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1 September 2010

MirandaNet Membership News September 2010

MirandaNet Membership News September 2010

Contents

A new post for Professor Marilyn Leask

Congratulations to Professor Marilyn Leask who has just become a Dean at Bedford University, England. She is well known for her work on knowledge management in education and in building the evidence and knowledge base for teacher education and classroom practice. Marilyn has been influential in many MirandaNet action research projects since the late 1990s particularly those where members have been invited to contribute chapters to her books and to participate as co-researchers in research projects. We wish her well in her new role. You can follow the work she is doing on Twitter: twitter.com/MarilynLeask

http://www.beds.ac.uk/departments/es/marilyn-leask

A new World Ecitizens Trustee

Members who have followed Senior MirandaNet Fellow, Lawrence William’s career, will not be surprised to hear that, although he has just retired, he is not reaching for his slippers. He is undertaking two main voluntary posts: as a World Ecitizens Trustee (wec.mirandanet.org.uk), the MirandaNet charity, and also a STEM Ambassador (for Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) - to publicise his project, Science Through Arts to secondary schools. We are looking forward to Lawrence’s contribution to our activities starting with our World Ecitizens MirandaMod at BETT11 on Saturday January 15th 2011.

(See MirandaNet for more information on MirandaMods)

Three new Fellows

Lorian and Lloyd Mead

We are pleased to award Fellowships to Lorian and Lloyd Mead for their Community Cohesion project published on www.mirandanet.ac.uk/resources. Lorian and Lloyd have been working on this ground-breaking project with Lawrence Williams and there will be a chance to hear them talking about this work at the MirandaNet unconference at BETT11 on Saturday January 15th 2011.

The reason for this project is head teachers struggle to develop responses to Ofsted requirements for closer links within the Community. Lorian and Lloyd, working with The Holy Cross School, have created a “starter set” of solutions to this problem. Each of the three projects supports vulnerable people in the community, who, importantly, become essential elements in the whole process. Devised initially by Lorian Mead, the first project met the needs of the NHS for a series of visual learning materials about Healthy Eating, and this work was supported by Lloyd at Lambeth College. The second project, Keeping Safe, followed the same pattern, with Holy Cross students once again providing the final INSET materials. The third project, even more ambitious, saw Year 7 students creating interactive games for use on a whiteboard, once again meeting the needs of the NHS, with invaluable development and feedback from Lambeth College. The whole working model, as well as the very practical material, is creating great interest.

Gaynor Sharp

Gaynor has provided MirandaNet with a digest of her research project entitled: Using Technology to Narrow the Gap for Low and Under Achieving Learners (www.mirandanet.ac.uk/casestudies/mnet/253). She has quoted from several case studies that cover the value of digital technologies like Interactive Whiteboards, audiograms, electronic monitoring and maths software. The key findings of the research are important in the quest to improve learning opportunities:

New scholars

Once again a diverse group of new members this summer who are passionate about digital technologies in teaching and learning at all levels of education: in schools, in further education, universities and in teacher education across the world. Terry Handley, expresses the key reason why professionals join MirandaNet:

“I am passionate about the use of ICT to aid learning (and not just as a discrete subject) and believe that it can truly be a motivator for students, enthusing them and has the power to transform education”.

Kim Flintoff, an Australian, who is investigating the nexus between drama, education and virtual worlds is an example of the versatility of our members. We have another member from the Indian Podar Education Complex, Bipin Mahajan, who is using ICT in the classroom.

Umar Qureshi sums up an experience of teaching that many members will agree with:

“I love technology and I love teaching. I have a wonderful feeling inside every time a student is pleased with my teaching and has learned something new”.

One category of membership that is increasing is the number of professional members who are taking higher degrees and want to find up to date papers and resources. In this category are Jamie Buckley, who is interested in developing learning platforms and Susan Raven who is looking for a theme within ICT in Education.

Several members are involved in the management of digital technologies:

A noticeable trend is the increase in scholars who are looking at the value of learning platforms: Madeleine King, Samantha Culshaw-Robinson, Theresa Evans-Rickards, Pru Mitchell and Carol Rainbow who is a leader in the use of Second Life for Continuing Professional Development. There is currently limited information about this area. Fellowship studies from this group would be particularly welcome. Perhaps we should start up a working group in this area.

We also have some new members who are already established in research into digital technologies in education. Diana Shore is a learning technologist who has majored in participative research into students and tutors' experiences of e-learning. Professor Nalin Sharda, Victoria University (Australia), who works in the application of ICT systems to Education and Environmental Suitability. A key project is guiding the development of web-based tools for the creation of digital stories and their use in communities of practice.

David Longman who has been an ICT teacher educators since 1974 applauds the possibility that computer programming may be about to undergo a renaissance in education and perhaps will realise an early aspiration to have significant impact on our curricula as a vehicle (or perhaps a Trojan horse) for higher order learning and thinking across all phases and disciplines. He hopes that the outliers and exceptional learners in our midst (the outcasts, the challenged, the gifted, and the different) will have their chance to make decisive contributions to an uncertain planetary future.

We look forward to hearing more from all of you. Here is the detailed list of new members. If you are logged into the website as a member you can also read the profiles online.

New Scholars

Jamie Buckley

I am a freelance journalist, a columnist for The Independent Magazine, and I am currently completing an MA in digital practice at Kingston University. My main area of interest is animal (and pet) welfare and how the concept can be taught to children in a VLE. I have been writing about pets for The Independent for the past three years, during which time I have gained some valuable knowledge about animals of all shapes and sizes, but as I say, my main area of interest is developing an engaging educational environment in which it is fun to learn about pet welfare, not dissimilar to this Pet Utopia (www.pfma.org.uk/petutopia). I hope that whatever research I may uncover in this field will be of use to anyone who may require it.

Samantha Culshaw-Robinson

My background is teaching ICT in the community in Further Education. I am now ICT Teaching Assistant and soon to take on the role of eLearning Co-ordinator in an independent secondary school. The school is implementing a VLE soon and I am interested in the use of Web 2.0 tools in education and how resources need to change in order to be suitable for the VLE. Also, the possibility of ePortfolios.

Theresa Evans-Rickards

I am a teacher in the secondary education sector. I have been working recently with basic skills target group pupils, using a variety of ICT techniques alongside assessment for learning and literacy strategies to improve achievement amongst this target group of pupils. Having seen the value added (some of these pupils managed an increase of 3 whole grades based on their statistical targets) I would like to investigate how much further progress could be made by they development of a learning platform or VLE.

I encourage pupils within my classroom to gain experience of working with the widest variety of software I can access, and have managed to invest in new software alongside the standard applications software. I also use free software to demonstrate the differences in levels of sophistication. We create Games, and make animations, movies and web pages as well as working our way through the standard applications for the curriculum we follow.

I believe that by utilizing the widest range of media possible we may be able to further engage pupils outside of school hours, but would like to investigate this further and would be interested to know what technologies other educators use and whether they have researched its success, or feel they can gauge the impact it has had on the students.

Kim Flintoff

Started here at Curtin in 2008 as a Lecturer in Instructional Design working for the Centre for eLearning (formerly School of Remote, Regional and Elearning) attached to the Faculty of Humanities. I'm also involved with a Virtual Worlds research project in the School of Nursing and Midwifery. This year (2010) I'm on the Committee for the Educational Computing Association of Western Australia.

I'm a theatre practitioner turned drama teacher turned "edupunk" and advocate for technology-mediated education and arts. I've been co-chair of the IDEA (International Drama/Theatre and Education Association) SIG for Drama and New Media since 2001 (Bergen 2001, Ottawa 2004, Hong Kong 2007) - in Belém 2010 this will be renamed Science, Technology and New Media.

I continue to investigate the nexus between drama, education and virtual worlds.

I've taught in K-12 and tertiary contexts, teaching Contemporary Performance, Interdisciplinary Practice, Primary and Secondary Drama and Cultural History and Theory at Edith Cowan University in Western Australia, and Drama as Social Action, Drama for Community Cultural Development, Process Drama and Studies in Directing for Queensland University of Technology.

I developed an online module in research education (Practice-led research in Arts, Media and Design) for the Australian Technologies Network of Universities I've also worked with the innovative IT team at Presbyterian Ladies College and recently accepted an offer to work in Instructional Design for Curtin University’s School of Regional, Remote and Elearning. I want to keep growing my understanding and engagement with internet culture and have always endeavoured to share my work with students and colleagues.

I've taught in the following areas:

My full professional profile can be found here: www.linkedin.com/in/kimflintoff.

My major interests are digital learning resource management, and professional learning for educators. I am also involved in research on e-assessment and online learning environments.

Terry Handley

I am currently working both as an educational consultant delivering training to teachers and also working as a part time ICT teacher in a girls high school in Lincolnshire. Previously I have worked as a teacher of ICT in Wolverhampton, an e-learning consultant in Lincolnshire and a Curriculum Advisor for ICT for the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority.

My work with ICT has included the writing of the current ICT programmes of study for Key stage 3 and 4, developing (as lead consultant) APP for ICT, contributing to the development of Functional Skills and being responsible for the embedding of e-safety in the current curriculum. I have written two CPD unit for NAACE/TDA which have been published on www.ictcpd4free.co.uk, one on assessment of ICT in the secondary sector and the other on E-safety. As a trainer I have delivered courses on Curriculum Design, Assessment of ICT, Functional Skills, APP and E-safety both as centralised courses and also bespoke inset.

I am passionate about the use of ICT to aid learning (and not just as a discrete subject) and believe that it can truly be a motivator for students, enthusing them and has the power to transform education. I also believe that capable use of ICT is an essential skill that all students should develop. My most recent project is the creation and co-delivery of an ICT teacher training course as part of the Mawhiba project in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Madeleine King

After many years in the IT industry I retrained as an ICT teacher. I am responsible for developing materials for KS3 and the IGCSE. I am currently rewriting a scheme of work and wish to incorporate use of the VLE, wherever possible. My interest in e-learning began a few years ago, when I had to develop courses in Blackboard. I am interested in sharing ideas with other colleagues and especially want to get advice on the best way to present materials on Its Learning.

David Longman

I have been a teacher trainer since 1984 and an ICT/Computing subject specialist since 1974. My intellectual and professional engagement with ICT and education began early and has never left me. My practical influences have been Professor Aaron Sloman, Professor Seymour Papert, and Professor Stephen Heppell and of course the numerous colleagues and students with whom I have worked over the years. My intellectual roots are in the critical discussions of schooling exemplified by such figures as Ivan Illich and John Holt and more generally the madly subversive writings of the free school movements and deschoolers of the 1960s and 1970s as well as the progenitors of that movement between 1918 and 1939 (notably A.S. Neill, and Susan Isaacs).

More recently I have become reinvigorated by the 'digital ethnography' of Michael Wesch, a dynamic perspective on the value of socially-centred learning in a digitally driven culture. I am re-motivated too by the possibility that computer programming may be about to undergo a renaissance in education and perhaps will realise an early aspiration to have significant impact on our curricula as a vehicle (or perhaps a Trojan horse) for higher order learning and thinking across all phases and disciplines (see Computing At School).

These many strands give me hope that the outliers and exceptional learners in our midst (the outcasts, the challenged, the gifted, and the different) will have their chance to make decisive contributions to an uncertain planetary future.

Bipin Mahajan

I am a new Generation Computer Teacher, better to say continuous learner. I prefer to teach using ICT which is the most effective way of teaching & now it become the powerful tool for teaching.

Lorian Mead

I have worked as an occupational therapist within the field of adults with learning disabilities since 1999. During this time I have used ICT technology as part of my clinical practice. One of the main benefits of ICT for my profession is that it has the potential to increase the accessibility of information for people so that they are better informed about their occupational therapy assessments and interventions. I have used ICT throughout the occupational therapy process, from using photos to support people to give informed consent, setting goals, and through intervention sessions, through to creating accessible reports so that people are aware of the clinical information which is stored about them.

Through the development of ICT, and of my understanding of the developmental stages of communication, I have seen people with learning disabilities become more involved in not only the direct clinical work that I undertake, but also now in my role as service manager in the development of clinical services and clinical pathways.

ICT has also been part of our wider work as a department in sharing information about our services through our website and service leaflets. We have also been part of multi-agency projects that support the inclusion of adults with learning disabilities within projects (the outcomes of which are about community participation and personal safety) in formats that are easy for them to understand.

Pru Mitchell

Following many years teaching information literacy and ICT in K–12 school libraries I am currently involved in national ICT in education research and projects in my role as Senior Education Officer at Education Services Australia, working on the Education Network Australia (edna) project.

Umar Qureshi

I love technology, I love teaching I have a wonderful feeling inside every time a student is pleased with my teaching and has learned something new.

I am a sessional lecturer teaching ICT to adults and 16-19 year olds, I have subject specialism in the following areas

I am Apple Certified.

Carol Rainbow

In my present role I have worked across a wide range of schools as a Primary Consultant for ICT. I have run many training courses in all aspects of ICT, from basic skills through to using ICT to teach across the curriculum in all phases, sessions such as podcasting, digital video, interactive whiteboard training and web editing. A big concentration of my recent work has been to train county teachers and teams to use the learning platform. These sessions have been a mixture of centrally based training and in school training and have been targeted at many different levels of school personnel including SMT, teachers, administrators, TAs and governors.

A current interest is in the investigation of the use of Second Life, a 3D virtual world, as an educational resource. A colleague and I have been running e-safety courses in Second Life since January 2009. I have presented at conferences recently about teaching in a virtual world, and e-safety and am currently facilitating some training in-world.

Susan Raven

I am a lecturer of 10 years standing teaching from A level upwards to final degree teaching. Having completed an MA in ICT and Education, I am about to undertake doctoral research in the field of ICT and Education.

Nalin Sharda

Professor Nalin Sharda gained B.Tech. and Ph.D. degrees from the Indian Institute of Technology - Delhi. Presently, he teaches and leads multidisciplinary research at Victoria University (Australia) in the application of ICT systems to Education and Environmental Suitability. He has worked in the IT industry, taught at Curtin and Murdoch Universities in Australia, and held visiting / adjunct positions at Aachen University, Germany; Florida Atlantic University, USA; Jaypee University of Information Technology, India; and Karlstad University, Sweden.

Nalin's publications include a textbook, an edited research book, and around 120 journal / conference papers and research book chapters. Nalin has developed Movement Oriented Design (MOD), a methodology for creating Digital Stories that can be used for more effective learning with the help of eLearning systems, and in Communities of Practice.

Presently Nalin is supervising a research student who is developing a formal framework for the application of Digital Storytelling to constructivist learning. Linked to this project he is guiding the development of Web-based tools for the creation of Digital Stories and their use in Communities of Practice.

Diana Shore

I have five years experience as a learning technologist, and of participative research into students and tutors' experiences of e-learning. My work is regarded as innovative and successful, has attracted awards, and been the showcased as best practice. Software that I designed for the Open University (OU) is now produced on a CD ROM for reuse across the OU.

Within the context of my FE experience, I co-authored a proposal that won the BT award in new communications technology. This was for a community-based initiative using communication technology to educate young people about HIV infection. The design proved to be robust enough for other colleges to replicate it, and developed successful European links through colleges in Holland. The work attracted significant interest and we were invited to present a paper on the project at the SpotLIT of the Best of Learning with IT. This aspect of experience, initiating and leading a small community-based project, to respond to Government strategy reflects my ability to translate and communicate given strategies into a successful and popular design for e-learning.

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