Glow Scotland

September 20th, 2011

Daily Quote: What would you do with a million pounds?

ggallacher

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“We have really taken to using Glow and used it an awful lot over the course of the year in many, many projects. The main impact of this is how much the children’s ICT skills have improved, they are actually seeking out things to do on Glow. One of the most recent projects just now is the children have set up their own Glow pages without any teacher intervention”

Lauren Budd, teacher, Woodlands Primary School, Carnoustie

Find out more by visiting the Glow Cookbook here

July 28th, 2011

Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

rsibbett

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Maureen Atkins is a Maths teacher at St Aidan’s High School in North Lanarkshire. She has been making good use of Glow in her teaching. She was involved in the school’s decision to move ahead with using e-portfolios with the S1 year group. Maureen was keen that evidence of pupil achievement that she had captured in the classroom would be available to be used by the pupils when creating posts in their e-portfolios. This Cookbook will focus on the Maths Store Glow Group and on the wiki. You will see a tour of the Glow Group and wiki and also interviews with Maureen where she will explain what she was setting out to do.
This process could be used across any whole school seeking a method to give pupils access to evidence from classes for use in their e-portfolios.

Find out more by reading the Glow Cookbook

July 26th, 2011

Glow TV

pcurrie

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: CfE, CPD, Edinburgh International book Festival, Education Scotland, Glow, Glow Featured, Glow Meet, Glowscotland, glowtv, Scotland, Scottish Book Trust
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Early Years, Events, Expressive Arts, Glow, Glow Meet, Health and Wellbeing, Learner Resources, Literacy, Local authorities, Mathematics, Moving Image Education, National Groups, Pupils, Religious and Moral Education, Sciences, Social Studies, Technologies, Uncategorized, modern languages, research

Glow TV is our way of bringing the National Glow Meets to you from the one, easy to find, place. Launching for the start of the new term, we have a major schedule of ‘programmes’ planned for the coming session, including, hopefully, a whole series of programmes on topics such as: CfE, SQA, Glow, Glowing Thursdays, World of Work Wednesdays, Creativity, Games Design and Moving Image Education.

This is, of course, in addition to the many exciting events we already broadcast through Glow, such as the author events from the Scottish Book Trust and Edinburgh Book Festival, as well as those hugely popular one-offs like the Dr Who event and the NASA astronauts one, for example. All of these Glow national events will now be accessed through the one central place, Glow TV.

We are now using new software for Glow Meet (Adobe Connect) and this software allows us access to a recording of a Glow Meet, instantly from within Glow. That got us thinking that we could really develop the idea of Glow Meets further and offer a kind of ‘Watch Again’ facility, a bit like the online efforts of the major TV channels. Okay, so we don’t have the equipment or resources that the major TV channels do, but we have created an area in Glow that provides users with a schedule and allows users the opportunity to add programmes to their own, personal, schedule when they sign-up for events.

Signing-up for these events/programmes is easier now, too. Instead of having to complete a sign-up form for every event you want to take part in, all you have to do is register once for Glow TV and then choose your username from a drop-down list whenever you wish to sign-up to a specific event. Easy.

It is hoped that a lot of the programmes we bring you will include live debate/discussion on important topics in Education, as well as many online training programmes.We have managed to procure a little room in Education Scotland’s Optima office in Glasgow and turn it into our very own Glow TV studio, which even has a couch and a coffee table, so that our presenters look like true TV professionals in the making!

So, with a whole schedule of programmes you can tailor to your own personal guide, easy sign-up and channel categories to make it easy to find recordings and watch again, Glow TV is a brilliant addition to Glow’s assets. To register for Glow TV and then be able to have your own personal schedule and easy sign-up for programmes, click here.

July 7th, 2011

New Cookbook available

Lesley Sneddon

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A large amount of new maths content has been added to Glow Learn. This content comes in the form of Maths Alive Games and Maths Alive Videos and is suitable for both Primary and Secondary pupils, containing nearly 200 activities from first to fourth levels.

In Part 1 of this cookbook, we look at how the resources can be accessed and used. In Part 2, we’ll learn how one school has been using the games and videos with pupils.

Click here to have a look.

December 10th, 2010

SHINE – A creative music Co-Create project

Julia Fenby

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags:  : Categories Co-Create, Curriculum for Excellence, Expressive Arts, Glow, Health and Wellbeing, Literacy, Mathematics, Supported Learning, Technologies, West Dunbartonshire

Through Co-Create, Drake Music Scotland is working in partnership with West Dunbartonshire Council and Kilpatrick Secondary School on SHINE, a project which is shedding light on the artistic process, unpacking resources and sharing experiences and performances via Glow.

Using new Soundbeam 5 technology and the Figurenotes notation system, pupils are taking part in creative music making sessions which are designed to be fully accessible for Kilpatrick School’s pupils with Additional Support Needs.

Drake Associate Musician Matilda Brown is visiting the school every Wednesday to make music more accessible across the school. Pupils are learning new skills and creating their own compositions and teachers are being trained in using the music technology. Throughout this academic year, pupils and staff will be sharing their learning through Glow.

During the project, the Glow Group will be developed by project participants, and it will then be opened up nationally so that teachers across Scotland can see what can be achieved with resources such as Soundbeam 5 and Figurenotes. Drake will highlight best practice in the creative use of this valuable technology and enable discussions to take place to develop this on a national level.

The SHINE project supports the Experiences and Outcomes for the Expressive Arts, (Music) Literacy and Numeracy and Health and Wellbeing across the curriculum. It also upholds the progression principles of the Curriculum for Excellence, in particular, challenge and enjoyment, relevance and coherence.

Co-Create is funded through a partnership between Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Creative Scotland National Lottery Fund.

Image credit: Colin Dickson

December 1st, 2010

December Maths Puzzles now available

ronnierankin

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The Monthly Maths Puzzle Group has now been updated with five festive posers.

We’ve tried to broaden the target age group and Puzzle 5 may even test the odd Maths teacher!

Find them here:

http://glo.li/cEqfCi

Enjoy

November 19th, 2010

STATE OF EMERGENCY – Day Five

Julia Fenby

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Argyll and Bute, Co-Create, Curriculum for Excellence, East Ayrshire, Expressive Arts, Glasgow City, Glow, Glow Meet, Health and Wellbeing, Inverclyde, Literacy, Mathematics, Moving Image Education, National Groups, North Lanarkshire, Outdoor Learning, Religious and Moral Education, Sciences, Social Studies, South Lanarkshire, Technologies, West Lothian, modern languages

On the final day of State of Emergency, S2 year groups from all seven schools came together via Glow Meet to share their learning experiences from this intensive week of activity.

Tarbert Academy journalists gave a live report on the conflict as news broke in the west of Scotland. Their broadcast was interrupted when freedom fighters broke into the newsroom in protest against the government regime.

A Bathgate Academy human rights campaigner gave a powerful speech about the importance of integrity and trust.

During the week, Lochend Secondary pupils had explored war poetry in English and code breaking in Maths. In Drama they’d made a film about a boy who wanted to join the army and in PE they’d learned what it might feel like to be in the army as they were made to run outside in the cold!

Clyde Valley High had a visit from the Red Cross and found out about refugee camps; they created Facebook pages and video messages for viral communications; they made images of war by acting out and photographing scenes involving rebels, civilians and government soldiers.

The Army marched into Cumnock Academy hall and set up an assault course – the highlight of the week for the reporters:

“It was amazing, great fun – I didn’t come first but I did enjoy it!”

“It helped build my confidence”.

They also had visits from the Red Cross and a Human Rights lawyer and learned that everyone has rights to equality and protection. Pupils had purified water in Science, and designed and built devices to transport black market goods through underground tunnels in Technology and Art.

At Greenock Academy aid workers had training in basic first aid and learned to cook nutritious meals with limited supplies. The army launched a search for a missing soldier and through constructing a refugee camp, they learned team work, how to filter water, make up ration packs and distribute food to refugees.

Holy Cross High reported that propaganda was rife, with posters put up around the school by both factions; normal lines of communications had been destroyed. The Department of PE had transformed soldiers into ‘lean, mean fighting machines’ in Sniper Alley; the Department of Technology investigated ways of disposing of human waste; the Department of Social Studies researched the causes of conflict, whilst the Department of Drama explored the motivations of those involved.

State of Emergency has clearly been an amazing experience for both pupils and staff. I would encourage you to visit the Glow Group to read pupil diaries about their learning, look at more photographs of cross-curricular activities and see the rich variety of resources shared by participating teachers. This really has been Curriculum for Excellence in action.

Co-Create is funded through a partnership between Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Creative Scotland National Lottery Fund.

Image credit: Kath Morley, Greenock Academy

November 18th, 2010

STATE OF EMERGENCY – Day Four

Julia Fenby

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Argyll and Bute, Co-Create, Curriculum for Excellence, East Ayrshire, Expressive Arts, Glasgow City, Glow, Glow Meet, Health and Wellbeing, Homecoming, Inverclyde, Literacy, Mathematics, Moving Image Education, North Lanarkshire, Outdoor Learning, Religious and Moral Education, Sciences, Social Studies, South Lanarkshire, Technologies, West Lothian, modern languages

This project is so rich that it is impossible to fully reflect the depth and breadth of the activities and learning taking place in seven secondary schools across Scotland.

Today I went out to visit Cumnock Academy in East Ayrshire where staff have embraced the project and as well as designing an exciting timetable of activities for S2, have created opportunities for other pupils, such as the higher media studies students who are recording and reporting on the week’s activities, and the S6 pupils who are helping S2 build emergency shelters.

I arrived in time to join pupils in the hall to watch the fourth and final webisode. They were totally engaged and focused as the drama reached its sad and shocking conclusion. The atmosphere was palpable as pupils silently started to take in and make sense of what they’d seen.

The online dramas have provided the stimulus for the week’s activities and have generated deep discussion and raised big questions. Some of the pupils later engaged in a conversation with a group at Tarbert Academy via Glow Meet and had a serious debate about the motives behind different characters’ actions. Would they have stolen food if they were freedom fighters? Did they think being an insurgent would put their family in danger?

Yesterday, a Human Rights Lawyer visited the school as an expert witness. He was surprised by the pupils’ depth of knowledge, their insight into conflict situations and the challenging nature of their questions.

Participants have explored the physical, ethical and political issues and challenges thrown up by conflict and they have seen the relevance and connectivity of learning across the curriculum. The project has provided a stimulus for learning and a platform for creative response.  The impact of State of Emergency looks set to be long lasting.

Co-Create is funded through a partnership between Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Creative Scotland National Lottery Fund.

Image credit: Eoghann MacColl, Cumnock Academy

November 17th, 2010

STATE OF EMERGENCY – Day Three

Julia Fenby

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“This is an act of peace not war”, the politician announces in a TV news broadcast as government troops are mobilised for Operation Democracy – “the aim, to disable the unelected regime and restore democracy”. The reality for State of Emergency narrator Chloe is chilling – she is able to watch military strikes online whilst her own building shakes.

So began day three of State of Emergency, an intensive week for S2 pupils in seven schools, exploring the dilemmas and complexities of war, supported by Visible Fictions Theatre Company, and using a project Glow Group to share information, ideas and resources.

At Greenock Academy, staff and pupils have been living out a conflict, using role play to explore issues faced by refugees, soldiers, journalists and politicians.

“We don’t belong anywhere and we can’t trust anyone. We don’t want to fight, we just want to go home.” S2 ‘Refugee’ Pupil to Journalists, Greenock Academy

Clyde Valley High mathematics pupils were faced with the challenge of constructing new bridges to transport supplies over the Clyde after a bombing raid had destroyed the existing ones. They also learned how to make and break codes.

With the threat of shortages caused by the conflict, home economics pupils investigated what food supplies would be needed and where to locate them. At Bathgate Academy, the dining staff are involved too  – their State of Emergency lunch time menu includes a ‘No deliveries’ day, with store cupboard ingredients only, and ‘No power or cooking facilities’ day when only cold food will be available.

“Its exciting, really different from normal school” S2 Pupil, Clyde Valley High

“We could have done a whole month on this”. Teacher, Lochend Secondary

Co-Create is funded through a partnership between Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Creative Scotland National Lottery Fund.

Image credit: Julie Austin, Lochend Secondary

November 17th, 2010

STATE OF EMERGENCY – Day Two

Julia Fenby

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Argyll and Bute, Co-Create, Curriculum for Excellence, East Ayrshire, Expressive Arts, Glasgow City, Glow, Health and Wellbeing, Inverclyde, Literacy, Mathematics, Moving Image Education, North Lanarkshire, Outdoor Learning, Religious and Moral Education, Sciences, Social Studies, South Lanarkshire, Technologies, West Lothian, modern languages

“The first victim of war is the truth”, The journalist’s view – Greenock Academy

Day two of the project and the second State of Emergency webisode starts to bring home some of the realities and complexities of war. What would it be like to live in a war zone?

Pupils and teachers have been engaged in challenging and thought provoking discussions…….What are the differences between needs and wants? Which version of a story is the truth? What is it like to live in a refugee camp? Who is right – the government or the freedom fighter?

Each school involved in the project is using conflict as the focus for learning and teaching, exploring war from both subject specific and interdisciplinary perspectives. Pupils at Tarbert Academy have created their own images of what war might look like for them; Clyde Valley High have been discussing war art and the deeper meanings hidden within it. At Bathgate Academy, pupils are working in groups to write their own blogs or online diaries about their learning experiences. At Greenock Academy, the resource centre has been converted into a field hospital and physical borderlines have been created in the school.

One thing is certain– this week is providing many participants with a completely new experience and way of working that is all engaging.

“Day one is over. Two webisodes down and not a technology disaster in sight! Now I know why we say “lines of communication”, how fast soup can be cooked (or not). The young people are engrossed in the fight for freedom. Can’t wait for Sniper Alley tomorrow….” Teacher, Holy Cross High

Male pupil: Miss, see in maths- are we gonnae dae that State of Emergency thing tae? Maths teacher: Yes we are Male pupil: Yabby dabby dabby do! Conversation, Lochend Secondary

For an overview of the project read the recent TES article and visit the State of Emergency Glow Group.

Co-Create is funded through a partnership between Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Creative Scotland National Lottery Fund.

Image credit: Pupil, Tarbert Academy