In order to strengthen the voice of professional experts in advising on the national computing strategy, ITTE (www.itte.org.uk – founded in 1986) agreed to continue their long term partnership with the MirandaNet Fellowship (mirandanet.ac.uk – 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. We 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.
TPEA’s 1,500 international members represent a wide range of education technology (edtech) experts including university and college lecturers, advisory services and independent consultants, school leaders, classroom teachers, researchers and edtech companies who all share an interest in improving learning through the application of digital technology in teaching and through the effective teaching of Computing as a curriculum subject. Our unique contribution to this field is in edtech research, initial teacher education and professional development. Our remit includes: the pedagogical application of digital technology by all teachers; developing the teaching of computing and digital capability; attention to the strands of information technology and digital/media literacy; and the effective use of digital technology in initial teacher education as well as continuing professional development (CPD) programmes and research.
We also work closely with a number of edtech companies in research and development and undertake qualitative and quantitative research and use practice-based research as a method of professional development. Educators and company representatives who chose practice based research can be awarded a De Montfort University certificate, diploma or Masters qualification. Our current industry partners are IRIS Connect, Just2Easy, OutSet, Learning by Questions, The Jaffa Foundation, SMART and Tablet Academy.
In the research that teacher researchers have published about products and services they have made discoveries that have resulted in ownership of change. Examples of findings include the value of video enhanced professional development; the relative merits of virtual reality and immersive reality in learning; the ways in which homework programmes and school news feeds can engage parents in their children’s progress; how e-books can encourage reluctant readers: the success of digital resources like games, simulations, videos and quizzes in stimulating independent learning: and effective methods of deploying mobile devices across a school. These small scale school based research projects provides teachers and their leaders with in classroom opportunities to reflect, often with the involvement of pupils and parents as well. They can be used in marketing copy and in Ofsted reports to indicate that teachers are research active.
The associate research is published alongside members’ extensive academic papers, case studies, edtech reports, newsletters, blogs and other relevant materials in the joint Knowledge Hub which is a trusted professional resource attracting currently 80,000 global visitors annually to the website who read up to ten pages. Articles for the Times Education Supplement and other education press titles reach more than 1,000,000 professionals.
In summary, over the last forty years, our members have built up shared knowledge and experience in edtech policy and practice internationally. We are keen to work in partnership with other organisations in this field in government departments, education and the edtech industry to ensure that this country once again leads in this vital field of innovation.
The formal launch of TPEA will be at BETT in 2020 although members of ITTE and MirandaNet have worked together for the last 20 years. We have strong partnerships with organisations like the BESA, Council for Subject Associations, Computers at School, BareFoot Computing, Naace, MESHguides and the Chartered College of Teachers.
In 2020 WE will have a stand at BETT from which we will run research safaris. Our annual conference will be at Bath Spa University in partnership with ICET in July. Dates to follow.
Please contact Professor Christina Preston, Founder of MirandaNet and Vice Chair of ITTE to discuss how we can help you: christina@mirandanet.ac.uk