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16 May 2008
16th May 08 Newsletter
New MirandaNet events
Seminars on Mapping and YouTube - 29th May
‘Drawing on semiotic theory to provide insights into the meanings of teachers' multimodal maps in ICT CPD contexts' - Christina Preston
‘Do YouTube? Multimodal patterns of regularities and variation in video-interaction on the Web' - Elisabetta Adami
17.30 - 19.00 Room 826 Wine and nibbles. The seminar is the subject of my doctorate. Let me know if you can come as we can share a meal afterwards.
Christina Preston
Culture, Identity and Language Seminars, Faculty of Culture & Pedagogy
Institute of Education, University of London
20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL
Nearest tube Green Park
Japanese professors e-security tour: June 23rd - July 1st
Professor Hiro Tanaka's e-safety tour.
Many thanks to the MirandaNetters who generously offered to host Professor Hiro Tanaka's tour of the UK looking at e-safety issues. Some of you will be disappointed as I have had to organise his visits around England on a route that will not exhaust him. As a result I have not been able to take up all the invitations we had.
However, it is clear that there is a great interest in this subject and in meeting the Japanese professors. All MirandaNetters are welcome, therefore, at the seminar that Steven Coombs is running
Friday 27th June: a seminar on e-security at the MirandaNet Academy@CEIT
Bath Spa University. For more details email
Steven Coombs
or Victoria Guest
Cream Tea on Sunday 29th June
I shall be holding a tea party for them at my house in South Croydon between 3:00pm and 7:00pm when you will also be most welcome.
More details about these events will be out soon. For directions please contact
.
International conference of IFIP WG 3.5 Informatics & Elementary Education in Prague 23rd - 26th June
Marilyn Leask, Avril Loveless and Christina Preston, all MirandaNetters will be giving papers at this conference.
The paper, Social Networking: what can the teachers learn from the students? has been written by Christina Preston and Paul Vale about learners' practice in Think.com.
The Oracle Foundation, a partner of World Ecitizens, is funding the conference visit. Members can
.
A MirandaNet UNconference: 10th July
Funded by MirandaNet's new partner, Lanway
See the MirandaNet Diary for more information.
Culture, Identity and Language Seminars, Faculty of Culture & Pedagogy
Institute of Education, University of London
20 Bedford Way
London WC1H 0AL
Nearest tube Green Park
BERA 2008 Annual Conference Heriot Watt University 3rd - 6th September 2008
Symposium Title: Web 2.0, communities of practice and new forms of engagement between policy makers, researchers and practitioners - where are the academics?
MirandaNetters Marilyn Leask, Christina Preston and Sarah Younie will be presenting above symposium. Programme can be seen here Symposium Reference Number: 1263
IADIS International Conference on Cognition and Exploratory Learning in Digital Age (CELDA 2008) October 13th - 15th - Freiburg, Germany
Deadline for submissions: 26 May 2008 (for all contributions)
The 2008 edition of the CELDA conference will include several participants in a wide range of areas, keynote speakers and a tutorial by Professor J. Michael Spector, Florida State University, USA.
See here for more details.
Members news
Exploring social networking in schools
TV show on Teachers TV - John Potter's first appearance on a programme and Neil Selwyn and John both make points on these issues (along with people from Futurelab, teachers using web 2.0, Stephen Heppell, Lyndsey Grant from Futurelab and others)
It can be viewed or downloaded here.
The synopsis on the site is a pretty good account of what's in the show. It says:
The rise of online social networking has brought a new dimension to social interaction. In this programme, we look at the technology behind sites such as MySpace, Facebook and Bebo, exploring the issues that they raise for teachers.
This is the first generation that has the technical means to offer a running commentary on every aspect of their lives. This fact has sparked a debate on whether this technology, an ever increasing part of children's lives, is a force for good, or an opportunity for cyber-bullying to proliferate.
If negative aspects can be dealt with, these technological advances could potentially alter the dynamics of future schooling; transforming the traditional lecture model into increasing group interaction and dialogue, into learning that's ‘caught rather than taught'.
Experts and users explain how social networking is affecting the way this generation relates to each other in and out of cyberspace, and how the technology can be harnessed to benefit learning.
ICT for World Peace
Lawrence Williams, one of our senior Fellows, has summed up an important aspect of his work on this new page on MirandaNet.
Online safety
From Mechelle De Craene
Here's a resource relating to online safety from Cable in the Classroom. It is called Point Smart, Click Safe. It is "media smart" for teachers including a section for parents. Hope this is helpful.
Emerging technologies for learning volume 3 (2008)
Becta is pleased to announce that ‘Emerging technologies for learning- volume 3' has just been published. This follow-up edition complements the first two ‘Emerging technologies for learning' publications from 2006 and 2007. The 'Emerging technologies for learning' series aims to help readers consider how emerging technologies may impact on education and learners in the medium term. The publications are not intended to be a comprehensive review of educational technologies, but offer some highlights across the broad spectrum of developments and trends. It should open readers up to some of the possibilities that are developing and the potential for technology to transform our ways of working, learning and interacting over the next three to five years.
Copies can be downloaded from here.
This latest publication includes the following articles:
• Growing up with Google - what it means to education (Diane Oblinger, EDUCAUSE)
• Mobile, wireless, connected - information clouds and learning (Mark van't Hooft, Kent State University)
• Location-based and context-aware education - prospects and perils (Adam Greenfield, NYU)
• Emerging trends in serious games and virtual words (Sara de Freitas, SGI)
• ‘If it quacks like a duck...' - developments in search technologies (Emma Tonkin, UKOLN)
• Interactive displays and next generation interfaces (Michael Haller, Upper Austria University of Applied Sciences)
Publishing in the MirandaNet Etopia E-journal
A reminder that in the Etopia E-journal environment members are sharing comments on how teachers used to learn about digital technologies in the past, how they are learning now and how members think programmes for teachers should be designed for the Etopian future.
The editorial to the Etopia E-journal offers MirandaNet members an overview of all our current papers, both published and in press, about ICT CPD and about building knowledge collaboratively online.
We will be delighted to feature any papers or case studies that members want to circulate on this topic. Please let know.
New Scholars
Danny Agarwal
Having spent 20 years working in IT in the financial sector I started a PGCE in primary education in September 2007. My industry experience was initially hands-on, for the last 10 years it was around managing geographically disparate IT software teams. My experience of use of ICT in the classroom to support learning has not been that positive. From my experience I am particularly concerned that it is being taught as a separate subject, and the benefits that can accrue, especially in literacy amongst pupils who suffer motivational problems, are not being realised. From my observation I believe a core reason for this is that ICT strategy in primary schools is driven by the ICT co-ordinator, and comes from the starting point of "what can we do" rather than "what best will improve learning outcomes".
I am very interested to learn how I might be able to leverage my industry experience to assist in the use of ICT in schools to improve outcomes.
Richard Allen
Basically I'm quite passionate about technology making an impact in really transforming education. I have a fair bit of educational ICT project and applications experience gleaned from supporting Government, National and Regional organisations, Local Authorities, Schools and individual practitioners. Learning platforms are my particular area, coupled with developing the "e-learning culture". As a trainer I enjoy working with teachers on getting the best out of their learning platforms, understanding approaches to e-safety and internet literacy, and how their schools can engage with tools like the Becta Self Review Framework for whole school improvement.
In recent years I've also had some fun as a senior lecturer at a university business school, teaching undergraduate and MBA Operations Management, Quality Management and Environmental Management. This all stemmed from a long career in industry with a background of international business and operations management in world-class hi-tech industries. I've been lucky enough to have opportunities to provide management and business development expertise to Asia, America, the Pacific rim countries and mainland Europe.
I love travelling, meeting interesting people and challenges, and look forward to being an active member of Mirandanet.
Jocelyn Chappell
I teach ICT at Pebble Brook School (Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire) where we have 55-70 pupils with moderate learning difficulties. I am completing am M-level course in e-pedagogy with Oxford Brookes University and Bucks Grid for Learning. I am very interested in the recently formed group, Advocates for Digital Citizenship, Safety and Success, finding it quite timely with the publication of the Byron Review this year and the "permission" that gives for pupils and teachers to explore the internet at school (filters notwithstanding) in a manner that evaluates the risk. It also fits quite well with my reading (Warlick, Freedman, etc...) and developing use of internet services.
Angela Constantinou
I am a teacher of EFL and a teacher trainer; my main concern is investigating the area of writing skills and ICT; since I believe that writing is only improved through writing and computers can facilitate learning mainly by motivating teenage students to produce written work I'm about to conduct an experiment in secondary schools of my country. My survey will include two groups (control and experimental); after I have trained students and teachers on using technology (eg email and internet-based projects) I'll contrast their final products to see whether the students have made an improvement in their writing skills.
Bill Gibbon
Having been a teacher, ICT centre manager, adviser, teacher trainer, and Deputy General General Secretary of Naace, and following a period on secondment to the DfES / DCSF as a strategic development adviser and consultant to the Beyond Current Horizons programme, I am now following my own path in implementing technology in learning working across a number of areas and providing guidance and support wherever it is needed.
Claudia Giesel
I am currently a professor at a private institution in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil where I teach undergraduate courses in foreign languages and education and coordinate a graduate program in Foreign Language Teaching and Literatures. I have carried out research studies in the field of language and critical pedagogy and also in the field of gender and social movements. I have earned a Masters in Applied Linguistics and a Ph.D. in Education from Iowa State University, USA. and am currently on a sabbatical leave taking courses in Applied Linguistics in Spain.
Ian Guest
As a Physics teacher of some 12 years (and Head of Physics) I was struggling to see the potential that IT, as it then was, offered me. School had a number of BBCs and a handful of 386s, none of which were particularly accessible, training having been noticeable by its absence. My department then had the great fortune to welcome an NQT with boundless enthusiasm for, and skill with computers. With his guidance and support, and school acquiring increasing numbers of Acorn Archimedes, Apple Macs and Windows-based PCs, I became a convert. I began to exploit the facilities that ICT offered to support me in the classroom, in creating resources for teaching and for easing the admin burden. With more experience and developing expertise, my emphasis subtly shifted towards how ICT supports student learning. I created a website to support our department's curriculum, completed a Best Practice Research Scholarship in student research using the WWW and failed singularly to be enthused by NOF training.
And then the opportunity arose to take my new found mission in a different direction as a member of the team in a City Learning Centre, supporting other teachers in their use of ICT - an exhilarating few years. Now I'm back in a school, still supporting and advising teachers, but totally convinced that ICT can do so much more than support and improve what we do - it can change what do and how we do it.
John Hackett
As an Independent ICT consultant I've worked with schools, LAs and RBCs on a range of projects from the Design & Build of CLCs, schools' infrastructure/network design, web-filtering, and research projects among others. Recently I launched two Social Networking sites for education. The first, LL4Schools, is a safe, social networking site specifically for schools so that pupils and teachers can work together to harness to power of social networking and web2.0 tools for teaching and learning: my aim is to bring the power of Web2.0 to the classroom in a safe way. The other site, LL4Education, is a free version that educators can use to explore the tools available in LL4Schools.
New Members
David Byrne
My aim is to ensure that ILT is used within the College to improve every possible means by which teaching materials can be presented.
James George
I have been working in the Educational IT sector for the past 9 years. Over the years I have been fortunate to be part of key pioneering events such as the creation of the e-learning foundation, developmental wifi projects, the launch of flash memory cards, development of handheld computers and the development of the personalised agenda. Having worked for Sony and Samsung I have been at the forefront of the AV IT convergence, seeing how digital technologies can bring true value to learners and teachers alike. This has spurred me on to become part of the education community to help stretch the boundaries of possibilities. I am committed to the adoption of appropriate technology in to schools and I am fortunate to work for Lanway; a company who can make the whole process easy for everyone from primary, secondary or academy to university.
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