All members agree to abide by a Code of Practice when joining MirandaNet, and during membership. The Code says that all MirandaNet members ‘shall act in such a manner as to uphold and enhance the good standing and reputation of educational professionals’.

Mirandalink lists have been created to allow and encourage members to engage in open debate on the important issues relevant to this aspect of education. You can raise individual issues or pass on experiences. You can reach out to look for partnerships or seek help. The community positively encourages the sharing of resources, ideas, news and good practice. Mirandalink lists are not centrally moderated, and are intended to extend and enhance the opportunities afforded by other MirandaNet activities. This is a community, and we wish to encourage discussion and mutual sharing and support, not stifle it, so management will be as light and unobtrusive as practicable.

Regarding Mirandalink lists, forums, e-mail, online and other digital communications, the Code applies in this way:

Courtesy

• MirandaNet has several thousand members, so say who you are! Your email signature should really do this, so please make sure that you use one when sending a message to Mirandalink.
• People will have different beliefs about all kinds of things. If you have firmly-held beliefs, you are certainly entitled to hold them; but in posting to the list be respectful of others’ beliefs, including in the language you use to describe your beliefs, and beliefs in opposition to yours. We ask that all members provide useful, relevant and non-judgmental postings that add value to the community.
• Avoid the danger of an acrimonious exchange due an inappropriate tone. Emails need to be brief – but sometimes can inadvertently sound officious. Beware the brisk reply late at night – when it’s best to think twice before hitting SEND. Bear in mind that everything you write is emailed to ALL 1,000 MirandaNet members.
• Remember that people may be working under stress, so if someone says something that you find offensive, please cool down before you respond. Flaming on the list will not be tolerated.
• Remember when you post that some people may be receiving the posts at their work e-mail, so please be careful about language. Some colleagues are responsible for the language & content of incoming mail with implications for their employment.

Acceptable practice

If you receive an email that you find offensive, moderation strategies that work well include: (a) taking time to reflect – the sender just may not be communicating well and intended no offence; (b) replying to the sender privately (off list) explaining your position in a professional manner; (c) withdrawing from that discussion; (d) ceasing engagement with the sender for a period.

Equally, if you have posted something that has caused offence or been received badly, you can self moderate by responding professionally off list – an explanation and sincere apology is usually appreciated by members.

If these strategies fail, do bring the issue to our attention.

Liability

You are responsible for the content of your own emails. MirandaNet has taken legal advice and cannot be held liable for what is said by members. The solicitor advises us that it is the author who bears the legal responsibility for what they write in an email; this includes breach of confidentiality, copyright or other intellectual property; you must not make statements that are libellous, obscene, seek to incite racial hatred or otherwise break the laws of the UK. Act responsibly at all times.

You are responsible for clearing copyright on any materials sent if they are not generated by you

We ask that all members bring to our attention any material posted in this forum that they consider defamatory so that we can consider its removal.If Members have taken the trouble to reply to a request for information it is good practice to share your findings. Either keep a list of those responding and email your summary to them, or, if you think that the analysis is of general interest, then write up your summary and send to the editor for the MirandaNet Knowledge Hub (/knowledgehub/). This will enable other members to reference it in the future. editor@mirandanet.ac.uk

Sharing your findings

If Members have taken the trouble to reply to a request for information it is good practice to share your findings. Either keep a list of those responding and email your summary to them, or, if you think that the analysis is of general interest, then write up your summary and send to the editor for the MirandaNet Knowledge Hub (/knowledgehub/). This will enable other members to reference it in the future. editor@mirandanet.ac.uk.

Keeping the volume manageable

Everyone finds email a mixed blessing. Keeping the volume down is a constant battle. To maintain the effectiveness of Mirandalink please observe the following precautions:

Mirandalink is not a chat room

A comment like ‘Nice idea’ is appropriate in the chat room setting – but an email bearing such a comment sent to 1000 users only adds to the email volume with which members contend on a daily basis and doesn’t provide them with useful information.

 

 Consider the recipient

When replying to an email from Mirandalink, ask yourself, ‘Does everyone need to receive this reply or should it be sent to the originator only?’ The latter is frequently the case – but not always, of course.

Your email should only go to others on the list – and it should go once! If in doubt, check your email software to see how it is set up for replying. Group systems sometimes automatically reply to the whole list rather than the individual sender. Make sure that the recipient is the originator unless, of course, you have a good reason for sending to the whole list.

Ensure that the ‘Cc:’ (Copy to:) line is empty

 

 

Managing incoming mail  You can manage Mirandalink traffic by setting up a folder to hold emails coming from the list. This means that Mirandalink emails are easily located and dealt with as and when convenient. It is a matter of individual preference whether your system is set up for manual intervention or so that traffic is automatically routed to an appropriate folder.

Commercial interests

• We rely upon the membership to avoid inappropriate commercial use of the system. In particular:
  1. Do not use Mirandalink to promote products and services in a proprietary way

  Advertisements

  – even subtle ones, are forbidden! Telling Members, for example, that you have laptops for sale at knockdown (or any other) prices is not acceptable. The same applies to services such as courses.

  Asking for information to gain sales

  – is also an abuse of the system e.g. asking to hear from members working with schools experiencing difficulty with network security and then offering your super-secure beat-the-hacker product. Consider the Newsletter – you have something really useful that colleagues will benefit from knowing about, then email the editor who will ensure that the information is framed in such a way that readers are aware of any commercial interest. This applies to products, and services such as courses. These are frequently mentioned in the Newsletter.

Don’t take unfair advantage of your access to fellow Members

Often you will use the information gained from Mirandalink to increase your professional effectiveness. This is fine – we are all colleagues making a living and we can all benefit from collective intelligence. Such use should always be open and transparent and should not trade on the list. This is best illustrated by two examples:

Acceptable practice

A school head has asked for advice on setting up a computer suite. You want to get a feel for current thinking and invite Mirandalink users to email their comments. Share the results of your Mirandalink research. That way we all benefit and colleagues feel that it is worth replying to you.

Unacceptable practice

You are designing some KS4 geography software and want to gauge the demand. You email Mirandalink asking members to indicate the proportion of secondary schools using GIS software. Sorry, not allowed! Do your own market research by other means.

Confidentiality and sensitivity

We need to be careful that Mirandalink is not used, even by implication, to imply criticism of other identifiable Members or their employers. Such criticism is inappropriate in such an arena as public Mirandalink.

Suggestions

Please let us know at any time if you have suggestions for improving the function, efficiency or helpfulness of Mirandalink. editor@mirandalink.ac.uk