Glow Scotland

I’d never been to Orkney before, and I pictured high seas and wild winds as the plane began its descent to Kirkwall Airport. My preconceptions were shattered as we landed to a beautiful, warm Monday evening, the first of many wonderful moments during my visit to the Islands for the Orkney Islands Council Glow Operational Training, and my first local authority visit as a Glow Development Officer.

Tuesday morning found us at the council’s ICT headquarters, housed in a fine old building in the heart of Kirkwall. It may have looked traditional outside, but inside we found state of the art technology and a high level of technical expertise. The Glow Team (Gerri Tait and Jym Hay from RM and myself) were joined by a large group of technology specialists, school administrators and Graham Bevan, the driving force behind Glow in Orkney. Gerri demonstrated Glow for the group, and then Jym launched into the first day of training. Everyone was enthusiastic and interested, whizzing through the set tasks and asking all the right questions. It was really rewarding working with people who were fun, professional and highly skilled, and the energy didn’t wane on the second day.

By Wednesday morning we’d had some rain, but the day brightened up to match the moods of the Orkney group. Jym led the training in the morning, after reviewing the previous night’s ‘homework’ – to think of a question to ask about the previous day’s training. The questions were pertinent and enlightening, and I was certainly learning a lot as I went. Gerri took over for the second section, and I did my best to help out and take part in the activities – after all the best way to learn something is often to do it! Once again the group worked steadily through the tasks, and at the end of the day went away keen and ready to get Glow rolling in Orkney.

Gerri and I were then fortunate enough to meet a group of seven Glow Mentors, who came to receive a bit of pre-training information. We let them know what to expect of the training in early October. Gerri gave them a quick demonstration of a live Glow site to whet their appetites, and I provided a tour of the Glow Scotland pages on the Learning and Teaching Scotland site, paying particular attention to the excellent case-studies and the online learning materials, which will allow the mentors to have a good grasp of Glow and how it works before next month. This is one group of mentors who’ll be able to hit the ground running come their training days.

I’ve come away so impressed by the passion and energy the Orkney team are dedicating to Glow. I can’t wait to return for the mentor training, and for the Orkney Learning Festival at the end of October. I’ve completely fallen in love with the islands, even though I’ve only managed to see a little so far. The sunsets looking out over Scapa Flow from Burray were breathtaking, and we managed to find a few minutes to visit the Italian Chapel, an awe-inspiring labour of love, built out of Nissen huts by Italian prisoners of war during WWII. On the Thursday morning before returning home I was lucky enough to grab a quick look around the stunning St Magnus Cathedral. I also sampled some of the world-famous Orkney ales and the wonderful fresh local seafood, and they’re reason enough to return! If my experience with the Operational Training in Orkney is any indicator, the mentor training will be a great couple of days, and I’m really eager to see Glow in action in the schools – it’s going to be great!