MirandaNet: an International Fellowship
Innovation and Research in Education
Latest News!
Following the success of this year's conference ITTE and MirandaNet are working on a closer partnership in 2019 that will be called the Technology, Pedagogy and Education Association (TPEA). This is intended to strengthen our voice because the English school system is currently 8,000 computing teachers short. As a result too many of our children are not receiving adequate education in computer science, information technology and digital literacy to prepare them for life’s challenges.
Information Technology and Teacher Education Association, (ITTE founded in 1986) agreed to continue their long term partnership with the MirandaNet Fellowship (founded in 1992) under the new name Technology, Pedagogy and Education Association (TPEA). This restructured learned society, to be formally launched in 2019, aims to continue the work of the partners in influencing policy and practice in education technology. The TPEA name was chosen to align with ITTE’s well established international journal, Technology, Pedagogy and Education (https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rtpe20/current) published by Taylor Francis, and one of the top-ranked international journals in educational research. Together the two organisations publish widely in professional journals, newsletters and in the education press and write most of the standard course books used in teacher education published by Routledge.
You will be hearing more but this will not affect your membership of MirandaNet and your access to the information we share.
Influencing policy and practice in digital education
Professor Christina Preston, Chair of ITTE and founder of MirandaNet, about the history of our professional influence in policy and practice from the 1980s up to the current day.
Professional organisations stem from the tradition of medieval Trade Guilds and are still going strong. Wikipedia informs us that a guild is an association of artisans or merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as confraternities of tradesmen. They were organised in a manner something between a professional association, a trade union, a cartel, and a secret society. Read the complete article here.
MirandaNet extends its social media reach
MirandaNet is experimenting with a range of social media to increase engagement with our organisation. One such is an online ‘newspaper’. Please be aware that this is still an experiment but it allows the chance to bring to a new audience the work and thoughts of people this organisation admires and follows on Twitter.
The newspaper can be found here.
We also have a brand new blog. Visit it here.
Developing the Computing and presentation skills of FE students with learning difficulties and disabilities
Read this interesting report on how the 'Literacy from Scratch' project has been harnessed to enhance the learning of an under-represented group.
“Literacy from Scratch” is an international classroom project designed to develop computer coding skills (now a part of the new “Computing” curriculum in England) alongside literacy development, using the MIT visual coding language, Scratch.
Click here to read more and here to see more on Literacy from Python..
BETT18
Helen Boulton, Helen Caldwell and Christina Preston addressed the issues below with BETT18 delegates from France on 25th January. They very much enjoyed meeting colleagues from France and felt that the session and discussions were very useful and productive.
- UK context and policy regarding Teacher training and CPD (other international examples welcome) including recent developments and trends
- Approaches to integration of ICT (as a tool and also as a subject) in Teacher Training and CPD, impact, best practices, lesson learned …
- Impact of ICT integration on trainers of trainers and teachers training and CPD institutions
After the Reboot – Computing Education in UK Schools
10 November 2017 - The recent Royal Society report, After the Reboot – Computing Education in UK Schools, explores the challenges and issues facing the subject in primary and secondary schools since the subject was introduced in English schools in 2014. Download the report here..
Innovation in Professional Development: collaborative classroom coaching with web-video and web-a
udio.
The final report is now published of Phase Two of MirandaNet's research into the effectiveness of the Iris Connect system for professional development in classroom practice. Download "Innovations in professional development: real-time, in-ear coaching" from the Iris Connect research page.
iCatalyst in the Classroom
Professors Christina Preston and Sarah Younie write that, "Research suggests that a continuous programme of professional development is essential in ensuring that teachers can make full use of an investment in digital technologies." This is a theme that will be returned to a great deal over the coming months. Read what they have to say here..