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15 September 2009

MirandaNet Newsletter September 2009

Editorial

New Members round up

Have you realised that, in fact, MirandaNet has been providing social networking for educators in digital technologies since 1994 when we set up one of the first web sites for professional educators. I remember my good friend from Enlaces in Chile, Ique Hinostroza, trying to explain to me how web pages fit together with sheets of paper all over the floor. This was how we developed out first web design. We’ve just been through a move to a new server this summer so I hope you are now seeing the benefit thanks to our faithful Francis, the web editor who knits it all together.

Have you tried searching for yourself on Google? Your will find that your MirandaNet profile is often in the lead. So it is worth keeping your profile up to date.Just log on at the Members' section: there are links to send you your username and/or password if you have forgotten these, and a link to the Editor if all else fails!

I am always amazed by the breadth and range of new members’ experience and this group is no exception, as you will see from the profiles below. The impetus to move towards a Masters profession means that many new members are pursuing academic studies in digital technologies: Gary Beauchamp specialising in IWBs, Dan Bowen on blogging, Pete Bradshaw, an old colleague, who is doing his doctorate in student perception of assessment of ICT. Heather Palmer is on an academic fellowship in Calgary, Canada. She says, “My goal is to assist teachers in their journey to make IWB an integral and effective part of teaching and learning”.

Can we publish your dissertations on line? Or a version for other teachers? As you know you gain a Fellowship by writing a 2,00 word article or providing a multimodal equivalent that teachers will want to read. This just means presenting your academic study in a more teacher friendly way. This can be a good introduction to your study if your university will allow us to publish it in our journal. It seems such a pity that so few people read these publications that teachers have worked so hard on. I’ve just finished mine after five years, and looked up to notice that the house is full of jumble that needs clearing .

Hazel Owen is an Academic adviser in New Zealand and “In particular, interested in the way that creative, blended approaches to Academic Professional Development can create trust, rapport and encourage reflective practice”. This is exactly the spirit of MirandaNet iCatalyst Continuing Professional Development Programmes.

Hazel Owen and Anne Harlow have joined from New Zealand where our colleague Professor Niki Davis has now settled. I shall be visiting New Zealand in April so maybe I can catch up with you both? Darren Murphy who is Australian is well travelled with connections in the Philippines and Japan. He has now landed in the UK with a wealth of technical skills. Do join our MirandaMods, Darren, as your skills will be invaluable to others. David Gibbs is looking for ways to involve more teachers who are not digital natives. We are finding more ways in which teaching each other on line just when the skills are required is a positive way forward. Should we have a MirandaMod that is just about the kinds of skills that people like Darren and David can offer?

As always please contact members who share a common interest. There is a strand about IWBs: for example Paochen Shih who has joined from Taiwan is interested in this area as are several new members. John Cuthell is our resident expert and has published widely in this area. There are links to his papers on his profile page and extensive resources on his Visual Learning section. Look out too for IWB elements in our MirandaMods on Digital Literacy.

Pamela Hartog is looking for extended uses of videoconferencing so I am glad to see that she has signed up for the MirandaMod on 22nd September where she will see how we integrate communications technologies so that members around the world can join us in London online. Do not forget if you cannot get to London you can join a MirandaMod and also help us develop a collaborative knowledge map for each subject that we tackle.

Nick Packard has moved from primary schools to an e-learning consultant supporting fundamental systemic change in teaching and learning.

Ruth Gill is also typical of many MirandaNet members who move from school to industry to school again but can still retain their membership of MirandaNet bringing new perspectives to us all. We are particularly grateful to members who when they are in industry help to fund our events. This, of course, is getting harder with the current financial squeeze.

So let’s finish on a more cheerful note since the expansion of online communication should help is all to keep in professionally and prevent global warming. Looking forward to seeing more and more of you all face to face and online in the coming year...

Regards

Christina Preston

New Scholars

Gary Beauchamp
I conduct research into all aspects of ICT in education, particularly the use of interactive technologies. I have published academic papers in this area, especially in the use of the interactive whiteboard.

Dan Bowen
I am a secondary school learning and teaching consultant based mainly in Surrey. I also do work on BSF projects as an ICT education lead. I deliver training and INSET on ICT for BSF schools as part of contracts in Lewisham, Waltham Forest and other London boroughs.

As part of my role I also look at and advise on training in other contexts and have recently been working with the Royal Navy, Police, Prison and Fire Service.

I am particularly interested in innovation and web developments with ICT and have completed a Masters degree where my dissertation was the impact of blogging within the classroom as a tool to add value to the learning process.

Pete Bradshaw
I have worked in technology and learning for nearly 30 years. First as a school teacher, then in advisory services for a local authority, in further education and since 1999 in higher education. I worked for Ultralab on projects with Tesco, Orange, QCA, DfES, BBC, NCSL and others and led the online Masters level programme. Special interest here focused on building online communities of learners specially teachers and school leaders. I then spent four years at Nottingham Trent University teaching on a range of undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. In September 2009 I moved to The Open University to work on a project for developing courses in CPD and ICT. I am undertaking PhD research into student perception of assessment of ICT.

Dave Gibbs
The CLC exists to 'enrich learning with technology'. We provide advice and resources to four secondary schools and 17 primary schools in Sheffield. My current areas of interest include support for media and ICT diploma qualifications, giving pupils a voice through technology, changing the nature of extended learning, mobile and GPS technologies and staff coaching (amongst many others). Having taught in schools for many years, and also acted as an advisor to schools in ICT across the curriculum, I am keen to break down the barriers to effective technology use by teachers who may not be digital natives.

Ruth Gill
I worked as a secondary school teacher for a number of years, teaching English. Having also worked in the telecommunications and publishing industries, I gained experience of using, selling and marketing technology products and software. This sparked an interest in new technology that had previously been undiscovered. I relished the natural aptitude I had for technology products and gadgets. I recently worked as an Education ICT Consultant for an IT company and was part of the Projects team working mainly on projects in the academies arena. I became passionate about the use of ICT to transform teaching and learning and now consider myself committed to it. My areas of interest are developing and implementing CPD programmes; the use of interactive white boards and learning platforms. I have recently returned to teaching and will be teaching ICT at an academy. As part of my professional development I intend to continue research into the benefits of technology products for teaching and learning as well as implement CPD programmes for colleagues.

Ann Harlow
Ann comes from a background of teaching at one of New Zealand's first middle schools, where she facilitated technology education across all levels of the school (years 7-10), set up a science laboratory and ran a four-year programme in science. After completing a Master of Education thesis in 2000 (Student responses to international assessment items in science), Ann began working as a Research Officer with the Wilf Malcolm Institute of Educational Research (WMIER) on evaluation contracts covering a range of research interests including technology and science education, the work of School Support Services, the impact of classroom furniture on the learning environment, and teacher use of laptops in New Zealand schools. She has been involved in a variety of projects requiring different research methods including face-to-face and online focus groups, paper and online surveys, case studies, interviews, and videoed classroom observations. Experience in designing questionnaires for the Laptops for Teachers evaluation (TELA) over five years has led to an interest in online data collection. Ann was the principal analyst and writer for the TELA evaluation. Her current interest is in the use of interactive whiteboards in classrooms, having recently presented a paper on the topic at RITWIT in Cambridge, UK, in June 2009. She has applied for funding to investigate the use of an open-source software program to teach students programming in mathematics classrooms where IWBs are installed.

Pamela Hartog
I am the Resources and Conferences consultant for the education department of a college which trains rabbis and teachers. My work involves training teachers in the Jewish community. I tutor on our foundation course for supplementary school teachers and encourage them to use the internet for resources. I upload resources for them to use on our website, which they can then download. Another function I perform for the college is to maintain our website. I am involved in developing e-learning for adults in synagogues and, together with a colleague, have just completed an experimental series of study group sessions using Skype. I would like to know more about this area of ICT. for the last two years I have been using video conferencing for teaching Judaism to non-Jewish schools through Global-Leap, a company that offers web conferences to schools. As a college, we would like to be well informed about the ITC options open to us and to look at different ways we can utilise what is available for our students as well as encouraging them to do the same in their schools and communities.

Darren Murphy
My name is Darren Murphy, I'm the new Head of ICT at The Hall School in London. Originally from Australia, I have worked in a number of international Schools, including Japan and the Philippines. I am a keen user of Google Apps (Education Edition) for schools, I am also a Google Certified Teacher. A am also a user of the Moodle VLE. I'm currently working on the integration of Moodle and Google Apps. I work with a number of Open Source Applications and I am in the process of setting up our WordPress MU installation and working on setting up our 1:1 laptop program.
In short my current IT interests are


Hazel Owen
I am an Academic Advisor (and ICT enhanced learning and teaching Consultant) in NZ. I have a keen interest in all aspects of ICT Enhanced Learning and Teaching (ICTELT) where the focus lies on ways of scaffolding and empowering learners. In particular, I am interested in the way that creative, blended approaches to Academic Professional Development can create trust, rapport and encourage reflective practice. As such, ICTELT is approached from facilitation, design, evaluation and assessment as opposed to the tools and what they can offer.

I am a strong advocate of the potential of Web 2.0 to empower learners from all walks of life and cultures, reinforced by my experiences working for 6 years in the Middle East. In particular, I am interested how ePortfolios can be used in the VET sector (especially where Literacy and Language challenges are faced), in Recognition of Prior Learning, and in authentic, applied assessment.

I have been involved with designing and developing ICTELT approaches and programmes for ten years. Following research informed approaches and design, I apply a qualitative, iterative process to evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, programmes and tools, encouraging learners' voices and input from all stakeholders.

Nick Packard
I have been involved in supporting and developing the use of ICT in Education for much of my professional life, certainly for well over 15 years. I started out as a primary school teacher but following work in universities and local authorities I now work as an education consultant developing e-learning strategies. I’m lucky enough to work alongside teachers and students involved in education from nursery to sixth-form. I am most especially interested in exploring approaches to developing professional practice that help educators to understand what it is about the application of technology that can fundamentally change the process of teaching and learning.

Heather Palmer
I am presently on a professional improvement fellowship from the Calgary Board of Education to study the impact of interactive whiteboards on the teaching and learning of K-3 mathematics. I believe that interactive whiteboards have un-tapped potential in the classroom. My goal is to assist teachers in their journey to make IWB an integral and effective part of teaching and learning.

New Members

Paochen Shih
I am a primary school teacher. My job is teaching students how to use the computer. Currently a student at National Taiwan Normal University's Graduate Institute of Information and Computer Education. I would like to study the use of interactive whiteboards in primary education.

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