What is the focus of my presentation? * to examine the use of web-based templates for enabling the representation of knowledge by teacher researchers working with university-based researchers * to explore generativity in educational research among school-based partners using web- based technology i.e. how research mentees become research mentors. * to explicate how embedding multi media in research by teachers and for teachers assists the growth of school-based and university-based research. * to explore determinants of quality in multi-media in educational research where there is collaboration between school-based and university-based researchers. * to identify advantages and disadvantages in technology use in research mentoring by university-based researchers and between teachers as peer research mentors.

Introduction: Teachers who undertake self-study research are in a minority. Those who do so may not have access, or may not realise the need to have access to ways of disseminating their research to audiences beyond their classroom, peer group and school. Hiebert et al.'s call (2002) for a sustainable teacher-research resource and for evidence about how enquiry can assist learning remains a challenge. The search for more user-friendly and accessible technology has continued but many teachers still fight shy of using ICT in their research. With the advent of KEEP Toolkit templates developed by the Carnegie Foundation for creating a Commons (Huber and Hutchings, 2005) there is scant basis for techno-phobia. They are as easy to use as sending email and embedding multi media in text is simple. Several of the teachers in the study have mentored students in using KEEP technology and general opinion is that the KEEP Toolkit templates are both versatile and flexible. These web-based accounts created with a research mentor are accessible on the website that explicates the process and outcomes of ERM at http://www.TeacherResearch.net Educational Research Mentoring (ERM) developed from the integration of mentoring as CPPD (Continuing Personal and Professional Development) for teachers (Fletcher, 2000) and an approach to action research pioneered by Whitehead (1989) A Living Educational Theory approach has enabled many to undertake self-study but while a LET approach has many advantages for teacher researchers, the recommended process of public validation feels threatening and invasive for some practitioners. In order to off set such a negative aspect it has proved useful to embed appreciative enquiry (Cooperrider, 1999) in ERM.

What was your approach and/or what evidence have you gathered? The data sources include web-based MA level accounts created by teacher researchers working with a university-based research mentor in UK schools (primary and secondary) and accounts by school and university-based PhD students using web-based technology, collaboratively as peer research mentors and working with university research mentor. Evidence that research mentoring allied to technology is a valuable form of support and challenge to assist and represent practitioners’ knowledge is drawn from published accounts by teacher researchers (Chipping and Morse, 2006) and Fletcher (2006, 2007) Evidence that the use of technology enabled Action Research is having a significant impact on the continuing Professional Development of the school teachers comes from the KEEP Toolkit web-based snapshots that they have created and impact evaluation surveys completed the teachers. Members of BERA (the British Educational Research Association) in the Practitioner Researcher SIG, provided feedback on these web-based ‘Snapshots’ during an e-seminar in July 2005 and two of the teachers have mentored their students to create their own web-based enquiries within collaborative classroom activity. In the presentation of this paper there will examples of KEEP templates created in school.

Karen Collins describes how students are researching at Bishop Wordsworth School; Becta Action Research Conference 2006 The basis of this paper draws on research by the author, Sarah Fletcher, with her work at three schools between 2005 and 2007. Below there is a brief resume of the work undertaken with teacher researchers and students as researchers in these schools. Further details about activities undertaken can be accessed by clicking on the link below to http://www.TeacherResearch.net and using the Google search facility on the website. Case study; Bitterne Park School Southampton, England. Sarah worked with a group of teacher researchers at Bitterne Park School between 2005 - 2006 who piloted a new MA module created by Sarah while head of mentoring, coaching and induction (secondary phase) at Bath Spa University. The module was designed to enable teacher researchers to become research mentors for one another. Donna Chipping and Rachele Gregg co-mentored one another and presented their research at a BERA Practitioner Research Conference (2005) and the National Teacher Research panel Conference in 2006. Their study of co-research mentoring was subsequently published by the NTRP/DfES and is linked below. Case study; Westwood St Thomas School, Salisbury, England. Sarah was an MA tutor for mentoring at the school and then became the research mentor for the teacher research group, funded by the DfES' Best Practice Research Scholarship Scheme. her research mentoring began while she was a lecturer at the University of Bath and extended briefly to her time as a senior lecturer in CPD at Bath Spa University. Case study; The Bishop Wordsworth School, Salisbury, England. Karen Collins at Bishop Wordsworth School and Simon Riding at Bitterne Park School both invited Sarah to research mentor colleagues and students when they left Westwood St Thomas School. Sarah's work as a research mentor for students at Bishop's School was funded between 2006-7 by Creative Partnerships under the CARA 2 Scheme. Case Study; Self-study by Sarah Fletcher, Mentor2Mentor Consultancy Sarah left Bath Spa University in December 2006 and now runs her own research mentoring consultancy business where she encourages teacher and student researchers to ustilise web-based technology and multi-media in eliciting, representing and communicating their ideas. She believes that using web-based templates such as the ones designed by the Knowledge Media Lab (KML) at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching can enable researchers to contribute to the Teaching and Learning Commons, which has recently been made available. Incidentally, you can see further research (undertaken in Japan) by Sarah within the Commons. Now, at last, it is possible to gain insights into the practice and theory practitioner research on a global level. The examples of web based representations of knowledge within the KML Commons all use KEEP web based templates. The web-based templates come in a variety of forms; project snapshot; cause transformation; course portfolio; class anatomy and course transformation stitched group. All of these can be accessed from the home page at http://www.cfkeep.org in addition to comprehensive guidance to use each one. http://www.TeacherResearch.net This website is the primary location of resources relating to research mentoring. It brings together research by teachers as practitioners in school and in university settings,locally, nationally and internationally. The Sarah's publications section offers links to her writings about school-university research mentoring experiences. Bittterne Park School Teacher Research Group This web-based snapshot depicts the first meeting of the teacher research group at Bitterne Park School with their university-based research mentor in 2005. Impact Evidence at the three schools This snapshot offers insights into the recording and sharing of impact evidence for teacher and student research at Bitterne Park, Westwood St Thomas and Bishop Wordsworth's School 2005-7. The Teaching and Learning Commons The Teaching and Learning Commons developed by the Knowledge Media Laboratory of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is an intellectual community space provided to enrich and encourage the exchange of knowledge about teaching and learning.

Generativity in educational research between university and school-based researchers CLICK Linked section at the top left of this webpage.

An explication of how multi media assists the growth of research in school-university partnerships CLICK Linked section at the top let of this webpage.

Identification of criteria for multi-media use in school-university research CLICK Linked section at the top left of this webpage.

Advantages and disadvantages in ICT use among school and university-based research mentors. CLICK Linked section at the top left of this webpage.

Donna's web-based template mapping out her research An examination of the use of web-based templates

Critical Thinking Scaffolds In 2005, a new MA module was piloted for Bath Spa University by Sarah Fletcher at Bitterne Park School in Southampton. All of the mentoring and coaching modules at this time followed a similar format. They included a requirement that teachers use critical thinking scaffolds devised by the then Head of CPD, Steven Coombs. incidentally, I (Sarah Fletcher) and he presented our research at several conferences. A copy of our BERA presentation paper is linked to the section below here. Coombs devised critical thinking scaffolds; the spidergram (a thought mapping template); a professional learning task account; a portfolio submission writing scaffold and the self-assessment assignment report of MA level evidences. In addition, Coombs devised an optional writing scaffold support for action research projects. As it was optional in my time as a tutor I do not review it. When the new module TT500MAR was offered to teacher researchers, these critical thinking scaffolds were not available online and one of the first tasks that I undertook was to provide some online access. The teachers were familiar with 'mind mapping' concepts from the work of Buzan and found the idea of charting possible definitions of action research and mentoring a useful exercise. Some, like Donna Chipping, above, decided to opt for mind mapping software rather than using the template being offered. Ownership is a crucial element in e-enablement. Linked below, there is also a collection of the templates focusing on research mentoring, created by teachers at Bitterne Park School to communicate their early understandings as a foundation for developing their potential practice as school-based research mentors. BERA 2005 Coombs & Fletcher paper BERA 2005 Coombs & Fletcher abstract Bitterne Park Mind Maps for Research Mentoring TT500MAR MA Module Scaffolds

It might be an overstatement to say that a spidergram elicited critical thinking but it certainly assisted the teachers in setting out their thoughts about research mentoring. One of the challenges of working with the so-called critical thinking scaffolds is that teachers tended to treat them as bolt on extras, chores to be undertaken and added to content of their web pages, which they enjoyed creating. was finely ground was introduced to as a means for setting out existing conceptions of research entering and as can be seen from the selection from the teacher research group at Bitterne Park ideas were somewhat embryonic. Perhaps it was because being a research mentoi was something outside the experience of the teachers in the research group at the school and it was interesting that when Donna brought along her own mind map there was an increase in the sense of ownership in setting out definitions. in retrospect, the availability of my templates provided online was useful that teachers preferred to customise the templates applied. The PLTA or Professional Learning Task Account scaffold provided a useful means of setting out to the date particular activity was undertaken, it is educational rationale, how this link to supporting literature and a brief description of how the literature relates to work-based tasks. This is certainly a thinking scaffold that enables practice to be linked to literature but whether it is a critical thinking scaffold is open to debate. Much depends on one's definition of critical thinking. expressed most generally, critical thinking is a way of taking up the problems of life (William Graham Sumner, 1906) irrespective of the sphere of thought, or well cultivated critical thinker raises vital questions and problems, formulating them clearly and precisely; gathers and assesses relevant information, using abstract ideas to interpret it effectively, comes to a well reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards; thinks open mindedly within alternative systems of thought, recognizing and assessing, as needs be, their assumptions, implications, and practical consequences; and communicate effectively with others in figuring out solutions to complex problems. (Wikipedia). It is clear, that within this wide-ranging definition, the so-called critical thinking scaffold's developed by Coombs et al (2003) aside more in the realm of thinking than critical thinking. similar definitions are offered by Bowell and Kemp, 2005 in critical thinking; a concise guide, Routledge Falmer. Similarly, when teachers encountered the KEEP Toolkit templates offered by the Carnegie Foundation for the advancement of teaching their excitement centred on the capacity to choose not only the format are presenting their knowledge that the background colour, uploaded photo images and videos and choice of font and format. Thus, I think it would be fair to say that the was the useful initial tool for setting out ideas in a fairly controlled teaching situation that but the teachers who use these scaffolds were more likely to develop ownership of them where they could customise.

The third compulsory critical thinking scaffold embedded in the TT500MAR module for Bath Spa University was the self-assessment assignment report of MA level evidences. This is the equivalent of the self evaluation form for OFSTED whereby the candidate has to explain how they meet to defined predetermined criteria. One could say that this is a check list completed by a candidate submitting work rather than a critical thinking scaffold. Howver, since it entails not only giving a brief outline of a task cross-referenced to evidence of critical reflection (not defined) it does entail making a value judgement and so does qualify as a critical thinking elicitation tool. Undoubtedly, it is useful to encourage teachers to defend their right to be awarded a qualification at Masters level but teacher researchers using this pro forma may regard it as a kind of contents list and add on extra rather than something that they should be using to develop any evidences of critical reflection as they engaged with appropriate literature. With some pressure from the Teacher Development Agency to provide impact evidence of M level study the pro forma provides a comprehensive way of ensuring that TDA is satisfied and funding is thus justified for supporting a teacher's study as accredited CPD.

Teachers at Westwood St Thomas School studying the Bath Spa action research MA module did not progress to create any web-based templates. This was partly because these teachers had already begun to represent their self-study in a paper based format when studying with a tutor from another university (in a programme which was discontinued). It was also because the module they were studying did not embed the use of web-based technology in assignments. In other words, there was no obligation to use web-based technology and as the emerging research into the possibilities of E-enabling the teacher learning Academy is beginning to show (2008) busy teachers need to regard using web-based technology not as a time consuming extra but as an essential part of what they seeking to achieve.. Without such an obligation at Westwood St Thomas School, using the KEEP Toolkit templates did not appear to appeal to them as it had to several of the teachers at Bitterne Park. My impression was also that the web-based templates captured teachers' imagination at Bitterne Park because two of the more influential members of the group were keen to use them. As a research mentor, I would get regular e-mails during the day from several of the group asking me to check their latest modifications of their websites! There was a keen excitement which their communications exuded and as one teacher said it was great to be able to use a few moments at break or at lunchtime to set out her latest ideas on the template and then to e-mail me and get a prompt response sharing her enthusiasm. similarly, students researching their own understandings of creativity at Bishop Wordsworth school quickly developed web pages to represent their understanding. While it was hoped that they would undertake research into creativity in teaching and learning within their own websites using KEEP Toolkit technology, that they did not was perhaps more of a reflection on the level of peer support and time available given the looming public examinations at their school than any reflection on their obvious enthusiasm and willingness to do so. One of the students created his own video of a scenario that he designed, acted out by his brother to demonstrate his understanding of creativity. Another embedded a depiction of a three-dimensional diagram to represent his conception of creativity and the third talked about creativity in terms of using photographs and vignettes as metaphor. Links to the boys and web-based templates are provided in the right-hand section of this webpage.

A self-study in the use of web based templates to elicit and represent my knowledge. Simplicity of use of the keep toolkit templates is a major ingredient in my own use of them for a variety of purposes. The capacity to embed not only different colours, but also to link web pages relating to different aspects of my thinking provides me with a means of organising my emerging thoughts. There is moreover, an exciting dynamic in developing a webpage with such ease using colour, image and video as well as text to create anaesthetic communication of my understandings. I find it difficult to set out my thoughts in a linear way using a paper-based form of communication, largely because I think in a multiplicity of fashion developing several ideas at once.The facility with which I can link templates that I had previously created to my current work is another feature of their attractiveness for me. Being able to set out a scaffold in my thinking that can give me a forum as my ideas emerge and as I interact with what I've written (or rather spoken because I use voice recognition software to develop the text rather than typing by hand) is a major advantage for me. I unable to add a sentence or two in different areas of the webpage as and when thoughts occur to me. this spurs my creativity as I feel less inclined to force myself to develop one line of thought while others jostle for attention in my mind. My thinking as I construct a paper for presentation does not occur necessarily while I'm sitting at the keyboard for my computer. It is, however, a simple matter to don headset and turn on the computer to download my latest thought in the appropriate box which I have colour-coded for ease.

What results have emerged? There is a question of accessibility of good educational research mentoring for teachers; there are relatively few educational research mentors with the skills, knowledge and school-based credibility to work with teacher researchers. This study shows that research mentoring by a university-based research mentoring can lead to peer research mentoring by teachers in schools and that web-based technology can enhance and enrich experience. ERM, which incorporates digital video technology, including using video on demand, offers a possible solution but this would depend for its effectiveness on the quality and level of support offered by school-based coordinators of teacher research groups. Since these coordinators are likely to be senior members of staff, time is again at a premium. As for using digital technology in educational mentoring, there are caveats. The school where research mentoring and tutoring takes place must provide access to on-line facilities so that tutors/mentors can assist teachers in learning new techniques. In time, these will be provided through video streaming alongside modelling using the KEEP Toolkit Templates (accessible at http://www.cfkeep.org). For example, modelling how to use Critical Thinking Scaffolds (Coombs and Fletcher, 2005) can be managed on-line. Modelling can be recorded on digital video and incorporated into resources using KEEP Toolkit templates enabling professional development for school-based research mentors. Educational research mentoring using digital technology can support school-university research collaboration representing and disseminating original ideas.

Discussion of points arising Thousands of researchers down the years have started on projects they really believed in and which embodied ideas they really cared about. But too often these projects got pared down and chopped about and falsified in the process of getting approval and the researchers got progressively more disillusioned and frustrated, as they have gone on. Thousands of researchers have ended their research soured and disappointed and hurt or cynical. It does not have to be that way. (Reason and Rowan, 1981, xxiii-xxiv) In this paper, the presenter explores the origins and nature of educational research mentoring using digital technology. Research reports by teachers and self-study by the presenter are used to explicate the potential of digital technologies for teacher research. The excitement of using web-based templates from the Carnegie Foundation cannot be underestimated as a motivator in enabling teachers to undertake research. The crucial factor in determining whether teachers undertake, exhibit and disseminate research in schools revolves round relationships with technology, i.e. how user friendly do they find it? How far does it enable elicitation, representation of their knowledge and creativity? Van Manen (1990) has pointed out that writing exercises the ability to see and, if this is so, the use of digital technology enables a sharing and critical engagement in seeing that paper based text alone cannot. When a teacher-researcher can construct a multi-media account of their research their seeing can be communicated in a dynamic and living form using, still and video photography. But digital technology by itself is unlikely to entice teachers to overcome the barriers of time and funding that can often beset their research. Providing critical friendship through educational research mentoring does assist the process of knowledge creation when coupled with using digital technology. Where teacher and academic researchers collaborate in co-enquiry to explore how teaching and learning might be enhanced and extended in schools, there is a potential for developing understandings and disseminating this knowledge using web-based technology. This potential is being recognised by the Teacher Learning Academy in England as a means to enabling a growth of knowledge about teacher learning through communal mentoring. The communal aspect ensures that the culture of teaching remains intact in research accounts as the use of multi media and digital technology communicates this culture.

Examples of teacher and student researchers' and the author's work using web-based templates Chris McNulty; Creativity Andrew Wilson; Creativity Sarah Fletcher; Representing Teachers' Knowledge Rachele Gregg; Freeing the imagination Sarah Fletcher: A Guyuan Snapshot Katie Austin; Research mentoring and Action Research Sarah Fletcher; research mentoring Donna Chipping; Work-based mentoring and action research

Recommendations in the light of findings Web-based templates per se may not encourage teachers to represent their emerging knowledge. Judging by the experiences of the author of this paper, web-based templates need to have a demonstrable value to teachers in terms of increasing their motivation to research by making the process enjoyable. Templates would enable teachers to explore their own creativity in how knowledge is represented and thus a sense of ownership appeared to be more popular than those that would seem to have a moored checklist function. Teachers find easy access ability in use of the keep toolkit can play web-based format particularly attractive and while they appreciate having guided questions to help them frame their thinking, they enjoy the capacity to change the questions or prompts in order to elicit their own knowledge more easily. Teacher researchers accustomed to using web-based templates to represent and disseminate their own knowledge were keen in each of the case studies to encourage others to do likewise. A recommendation arising from research towards this paper is put teacher researchers are introduced to the Carnegie foundation keep Toolkit temp late at an early stage in their research. A further recommendation is that their use is modelled by teacher and student researchers already versed in using their potential. While web-based templates can assist teachers in eliciting and representing as well as disseminating their knowledge, they are likely to be regarded as additional tasks to complete unless their relevance is explained. ideally they will be completed not at the end of a piece of research just prior to submission but as the research is undertaken and should be constructed in such a way that they can be customised according to teachers needs. Certainly, web based representations of teachers knowledge should be recognized as viable and valuable submissions for accreditation whether that be for Masters level work example or as the basis for recognition by the GTCe teacher learning Academy in England. Part and parcel of enabling teachers to customise their web based representations of their knowledge should be the facility to embed multimedia. Additionally the use of voice recognition software might be in courage, despite the need for careful proofreading, as a way to helping teachers who spend most of their time communicating into speech rather than writing to set down their knowledge for other teacher researchers to engage with. It goes without saying, that the criteria to be used for evaluating the quality of video and audio and other forms of multimedia offered the submission for Masters level all for the TLA stages of recognition must be made explicit from the outset. web-based template is and the criteria for evaluating multimedia forms of representation must not become straitjackets but should encourage the engagement of creativity and imagination by teacher researchers. Web-based templates and critical thinking scaffolds are tools that should assist teachers in eliciting, representing and disseminating their emerging knowledge in educational research. Where the teachers work looks attractive because it includes photographs and audio files this does not mean that it is necessarily a valuable contribution educational knowledge. Teacher researchers should be supported to understand that for research to be educational it needs to have the capacity to educate others. Educational research as distinct from education research, that is to say research about education, has a potential didactic functionand any use of multimedia should be justified and justifiable upon these grounds.

Resources and references I have found helpful References: Truth is simply a collective name for verification processes, just as health, wealth, strength etc. are names for other processes connected with life. Truth is made... James, W. (1907:143) Barthes, R. (1975) The Pleasure of the Text, Hill and Wang, New York, USA Chipping, D. and Morse, R. (2006) Using a supportive mentoring relationship to aid independent action research accessed on 08/01/07 at the Teacher Research Panel site http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ntrp/publications/ Cooperrider, D. (1999) Appreciative Inquiry (Collaborating for Change), Berrett-Koehler, USA Fletcher, S. (2007) Mentoring adult learners: Realizing possible selves In New Directions for Adult and Continuing Education Jossey-Bass publishers Vol. 2007 (114) pp 75-86 Fletcher, S.J. (2006) Technology-enabled action research in mentoring teacher researchers, Reflecting Education Journal, Vol. 2 (1) pp. 50-71 Fletcher, S. (2005) Research mentoring: the missing link. In: Bodone, F. (Ed.) What difference does research make and for whom? Peter Lang Publishers, New York, USA Fletcher, S. (2005) Using digital technology in practitioner research in: Research Intelligence, News Journal of the British Educational Research Association Fletcher, S. and Whitehead, A. (2003) The look of the teacher, using DV to improve the professional practice of teaching. In: Clark, A. and Erickson, G. (Eds) Teacher inquiry, living the research in everyday practice, Peter Lang, USA, New York Fletcher, S. (2002) Improving mentoring with action research and digital video technology In: Links Bulletin 25, pp. 25-26 London, Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research Fletcher, S. (2000) Mentoring in schools: A handbook of good practice, RoutledgeFalmer, London Fromm, E. (1962) The Art of Loving, HarperCollins, London Hiebert, J., Gallimore, R. and Stigler, J. (2002) A knowledge base for the teaching profession: what would it look like and how can we get one? In: Educational Researcher, 31(5), pp. 3-15 James, W. (1907) Pragmatism, Meridian Books, New York, USA Maslow, A.H. (1970) Religions, Values and Peak Experiences, Penguin Books, USA McNiff, J. (2002) Action Research: principles and practice, RoutledgeFalmer, London Van Manen, M. (1990) Researching Lived Experience. Ontario: University of Ontario