Selected Newsletter
News | Diary | Newsletter | Newsletter Archive | Seminars
15 July 2008
July Newsletter
Editorial
MirandaNet Fellows are ‘beaming up'
Digital e-technologies have finally solved the MirandaNet communication problem. Communities need to meet face to face from time to time to consolidate our collegiality. Some members will never be able to get to meetings in a physical location, but email does not quite hit the mark and neither have e-forums where members seem reluctant to go.
The answer has come suddenly through the efforts of MirandaNet Fellows and it seems to me to be as amazing as science fiction.
Do you remember the catch phrase "Beam me up, Scotty!" that has made its way into pop culture from the science fiction television series Star Trek? It comes from the command Captain Kirk gives his transporter chief, Montgomery "Scotty" Scott, when he needs to transport back to the ship. Well last Thursday MirandaNet Fellows were ‘beaming' in twenty countries (because ‘beaming' in English also means a huge grin).
Thanks to our sponsors, Lanway and Oracle Foundation, Think.com, we debated social networking issues in a workshop with practitioners from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm (GMT) and then from 6:00 pm to 10:00 pm in our Mod Unconference.
MirandaNet Fellows joined us from twenty different countries. They could see the video stream of the events on the web - but most importantly they could comment and add questions in the side panel. This really enriched the meeting we were having on the ground and created a really good atmosphere even though we were the only ones with the beer and sandwiches. A longer report will be coming out next time.
Huge thanks to John Cuthell, Leon Cych, Theo Kuechel and Drew Buddie who made this all possible. Bronwyn Stuckey who joined us from Australia is now setting up another kind of unconference in Face Book. The technology has suddenly come of age. Do get involved with Community Capers below.
Christina Preston
Online Unconference: Community Capers: MirandaNet Case study 1
Conference Chair: Bronwyn Stuckey, Australia
Come join us to learn about MirandaNet - one of the most long-lived and successful Internet-mediated communities of practice in the world.
Join in the activity and knowledge sharing here.
This week, after a brief introduction to the people, common ties, social interaction and place of MirandaNet, we will be joined by the community director and core members as guest bloggers and tour guides to their community. Let's help welcome them start our knowledge sharing and spread to word to interested colleagues.
Please note Facebook shows this as a past event - purely because the start date has passed (a bug for FB). The activities in this event are just kicking off and will be running right across the month of July.
MirandaNet Members Advancing Virtual Worlds
Several MirandaNet members have been attending the online Quest Atlantis workshops that have been set up by MirandaNet Fellow Bronwyn Stuckey from Australia. Quest Atlantis is a 3D multi-user environment designed to immerse children, ages 9-15, in rich and diverse educational tasks.
MirandaNet Fellow, Lidija Kralj from Croatia, who is joining this project says:
"Well that was first time for me to have a teacher from Australia, and that was very pleasant and useful experience".
Bronwyn Stuckey comments:
We wish Lidija good luck with her grant proposal and have a small number of other MirandaNet members in the UK and Europe who have trained and brought QA into their schools. If you would like to join us the next online training for teachers in Europe will begin August 21st at 19.00 GMT (London 8 pm) To register visit this site.
See Bronwyn's full article about Quest Atlantis as well as a longer piece from Lidija here.
Teachers' TV
Here is an excellent video of the use of ICT and Web2.0 in a large academy suggested by James George from Lanway.
click here for UMPC Wiki
click here for Lanway Wiki
For concept map addicts
Some MirandaNetters are as keen on Concept Mapping as I am. I shall be presenting a paper in Estonia in September where there will be 300 mappers. Some of you might like to read my short paper. I'm always pleased to know more from members.
Methods for Analysing Concept Maps
Christina Preston, WLE Centre, IoE, University of London
The hypothesis underlying this short paper is that conventional modes of assessing teachers do not provide a full picture about their learning about digital pedagogies when they are engaged in Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes. In this research study, therefore, teachers' were asked to draw a concept map at the beginning and end of three different kinds of computer course. These maps were analysed to discover what they revealed about the map makers' digital priorities. Numerical methods of scoring maps and analysis of content were found to be effective in studying the learning patterns of the group. However, an analysis of the maps as a holistic semiotic signs was found to be the most effective in revealing the priorities and motivations of individuals. One pair of hand drawn maps is used to illustrate how the semiotic framework devised for this study helped to identify details of the learners' position at two points in time. This paper also outlines the ways in which teachers took ownership of this mode of assessment.
See the full paper here.
Calling all MirandaNet bloggers
MirandaNet has had blogs since the 1990s but we have called them ‘profiles'. We like members to keep theirs up to date so that everyone knows what you are doing. However, members also have other kinds of blog that we would like to list. If you would like to be on this list please send me your blog url and a paragraph about your specialisms.
Reports
e-learning/e-safety issues in schools
Dr Steven Coombs' article on the above seminar visit to Bath Spa
The Centre for Educational Innovation and Technology (CEIT) and MirandaNet Academy at Bath Spa University was proud to hold a seminar entitled: e-learning/e-safety issues in schools, held on Friday 27th June 2008 at the Newton Park Campus in Bath - see here.
The seminar was proud to welcome Professor Hiroyuki Tanaka from the Faculty of Education, Osaka Teacher Education University, Japan and Professor Yoichi Nonaka from the Center for Educational Practice, Yokohama National University, Japan.
Hiro (as he likes to be known) majors in Pedagogy using ICT to promote project-based learning. Yoichi's major is in ICT education and production of digital contents.
Both professors have been visiting the UK as part of their research project investigating e-safety issues for reporting back to the Japanese Ministries of Education and Telecommunications. They are concerned at the rising levels of online crime occurring in Japan and the effect that this is having on young children, in particular to suicide rates. Issues such as e-culture and the differences and similarities between UK and Japanese culture was explored to some depth with the agreement that it was better to engage children in a managed safe Social Network Service rather than to ban them altogether.
Developing an educational policy for e-safety is therefore an important issue for both Japan and the UK. We debated this subject in the light of the recent Byron Review ‘Safer Children in a Digital World' that was commissioned on behalf of the Department for Children Schools and Families (DCSF) and made a number of useful recommendations.
The full report can be found on this site.
As a result of this seminar it was decided that it would be useful to follow up this project with a mutual university exchange programme of staff and students as well as potential joint-venture research project taking the area of e-safety policy in the home and school a step further. The Bath Spa University international contact for Japan, Ros Davies, said she would be making a visit to Hiro's university later this year to follow-up our valuable contact and take things further.
Further details including the presentation slides given can be found on the CEIT website.
New Scholars
Jennifer Hart
I am a secondary science teacher specializing in Chemistry. I have been working in London for the last five years. I am currently in the process of being assessed for AST status.
I enjoy using ICT in lessons and developing new ways to integrate it into my teaching. I want to learn how to get the most out of the ICT available to me and use it to motivate and inspire my classes.
John Johnston
I am a class teacher at Sandaig Primary in Glasgow, Scotland.
My interest in ICT stretches back to HyperCard. I was originally interested in creating toys and tools for teachers and learners but am now more interested in using the so called Web 2.0 tools in the classroom.
I spend a fair bit of time playing with web technology, simple Flash and PHP, mashing up web services. Some of these have potential for using on the classroom, some are more useful to teachers and others are just fun.
I have organised blogging in my school for several years and produce a regular podcast with the children, Radio Sandaig. We have explored the use of video and audio as was to record and reflect on our learning.
I blog regularly about ICT in my classroom.
I am interested in project based learning, the new Curriculum for Excellence that is being developed in Scotland and applying ICT to this when appropriate. I see ICT as a component of collaboration.
Siti Salawati Mokhtar
I am a teacher trainee from Malaysia. I am in the collaboration course between local teacher institute and CCCU. I would like to search some materials for my written assignment for my major and minor subjects which are Design and Technology, physical education and mathematics. I am supposed to submit also the written task which on professional studies entitled assessment for learning, while in mathematics, it is about using ICT in teaching mathematics. I need this more because in Malaysia, ICT in mathematics is new and I have lack of method to write on.
Emily Montier
I am currently working at Relief International UK on the launch of an online exchange programme - Schools Online - that will connect secondary school students in the UK with their peers abroad. I am therefore interested in the integration of ICT across the National Curriculum, innovations in this domain, and in networking with schools and educational organisations that are working on ICT and education.
Rita Samson
This is Rita Samson from India. I have been in this profession for the past 25 years, teaching in the Indian and international schools. I have served as Principal of a school and college. Now I am heading as the academic coordinator of a chain of schools here.
I am interested to know more about your work in the field of education. We are developing modules of continuing professional development for teachers along side with information technology. Incorporating technology in classrooms and using various educational softwares and furthering the teacher empowerment in classrooms with confidence and expertise at our national level.
Janete Sander Costa
After working as a lecturer in languages teacher education, in Brazil, for about 25 years, holding a Masters Degree in Linguistics at NYU, since 1979, which meant mostly nothing when it came to dealing with students' needs and difficulties, I decided to go deeper in the realms of theory and practice with collaborative writing in virtual learning environments, since 2000. From then on, I've been working with and mostly learning to learn that ICT in Education can make a positive difference around the world if technologies and humans can dialogue and interact gently! In other words, if technologies come in favour of promoting enough room for serious educational projects, if they promote and provoke paradigm changes and reflections encompassing all levels, from educational policies and theoretical architectonics, to best practices based on respectful and polite assessment. I have seen this tendency in Miranda Net's educational propositions and actions for the past 7 years.
Richard Shotton
It's good to see so many familiar names here at MirandaNet. Having worked as a teacher, teacher trainer and consultant, I am currently undertaking research at MMU, hopefully leading towards a PhD. My work remain focused on education for global citizenship and in support of positive intercultural relations. To this end I am interested in international collaborative projects for schools, and a number of attendant factors such as e-learning and internet communication, notions of cultural identity, anthropology of cyberspace, globalisation and power relationships.
Gareth Williams
I am Head of Science in an independent boarding school. We have a very successful Science Faculty: recruiting an increasing number of students to study Biology, Chemistry and especially Physics at A level. This is helped by the fact that we have a thriving boarding community with a large number of students from mainland China.
My background is as an Avionics Engineer: I worked for nearly ten years for GEC Avionics before changing to a career in teaching.
A continuing challenge is to encourage very busy staff to find the time to learn how to use new equipment and software packages. I am interested in increasing our use of data loggers and interactive whiteboards. The school is also currently looking into replacing Phoenix Gold with a more user friendly MIS.
[Back]
