachler, N. (ed) (2007) Mobile learning: towards a research agenda. London: WLE Centre to which, among others, Prof Dina Laurilard and Prof Gunther Kress contributed.

The e-book can be downloaded free of charge from the WLE Centre website at

http://www.wlecentre.ac.uk/cms/files/occasionalpapers/mobilelearning_pachler2007.pdf

Free hard copies are available while stocks last.

BESA research programme

BESA has an on-going research programme, meant for its members and the wider industry. This academic year, among others, we have produced research reports on:

These are normally only accessible to BESA members but if any MirandaNetters would like a copy, then email ray at besa.org.uk and I'm sure I can release the appropriate documentation for research purposes!

Ray Barker: Ray at besa.org.uk

Xperimania school activities - exploring the properties of materials

Please find below the announcement for a new school competition and activities on materials and chemistry. Xperimania is jointly organised by European Schoolnet and Appe, the Association of Petrochemicals Producers in Europe.

Do not hesitate to contact me or Alexa Joyce (alexa.joyce at eun.org) should you need more information.

Paul Gerhard: Paul.Gerhard at eun.org

EU Kids Online Alert

The EU Kids Online network has completed its first year.

Three new reports from the EU Kids Online network have been completed - see below for a summary. Each can be freely downloaded from their website www.eukidsonline.net.

They are delighted to welcome three new countries into their network - Ireland, Cyprus and Italy - making 21 countries in all.

Recent PowerPoint presentations and papers relating to the EU Kids Online network are also available on the website www.eukidsonline.net.

To keep their work up to date, the details of more studies in the field of children and the internet have been added to their searchable online repository http://www.eukidsonline.net, bringing this to a total of 295 projects identified and coded.

To support this work, they reissue their invitation to researchers, policy-makers and practitioners. If you know of any relevant research or research-related activities that impact on questions of children and young people's use, risk and safety online, please email P.Tsatsou at lse.ac.uk

Creativity Conference

North London 11th October 2007

Dan Warner

John Davitt is providing a keynote speech at the beginning, followed by workshops that will include input from Hope primary showing fantastic games and blogs. There will also be workshops on collaboration using wikis and film making.

We are trying to keep it low key, focused on practical activities that nurture creativity using ICT and with a distinctly hands on flavour so that attendees are able to apply what they have discovered immediately when back in school.

If you are interested in attending visit www.emagination.haringey.lgfl.net http://www.emagination.haringey.lgfl.net/ where there's a link to a booking form.

Conference in Prague June 2008

From Avril Loveless:

23rd - 27th June 2008

Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

The title of the conference is Valuing individual and shared learning: the role of ICT and the deadline for paper submission is December 15th 2007.

Many ITTE colleagues have been involved in this international association of researchers, teachers and policy makers over the years. The conferences are very special in their collegiality, international scope and warm welcome to new members. Although the Working Group 3.5 focuses particularly on Elementary Education, conference contributors are from all phases and areas of interest in research and practice.

We hope to have a MN party going - Christina Preston will be giving the keynote.

If you are thinking of attending please email to plan a MirandaNet Symposium

Inspiredata: new from Inspiration

Sponsor's announcement - New InspireData 1.5, the visual way to explore and understand data!

InspireDataTM builds critical data literacy skills and engages students. They actively explore and analyse data using dynamic Venn, bar, stack, pie and axis plots to interpret information and draw conclusions.

More information from the MirandaNet site:

http://www.mirandanet.ac.uk/associates/inspiredata.htm

We are holding back Fellowship announcements for the next newsletter when we will be able to point you to the papers they have written in the journals.

New Scholars

Kike Agunbiade

I trained to teach science on the Teach First programme in a North London secondary school. Whilst teaching I was particularly interested in the use of ICT in the class room and took part in the Specialist Schools and Academies Trust ICT in Science programme. On graduating for the programme in July 2007 I began working for a charity, Gemin-i.org, which specialises in web-based education solutions. In particular I work on a project called Rafi.ki, which is a global online learning community. Rafi.ki provides a safe space on the web where pupils from across the world can engage with each other and take part in curriculum-based projects. Rafi.ki aims to help break down social, religious and cultural boundaries and improve pupils' communication and ICT skills.

Sean Burke

After working for 12 years as an IT professional, I returned to the UK from Australia to settle down and start a family. I felt that the type of work that I had been doing was incompatible with having a sensible 'work-parenting' balance. I took a career break to reflect on a new direction and to study and expand my other skills. I completed a post graduate certificate in Information Systems. I then enrolled on furniture making courses to develop my practical skills and counselling courses (person-centred, alcohol abuse and bereavement) to improve my communication skills and social intelligence. This led to my study on a Forest Schools Practitioner course whose ideology uses the outdoors to provide an inclusive environment which focuses on developing the 'multiple intelligences'. I worked as a volunteer on a Forest Schools project with excluded pupils, which I found stimulating and very rewarding. I obtained a basketball coaching qualification, consolidating my extensive experience playing and coaching basketball (23 England caps at under 15, 16 and 17 years age groups). Being within a wide range of educational organizations taught me that I enjoy the learning environment and helping others to educate and improve themselves. As a consequence of all these factors, I believe that teaching would make an ideal profession in which I would feel purposeful and motivated. I am also attracted to it as there are good career development paths in which I can cultivate the 'art' of teaching whilst still utilising my industry and life experiences. I come from a working class background in which education is less of a priority than bringing home a wage. I therefore value my education as having given me the opportunity to improve my life prospects in today's service industry economy.

I enjoy being with people from all age groups and walks of life. My recent experience of working and studying with young people has shown me that I relate well to them and can actively engage them.

I have twenty years experiential learning in ICT and am competent and confident in my subject having worked in numerous industries and technologies. I have always taught as part of my role as an IT professional and have a patient, non-judgmental and empathic attitude. I have personal experience of the ICT education system from BTEC to post-graduate level. However, I had no experience of computing until relatively late in my educational career, so I have an appreciation of learning something from scratch and I feel comfortable explaining technology in simple terms.

In my opinion the best teachers are those who have enthusiasm and knowledge of their subject, want to impart their knowledge and a have a commitment to the students. As mentioned above, I have other skills that would be very useful in a school environment. Additionally, I have a good sense of humour and a friendly disposition. I also feel I would be a credible role model, especially for pupils from deprived socio-economic backgrounds. My immediate and extended family are mixed heritage therefore I am sensitive to multi-cultural issues.

Derek Chirnside

I am based in the University Centre for Teaching and Learning (UCTL) at the University of Canterbury, in Christchurch, New Zealand.

My main work is in course development and assisting lecturers with trying out new ideas and approaches in flexible learning. This may include online discussions, video or audio recordings, use of online journals, groupwork, developing a learning community approach in formal taught courses and wikis or blogs. Hopefully the outcomes are embedded in good practice that will improve learning, student engagement and save time for the lecturer.

I teach online in courses to do with using the web in teaching and learning, educational design and community. When I have a chance I facilitate workshops ii leadership, Web 2.0 and learning communities. I enjoy learning; and having just visited Bronwyn Stuckey in Sydney and heard (again) about MirandaNet, I thought it's time I joined.

Louise Crowther

I am in my 3rd year of my BA (Hons) Primary Education QTS degree and took ICT as my subject specialism. My dissertation is on the use of interactive whiteboards as an instructional tool and how they affect pupil engagement. I hope that by becoming a member I might increase my subject knowledge and aid my dissertation at the same time.

Marco Dessena dessena.uk at virgin.net

I'm a final year student at the University of Chichester. My course is Primary Teaching. For my Independent Project, I have chosen the area of Interactive Whiteboards in the classroom. Having been in primary schools in the last few years, I have seen some great lessons delivered with this innovative resource. I do however, believe that this is a resource with a huge potential to explore it's usage and possibilities.

I enjoy teaching young children and my previous jobs include taking children's walking trails in South Africa. I currently also teach boys gymnastics. I am well trained in the art of teaching children as I have two boys of my own!

I am glad to see that teaching (especially in the UK) has taken a turn again and is moving towards a holistic system of education and enjoyment with a large emphasis on interaction. Having grown up and educated in South Africa, I was exposed to the very old system of a teacher led, parrot fashion programme with little or no interaction. Education was hardly an enjoyable exercise!

ICT and better teaching methods including the usage of Interactive Whiteboards will hopefully lead to pupils finishing school with a sense of achievement as well as an element of enjoyment.

Elpiniki Fragkouli

I hold a Ph.D. in Education, with a speciality in in-service teacher training, a MA in Educational Studies, specialising in Special Educational Needs both from the University of Warwick, UK and a BA in Classics from the University of Athens, Greece. As a research assistant in the Warwick Institute of Education, University of Warwick, I am currently working on a Becta funded project investigating the use of ICT made by trainee and newly qualified teachers. In the past I undertook research on NGfL online learning events, funded by Becta. My interest in ICT began five years ago, while I was a MA student. The fascinating experience of seeing the benefits of ICT use in teaching and learning which I gained from my visits to English schools were crucial in my decision to look into teachers' ICT in-service training. More specifically, the major reason, which led me to look into teachers' in-service training was my awareness of the decision of the Greek Ministry of Education to promote the use of ICT in secondary education. I wanted to look at this issue in a wider context. I have a European perspective on education and I wanted to investigate the rich experience existing in other European countries on this topic and relevant studies that emphasised the importance of teacher ICT in-service training as a factor, which could contribute to successful ICT implementation.

Tim Manson

At present I am the ICT Strategy leader for Slemish College and it is my role to encourage teachers to use as much ICT appropriately within their lessons. I have set up my own learning site called Think Geography http://www.thinkgeography.org.uk which enables my students to access extra learning activities, pictures, podcasts, wikispaces, collobaorative essays, blog accounts and much more. Recently, I have been involved in writing materials for learn.co.uk and have written some ICT management articles for the ICTAC publication.

Daniel Needlestone

I am a UK based Secondary ICT Teacher working in a large Secondary School in Hertfordshire. I have also recently taken on the role of e-learning coordinator at the school and am responsible for implementing or making recommendations for a VLE at the school. I am halfway through an online distance learning Masters in ICT in Education at Leeds University which I am both struggling through and enjoying.

I am interested in many aspects of ICT in education but the ones I'm currently finding the time to look at most are VLEs, social networking and online software I'm also forever looking for inspiration into ways of providing more engaging and challenging lessons for my ICT students. I find many of the courses I teach are rather uninspiring and would love to run courses covering both programming and multimedia rather than leaflets and presentations.

My colleagues tell me I'm very good at finding ideas and resources online and luckily for me they seem quite good at taking them out of my head (where they often remain for a long period of time) and into the classroom.

Robert Pardo

My main professional interest is in the use of digital technology to support learning. Currently I work at UVirtual, a Chilean e-learning company owned by 8 State Universities. There my main area of expertise is ICT (web 2.0 tools and LMS) usage to support university teaching. I give workshop sessions to professors where the main idea is to approach and use different technologies from the disciplines they teach, and the learning they want their students to develop.

I also work at the Centro Comenius, Universidad de Santiago de Chile. There I am in charge of a research project financed by the Ministry of Education on the usage of Interactive Whiteboards for the teaching of English at year 5. This is a Pilot Project at 8 Chilean Schools, where we want to gather mainly qualitative evidence about the usage of IWBs.

I belong to the Chilean Ergonomics Association, because I think their approach to activity is very helpful to understand what happens inside the classrooms, especially when different technologies are involved in the processes of teaching and learning.

I hold a Master's degree in Cognitive Psychology and Learning from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

José Paulo Rodrigues dos Santos

Please, see the link: http://www.thesymposium07.com/speakers-jose-santos.html I would like to join the Mirandanet group research.

Thank you!

Tim Woods

As a teacher: I am a teacher, MBA student and consultant working in East London. My major interest is how best to share knowledge to manage intractable ?issues (i.e. climate change, global terrorism). To better manage such ?complex systems as climate change and organizational cultures we can ?improve our effectiveness by experimenting with how we share knowledge. ?I am trying to develop techniques to improve sense making in complex ?situations using storytelling, knowledge visualization, database-driven web ?applications and information graphics.

As a teacher: I try to provide my students with opportunities to explore questions (and what they already ?know) in new ways. I also try to provide opportunities for them to prove their learning ?creatively. Students in my innovation class, for example, are replacing a traditional business ?report in their coursework with a video report they will publish on You Tube and My Space.

As a Consultant: I aim to help organizations to look at their learning and development in ways they haven't ?done before. I use Cognitive Edge techniques and skills I have gained from my MBA studies to ?help firms explore and realize new possibilities.

As a Researcher: Part of what I enjoy about knowledge design and sensemaking is that you can approach ?them on a number of levels. Thomas Homer-Dixon, Director of the Peace and Conflict Studies ?Department (at the University of Toronto) put forward the concept of Ingenuity Gaps--the ?challenge to innovate as we deal with increasingly complex problems, problems such as ?climate change and global terrorism. This concept summarizes the vulnerability of the systems ?many of us are involved in managing and the importance of making ideas more sharable. If ?a picture is worth a thousand words, can we create a few pictures that convey what's going ?on in concepts like climate change. I am interested in the intersection between complexity ?theory and management practice, paying particular attention to the ways we can share?knowledge more effectively.

New Members

Emma Cosgrave

Hi, I am working as one of the ICT Co-ordinators for the British Council in Singapore. I have a particular interest in using ICT with primary school kids and ICT integration training with primary school teachers.

Paul Martin

Particular interest in how ICT can improve the interactive retention of mathematics.

Ben Taubman

I am Deputy Headteacher at Christ's College Finchley which is a school of 970 students. We have 750 boys aged 11 to 16 and 200+ boys and girls aged 16-19. We are a specialist school in computers and maths.

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