Glow Scotland

Thursday and Friday of this week brought the annual Orkney Learning Festival. This astounding feat of organisation saw every teacher in the islands attend for at least one, and in many case two, full day’s access to a wealth of CPD, including some absolutely top class seminars.

Held in Kirkwall Grammar school, the packed programme gave each teacher a wide choice of activity addressing every educational niche. These ranged from full day Learning Outdoors events, to ninety minute seminars and a walk around the small but select group of exhibitors in the exhibition hall, including but not limited to EIS learning representatives, SCRAN, Curriculum for Excellence and Glow.

The quality of presentations on offer would rival a national conference, and I’m glad to say Glow was well represented here too. Marie Dougan delivered a Glow Keynote Speech each day, updating attendees on the great work that’s happening with Glow around the country. Gerri Tait, Andrew Brown and I also held Glow based seminars, on topics including e-mentoring with Glow, Glow for Beginners, and Glow in the Primary and Secondary classrooms. Con Morris and Derek Robertson were able to give updates on and hands on access to the exciting developments in their areas (CPD and Games Based Learning respectively) both of which are represented on Glow.

Over both days, the dedication and enthusiasm of the Orkney staff was constantly evident, and the team enjoyed talking to a diverse set of visitors in the exhibition hall, including visitors from other authorities in Orkney on holiday – that’s dedication! There was a great deal of interest in Glow, and now that mentor training is complete, people are really looking forward to getting on and using Glow. The collaborative tools were a particular hit, because with many small schools across the islands the chance to work together more easily is welcomed. It will be great to keep up to date with what’s happening as the Orkney mentors get Glowing over the next few months, and the next time the Glow team visits these beautiful islands we’ll be getting into schools and seeing all the developments.

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!