DETAIL
Bex Ferriday BA, PGCE (PCE)
Contact Details
Name: Bex Ferriday
Job Title: Lead Teacher
Address: Cornwall College, St Austell, Trevarthian Road, St Austell, PL25 4BU
Tel: 01726 226736
Email: bex.ferriday@cornwall.ac.uk
Work History
2003 to Present: Lead Teacher School of Education and Training
1997 to 2003: Senior Tutor at Link into Learning, responsible for embedding literacy and numeracy into ICT tuition
Research Details
Having completed 2 MSc modules through the University of Exeter examining the successes and failings of blended learning in the Teacher Education sector I have now transferred to the UoP International Masters Programme. While studying with Exeter, as an initial piece of small-scale research I tested the hypothesis that Initial Teacher Education students who use the College's Virtual Learning Environment pass assignments with a higher percentage grade than those do not use it and was heartened to see this hypotheseis prove to be true. I am now investigating the use of Problem Based Learning in Teacher Education and am currently running a pilot project with a group of DTLLS students which enables them to devise their own means of addressing required Assessed Learning outcomes and present these as summative assessment.
In tandem with this, I am also examining research into the use of Multi User Virtual Environments (MUVEs) such as "Second Life" as a pedagogical medium, and have now completed the post graduate MUVEnation programme, a project co-funded by the European Commission under the 2007 Lifelong Learning programme, which sought to develop a European peer learning programme for teacher training for the use of Active learning with Multi-Users Virtual Environments to increase pupils' motivation and participation in education. The School of Education and Training has owns an island on Second Life, and I am now running the world's first ITT course (a version of PTLLS) delivered in its entirety using web 2.0 and 3.0 applications such as flickr, moodle, Twitter, wikis and, of course, Second Life. Arts and Media degree students are also using the island to build their own interactive works of art based around the theme of the prototype and the Business Entyerprise and IT department are using the island as a collaborative area and a space in which to meet other students studying similar subject areas from around Europe.
Further to this, I have completed a research proposal with Trevor Price of the University of Glamorgan looking at the possibility of using both paper-based and electronic graphic novels to teach at HE level. We have completed a business proposal and are now through to the second round of the RCUK Business Plan comnpetition. We have also received interest from Grow Cornwall and Finance Wales who are keen to offer funding by way of a grant. Our first graphic novel looks at writing academic assignments and using the Harvard Referencing System.
Selected Publications
Editorial for the winter 2008/09 edition of the RaPAL (Research and Practice in Adult Literacy) Journal
Article for "Reflect" Magazine looking at the use of videogames as a literacy and numeracy resource.
Articles for the Virtual World Watch Snapshot of Virtual World Activity in UK HE and FE (Summer 2009 and Winter 2009)
Article in the RSC Newsletter about Multi User Virtual Environments in Education
Links and Downloads
Bex's details were last updated on 8th Mar 2010
