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26 May 2009
MirandaNet Newsletter May 2009
Collaborative knowledge creation
This short newsletter covers some diverse methods of collaborative knowledge creation. Firstly we hope members will aim to attend two knowledge creation MirandaMods made possible by the WLE Centre: Teachers as Bloggers and Communities of Practice.
Teachers as Bloggers: 19th June
MirandaMod at the WLE centre
This varied CPD session on blogging is led by Rob Fleming, Microsoft, who writes the award winning UK schools blog.
14:00 - 16:00 hrs (GMT) Teachers as bloggers : Rob Fleming supported by MirandaNet bloggers to include Daniel Needlestone, Joe Nutt and Leon Cych
(MirandaNet blog roll)
16:00 - 18:00 hrs (GMT) Workshop on blogging : Bring your own laptop.
18:00 - 21:00 hrs (GMT) A themed MirandaMod: should teachers blog? Organised by Drew Buddie and Theo Keuchel. Chaired by Terry Freedman. Refreshments provided. The last 30 minutes will be spent building a collaborative concept map of the blogging landscape.
If you are in London you are welcome to come to all three sessions or just one or two. If you are joining online, please note the times are given in GMT. UK folk add 1 hour, most of Europe add 2, rest of world, do the calculations...
Email your interest in terrestrial or online participation explaining which sessions you want to participate in to . The session will be held at the WLE Centre, Institute of Education, London WC1H OAL nearest tube Russell Square
To view previous MirandaMods look here. Learn more about MirandaNet plans to run online and face to face CPD programmes in the next academic year here. For costs email .
Communities of Practice, Etienne Wenger, 22nd September
Make a note of this date, 22nd September, when Etienne Wenger, who was responsible for the term ‘Communities of Practice', will be leading a MirandaMod at the WLE Centre in London from 18:00 - 21:00 hrs GMT
The subject is What value do Communities of Practice offer to educators?
Email for more details.
Why were Cinderella's slippers made of glass?
Creative and Philosophical Thinking in Primary Schools brings together the experiences of three educators who demonstrate in a practical way that creative and philosophical thinking can be developed in every day classrooms.
http://teaching.teachingexpertise.com/_act/link.php?mId=E59933055727019524219&tId=703542
Jack Whitehead, a MirandaNet Fellow, who is an expert in action research, writes in the foreword,
'We are taken inside the living experiences of educators, they are not offering templates, they are offering their explanations of the educational influences of their own learning and in the learning of children. They are offered as gifts for you to use as you will in the development of your own unique responses to the contexts and relationships you are working in.'
The book isn't just about involving children in the process of creative and philosophical thinking, it is a journey for the teacher. One of the authors writes,
'Recently I spent a good ten minutes discussing with a ten year old why, if the earth rotates at a fairly rapid rate, we do not feel movement. It didn't involve me in telling the child about how we deal with this. Rather it was a more sharing of wonder that, given we were participants in this rotation we didn't feel dizzy.'
We are still smiling with some of the examples raised when children were thinking about Cinderella,
'Why were her slippers made of glass?'
'Would you really marry someone because she fits a shoe?'
For those using the book the excitement of sharing the author's journey will reinforce that the magic of motivation and curiosity exists in every child it is posing the right question and as one ten year old said,
'Philosophy is trying to answer questions there might not be an answer to' - not strictly ICT but of great interest to many members who are thinking about knowledge creation.
ICT Research Network - needed help in doing research
The website for ICT tutors provides information and advice primarily for those involved in initial teacher training (ITT) in schools and higher education institutions in the UK, but is also proving useful to teachers in general and colleagues overseas. It has guidance on interpreting ITT requirements in England, factors that contribute to high quality training and sources of support for tutors. A new addition on mentoring focuses on providing effective support for trainee teachers in schools. The largest section deals with a wide range of topics related to teaching and learning, looked at through the lens of ICT. Recent additions focus on personalisation and creativity. The research section explains the contribution that research can make to teaching ICT and gives examples of recent research. It also includes guidance for new researchers and a glossary of acronyms and abbreviations commonly used in education and ICT in the UK.
The ICT Tutors website was developed as part of the Subject Resource Networks initiative, funded by the Training and Development Agency for Schools. Colleagues may also be interested in visiting the websites of other subjects within this initiative.
New MA at Institute of Education, University of London:
Knowledge and Interaction in Online Environments
A new, fully online course deals with online education, information and communication. It explores and compares a range of online instructional, interactional and informative spaces and resources on the Internet, addressing such questions as: How do people construct knowledge and social relations in online interaction? What are the potentials and constraints of different forms of representation and communication in online environments? How do notions of time, space, and learning play out in online environments? The course is designed for professionals across the world with an interest in representation and communication in digital environments. They include people working in Online Education (Formal and Informal), Online Public Communication, Online Marketing Communication and Web, Information and Graphic Design.
Two MirandaNet Fellows, who are well known in the field of multimodality, are tutors on this course, Gunther Kress and Di Mavers.
For information please visit the IoE Site.
New Scholars
Gregory Anderson
A born Brummie currently living in Yorkshire, I enjoy exploring how web tools can engage and inspire all learners in a literate and creative classroom. I have been teaching in various roles for five years, although I qualified last year in my current post as an English teacher in a Catholic secondary school, serving a mixed 11-16 catchment.
While I accept it is possible to achieve academically without ICT, I believe that ICT can offer a different - and somewhat enhanced - learning experience in the secondary school.
Like so many, I started out with a flashy whizz-bang approach to ICT. This may have succeeded in entertaining the pupils for a time, and offered an accidental learning value too. However, it was only through my work with NATE that I realised that it is how the pupils engage with the ICT that leads to deep-learning.
Still, I enjoy the playful aspect of teaching English with ICT, and I feel rather fortunate that I essentially get paid to pursue my hobbies. Above all, I subscribe to the belief that if a pupil is engage and empowered in their learning, then they will invariably succeed.
My reflections on how to achieve this with ICT are recorded in my blog.
Ulupi Barnett
After having a successful ten year career within the Biopharmaceutical industry I have decided to take a different career path and enter the world of teaching. I am currently a PGCE student at Nottingham University, specialising in Biology.
I have observed the same use of ICT within two schools and various lessons. The usual research type idea and project with either a presentation or report produced. I'm not sure this is maximising the learning that can be achieved by ICT. I would like to find out how ICT can maximise learning and develop a range of strategies for different applications of using ICT within a classroom.
Bronya Calderon
My interest is the field of Informal Learning Environment, such as museum, clubs, libraries, parks, galleries, etc. Therefore my interest in digital technologies is seen as enculturation to promote cultural change. My view comes from activity theory and how people and tools shape each other.
I do very much hope to work in the design of spaces that could reflect such a vision, where culture could be an expression of agency at different level: individual, institutional and societal.
Currently I'm working on my PhD thesis 'How children make meaning with digital technologies in Informal Learning Environments' and the idea of a pedagogy of informal learning environments.
Digital technologies provide opportunities to engage with various cultural practices. The multimodal affordances give us opportunity to share and construct new meanings, creating new emotional spaces ... new consciousness.
Consciousness, body and environment are not separated and there is the need to share the same trajectory.
Mark Chambers
I've been with Education Bradford full time since March 2003 when I left my previous post in a school to be able to work across schools and across phase.
I offer knowledge and experience in curriculum, learning and teaching, governance with an ICT specialism and in common with those who have a similar career path; I achieved promotion because I was an excellent classroom practitioner capable of engaging and motivating learners to achieve beyond their expectations. My school leadership experience has given me a good understanding of whole school issues and in the involvement of stakeholders in the School community.
I have worked with the National College for School Leadership as a facilitator on a number of headteacher development programmes including the School Leadership of ICT initiative, BSF leadership Programme and the Primary Capital Programme Leadership Programme. I am closely involved with the Building Schools for the Future initiative in Bradford.
I am an accredited Secondary School Improvement Partner with significant experience in School Improvement work across Primary, Special and Secondary Schools.
I am also an elected member of the Board of management of the National Advisors Association for ICT and in this role I am sometimes called on to consult with senior civil servants and politicians either in response to the development of policy or to help shape that development.
I believe these roles have provided me with the knowledge and experience to support headteachers in successfully managing innovation and change in their schools.
Julie Greenhough
A full time secondary school teacher of English I am also a 3rd year Ed.D student at The Institute of Education. My research interests are definitions of literacy and the tensions I find as a practitioner researcher between pupils in school literacy and their out of school literacies as afforded by ICT. I am currently carrying out research into the way in which pupils write in response to reading in an online social forum and have previously investigated pupils' use of blogs in the school environment. I also write regularly for the Times Educational Supplement.
Olatz Lopez-Fernandez
I am a researcher interested in study the patterns of use of entertainment technologies in the adolescence. I am doing a PhD research in Spain, which I would like to replicate in England (London) to compare both cultures.
My position is as a teacher-researcher in University of Barcelona, Faculty of Psychology, and we are studying how adolescents (from 11 to 18 years old) use videogames, internet in mobile phones in their leisure time, in order to detect their impact in daily live.
My specialization is in the use of ICT in educative and social contexts, addressing my interest in how these could impact and in what senses affect to behaviour. Furthermore, the international and intercultural perspective is included in my studies, for these reasons I would like to join in MirandaNet.
Richard Patterson
I am interested in how new technologies are influencing the nature of how humans interact; also the way we understand the concept of knowledge and how technologies may change this. In the field of education, we have seen many educationalists herald new technologies as "revolutions" and "transformational". I am unsure about the impact of older technologies but new ICT that helps interactivity does seem to hold much more promise.
I am currently ICT consultant for Liverpool's forty two secondary schools- I support a community of two hundred ICT specialist teachers, and work on current government projects such as ICT in the National strategies, diplomas, functional skills. With colleagues in English and modern foreign languages, I support the teaching community using a variety of technologies for learning platforms, podcasts, animations.
I work closely with the north west local authorities - we have now met regularly through the national strategies consultant network since 2002. In other times of my career, I have been a head of computing and then ICT for twelve years on the Wirral; I spent ten years as an independent consultant in ICT also OFSTED inspecting most English regions. I am an Electronics graduate and spent my final year writing domestic energy simulations for a Welsh council house in FORTRAN on a DEC 10. I am currently completing my M Ed at Manchester University in Educational leadership.
Saraswathi Raghunathan
I am a doctorate degree holder in Geography. I have been teaching geography and English at the Higher Secondary level for the past 33 years. I am the head of the school now. I have a great passion for teaching geography and English. I have been the Resource person for many In-Service Training programmes for the teachers. I have contributed articles in different magazines and submitted papers in conferences.
I am very keen about the ICT as it enables one to have an understanding of our fellow teachers in other parts of the world - their ideas and methodology. In this global village it is highly imperative to have a knowledge and understanding of the people in different parts of the world. This will in the long run ensure understanding and peace among the people.
Jon Ridley
My primary interest is improving the learning experience of students in a post-compulsorily environment via the use of ICT, principally Web 2.0 technology. My background is in teaching Media Studies and as such I have taken my audio and video skills into my work as an ILT Champion and now as a tutor in Education (PCET/PGCE (FE) and BA Education). The former of these two roles encouraged me to promote the use of ILT, considering and implementing strategies to embed the appropriate use of VLE, blogs, wikis, discussion boards et al College wide, as I am sure many members will appreciate this was/is incredibly challenging but incredibly rewarding. On a personal development note I am currently completing an MA in Culture writing my dissertation on the Attitudes of Adult Learners toward the use of Web 2.0 technology in Education (particularly blogs, wikis, discussion boards).
I am very much a "doer", action research interests me greatly, considering new teaching and learning strategies/methodologies putting them into practice and examining their impact. I have recently piloted feedback via the use of screen video capture software, providing students an audio/visual analysis of their summative blogs.
Steve Warburton
It all started with a BBC 'B', a disruptive Year 8 class and a 'wagon train' decision-making game written by a friend... My involvement with ICT in Education has always been focused around how it enhances - and even transforms - teaching and learning. One of the key areas of activity has always been about access to devices - for students (I introduced the Anytime Anywhere Microsoft initiative in 1998 in one of the 12 'pilot' schools), staff (laptops for all in 2 schools) and enhanced computer to pupil ratios (current school 1:1.7) via the provision of thin-client devices. The importance of interactive and engaging lessons has driven my enthusiasm for hardware & software that drags young people into learning. Another focus in the last 3 years has been access to resources and the development of a Learning Platform that really does what it says on the tin... without paying for it!
It has been particularly exciting to lead the ICT development of the Thomas Deacon Academy over the last 4 years from its 'drawing board' stage, through implementation to successful operation and widespread recognition (BCSE 2008 Inaugural Award: Best Use of ICT to create a Learning Community).
New Member
Isabel Barbosa
I'm a doctoral student - Multimedia in Education
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