Glow Scotland

January 17th, 2009

Invitation to all biology teachers and classes – 21st Jan., 2pm

J Jelly

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: biology, ecology, environment, fulmar, Glow Meet, plastic, seabird, SSC
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, East Lothian, Events, Local authorities, National Groups, South Lanarkshire, Uncategorized

If you have a Glow login you will be able to access the Science Glow Group in the National Site. On Wednesday 21st January, a very special Glow Meet session will be taking place there. It will be well worth dropping in, with your class, at 2pm – 3pm, especially if you are studying Higher Biology or are interested in environmental issues.

The Scottish Seabird Centre Education Officers, Emily Dodd and Anna Pugh have invited classes across Scotland to come into the Glow Meet session to see the dissection of a seabird, a fulmar. You may be thinking, how grisly! …until you realize this bird has died, not of old age, but because of our lack of care of our environment. Emily told me a similar post mortem was held last year at the SSC and several pieces of plastic were found in the poor bird’s stomach. Reading about this in a book is one thing, but seeing it in real time, via Glow Meet, where classes will be able to pose questions to the scientists performing the autopsy, is quite another! Some North Berwick HS pupils are going to be lucky enough to be in the SSC during the dissection, but schools all over Scotland will for the first time be able to drop into this via the videolink that Glow Meet offers.
It should not be difficult to access the Glow Meet (assuming your local authority and school have enabled this function in Glow – and you have a Glow login as a member of staff). If you are going to bring your class in to see the post mortem, I’d be grateful if you would let me know (j.jelly@ltscotland.org.uk) but essentially, navigate to the national Science Glow Group, find the Glow Meet webpart on the discussions page and click on “Join the Glow Meet”. If you have a webcam, you can be visible to others, if you have a microphone, you will be able to voice questions, but even if you have neither of these things, you will still be able to see the post mortem and pose questions by typing them in. If you are coming in with a webcam in place, a school name placard would be a great help to others in identifying you.
Glow is enabling the sharing of events such as this. There is another great opportunity in the Social Studies national group on 19th Jan. to experience first class Google Earth training via Glow Meet.
Don’t be shy, make use of these opportunities. Log on to Glow and come into these Glow Meet sessions.
Hoping to see to see you on Wednesday! (The session will be recorded though, so if your timetable means you can’t come in live to the session on Wednesday, you can access the Glow Meet recording later)

PS Click here to find out more about using Glow Meet and all the other Glow functions.
You can read more about the post mortem by clicking the poster: fulmarposter.jpg

November 4th, 2008

Wildlife in Glow

mbrown

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories East Lothian

Recently I have been in North Berwick and Edinburgh discussing Glow with our partners in the National Parks and Outdoor Learning National Glow Group. I met with Emily Dodd, the Education Officer at the Scottish Seabirds Centre (SSC) in North Berwick. She has an amazing classroom at the harbour and some fantastic technology to back it up. Using large screens, linked to web cams on local islands in the Firth of Forth, I watched, recently born baby seals on the Isle of May. Emily and I will work together to share pictures and video of wildlife in Glow. we want to share some of her pictures of seals, dolphins and puffins. We also talked about a Glow meet session where Emily will tell storys about the local wildlife at different times of the year, starting with a story about local puffins in April. Primary and nursery teachers can look out for news of this event in the new year and download information for taking part in these interactive stories.

On the same day I visited Rebekah Stacks who is an Educational Officer with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. They are in the process of developing more outdoor learning materials and they want to share more of their great video and web camera material in Glow.  Look out for school projects and pictures of wildlife in the National Parks and Outdoor Learning National Glow Group, or upload a project from your school.

August 13th, 2008

East Lothian Probationers Event

mbrown

Comments: 3 Comments » Tags:  : Categories East Lothian, Events, Probationers, Uncategorized

My colleague Karen-Anne McAlpine and I were presenting in  Campie Primary School in Musselburgh today. We made four presentations, over the course of the day, to probationers from primary and secondary schools across East Lothian. To do this, we teamed up with Elizabeth Cowan, Key Contact and Iain Stewart, Glow mentor and ‘head of science’ in Preston Lodge High School. I felt part of an extended Glow team. As the day progressed the presentations evolved but they followed the same format: I talked about the Glow big picture and pedagogy; Karen-Ann, gave a live demonstration of the Glow portal with a focus on the National site and the National Parks Glow group; Elizabeth, concentrated on showing the East Lothian noticeboard, a probationers Glow group  and the Glow Scotland site; and Iain, shared his long experience of using VLEs and recent experience of developing Glow groups at Preston Lodge High School.

While Karen-Anne was showing the Glow portal I made some notes about our presentations.  My introductions focused on the aspirations of Glow: building communities of learning and supporting new approaches for teaching and learning.  I was answering my own questions: what is Glow, what is in Glow and what can it do? But I was also thinking about how the accepted definitions of ‘digital natives’ and ‘digital immigrants’ are not so clear with this group of teachers, because of the mixed age group and mix of experience. These teachers have passed through university with a higher order of digital skills for learning and they actively use technology for social purposes. Some of these probationers are starting a second career and may have experience of earning a living useing technology.  All of these new professionals are being encouraged on day one, in East Lothian, to experiment with technology and to build communities of learning with Glow.

Elizabeth demonstrated this, when she accepted an offer by Jody Greig, an ICT probationer teacher, to administrate for the new East Lothian Probationer’s Glow group. And all even before any probationer has a Glow log in. Some probationers have had an introduction to Glow during their postgraduate studies  as part of an ICT elective course and are very keen to use Glow as soon as possible. I think it would be an advantage for student’s, like Jody, to have a Glow log on during their studies and carry their work between schools, virtually.

Karen-Ann summed up her tour of the Glow portal by using a PowerPoint slide showing an iceberg. This was a picture which she had developed from an idea we had discussed with  Dave Gilmour .  The purpose was to place what probationers know about existing technology in the context of Glow. K-A described what is visible only to the Glow community, below the water line eg Glow groups; what is on the water line eg email; and what is visible above the waterline to the public, such as blogs and the Glow Scotland site. She also described how East Lothian’s existing online learning  community, edubuzz, can be incorporated into Glow.  Elizabeth and Iain illustrated this important point further during their presentations, showing that existing good work can be displayed in Glow in a variety of ways. Iain also emphasised the large benefits of using Glow to share websites and to develop new teaching materials collectively: locally, regionally and nationally.

Before leaving Campie, I chatted with Dave Gilmour (Key Contact) about the National Parks Glow group and the important contributions that East lothian can make. He had been telling probationers all about edubuzz in a neighbouring classroom. Campie is a group member of the John Muir Trust and is helping to raise awareness of wild places but other  schools in East Lothian are equally active…… but that is another post.

July 2nd, 2008

EduBuzz meets Glow

Anne Ward

Comments: 1 Comment Tags:  : Categories East Lothian

When educators in East Lothian first discovered the power of blogs as a communication tool, the medium had something of a bad press, creating a growing demand for blogging in a safe and professionally specific environment. Enter EduBuzz.

Edubuzz is a blogging group for teachers and educators in East Lothian. A number of educational blogs have sprung up across Scotland since EduBuzz first took off two years ago. These blogs provide an ideal forum for teachers to chat, exchange ideas and discuss CPD opportunities.

Most recently, Glow has been a hot topic for discussion, with teachers, educationalists and Glow Mentors exchanging opinions, information about events and more.

Now, the EduBuzz community is migrating into Glow. The blog group will merge intact, being made available through page viewer. This means not only will EduBuzz be available on the external internet, but it will also be accessible through the Glow intranet, parcelling educational resources together in one place.

‘When children publish a blog, the fact that it’s visible everywhere concentrates minds wonderfully,’ explained Martin Brown, Development Officer for Glow. ‘It makes the audience real and everything available just a click away.’

Read more about Glow in East Lothian.

April 29th, 2008

Driving and managing change in East Lothian

Anne Ward

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories East Lothian

Last year East Lothian hosted the trial phases of the Glow Portal. Now, a year on, the authority is preparing to roll out the initiative to all schools by exploring how Glow can enhance teaching and learning. It began with mentor training, which helped create a ‘real buzz and vibe’ in the authority, according to East Lothian’s Glow Mentor, Tess Watson.

The group has made establishing links with schools in other local authorities one of its first priorities. Tess (Education Support Officer for ICT) is hoping to set up a national Glow Group for her subject, biology, but there have also been discussions about creating a national group for pupils with hearing impairments, and other additional needs. This would be done in collaboration with Learning and Teaching Scotland.

East Lothian’s mentors are also looking to involve non-teaching and support staff (for example librarians, technicians, CPD officers and more) in the authority’s roll-out, recognising that Glow will provide a service to a wide variety of people, not solely teachers and pupils.

Read more about Glow in East Lothian.