Glow Scotland

It was a privelege to be on the plenary panel at the BERA Conference Practioner Event, today. Thanks to Professor Vivienne Baumfiled for organising this and supporting teacher’s action research. The panel was asked to judge teachers action research projects and give our individual impressions of the day.  I commented on the key note speech by Ken Zeichner  and supported comments made by my colleague Con Morris. Ken described his theory on ‘third space’: where practice is not set against theory or academic against teacher but where the focus is on the research not the researcher. He exemplified his theory by referring to teachers who had confidently shared their action research on their own websites. Glow offers us the opportunity to use emerging technologys to improve action research and professional development in Scotland. We can build communities of professional learning and engage in professional conversations in Glow, about Glow and for a Curriculum for Excellence. 

I also saw a presentation about the Virtual Research Environment in AERS. This made me think  about the huge potential in Glow for teachers to connect with other teachers and share ideas for action research. For example by uploading or discussing research in the National Site. They now have the opportunity to use Glow tools to plan, design, research and store data. It is now easier than at any other time to collaborate across regional boundaries, make the most of virtual space and hopefully, third space theory. There are a wide range of tools in Glow which can be used or adapted for educational surveys, quantative and qualitative research.

Finally, congratulations to Lesley Wilson from St Boswells Primary School, for the best research project on display with BERA.  She has recently started on the Charterered Teacher Program.  It would be great if Lesley used Glow for future action research projects…. the Glow team will be in the Borders giving Mentor training at the end of September.