The MirandaNet Fellowship is a community of UK and International educators, educational researchers, technology consultants focused on the domain of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in school education and in supporting action research best practices.
MirandaNet Homepage
MirandaNet’s evolution began after the 1992 closure of the Toshiba sponsored Project Miranda at the London Computing Centre. The team of academics involved wanted a way to stay working and learning together about ICTs in schools and MirandaNet was born under the vision of its founder Christina Preston.
An ongoing stream of research, assessment, and demonstration projects over the years has provided a rich learning environment in this community. Projects have for instance explored the use of laptops, electronic whiteboards, web resources and e-facilitation in K-12 contexts. The Fellowship’s work has been funded through grants, tendered and sponsored action research projects, and industry partnerships. Core group members act as part of a professional consultative organization, where professionals talk, listen and collaborate with government, industry, teacher educators and researchers.
This is a structured community where those accepted for membership enter as MirandaNet Scholars. After making a clear contribution to the community through a personal workplace research project and publication, Scholars may be promoted to become Fellows. Fellows are the experienced inner circle of the community who offer mentorship and expertise back to the community.
The community membership has been supported by web and e-mail-based technology, as well as public and private web forums and more recently the community has adopted Web2.0 technologies and online live meeting facilities. Fellows, as a group and within geographical limits, have opportunity throughout the year for face-to-face interaction through the community workshops, seminars and MirandaNet presentations at related educational conferences.
A few things really set this community apart from many educational counterparts and may be testimony to its longevity and the very low attrition in membership over its nearly 16 years in existence. The next four posts will examine MirandaNet’s development through the lens of the four community components; people, common ties, social interaction, and place. And next week we will be joined by some amazing guest bloggers from the community, beginning with the Founder and Director Christina Preston, to give us insight into the current community activities and the value they derive from community engagement.
