Glow Scotland

One of the most satisfying aspects of my job supporting Glow roll out in a local authority involves sharing the eureka moment experienced by users new to Glow. That moment when the potential of a Glow Group or particular Glow tool sparks a flurry of activity, discussion or questions. Last week I spent five days in the Western Isles supporting Kenny Mathieson and his team in what turned out to be an intensive and rewarding experience with some eureka moments worth sharing.

Curiously, the first eureka moment of the week was experienced by me when a group of staff training at Back School launched into creating class Glow Groups within ten minutes of me finishing the introductory demo of Glow. They did this without instruction or help sheets and had little trouble putting together groups that could instantly be used by their classes.

Later in the week, I spent two days with school administration staff from across Lewis and Harris, taking them through Site Collection Administration (SCA) training. This group of staff quickly got to grips with populating their school sites with content. It was obvious that they were delighted at how straightforward the process was.

Following a day of training at Sgoil Nan Loch, Katie Ann MacLeod (Depute Head), Margaret Joan MacLeod (Principal Teacher), Hamish Budge (Glow Coordinator) and I brainstormed potential Glow developments for the school. Earlier in the week Katie Ann had represented the school at a conference attended by all of the Head Teachers on the Isles. Presenting at the conference were four pupils from Bernera school who demonstrated what they had been doing on Glow. As the four confident learners regaled the stunned audience with descriptions of how they embedded code into XML web parts, Katie Ann had her own eureka moment determining that she needed to get her school realising the benefits of Glow sooner rather than later.

My week ended working with staff from the Nicolson Institute, the largest school in the Western Isles. Glow Learn was on the agenda and it did not take the staff long to acknowledge the need for suitable tagging of resources or that we had in Glow Learn a tool that could finally break down barriers across schools and local authorities when it came to sharing resources.

I started this post commenting on job satisfaction. Working with staff in local authorities as they come to grips with the challenges faced by rolling out Glow is energising and inspiring. It is good to know that the commitment of Kenny, his team and the staff in schools will ensure that the impressive pupils from Bernera and across the Western Isles will continue to have opportunities to develop through Glow.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank Kenny and his team for their usual warm welcome and hospitality throughout the week.