Glow Scotland

November 26th, 2008

Wasting away in Glow….

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: 1 Comment Tags:  : Categories Midlothian

Tynewater Primary School in Midlothian had just finished its Glow training and was raring to go – too good an opportunity to miss I thought! So last week I enjoyed an exciting week working with a class of Primary 4 children to create work to showcase to their school.
The class had undertaken a Waste Management project supported by the authority and were keen to show the rest of the school what they had learnt. In consultation with the class teacher, I suggested that in small groups the children created a short animation to reflect the main themes that they had learnt about – Resusing, Reducing and Recycling. After an initial introductory lesson to let the children understand about the process of animation they quickly developed their own single background scene and four characters to animate using paper and moveable parts.
The authority had installed Digital Blue software on all the school machines so it seemed logical to use this and the stop motion facility that it has. Each group of 4 had 1 hour to create their animation and they very quickly learnt just how many frames go into making just a second of animation so there couldn’t be lots of action!
The end results were fantastic and were showcased to parents and pupils at the school assembly last Friday and will be appearing soon in Glow.

November 25th, 2008

Historic Glow Learn Training

J Jelly

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: Glow Learn, profiles, SMC
 : Categories Aberdeen City, Clackmannanshire, Dundee City, Events, Glow Learn, South Lanarkshire, Uncategorized, Western Isles

24th & 25th November saw the first national Glow Learn training sessions, held at Stirling Management Centre. Representatives of Aberdeen, Clackmannanshire, Dundee, South Lanarkshire and Western Isles attended this well-structured, intensive two-day residential course – the first of several to come over the next few months.
The course was introduced by Ian Hoffman, who gave an overview of Glow’s virtual learning environment, Glow Learn, and its potential as a tool for teaching and learning. The possibilities to create, organise and share digital resources; to search for, copy and amend other teachers’ resources and courses; to plan courses comprising these digital resources; to set digital tasks for enrolled pupils; to monitor pupil progress in these assignments - and how to incorporate all this in a Glow Group Learning Space was all covered over the two days!
Those attending were full of ideas for how they might take Glow Learn forward back in their schools or local authorities – and documented these in a specially set up national Glow Group devoted to Glow Learn Training.
We all also amended our profiles (look on the page you first see when you log into Glow for the link to this) to include “Glow Learn” as an area of interest. This will let other folk find us when they search the Glow membership using “area of interest” as the key field. If you have a Glow login, try it! (It’s a good idea to add your areas of interest such as sector or subject to your profile if you like the idea of collaborating with others in a similar situation. Once we all document our interests, we’ll be able to make such useful contacts!)
Several hands on sessions were held to take us all through the various steps involved in using Glow Learn, interspersed with presentations covering important issues such as observing IPR (intellectual property rights).
There were some light-hearted moments: Ian claimed to be the “supervisor” of the training team and his role was even celebrated in an ode by one of the participants, but his “lassies” – Karen-Anne, Dawn, Gerri and Lesley, the very able workshop leaders - were not so sure!
Ian rounded off the two days with a challenge to those of us who had attended – to go back to school or L.A. and use Glow Learn soon in earnest, to keep in touch and to help our colleagues to move forward with Glow to the benefit of all our learners.
If you are interested in using Glow Learn, have a look at the tutorials.

November 20th, 2008

Leading Learning: The Role of the Education Authority

Andrew Brown

Comments: 11 Comments » Tags: Tags: ADES, Cumbernauld, Glow, Glow Group, Glow Meet, Richard Teese, Westerwood
 : Categories Events

Today I had the great pleasure of attending the annual conference of ADES - the Association of Directors of Education in Scotland. Why was I there? This year, ADES are moving their online community into Glow, and today saw the launch of their National Glow Group. As of today, all Directors of Education in Scotland have access to a National Glow Group for them to discuss, collaborate and share - and from the word ‘go’, they did just that.

The conference keynote was delivered by Prof. Richard Teese - not live in person, but live via Glow Meet. He’d very generously agreed to deliver the keynote speech for the conference from his study (at 2am his time) to those gathered on the other side of the world to hear him. Prof. Teese is always challenging in his observations. He raised many important questions in light of the OECD report, and called those present to think critically about some of the challenges facing Scottish education. Two of his challenges for those present leaped out at me - to strengthening student engagement and to improving satisfaction with school - how would the directors of education envisage working towards achieving this?

No sooner had Prof. Teese finished speaking than the members of ADES set about discussing the points he raised - in a discussion forum in Glow. They now have collated responses to some of his questions, and set many new questions of their own to ask him. Those present seemed to appreciate what can easily be taken for granted - the ability to see the questions and responses from people seated at other tables instantly collated in the one place for all ADES members to see.

What a great start to the ADES Glow Group. An international speaker of high reputation joining by Glow Meet, and discussion in the Glow group. What a great example for us all of how we can share our ideas for Scottish education across the country.

November 19th, 2008

Glow Learn in Dundee

Tina Stevens

Comments: 1 Comment Tags:  : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Dundee City, Events, Glow Learn, Local authorities

At the end of last week I was in Dundee as part of their ‘Making Connections’ Event - the theme of which was using ICT to enhance Curriculum for Excellence and Learning Together.
As many teachers in Dundee City are already using the Glow portal and Glow groups really successfully my role was to talk about Glow Learn (the ‘teachers’ part of Glow as one practitioner put it). Glow Learn is a fantastic tool and lets teachers do all sorts of really useful things like set assessments and differentiate work but I have always felt that if it is used alone you lose all of the wonderful collaborative opportunities that come with using Glow groups.
The solution of course would be to use both Glow Learn and Glow groups together and luckily this can be done very easily through the use of a special Glow group called a Learning Space.
The teachers in Dundee were genuinely excited by all of the new opportunities that this development could bring . One teacher who has been using Glow groups for a while said that Glow Learn was ‘just what she had been waiting for’.
The first round of Glow Learn training is just about to begin for many Local Authorities, and if you want to try it for yourself there are great modules under the ‘Learning about Glow’ tab either in Glow or on the Glowscotland website.

November 14th, 2008

The Granite City is (g)listening

mbrown

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Aberdeen City, Events

I had a very busy but enjoyable day in Aberdeen today: making presentations at three venues to a total of 500 teachers.

My first presentation was a live tour of Glow at Hazelhead Academy, for teachers who know about Glow and have log ins. This school is set to be a leading light for Glow in ACC. My second presentation was with powerpoint, to over two hundred teachers from local Nursery, Primary and Secondary schools, in Summerhill Education Centre. These are teachers who will very soon have log ins and who are keen to get started in Glow. My third presentation was a live tour of Glow, after lunch, at Kingswell Primary school. Again to a mixture of Nursery, Primary and Secondary Teachers who have not as yet been using Glow.

These were warm audiences made up of experienced and perceptive teachers who asked relevant questions about what Glow can do for them. I hope their questions were answered and that they will also appear in the National Glow Groups Discussions pages soon.

November 12th, 2008

Sharing Remote Ideas at the Glowing Lounge

Lorna Arbuckle

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Events

“Once you have something to work towards, a focus or an event, Glow really begins to mean something to you.” - These were the words said by two rural school teachers from Shetland recently in the Glowing Lounge at SLF. Their own particular focus was a school trip to London by pupils from both their schools. Having realised the potential that Glow could have in preparing the children for the trip, (and keeping those still at school updated when they were away!), Anne Peters, HT at Nesting Primary and Cheryl Spofforth, HT at Dingwall Primary worked together to create a Glow Group to facilitate this. Want to find out more about their work and how you could use an event or special focus to utilise the features in Glow? Visit https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/establishments/nationalsite/SLF%20Extra/Break/Glowing%20Lounge/default.aspx

November 12th, 2008

Google Earth, CPD and Glow Meet

mbrown

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Events

The social Studies National Glow Group (SSNGG) held a Glow meet for Google Earth (GE) training yesterday. It was a great learning experience for those teachers who attended from across Scotland, and for me. I improved my knowldge of how to use GE and Glow meet. It was great to see Glow users in Glow meet. Based on this experience I am looking forward to making the next GE event even better. It will be held in Optima in January and will, again, be open to teachers with a Glow account in Glow meet. Over the coming months look out for news of CPD events in Glow and for listings of Glow related training in CPD Find. You might also want to organise your own GE training by using the basic or advanced GE guides in the SSNGG, in the Documents page. I am happy to advise on how to do this with a local Glow group or in the National Site by sharing GE projects in Glow. [email protected]

November 12th, 2008

Learn about Glow

Lorna Arbuckle

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: Glow, Glowscotland, Learning about Glow
 : Categories Uncategorized

For colleagues and practicioners who haven’t received their Glow training yet, or for those who simply want to refresh their memory, the GlowScotland website offers ‘learning about Glow’ tutorials. These are a series of Flash-based activities to walk you through the many features of Glow. These tutorials are perfect for colleagues and practicioners who are stretched for time as you can take this at your own pace. Visit; http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/glowscotland/whatsinglow/learningaboutglow/index.asp

November 10th, 2008

Science and the Parliament

J Jelly

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Dynamic Earth, Fiona Hyslop, parliament, science
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Uncategorized

I was lucky enough to attend the Science in the Parliament event last Wednesday at Our Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh – both as a delegate interested in the proceedings of the day, and as an exhibitor, providing information about Glow to the other delegates as they visited our LTS stand.

Science and the Parliament is an annual event, co-sponsored by all the major parties in the Parliament, where scientists and decision makers in Scotland come together, with education usually being a hot topic. MSPs get the chance to hear the aspirations and concerns of scientists and also to respond to questions generated by those considering the implications of Curriculum for Excellence on science education. Around 300 delegates heard Fiona Hyslop, Cabinet Secretary, stress the importance of science for Scotland’s future and the need for our children to become problem solvers and imaginative thinkers, with teachers’ bringing back the wonder of science to the classroom in the implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. She acknowledged the need for quality CPD for science teachers and thanked the Royal Society of Chemistry (originators of this event) for their input to this. SSERC also got a particular mention as a prime provider of the sort of CPD required in this new climate of cooperative and collaborative learning.
One particularly dynamic speaker was Stuart Monro of Our Dynamic Earth. Stuart’s presentation reminded us how exciting science can be and how the study of the Earth’s history, and future, can bring together many science strands and capture the essence of Curriculum for Excellence.
Gill Robinson of LTS and John Coggins of Glasgow University led the breakout session on CfE in the afternoon, where the audience showed their focus to be on quality preparation, both in terms of CPD and resources, for the new syllabi and exam systems in current development.

Our LTS stand was set up for the evening reception, but some other science organisations were on hand earlier in the day so that I had the opportunity to introduce myself as a Glow Development Officer and discuss any resources or CPD they offer for science education. I’ve since made contact with several representatives and hope to be able to share their resources with teachers via the Science Glow Group in the National Site.
Allyson Dobson and Mark Hunter, current writers of the science outcomes and experiences were also on hand at the stand, as was Deirdre Cassidy from the social studies team. We were able to demonstrate Glow in action to many interested delegates and gave away many DVDs of good practice.

At the end of the evening, a great firework display (5th November) could be seen in the distance though the wonderful glass walls of Our Dynamic Earth, but the real Glow was inside the building!

November 9th, 2008

Dumfries and Galloway - Way to Glow.

Katie Barrowman

Comments: 1 Comment Tags: Tags: CPD, Dumfries and Galloway, Glow, Schools
 : Categories Dumfries and Galloway, Local authorities, Uncategorized

I spent a fun two days in Dumfries and Galloway this week, taking part in three different events geared towards getting people onto and using Glow.

On Wednesday night, I joined the D&G Glow team for a Glow roadshow, where the cluster primary teachers gathered for a demo and introduction to Glow. There was a real buzz in the room (maybe a sugar rush from the lovely biscuits, but I think it was about Glow).

I was fortunate enough to work with some of the same teachers the next day in their own schools. We visited two primary schools, and got all the pupils from P4-7 logged into and playing with Glow. Any fears I had about this task being beyond the younger children were clearly unfounded, as they remembered every step from their short demo, and mostly managed to log on without issues. When one or two issues did arise, the excellent D&G Glow team were on hand to help out. The children had a chance to email their friends from Glow Mail and have a look around their school sites. They all seemed to love it, and were raring to get home and log on to the Glow Games. I was lucky enough to have the chance to talk to one of the classes, a Primary 3/4/5 in Moniaive Primary, about what other classes are doing with Glow around the country and I showed them some fun Glow Groups from Shetland and Aberdeenshire.

In the evening I joined the team in delivering a CPD event to teachers on the Glow communications tools, and the attendees discussed their own ideas for using these in the classroom and collaborating with each other. With the primary rollout just over halfway complete, and a fantastic local support team, Glow is gaining momentum in Dumfries and Galloway and everyone’s getting in on the act.