Glow Scotland

February 6th, 2012

Safer Internet Day 2012

pcurrie

Comments: none Tags: Tags: Cyberbullying, Esafety, insafe, Internet, Internet Safety, news, Parents, privacy, Report Abuse, resources, safe searching, Safer Internet Day, safer internet day 2012, Social Networking, Teaching Ideas, Teaching Resources, training
 : Categories Glow, Health and Wellbeing, Learner Resources, Media Literacy, Pupils

This Tuesday may well be just another day, but it is a day that we feel important to acknowledge…

Safer Internet Day is organised by Insafe each year in February to promote safer and more responsible use of online technology and mobile phones, especially amongst children and young people across the world.

This year, Safer Internet Day (SID) will take place on Tuesday 7 February 2012 and will be centred around the theme Connecting generations and educating each other, with the slogan: “Discover the digital world together… safely!”

About Connecting Generations

This topic looks at the reach of the online world across all generations and cultures and encourages families to work together to stay safe online. Whether you are 5, 40 or 75 years old, whether you use the internet once a month or several times a day – each person has something different to bring to the table that can help shape our online experiences and our understanding of online competences and safety. We all have a role to play in ensuring that every child is safe online.

Today our offline and online worlds are strongly connected, from families communicating via webcam with relatives and friends abroad to children doing their homework online. The online world is a unique arena where people of all ages can learn together and from each other, especially regarding online safety. Tech savvy youngsters can teach their elders how to use new technologies, while grandparents can draw on their life experiences to advise younger generations on how to stay safe online, as they discover the digital world together.

How to take part?

Visit saferinternetday.org for more information and to download SID promotional materials and resources.

Glow Resources:

Visit the Internet Safety and Responsible Use Resources site for a brilliant introduction to this topic and a coming together of all the sites that provide further teaching resources. This blog brings together all the well-respected Internet safety sites, including CEOP and ThinkUKnow.

August 11th, 2011

BBC Class Clips

nstewart

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: BBC, free resources, resources, video
 : Categories Early Years, Learner Resources, Literacy, Moving Image Education

Find educational clips from the best of BBC programmes in the Class Clips video and radio archive. BBC Class Clips (http://www.bbc.co.uk/learningzone/clips/)

Class Clips is the BBC’s archive of educational video and audio material for use in primary and secondary schools. Working with teachers across the UK, the best of current BBC programmes and back catalogue of schools television and radio the best range of clips to help with classroom teaching are chosen.

There are currently more than 10,000 clips in the Class Clips archive, all searchable by level, subject, topic and keyword and all accompanied by notes from teachers on the content and how it could be used. From major factual series such as:

Wonders of the Universe

Human Planet

and A History of Scotland

through to old favourites like Around Scotland and See You See Me, clips cover a wide range of subjects across all age levels, many with broad potential for cross curricular learning.

Class Clips is also home to new, specifically-created educational video.

Talkie Time

is a set of innovative videos for Early and First levels, that let you and your class interact with on-screen characters while learning about Numeracy, Literacy and Health and Wellbeing. Blethering Scots features famous faces discussing Scots language and its place in history, poetry, media and the playground.

All content on Class Clips is free to access and can be streamed directly into class. We’re also in the process of making all our clips embeddable, making it even easier to include them in blogs and web pages.

To find out what clips are available to help with your classes, visit Class Clips and start searching.

March 16th, 2011

Launch of New German History and Culture Resources

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Goethe Institut, launch, resources
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Edinburgh City, Events, Glow Meet, modern languages

Instead of our usual Glowing Thursdays this week we are going to be hosting a live event from the Royal High School in Edinburgh highlighting the launch of resources developed by the Historical Institute Washington DC and made available through the Goethe-Institut, and Learning and Teaching Scotland to support German History and Culture.

These resources have been selected by the German Historical Institute. They represent a comprehensive collection of original historical sources documenting German history from the Middle Ages to the present day, with particular focus on the period since 1945 to the crumbling of the Berlin Wall during the summer of 1989 and reunification. Within this period, East and West German examples are supplied in order to highlight their similarities and differences. The purpose of these resources is to encourage learners to exercise their intellectual curiosity, ideas and arguments about key issues relating to German history. They also attempt to present an awareness of events and developments, starting with international and domestic politics and extending to economic, social, and cultural issues. Developing cultural awareness is very important in attracting our young people to learning a modern language.

Many of the sources in this selection are difficult to locate in print publications, especially outside of Germany. All of the German language documents are accompanied by contemporary English translations, some of which were commissioned for this project. These resources also provide access to a range of significant visual images, many of which will be unfamiliar outside of Germany.

This part of the launch is aimed at the online audience consisting of teachers of history and German language and will include German Consul Herr Moessinger introducing the resource and there will be a live input via Glow from Dr. Kelly McCullough, Head of the project “German History in Documents and Images”, from the Historical Institute Washington DC.

So why not sign up and join us live at 3.40pm – 4.15pm to listen to Dr McCullough live from Washington DC and Herr Moessinger in the National Modern Languages Glow Group.

Please note that we will be using the new Glow Meet webpart for this event. It is much easier to access and it works in a similar way to the usual Glow Meet so why not give it a go?!

January 13th, 2011

Espresso Science

Gail Cairns

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: resources
 : Categories Learner Resources

Espresso Science is a fantastic free resource available to all Glow users offering a wide range of video clips and multimedia activities to help children develop a range of critical thinking skills.

Espresso Science modules encourage pupils to think logically and develop conclusions based on the evidence presented to them.

Features include:

• News-based video footage  
• Interactive quizzes, surveys and tools for creative learning
• Self assessment opportunities for children
• Photograph and graphic archives, websites, fact files, vocabulary banks and more.

To access Espresso Science modules and find out more about all the learner resources available to you, visit the LTS Learner Resources homepage.

March 13th, 2010

25th March – First Glow Meet in Too Hot to Handle? Science Series

J Jelly

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: biology, CfE, chemistry, competition, Glow Groups, Glow Meet, physics, resources, science, space, topical science, transition
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Glow Groups, Glow Meet, National Groups, Sciences

Pupils across Scotland will have the chance to take part in activities and Glow Meets about five hot science topics in the Too Hot to Handle? series in the next few months, starting next week with Space for P6-S1 on 25^th March.

Cathy Southworth from Edinburgh University is heading up this development and is keen to involve as many youngsters as possible. She says, “Too Hot To Handle? is here to support the Topical Science organiser of a Curriculum for Excellence from P6-S3. It provides access to current scientists in Scotland that work on a range of hot topics, through a vidcast, teaching materials and a discussion board for questions about the topics that are answered by the scientists, and a GLOW meet where you can grill the scientists with questions.”

As well as learning about the science, pupils will get a flavour of the excitement of being a scientist.

Visit the Too Hot to Handle Glow Group. Have a look at the wealth of materials for the Space topic, show your class the videos, post some questions for the scientists on the discussion board and come into the Glow Meet on 25^th to grill the space scientists – Noe Kains from The University of St Andrews and Duncan Forgan and Chris Evans from The Royal Observatory, Edinburgh.

There will be a competition challenge on the day and members of your class could win a prize.  

Other topics in the series:
Flu Fighters for 2nd level (P6-P7) ready for after the Easter break; Glow Meet 20th May
Biodiversity Buzz for 2^nd & 3^rd  levels (P7-S2) ready for after the Easter break; Glow Meet 25th May
Doable Renewables for 2^nd & 3^rd  levels (P7-S2) ready for May; Glow Meet 15th June
Me and my Brain for third and fourth levels (S1-S3) ready for May; Glow Meet 17th June

This week too, we have another two science based Glow Meets:
Dr Bunhead’s Spoofbusters on 16^th (1.30 – 2.30) for upper primary and secondary pupils,
Industrial Chemistry on 18^th (1.45-2.45) for Higher and AH Chemistry pupils.

All these Glow Meets use the same Science Glow Meet webpart in the National Sciences Glow Group. 

June 5th, 2009

English Practitioners Build a Community

Lorna Arbuckle

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: building glow communities, English, Literacy, National glow groups, practicioners, resources
 : Categories Uncategorized

Thirty English Teachers from across Scotland brought their skills and knowledge of Glow to Stirling Management Centre to help build a Glow community over the course of two days.

The purpose of the event was to build various subject specific Glow Groups that can be used by English practitioners throughout Scotland providing them with an opportunity to work with others, make lasting connections and share knowledge and ideas which are transferable across schools and authorities throw Glow.

The practitioners, all at different stages with Glow, were just as enthusiastic as each other when they worked in teams to create Glow Groups. The groups included; Scots language, war poetry, personal study, Macbeth, The boy in the striped pyjamas and higher critical essays. Practitioners were given a blank canvas to work from in Glow with ready-made basic Glow Groups to be developed.

True to form, each group communicated well, taking a strategic approach to the planning process with much discussion of what each page should look like and contain. Groups were constantly thinking of the end user when building the groups, taking careful consideration of how the pupils would view the site and how easy they follow the activities in the Group.

The groups created are available for all to see in the Building Glow Communities tab of the Literacy and English Glow Group. If you find any of these groups useful and would like to contribute, you can simply request access through the e-mail address provided in each Group and we would encourage you to do so.

Judith Weston from Earlston High in the Scottish Borders said: “It’s been a fantastic opportunity to take two days out to build these groups.

“I’ll be going back to the classroom with a Glow Group packed with resources for English teachers and creative work for children.”

Michael Stephenson from Inveralmond Community High, West Lothian said: “we have built our group through the eyes of the children so they can follow the instructions, navigate easily and upload work tasks for teachers to edit.”

If you are interested in taking part in future events. Simply CLICK HERE to find out more.  

March 8th, 2009

The Scottish Science Education Conference Glows

J Jelly

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: , resources, science
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Local authorities, National Groups, Uncategorized

I was privileged to attend the Scottish Science Education Conference at Dunblane on 6/7 March as a delegate and also as a Glow Team representative. So many of the people who stopped to chat were really keen to get into Glow but did not have their login details yet. It seems such as shame that the admirable plans of some local authorities to bring schools into Glow in stages that seem manageable in terms of training, seem to be stopping some keen teachers from accessing Glow.

Although training is helpful for making use of the wealth of opportunity that Glow offers, there are so many resources and chances to link up with others, that do not need any special training. The science teachers at the conference were impressed that via the Glow National Site they could access Sunflower for Science (An interactive resource covering biology, chemistry and physics – each program is either a simulation or a collection of interactive animations on a particular topic), Crocodilia for Crocodile Chemistry (This suite of learning resources allows you to model experiments and reactions safely and easily), Science Resource Center (An in-depth, curriculum-orientated science database that provides a one-stop resource for all science-related research needs) as well as more general but equally useful resources such as LearnNewsdesk@LTS (This online news service provides a real-life context for curriculum topics) and Spark Island (Offers primary teachers a range of interactive toolkits which make teaching and learning English, maths and science easier and more fun).

Allyson Dobson, Curriculum for Excellence Development Officer, delivered her session “Science Curriculum – Where Next?” to a full house. About 200 teachers and technicians heard the latest information about the Science Outcomes and Experiences, due to be published 2nd April. The participants felt more part of the process when they were then given, in pairs, an outcome to rate in terms of CPD needs, and whether and how it tied in with existing practice. These responses will help inform the Curriculum for Excellence team about areas which most need explanation or CPD input.

Many of the sessions involved exciting new practicals, and advice on engaging pedagogy – all supporting a move to strengthen Curriculum for Excellence. Science was the first framework to begin development and now science teachers can at last look forward to the final publication of the Experiences and Outcomes – but the conference showed that many science teachers are already engaged in promoting the aspirations of Curriculum for Excellence in their daily teaching.

October 28th, 2008

Spread the Word with the Communications Bank.

Lorna Arbuckle

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: Glow, Glowscotland, resources, website
 : Categories Events

At the end of September, the Glow communications bank was launched on the GlowScotland website to provide you with the tools to share with others how Glow is being used in your classroom, school, or local authority. You can access a range of resources from poster and presentation templates, to images and logos, and all the latest information on Glow for you to include in your materials. We have also provided a bank of ready-made resources you can start using straight away. These are all downloadable, free to use, and updated regularly. To find out more visit the communications resource bank (link to comms resource bank; http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/glowscotland/preparing/communications/index.asp