Glow Scotland

January 28th, 2010

Sharing Glow Experiences - View Responses

Dougie Eustace

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You can now see what other Glow users are doing with Glow by browsing through the 100+ responses we’ve received to the Sharing Glow Experiences questionnaire. This can be accessed at http://bit.ly/d1MkGa. (You will need your Glow login details).

This basic viewer allows you to browse sequentially through the responses or look at the summary information. We are hoping to provide a better version later in the spring which will retain response formatting and allow selection by authority and stage.

If you haven’t told us about your experiences yet, please consider doing so now. If you respond by the end of February, you have the chance to win an Ipod. You can see more details here http://bit.ly/dkTMyu.

January 28th, 2010

Wha’s Like Us

Lorna Arbuckle

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The National Parent Forum continued its meetings in Glasgow on Burns’ Night, in Learning and Teaching Scotland’s Optima offices.
The meeting and previous forums have been facilitated through the use of Glow to allow discussions, views and comments to be shared before, during and after the meetings. Another first for the national Parent Forum was the use of Glow Meet to allow a member of the forum to participate from home in North Tolsta in the Outer Hebrides.
Fiona Black was able to take part in the 2 hour meeting and contribute to discussions.
Fiona Black said of the meeting, “I was able to take part in the planning meeting on 25th January due to Glow Meet, I could have been in the room. In fact I was in the Outer Hebrides! I would urge all members to explore this medium for future meetings that they cannot attend, for whatever reason, be it distance or other.”
It is hoped that all members of the forum will be able to contribute to future meetings, face to face or virtually.
This group could lead the way in cutting down its carbon footprint while maintaining regular meetings and debates.
Reid Hutchison, National Parent Forum, said ” it was very encouraging to see 12 reps (including 1 virtually) from across Scotland working together as a Planning group to advance items in preparation for the next National Parent Forum in March”

Lorraine Sanda, Parental Involvement Officer, said: “The Forum is still in its infancy but there is a real willingness on the part of the members of the National Forum to make it work for parents from all parts of Scotland. Having Fiona on Glow Meet with the Forum tonight demonstrated one way how that can be done.”

January 27th, 2010

Help us improve Glow and win a Netbook

Lorna Arbuckle

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The National Glow team is gathering information to show the impact of using Glow and ways in which it can be improved.

We have created a simple online survey that will take only a few minutes of your time.
All participants will be entered into a draw at the end of January to win a new netbook.
We are keen to hear about your experiences of using Glow - have your say by completing the survey.

Your responses are valued and much appreciated.

January 25th, 2010

Catherine Forde Glow Meet - 3rd of February

Katie Barrowman

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Details now confirmed - Sign up now!

This year’s Scottish Book Trust Writer in Residence is the award-winning teen fiction writer Catherine Forde.

Catherine will be available to answer all your questions about creative writing on Glow on February 3rd over 2 sessions to allow as many people as possible to take part. The first session is 12:00 - 12:45 and the second is from 13:15 - 14:00.

Click here to sign up to take part!

If you have already signed up, please revisit the group to choose which session you’d like to drop in on. There will be the opportunity to test your access to the Glow Meet before the event - go to the group for details.

The event is suitable for secondary school pupils

Catherine Forde has been writing novels with teenagers as the central characters for over a decade. Most of her novels are contemporary and Glaswegian. In a previous life she taught English in secondary schools and colleges and edited dictionaries. Catherine likes to explore the relationship between teenagers and the adults in their lives, and her writing is colloquial and dialogue-driven. Recurring themes in her novels are the influence and impact of music on the individual, fitting in and fractured relationships.

Between now and March Catherine Forde will have a new writing task for learners on the first Monday of every month, and teacher’s notes on the task are also available. Watch Cathy’s brilliant video podcasts where she explains each task, and use the accompanying written notes. There are already 3 tasks online – check them out at the Scottish Book Trust’s site:

Click for pupils’ pages

Click for teachers’ pages

January 22nd, 2010

Get Puzzling in Glow

ronnierankin

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Mathematics, Numeracy, Puzzles
 : Categories Glow Meet, Mathematics, Pupils

The new Monthly Maths Puzzle Group is open for business.

Each month a set of fiendish puzzles will appear that will test the skills of pupils, teachers and parents alike! There will also be themed puzzles for special dates in the year.

Upload your pupils’ solutions onto the group and we’ll then publish the most innovative methods.

It’s then our intention to have the pupils’ that have thought up the most creative solutions to use Glow Meet to tell everyone else how it’s done.

You can link to the group here: Monthly Maths Puzzle Group

There isn’t much of January left so best get your thinking caps on.

Good luck!

January 21st, 2010

Singing Burns Across Scotland

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Burns, Glowing Thursday
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Glow Meet, Local authorities

Today Glowing Thursday rang with the sounds of more than 30 schools from across Scotland joining hands and singing ‘Auld Lang Syne’ together! This special event was part of the Burns celebrations in Glow this month and what a start it was.

Kevin Thompson in full costume entertained children from the Isle of Lewis, Dundee, North Lanarkshire and many many more with his story of the life of Burns accompanied by background slides and involving history, geography, music and literature. During his performance Kevin sang many Burns songs and the children were encouraged to take part and join in clapping, snapping and singing!

The children taking part even managed to type in messages to Kevin during the event with many P1 and 2 pupils saying how much they loved the singing. Maya in P1, from East Linton Primary said “We like the music’ and Sam in P3 said “I love your song” as they joined in with Rantin’Rovin’ Robin whilst P6 in Dunoon Primary clapped along!!

To find out more about Burns250 why not visit the blog http://burns250.blogspot.com/

January 21st, 2010

Free Browsealoud 6 Trial

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: accessibility, browsealoud, Dyslexia, learning difficulties, speech enabled, visual impairment
 : Categories Development, Local authorities

LTS is currently looking at how the accessibility of Glow can be improved, and a text-to-speech facility could be extremely useful. Help us to trial Browsealoud 6 within Glow. It will be ‘speech- enabled’ until the end of January 2010 so trial it for yourselves and let us know what you think.

Browsealoud is essentially a tool for reading web sites with text-to-speech software. It can help pupils with visual impairment, dyslexia, reading and learning difficulties or pupils who are not fluent English readers access information on web sites. It can speak using a number of different voices including Heather, the Scottish voice.

You can find out further information about this free trial and how to download the software for Mac and PC in our Browsealoud Discussion. Once you have evaluated it then please leave your comments in this discussion thread as well - we want to know all the plus and ‘not so good’ points of using it within a Glow environment.

January 15th, 2010

Changes to Glow which will be implemented on Sat 16 Jan 10

Joan Martin

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: Helpdesk
 : Categories Uncategorized

You’ll notice some changes to Glow next week! We’ll be deploying the first two of your Glow Change Requests that are part of Glow Refresh on Sat 16 Jan.

Firstly, the timeout period for Glow sessions will be increased from the current 20 minutes to 40 minutes.

We’ll also be changing the page that a user sees when they try to access a Glow group that is not open to them.

In addition you”ll also find that Non-Teaching staff user types can now search the National Directory in the same way as Teaching Staff.

January 15th, 2010

Celebrate Burns with Glow

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: Burns, dancing, Glow Meet, music, poetry
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Expressive Arts, Glow Meet, Local authorities, Pupils

Are you and your class celebrating Burns Day with dancing, poetry or maybe something else? Why not share your talents with other schools throughout Scotland and join in through Glow Meet?

Whether you are doing To a Mouse, Tam O’Shanter, Highland dancing or playing an instrument sign up in the Homecoming Glow Group where the event will be held and let us all enjoy your celebrations of Burns Day.

Our event takes place from 1.30 - 3pm on Monday 25th January.

In addition why not start your celebrations a little earlier and join us from 2-3pm on 21st January for a special Glowing Thursday entitled Burns250?

Written to fit with the concepts of Curriculum for Excellence Burns250 is a one-man show of songs and verse, in full costume, telling Burns life story, accompanied by background slides and involving history, geography, music and literature.

Songs and poems include: To a Mouse, To a Louse, Tam O Shanter, Scots Wha Hae, A Man’s a Man, Auld Lang Syne and many others. Celebrate Burns with us in the Glowing Thursdays Glow Group.

We hope you can join us to celebrate this important event in the Scottish calendar!

January 14th, 2010

Scottish Poet Elspeth Murray returns to Glow

Lorna Arbuckle

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Get your Glow log-ins ready because on Friday 22nd January, Scottish Poet Elspeth Murray will take part in her second live Glow Meet with budding young Poets across Scotland.

The event is on at 10am, Fri 22 January and is aimed at S2 pupils and suitable for teachers interested in getting some help and ideas with teaching poetry from a poet in real time. Teachers can take part even if they don’t have a class at this time.

You can register by going to the Literacy and English National Glow Group and following the link to the Heroes and Heroines Glow Group.

If you missed the first Glow Meet, you can watch this again by visiting the Literacy and English national Glow Group and the second installment will be available shortly after.

Sign up today and don’t miss out.