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15 May 2010

MirandaNet Newsletter May 2010

MirandaNet Fellows around the World.

Thanks to the WLE Centre, Institute of Education, University of London I was able to take up invitation to talk about our MirandaNet community of practice work in America, New Zealand, Australia and Japan. All the talks were about the ways in which the MirandaNet community of practice is learning to build, share and disseminate knowledge between us regardless of our national boundaries.

Marilyn Leask and I left on the first plane out after the BA strike at the end of March and returned at the end of April on the first plane out of Tokyo after the volcanic ash chaos. Some of the passengers and all the crew had been camping out for eight days. But there were no loud celebrations either at take-off or on landing - most of us were English after all!

The visit certainly proved that MirandaNet is an international group of some strength. A particular joy was the opportunity to see at close quarters where some MirandaNet Fellows live and work. While on the tour I was generously entertained by Professor Niki Davis in New Zealand; Paula Christophersen and Eva Dakich in Melbourne; Michelle Selinger and Sandy Schuck in Sydney and Professor Hiroyuki Tanaka in Tokyo. Professor Marilyn Leask who accompanied me in San Diego and Melbourne also welcomed me to her family home in Beaudesert, near Brisbane in Queensland where I met several members of her family and had an opportunity to see the outback at first hand along with kangaroos and wallabies.

The other Fellows who I met on the way were John Cuthell, Roger Carlsen, Roberta Weber, Anne Fitzgibbon and Ian Gibson in the US, Elizabeth Hartnell-Young, Christine Bedford and Bronwyn Stuckey in Melbourne and Bronwyn Stuckey and Ian Gibson again in Sydney.

I was impressed in my journey at how MirandaNet Fellows are connected in cities, towns and even in rural areas by reliable digital connections. I even had access in a remote back packing hostel in Akaroa, South Island, New Zealand high up over an inlet to the sea. The wardens told us about the Internet facility before explaining the outdoor kitchen, where to find the fresh herbs to add to our cooking, the workings of the washing machine and the vagaries of the outdoor shower. I suppose back-packers more than others are keen to connect when they climb out of their tents!

This newsletter is a little different from usual: my reflections on what is happening in ICT in education beyond the shores of Britain. Being face to face with Fellows who have been with MirandaNet for a long time was a wonderful chance to reflect on how we have influenced each other over the years. What was even more stimulating was to meet the communities they work with. Rather than talk about these dialogues in chronological order I am going to describe them in the way that the ideas seemed to braid together as I travelled. There are three sections:

An ecological model of learning in communities

Professor Niki Davis introduced the first version of her ecological model for learning in school in London in March 2008. She has now developed this model far further to inform any teacher educator or adviser who hopes to effect change in teaching and learning.

Niki Davis Change Stadium Diagram

Niki’s model represents the ways in which schools are interconnected with national policy makers and regional advisers as well as local governors on the one hand, and, on the other hand with the parents and their communities. Last time we meet in London. Lawrence Williams, a senior MirandaNet Fellow, suggested a Coliseum-style diagram to illustrate this theory. But now we need space in the Coliseum for the local community and parents - we thought perhaps a concept map might work better or a new environment in Second Life where MirandaNet now has an island. Do any Fellows have ideas about the presentation of this model that you can see above?

Niki and I recorded our conversation in New Zealand about digital issues (it was also recorded for her students). We talk about the ways in which this model feeds into the emergent Braided Learning Model which I wrote about in an article for First Monday. This is about how communities like ours use online communication to share, develop and disseminate knowledge.

Learning in communities of practice

I spent a lot of time with Bronwyn Stuckey, both in Melbourne and Sydney. For more about Bron go to www.bronwyn.ws. Not only has she achieved so much in communities of practice theory and practice but she has also engaged many MirandaNet teachers in Quest Atlantis, a safe virtual world where young people make decisions about World Citizenship. I hope we will see more of the pupils' work published on our World Ecitizens site (wec.mirandanet.org.uk). We will reward them with a World Ecitizens certificate.

Bronwyn invited me to be a guest speaker on Skype for a group she runs who are setting up communities of practice. They asked me some hard questions about funding and sustaining MirandaNet that burrowed down to some of the detail involved in maintaining a community of practice for 18 years.

Quest Atlantis
Quest Atlantis is an online virtual world designed for school students aged 9 yrs to 16 yr to engage in global e-citizenry while levelling up in a game that requires completion of inquiry learning curriculum tasks. Quest Atlantis is built on the best of current knowledge in games in learning, motivation, global citizenry and values education. It sits as a bridge between entertainment, education and social values.

Building communities of practice from a company perspective

Sitting around the swimming pool in her ultramodern house in Sydney, Michelle Selinger recalled her days as an academic in the 1990s and the problems we had with technology in those days. We remembered too Basia Korczak an inspirational teacher and MirandaNet Fellow who died in her forties. Michelle then talks about her 10 years in Cisco where she has been working in 30 countries. She has been working on key projects in Continuing Professional Development in Jordan and Bangalore focusing on people in collaboration instead of the technical network. We are hoping to work with Michelle on technologies that will help to connect teachers in remote areas in several different countries. The main aim will be to keep them in these areas instead of moving to the towns. Another of Michelle’s projects concerns connecting Ingenious Schools around the world.

April 2010: Observations on America, New Zealand, Australia….

I have written a more general article about the countries I have travelled through. This is too long to fit in here, and there are some nice pictures too, so you need to go to MirandaNet:

MoLeaP - The Mobile Learning Project Database

Learning with digital and portable technologies is becoming increasingly popular in a range of educational settings, be they school, apprenticeship, working life or out-of-school contexts. Teachers and education professionals across the world are carrying out a multitude of projects. It is not longer possible to retain an overview and projects often remain ephemeral because they are not documented systematically. In order to strengthen the sustainability of mobile learning projects and to make them available and replicable for a broad audience the London Mobile Learning Group (LMLG: www.londonmobilelearning.net) developed "MoLeaP - The mobile learning project database".

MoLeaP is a public and free-of-charge online database for teachers, researchers and other (education) professionals interested in learning and teaching with mobile media. Practitioners are invited to contribute their projects to MoLeaP in order to make them accessible to interested parties.

Judith Seipold and Norbert Pachler have written an article that will be published in the Spring 2010 issue of RCETJ, special conference issue with contributions from Handheld Learning 2009, entitled "MoLeaP - The Mobile Learning Project Database: a pool for projects and tool for systematic description and analysis of mobile learning practice". The text, which will soon be available at www.rcetj.org, gives an overview of the structure of the database and its theoretical and conceptual underpinnings and it discusses a sample project. MoLeaP can be accessed at www.moleap.net.

Resources from the Games Based Learning Conference

MirandaNet ran a well attended MirandaMod at the Games Based Learning conference. After the event Graham Brown Marting reports: the Game Based Learning Conference was attended by more than 400 international delegates for a stimulating, inspiring and possibly exhausting 2 days.

By all accounts it was a success with engaging and provocative conversations sparked during the event itself, on Twitter where the event consistently trended and now continuing amongst various online communities.

Our next major event is the Handheld Learning Festival & Conference 2010, Oct 11th - 13th, London (http://bit.ly/hhl10). Early Bird registration with free iPad is still available whilst stocks last!

Such Tweet Sorrow.

Romeo and Juliet on Twitter: www.suchtweetsorrow.com

The company who have developed this are: www.wearemudlark.com

A conference on Digital Transformation

The International School on Digital Transformation
July 25-30
Porto, Portugal
Extended deadline for applications: May 10

The International School on Digital Transformation School is accepting applications from advanced students and recent graduates from around the world with an interest in digital technology and the enrichment of civil society.

www.digitaltransformationschool.org

Looking forward to BETT 2011

We would like more partners to share our stand this year. Please let me know quickly if a place on the MirandaNet stand is of interest.

Best wishes to all MirandaNetters!

Christina Preston

 

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