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1 November 2010

November 2010 Membership Update

MirandaNet’s International Strength

As you will see from the list below, we have professionals with some very interesting profiles joining the MirandaNet Fellowship. We have over seven hundred members in around seventy countries. Our voice is being heard. In the summer, I drew together our debates on Mirandalink to write an article about the demise of Becta that has been widely distributed in government circles. Geoff Scott Baker and a team of volunteers also worked on a reply to The Royal Society about the current position of ICT in Education that makes good reading as well. Both articles are available to members: simply log at the Members Log on link, and follow the link to the "members only file vault". The same page allows you access to the MirandaLink Archive, and this ia also where you can update your profile.

If you have a topic that needs attention please start a debate that is designed to draw knowledge and support from our diverse membership. Our greatest strength is our international reach.

Meeting other members face to face

Your next chance to meet members face to face and set up joint projects is at BETT11 in Olympia. London – 12th - 15th January. Join us on stand, S97, to debate the changing status of teachers in the digital world. This year, in partnership with DFE advisers and Bedford University, our topics are:

On Saturday we have an Open House @ BETT, World Ecitizens workshop where teachers can meet colleagues to plan international projects.

Have a look at the BETT Website - you will be surprised how many MirandaNetters feature on it in one way or another! More news in the next newsletter.

MirandaNet Fellowships

If you are studying for your masters or your doctorate as many members are why not publish your research ideas for our membership and gain a Fellowship. There is some information about the different kinds of membership, including Fellows, on the Join MirandaNet page.

New members

We had a diverse group of new members joining in October. Please get in touch with them directly if their interests marry up with yours.

Pam Smith sums up the MirandaNet approach to the use of digital technologies in education: my interest in ICT and education is not about whizz bang gizmos but is about its huge potential to support and facilitate learning and development of organisations through people; ICT is a vehicle not an end product which is just as well with the pace of technological change!

Sharmaine Sharusan also has some strong views on the value of digital technologies: I am a techno-optimist; I believe in the promise of technology to make our lives easier and freer. Two new members are looking for support in their responsibility for ICT in school: Emma Conlisk, Jeremy Meades.

Panayiotis Tsakalis is one new member who joined as a result of the highly successful MirandaMod in Korinthos in September where Theo Keuchel and Leon Cych joined me. There were over fifty participants in the conference room and a similar number joined on line. You will find all the resources, edited by Leon, on this url. Panayiotis Tsakalis says: reflecting on the comment of a colleague mentioned during the MirandaMod in Korinthos, Greece, I’ d like to share with you that I am not a pure ICT native but I don’t feel neither an ICT immigrant. I feel like a first generation ICT citizen, trying to form my ICT identity which others can easily tell (I might have a funny ICT accent, like my English one), but I have promised myself that I will do my best so that my children (meaning my students) will be fully incorporated in the ICT society and they will be and function as equal members of the ICT natives community! Tharrenos Bratitsis; Vassilios Dagdilelis; Yannis Dimitriadis; and, Efstratia Liakopoulou have also joined as a result of this MirandaMod. We are delighted to have them with us and hope some will be successful in obtaining EU funding to attend BETT11 to talk to other members about joint projects.

Marie Joubert, who works on the EU Stellar project at Bristol University, explains her Ph.D. research that took place authentic mathematics classrooms in which computers were used by the pupils to complete mathematical tasks, and the research focused on the meditational role of the teacher, the task and the computer. Caroline Windrum is also interested in researching into ICT in Learning. Jennifer Ollis, from the US, asks some challenging questions of ICT professional that emanate from her research that will make a good mirandalink debate.

Best wishes to you al

Christina Preston

Tharrenos Bratitsis

I was born in Rhodes, Greece. I completed my studies at the Electrical Engineers and Computer Science department of the Polytechnic School of the University of Patras on November 1994. Between 1997 until 2009 when I was a Computer Scientist and Network Administrator in various Universities, I participated in several research and technical projects. My Ph.D. thesis is: Development of flexible supporting tools for asynchronous discussions, via analysis of interactions among participants, for technology enhanced learning (2007)

Since 2009 I have been a Lecturer at the Department of Early Childhood Education of the University of Western Macedonia, located in Florina, Greece. I teach courses related to the "ICTs in education" research area.

My main research area of expertise is that of Interaction Analysis.

Since I have an engineering background (undergraduate studies) as well as an educational background (Doctorate thesis), my research interests' spectrum is relatively wide. My main interests are:

Rodger Carroll

As a qualified carpenter and joiner progressing to a registered building practitioner in residential and commercial construction I have been heavily involved in the building industry for 23 years including design and administration of projects and until 1998 when I commenced teaching courses at all levels with Chisholm Institute. My current position is Department Manager, Building and Furniture.

I regularly undertake further training and study and actively participate in professional networks to keep my skills and knowledge up to date. I recently completed a Masters of Education at Victoria University. I am current Programs Director and a past President of the International Society for Performance Improvement (ISPI) Melbourne chapter. Other qualifications include Certificate IV in TAA, Diploma of VET (Chisholm), Graduate Certificate of Educational Leadership (Victoria University), Graduate of the Chair Academy (USA), Certificate of Elearning design and facilitation (RMIT).

I have a strong personal commitment to innovative teaching and flexible learning methods and believe learning is everywhere, no matter where you are. All staff are encouraged to design learning for the learner and the Industry the learner will be involved in. This customisation has resulted in substantial industry accolade and growth in our Building & Construction programs.

My research in education in the Building and Construction Industry has led to many presentations to local, National and International events.

Emma Conlisk

I'm Emma and I've been the ICT co-ordinator at our school since 2007 when I was the only person who was prepared to take it on! Although it's not(my speciality and I have no training as such I do love a challenge and that it has certainly been! From writing new policies and setting up a whole new VLE the last few years have been really interesting and I am constantly amazed and intrigued by the new technology being brought out all of the time and am always looking for new ways that it can be used in the classroom...if only there was an endless pot of money! I look around at school and see how confident our children are and only wish there was a way of sharing that youthful enthusiasm with the staff! I am really looking forward to reading a great deal more about ICT and hope to be able to contribute in the future!

Vassilios Dagdilelis

My personal research Interests are about Educational Applications of Information Technology, especially about Distance Learning and Digital Literacy.

Yannis Dimitriadis

I am professor of Telematics engineering at the University of Valladolid, Spain and I coordinate the transdisciplinary research group GSIC/EMIC that focuses on Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL). My current research interests deal with the support of teachers in orchestrating CSCL classrooms, through tools, patterns and systems.

Marie Joubert

I began my professional life as a teacher of mathematics and computing. I became involved in writing materials to support teachers in the use of ICT within subject teaching: for example, the ‘NOF’ teacher education initiative, a series of DfEE-funded professional development modules focusing on the use of ICT in the teaching and learning of primary mathematics and a resource for teachers of mathematics at KS3.

I completed a PhD at the University of Bristol. My research took place authentic mathematics classrooms in which computers were used by the pupils to complete mathematical tasks, and the research focused on the meditational role of the teacher, the task and the computer.

I work at the University of Bristol as a researcher and have been involved in a number of research projects concerning the use of ICT in teaching and learning, such as:

I work on the EU-funded Network of Excellence, STELLAR (www.stellarnet.eu) which aims to address the fragmentation within the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) research community and to contribute to developing the research agenda in this area.

Efstratia Liakopoulou

I work as an ICT teacher in Experimental High School of Tripolis, Greece. I am interested in ICT teaching, project work, web 2.0, e-learning, getting familiar with new ICT tools and educational practices, motivating students, creative teaching, collaboration/communication with European teachers, participating in European projects etc. I am also interested in gender issues, equal opportunities, educational policy & school management.

Jeremy Meades

After teaching for over 13 years and then responsible for ICT Strategy in a successful secondary school in the south-east, I became a Director of ICT Strategy and e-Learning at SchoolsICT.

My role and principal interest lies in supporting both schools and teachers as they seek to embed ICT in teaching and learning. Supporting schools from a strategic perspective using evaluations to developing strategic plans is part of my interest but also working with teachers to help them evolve their pedagogy and embed the use of ICT in their teaching. My aim is to align a teacher's ICT skill set that will meet their students' needs and expectations - to bring together a shared approach to learning that involves both collaboration and facilitation.

Principally, my work revolves around the use of learning platforms to provide an environment that extends the classroom experience and enables collaborative, interactive and shared learning.

Jennifer Ollis

I am interested in emerging technologies and their impact on education such as smartphones, wikis, twitter, iPads, etc…. More specifically I am curious as to how open teachers and administrators are to integrating these technologies into their curriculum at the middle and high school level. I am currently working on my thesis in Science Education at Florida State University. My project will attempt to describe teacher and administrator attitudes/beliefs towards Web 2.0 technologies by conducting a survey. Some questions I would like to explore:

  1. Are educators willing to use emerging technologies to support student centred learning? (Technology is often integrated if it supports a teacher centred model i.e. online grade books, LCD projectors, PowerPoint, etc…)
  2. How open are educators to adapt their curriculum to new technologies?
  3. Is there a correlation between educator age (years of service) and openness to applying emerging technologies in the classroom?
  4. Are educators willing to learn about technology from their students? (Are digital immigrants willing to learn from digital natives?)

Sharmaine Sharusan

I am a techno-optimist; I believe in the promise of technology to make our lives easier and freer. I am working on my doctorate in Educational Technology and am always interested in the ways we can reach global learners.

Pam Smith

My interest in ICT and Education is not about whizz bang gizmos but is about its huge potential to support and facilitate learning and development of organisations through people; ICT is a vehicle not an end product which is just as well with the pace of technological change! I have a particular interest in the ways in which ICT can remove barriers to learning. My perspective on learning is that the process should not be and is not restricted to 'children and young people'. The most exciting dynamics come from everyone in the organisation learning together; a concept to which I am deeply committed as a professional trainer and coach. There are huge overlaps between the respective roles of ICT and Equality and Diversity; this drives my passion. I shock myself by using passion and technology in the same sentence as I used to perceive myself as a not so closet luddite but the very real potential of ICT to positively affect life chances has brought me to forums such as MirandaNet.

Panayiotis Tsakalis

Since I was a student teacher (from 1991 to 1995, a period that internet connection was a scarce phenomenon in Greece, even at Universities) I was completely amazed by the power of New Technologies (as ICT were mentioned at that time) in making science generally and in teaching especially!

In the following years and during my postgraduate studies in Philosophy of Science (especially Cognitive Science and Philosophy of Psychology) and my Ph.D. studies in Educational Psychology, not only I used ICT (software and hardware) for my scientific work and research, but I also attended educational programs and seminars on ICT, I educated pupils, students and adults in ICT, I co-worked on projects aimed at the development of ICT educational applications and I did research on the benefits of ICT in teaching.

The last three years that I work mainly as a primary school teacher, I encourage my students to utilize ICT in classroom almost every day, even though technical problems, funding and resisting ideologies in Greek schools make it difficult sometimes. I have also created a personal blog, though it is not very active yet!

Currently, I have been working on a paper about the effectiveness of open and distance educational programs based on Web 2.0 technologies under the recommendations of the self-regulated learning theory addressed to disabled or disadvantaged learners.

Finally, after having discovered the amazing world of web 2.0 (I am not a Facebook fun, so it took me a little longer to realize and appreciate the presence of social software), my 16 10-years-old pupils and I work on two e-twinning projects, in electronic collaboration with at least 30 other parties from 25 different countries, and I am about to prepare a Comenius project about the use of ICT (creating comics using paper, crayons or clay, multiple photographs, a movie maker etc) in order to promote creativity and student involvement, in learning (probably) history (for example, we may create a movie about a battle, or the roman conquests, or a chapter of Homer’s Iliad using student-made comics).

Reflecting the comment of a colleague mentioned during the MirandaMod in Korinthos, Greece, I’d like to share with you that I am not a pure ICT native but I don’t feel neither an ICT immigrant. I feel like a first generation ICT citizen, trying to form my ICT identity which others can easily tell (I might have a funny ICT accent, like my English one), but I have promised myself that I will do my best so that my children (meaning my students) will be fully incorporated in the ICT society and they will be and function as equal members of the ICT natives community!

Caroline Windrum

My interests are in supporting research into ICT in learning.

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