Welcome to the Educational Innovation Research Exchange

You have arrived at the MirandaNet Education Innovation  research exchange, a partnership between The MirandaNet Fellowship and research colleagues at  the  University of Bedfordshire. The aim of this think tank is to influence policy on educational innovation through evidence. Our findings can be used to guide the informed management of systemic changes in schools and teacher education that reflect the exponential changes in the ownership of knowledge throughout the world.

In this  space we can share our research ideas, knowledge, methods and publications with any colleagues who are interested in our specialisms, who are looking for synergies and who want to challenge our theory and practice. Lively debate is welcome.

Here you will find  summaries of relevant discussions by MirandaNet members from our internal debating forum called mirandalink; abstracts of articles and publications derived from our  research project discussions conducted in the IDEA communities of practice website, as well as our publications. Researchers can publish summaries of their thesis, articles and papers here subject to peer review. Researchers can also apply for drafts of our work that has not been published yet or is restricted to our members only.   You can join in our face to face and virtual meetings in knowledge creation  at our regular MirandaMod unconferences. We welcome internship applications as well.

So far the Education Innovation team is establishing a research reputation for studies of: emergent theory and practice collaborative knowledge creation  in  communities of practice that we call  Braided Learning. We also conduct research into the value of concept maps and critical incidents as a data collection tools. What would you like to add?

Professor Christina Preston, Professor of Educational Innovation, University of Bedfordshire and founder of MirandaNet Fellowship: christina@mirandanet.ac.uk

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Bob Geldolf on the nature of change

Bob Geldof gave a passionate speech about the nature of change, and how it relates to the self, society and innovation in general.  In particular he spoke about the need to engage with the developing world (Africa in particular) and questioned where the ideas of the future will come from, and is Britain becoming a risk-averse nation? He was the lead speaker at  recent Nesta conference, overshadowing Gordon Brown who came on in the afternoon. I’ve heard him speak before about Africa in St. Paul’s Cathederal and found him mesmerising. The video follows:

Incentivising Innovation – Innovation Edge : Bob Geldof, Humanitarian, Pop Star, Broadcaster and Businessman.

http://www.nesta.org.uk/innovation-edge-incentivising-innovation/?playvideo=1

 

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How to create a research blog…..

In the third year now of the “Internet Cultures” module which is part of our MA at the Institute of Education, University of London, our teachers and media students create blogs in WordPress.  Some of the things I found out whilst re-designing this from a previous version of the module are here in this article:
“Re-designing an MA module to foster agency, engagement and production in online social software”. Reflecting Education.  search for Vol.4, No.1, it’s all freely available.

Some of these blogs have a life well beyond the course now. For example, one of our former students has won a “webby” this year (Sharna Jackson for the Tate Kids site) – although that’s not strictly a blogging issue!

Dr John Potter, Knowledge Lab, Institute of Education, University of London.

 

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