MirandaNet Fellowship examples
MirandaNet Fellows, founded in 1992 by Professor Christina Preston, had a unique reputation in the market for independence, credibility and market leading research into technology and innovation. As mentioned, Fellows, all educators, offered an innovative qualitative research programme, iCatalyst, working with teachers as co-researchers to define, measure and report on the impact of innovation on learning. Working with all key stakeholders, the MirandaNet Fellows identified what they wanted to gain from their investment in digital technologies in terms of evidence of learning. Crucial to success was the methodology of collecting of evidence of learning in the classroom and the ability to measure the impact of implementation.
As co-researchers iCatalyst participants build a professional community in order to amass the evidence they need to underpin the changes they want to make in the Knowledge Hub [2].
All those involved benefited from a well-organised programme: teachers and senior managers gained a deeper and shared understanding about the strategies they might adopt to introduce systemic change and improve pupil achievement. The practice-based research methodology gave the school time to reflect on the use of technology and analyse its use, effectiveness and impact. Using this knowledge schools could see a positive impact on their policies and work practices collaboratively. This offered the school a rare chance to review best practice and the way they deployed innovation to enhance learning. The agenda was generated by the staff and they could use the results in their strategic planning as well as their reports to governors and government organisations; teachers also gained accreditation and could publish for a global audience in a range of modes. In addition, leaders, trainers and advisers were also supported in developing these practice-based research programmes that drew on theory as well as practice.
Accreditation provided evidence of the co-researchers’ effectiveness as teacher mentors; company representatives who also joined the projects as co-researchers gained professional development and valuable research and development information. A learning company used this knowledge to improve their understanding of education as well as for marketing their product and for evidence of their learning in entering for awards. These MirandaNet associate companies gained valuable feedback on their products and quantified evidence of learning.
Finally all the participants who published in the MirandaNet Knowledge Hub received a MirandaNet Fellowship and pupils were awarded a World Ecitizen certificate for sharing their achievements internationally.
Teacher leaders could follow up with a 30 point Masters module with De Montfort University by expanding on the evidence they had collected. Mentoring about the analysis and reporting of evidence took place face to face and online. Members of associate companies could also elect to join the programmes and gain accreditation for effective research and development with teachers.
The principles of iCatalyst can still be adapted to effect change at school level, or at regional or national level. Three examples of the iCatalyst professional development programme follow using collaborative learning that illustrate the different levels.
The following detail about three exemplar projects covers:
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the challenges for the funders and the participants;
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the ways in which the iCatalyst process helped to define the issues and create the solution;
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the methods used to collect evidence;
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the results.
The first project is Elapa: Digital Technologies in South Africa:building a learning community in Free State province: 2001-2004 in order to train advisors to introduce digital technologies into schools and colleges in order to upskill the population of the region.
The second is the Bodhi Project funded by the Podar charity who were expanding their schools into the rural areas of India, MirandaNet was invited to run a programme for forty principals who met termly over two years from 2010-2012 to identify ways of improving teaching methods and sharing them with new staff.
The third is ICT tools for Future Teachers, a 2009 Becta funded programme. This government agency for information and Communications Technology (ICT), decided that they required research-based advice to support effective ICT use by teachers now and in the future. Professors Christina Preston and Marilyn Leask, both members of the MirandaNet Fellowship, were asked to undertake this research. They worked with fifty expert teachers and advisers focusing on five questions:
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What in the views of practitioners, are the characteristics of effective technology-based tools and resources and how do they help teachers do their work well?
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What are the characteristics of effective non technology-based tools and resources and how do they help teachers do their work well?
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Where do practitioners go to find out about and access new tools for learning and teaching?
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What are the key challenges faced by practitioners in doing their job well?
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The future – what ICT tools would help? What digital solutions are needed? If these solutions do not exist, could they be created? What would their characteristics be, and how and when would they be used?
More of the projects that were undertaken between 1998 and 2000 can be found here on the archived MirandaNet Fellowship website.
https://mirandanet.ac.uk/about-associates/associates-research/
