The Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert Experience: Lessons from a University Academic's foray into Multidisciplinary Mixed-Level Professional Learning Networks

Trust, Krutka and Carpenter (2016) define Professional Learning Networks (PLNs) as "uniquely personalised, complex systems of interactions consisting of people, resources, and digital tools that support…professional growth". Whilst discipline-based PLNs are common in HE, pedagogy PLNs such as Advance HE Connect and #LTHEChat on Twitter are quite broad in their focus. By contrast, the Microsoft Innovative Educator Expert (MIE-Expert) community focuses on enhancing educator digital skills, but across disciplines and levels. This presentation highlights the author's experiences of being an MIE-Expert both before and during the COVID19 pandemic and explores the potential of mixed-level PLNs as an innovative platform for knowledge exchange.
MIE-Expert status is achieved via self-nomination and subsequent approval by the Microsoft Education team; the author has made two successful applications as part of a self-managed CPD plan. A key feature of this PLN is that its membership comprises educators and learning developers in Schools, FE Colleges and HEIs. This presentation covers the operation of the MIE-Expert PLN, explores what HE
can learn from other levels, and demonstrates how despite not strictly being an education tool, this PLN satisfies the QAA's definition of Enterprise (2018).
The author's original motivation for seeking MIE-Expert status was personal; however, the dividends have been realised across the Engineering Department and the School of Computing, Engineering and Digital Technologies at Teesside University, proving vital during the recent pandemic-related transition to agile working. This presentation will detail the benefits thus gained and discuss the merits of maintaining similar networks in a post-pandemic climate.