Glow Scotland

Bob Hill’s Glow project is all about collaboration in Glow.  It is a great project because Bob aims to involve teachers from all over Scotland in a practical project about our favourite subject, the weather.

Bob works out of  Dundee and is in ICT Support for DCC Educational Services. He is promoting the use of Google maps to share information about the weather in Scotland. By asking teachers and pupils to capture local information about the weather and put it in a shared google map which can be found in a National Glow group Weather with Google Maps Glow group.

If you are a teacher Primary or Secondary and not least ateacher of Geography you should get involved.  If  I was teaching about the Weather, Enquiry Skills (eg S1) or Google maps after the summer holidays, I would seriously consider getting my class to contribute to Bob’s glow group and share my local information with schools across the country. It would be great to view more local weather in Bob’s Google map. full instructions on how to do this are in the Glow group.You can ask him about his Glow group in the Discussions page of Weather and Google Maps or @robthill in Twitter.

You can find Bob’s Glow group in the National Site in the Collaborative Projects National Glow group.

Bob, good luck with a great Glow idea.

PGDE students studying at the University of the West of Scotland had a taster session of Glow last week when staff arranged a series of Glow workshops that students could partake in. Approximately 80 students signed up to the workshops and were able to navigate through the Glow portal and create their own Glow groups. The students were very enthusiastic and keen to know how to get real Glow log-ins so that they could use Glow to support ACfE within their teaching. UWS should be up and running with Glow very soon, and pupils will hopefully be able to use Glow regularly to enhance their teaching as part of the course itself.

Earlier this week, Strathclyde University staff had their Mentor training, and were very open to the many new and innovative oportunities that Glow can provide. These are exciting times for teacher training institutes, with a number of them already on board with Glow. Plenty of thought and discussion needs to be had in regards to how to best use Glow for both staff at the Universities, and for student teachers. However, as long as students and staff remain enthusiastic, and continue to see the impact that Glow is having on the education of children, Glow will surely be a valuable tool that will become a common feature of the teacher training courses.

During May and June over 25 classes across Scotland took part in two on-line animation workshops run by International educational animator, Oscar Stringer. This was a unique opportunity for numerous schools to take part in the workshops, learning various animation techniques, and getting excellent tips on how to animate from an expert. There were 2 classes, one for absolute beginners, and one for those who had some experience using animation in the classroom. The lessons were seen live via Glow Meet (Glow’s video-conferencing tool) and were interactive, with children asking Oscar many questions throughout the sessions.

The sessions once again highlighted the unique potential of Glow (and Glow Meet in particular), to provide engaging, practical lessons from a real expert, with children also having time to have hands-on expereince as well. The Shared whiteboard within Glow Meet enabled key documents to be uploaded and shown to everyone, e.g. a storyboard (see image top right), with the ability for anyone to edit the document with all changes being seen by everone else as they are done.

The text function within Glow Meet enabled pupils to interact by asking questions that could be answered throughout the session, without interrupting the flow of the workshop itself (see image to right)

The ability for Glow Meet to stream live video meant that pupils and staff could follow the action closely, which was especially important when Oscar was showing how to create good models. He was able to show close up, key features of a model and also how to move the model (see image below).

With all of these functions available within Glow Meet, it meant that the session was interactive and easy to follow for both pupils and teachers.

You can see some of the fantastic animation films produced by pupils by going to the Primary Homecoming on-line classroom group.

At this time of year, many P7 pupils are getting a taster of a day or two at secondary school to prepare them for S1. P7 pupils at Craigiebarns PS in Dundee are ahead of the game through Glow! Two P7 classes and their teachers were able to take part in a series of lessons about Burning and the Gases of the Air through Glow Meet video-conferences with Kath Squire, PT Biology at the associated secondary school, Craigie HS. Some S2 volunteers helped Kath to show live, various aspects of burning. She had also prepared presentations to deliver though Glow Meet’s whiteboard space. The two classes were able to annotate on the whiteboard in different colours, reponding to Kath’s questions and interacting in the lesson. This Glow tool is a powerful way to support transition and help enhance topics which are difficult to deliver safely in the primary classroom.

This week’s Glowing Thursday Glow Meet session will enable Glow users to meet Kath, and also, Avril Martin, DHT at Craigiebarns PS. Avril set up the project Glow Group and arranged for the two P7 classes to participate. If you have a Glow login, navigate to the Glowing Thursday page and read more about the project and then join the Meet around 4pm Thursday 11th June.

Tina Stevens is originally an English teacher from Notre Dame High School in Glasgow but for the past two years has been a Development Officer with the National Glow Team at Learning & Teaching Scotland.

The June masterclass will take place on Wednesday 17th June between 4pm and 5pm and will cover using some of the most effective tools inside Glow for teaching English and will also begin to make links between using these tools and tackling the Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes.

The masterclass is free to join but you must be a member of the English Teacher’s national Glow group to do so. Click HERE to go to the group and then click on ‘Request Access’. (Please note that all access requests will be processed no later than 24 hrs after application and will usually be dealt with within one hour, however, notification of membership cannot always be given directly to applicants).

Log in to the first ever national virtual conference for languages teachers in Scotland!
Scottish CILT would like to invite you to take part in the first ever national VIRTUAL event for languages teachers: Languages and Interdisciplinary Approaches, on Monday 15th June at 4pm.

Two practitioners, one primary and one secondary will share theirs and their learners’ experiences. Corinne Anderson, from Balfron High School will talk about the Europe week experience she devised for S2, and Wilma Gordon, from Mid Calder Primary School will explain how a link to a French school provided the vehicle for an ambitious collaboration resulting in bilingual novels and films in her P7 class.

All you need to take part is your Glow log in and a computer – try it from home if you can! However, you must be a member of the Scottish CILT group to take part in the conference. If you are not already a member follow this link to the national Modern Languages Glow group then click on the link for Scottish CILT. (Please note that membership will be given within 24 hours but notification of this is not always possible so please check back after this time)>

Please join our group and email asap to let us know that you would like to take part in the event.
Looking forward to seeing you on Monday 15th on Glow!
Catriona

catriona.oates@strath.ac.uk

mandy.reemanclark@strath.ac.uk

Skills Development Scotland  (SDS) is “Scotland’s new skills body, bringing together four partner organisations with a shared vision to drive forward real, positive and sustained change in Scotland’s skills performance.” It brings together the expertise of Careers Scotland, key skills elements of the Scottish University for Industry, Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.

Lynne Haughton from Learning and Teaching Scotland, worked with the Glow team to provide two days of Glow training for SDS on Thursday 4th and Friday 5th June. The training took place in the classroom on floor seven of the Optima in Glasgow. Attendees came from across Scotland including Shetland, Orkney and the Western Isles. 

There were two aims for this training: for individuals to learn how to use Glow and for SDS to start building a community in Glow.  The training went well and the next step is for individuals to build on what they know in their Local Authorities and use their skills to share ideas and network in Glow.

My job, now, is to create  a presence in the National site with two Glow groups for SDS.  The first will be for SDS staff only,  in the Staffroom National Glow group.  The other will be for all Glow users and it will be seen  in the main list of National Glow groups. Look out for the Skills Development Scotland National Glow group which will be an important place to go to find out about careers and skills in Scotland.