Glow Scotland

The Scottish Arts Council and Learning and Teaching Scotland have joined forces to bring arts education online through Glow. As a result of this partnership, a new post and project have been created to explore Glow’s potential to support innovative approaches to learning and teaching through the arts.

I have recently joined the Glow Team as Development Officer (Arts) and I’m hugely excited about this project’s potential to enable artists, performers and writers and Scotland’s schools to work and learn together in ways that have never been possible before. Glow is breaking down barriers and making learning experiences and opportunities more widely accessible – the recent Anthony Horowitz and Oscar Stringer Glow Meet events and the Willie Rodger print project are just a few examples of the exciting work that is already going on via Glow.

Over the next 22 months I will be working with selected Scottish Arts Council funded arts organisations on a number of ambitious demonstration projects, to be announced later this year, which will trial new ways of learning and will show how creativity and the arts are a fantastic way of supporting Curriculum for Excellence.

The project will provide CPD opportunities for both teachers and arts practitioners to work together to develop ideas, projects and resources. I am keen to make contact with teachers, cultural co-ordinators and local arts teams who would like to be involved so please do get in touch – I’ll be delighted to hear from you.

Look out for a new national Glow Group for the project which will highlight developments and opportunities providing a focal point for all related activity and a place to collaborate and share good practice. The project will also be showcased at the Scottish Learning Festival on 23 September.

Enquiries: glowenquiries@LTScotland.org.uk

Click here for press-release

This post and project is funded through a partnership between Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Scottish Arts Council

On Thursday 18th June Glowing Thursday hosted a final farewell Glow Meet wth Laurie O’Donnell, Director of Learning and Technology at Learning and Teaching Scotland who left to pursue a new career on 30th June 2009.

During his Glow Meet Laurie told a range of participants, including HMIe, about his involvement with Glow and how excited about the differences that it was making in Scottish Education. Having joined LTS in 2001 as Head of Future Learning and Teaching Laurie has seen Glow through from an early stage and is looking forward to seeing what Glow 2 can bring to the children of Scotland.

The full Glow Meet with Laurie will be available in Glowing Thursdays Xtra very soon and keep track of Laurie in his Blog.

Congratulations also goes to Marie Dougan who took up the acting post of Director of Learning and Technology today (1st July). We hope that Marie will also join us soon in Glowing Thursday to tell us of her plans for Glow.

As the school term neared a close across Scotland, Glowing Thursday held a very special event to entertain and involve schools from across the country.

Scotland’s Got Talent saw an inspiring afternoon of children from primaries and secondaries dancing, singing, doing comedy acts, playing musical instruments and even doing the Highland Fling!! Fourteen acts including schools in the Western Isles, East Lothian and North Lanarkshire all took part via Glow Meet to entertain more than 28 other classes throughout Scotland.

For some schools this was the first time that they had ever taken part in a Glow Meet and it was well receved by all. One teacher said “I thought the talent showcase was a great success” and another thought ‘It was good to see different schools’ settings for their acts and to see what works and what didn’t.’

All participants will receive a certificate and a small thank you gift for all their hard work and for keeping Scotland entertained at the end of a very long term!

A new schedule for next session’s Glowing Thursdays will be available at the beginning of August and will include ‘Scotland’s Christmas Talent’, so if you missed out this time make sure you join in with the next one. Find out more at http://www.glowhelp.me/thursdays

Session 2008-9 has drawn to a close, so what better time to look forward to next year? Holidays and relaxation may be the priorities for the next few weeks, but why not spare a few minutes to register for The Scottish Learning Festival? Seminars are filling fast, but there’s still time to pick from the extensive and impressive programme of events, including more than thirty with a Glow element. And, of course, the return of the Glowing Lounge is bound to prove popular, so if you want to get involved, make sure you register.

Watch this blog for previews of some of the fantastic Glowing seminars, more details of the Glowing Lounge programme, and information about SLF Extra, the Glow group to complement the festival, and where those who can’t attend in the flesh can become virtual delegates and share in some of the amazing practice being showcased.

Mark Baker Outdoor Learning Development Officer for LTS, and I provided Glow training for a wide range of Outdoor Learning  Partners last Thursday in the Optima. This training came about because of a demand from the Outdoor Learning community to get involved with Glow and Outdoor Learning in schools. It follows on from requests we took for Glow training at the Outdoor Learning Conference 2009  in Crieff in April. Thanks to all the attendees at this training for  being such enthusiastic participants:

The attendees  listened to presentations about Glow and took part in creating their own Glow groups. Later in the day they also collaborated in making changes to the National Parks and Outdoor Learning National Glow group. The first presentation answered some basic questions: what is Glow, where is it nationally and what can it do for me?  Participants took part in useful discussions about  how to use Glow for outdoor learning and asked tough questions about the value of more learning on the web.

After lunch  the discussion was focused on the National Site, Outdoor Learning Glow groups and shared administration in the National site.  It was very useful for me to have participants feedback on the National Parks and Outdoor Learning Glow group and it’s sub Glow group structure.  The new National glow group title is Outdoor Learning . It now has some new pages and some new sub Glow groups for example with National Parks pages and a National Parks sub Glow group. I was able to make improvements based on useful comments given by the attendees during the training. I  look forward to the participation of our OLPs as guest users in this National Glow group and Glow based outdoor learning projects.

We have seen requests for Glow training and guest memberships grow throughout 2008 and 2009. Following this successful training we will organise a Building Outdoor Learning  Community event for January 2010. Before that, we can also look forward to two Outdoor Learning events with Scottish Natural Heritage, both will be live in Glow: Outdoor Learning for Teachers Wed 14th Oct 2009 and  Sharing Good Practice in OL Tues 10th Nov.  For more details see news in the OLNGg.

Did you know that within the Sharing Practice page of the GlowScotland website, schools from across Scotland share their experiences of using Glow?

Log on and find out how pupils  from across Scotland watched leading scientists perform a bird autopsy beamed live into their classrooms from the Scottish Seabird Centre; or how Burravoe Primary School in Shetland used Glow to keep in touch with pupils when bad weather closed the school.

Read about how schools in East Dunbartonshire are using Glow in a project to ease the transition to secondary school, and how James Young school took a phased approach to the roll out of Glow to benefit learning and teaching.

In addition, practitioners from across Scotland, working with children at different ages and stages, share their experiences of using Glow.

Why not log on and see if you can benefit from any of these ideas and stories ?

B!TE - The Big Ideas:Technical Education Conference - is happening on Wednesday the 24th of June at the Carnegie Conference Centre in Dunfermline.

If you can’t make it on the day, you’re invited to join in through Glow. You will be able to watch a live stream of the keynote speeches and get a flavour of the showcases, as well as taking part in discussions based around the key messages of the event.

As a taster, we have uploaded clips made by several of the key participants in the run up to the conference. Go to the ‘B!TE Build Up’ tab to view these.

Programme starts at 10am, so join us if you can!

Scottish CILT hosted the first ever national virtual event for languages teachers on Monday, 15th June. The meeting took place from 4pm until 5.45pm in the Scottish CILT group on Glow, Scotland’s national schools intranet, via Glow Meet, the built –in videoconferencing facility on Glow.

Speakers had been identified from primary and secondary schools. They showed presentations on approaches to interdisciplinary work that they had been involved with in their schools and participating teachers commented and asked questions either through the chat facility or “on air.”

17 participants tuned in to the event; there was no cost and people could join from either their home or school computer. The event was well received, and many participants indicated that they would be very interested in future similar events.

“ I thought that the conference was fantastic. It was normally the kind of thing you would have to attend an inservice event to be part of, usually entailing giving up a Saturday! “

“I thought the content was excellent. It was really uplifting to see all that good practice and certainly it has inspired me! I really liked the fact that you could interact with the presenters and ask questions, as often there isn’t time for this when attending an inservice event. I was also impressed by how easy it was to use the technology once we got started and I think that using Glow to share good practice and disseminate ideas should help us to make the changes demanded by CfE.”

“I enjoyed the CPD session, there is no question that this will soon be the way to run CPD events. Congratulations on your vision!”

The event was recorded and will be made available on the Scottish CILT Glow group.
As a means of reaching a national audience, providing cost – free CPD, and providing teachers with a means to engage with us via the glow group, there is nothing to compare with the convenience and easy manageability of Glow Meet.

We intend to build on this success and run regular, similar events in the future. We will most likely incorporate a monthly session along similar lines into our existing events calendar. If you have any suggestions for themes to develop further teacher CPD in this format, please don’t hesitate to get in touch: Catriona.oates@strath.ac.uk. Looking forward to seeing you on Glow soon!

Did you know that at the bottom of almost every page in Glow there is a ‘report unsuitable content’ button? Did you also know that anyone can use it?

You may be visiting a group that you are a member of and see something that you regard as inappropriate. Chances are, you’ll do one of two things – you’ll either do nothing about it except think ‘isn’t that terrible – someone ought to do something about it’, or you’ll try and find out who you should contact to point out the problem.

In a community, we can all exercise some level of responsibility. It’s not just an administrator that can take action.

It couldn’t be easier to do the right thing.

If you find something inappropriate, click the link at the bottom of the screen. The Glow Helpdesk is notified, and they’ll follow up the issue for you.

Becoming a responsible citizen requires knowing how and when to do the right thing. This is just as important in digital environments, as in our physical environment.

If you’re a teacher, are you talking about how to be responsible online with your students?

Why not extend your knowledge (and that of your fellow colleagues!), share ideas and become part of Glowing Thursdays?

Every week in the Glowing Potential National Glow Group a live virtual event will be held bringing together like minded practitioners from across Scotland to collaborate and share ideas.

Events vary and will include web conference masterclass sessions with experts, Curriculum for Excellence spotlights, discussions with practitioners about successful Glow stories and much much more.

These sessions usually take the form of a Glow Meet or Glow Chat but if you are unable to access these during the live event you can always leave a question on the discussion board available before and after each event.
Find out more about what is going on this Thursday and in the following weeks by going to the Glowing Thursdays page:

We hope that you can join us and also encourage colleagues to join in as well.
If you have any suggestions for next session please do not hesitate to contact Jennifer McDougall on j.mcdougall@ltscotland.org.uk

STOP PRESS: Special Event – Thursday 25th June 1.30 – 3pm, Scotland’s Got Talent. Schools throughout the country will be able to take part in this end of term special Glowing Thursday. Individual pupils/classes/teachers can perform and entertain (and be entertained!) through Glow Meet and share their talents with the rest of Scotland! Please encourage schools and teachers that you know to join in. More information is available in the Glowing Thursdays page