Glow Scotland

May 26th, 2010

Registration now open for the Scottish Learning Festival 2010!

Lorna Arbuckle

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Registration for the SLF 2010 is now open! The conference programme features four inspirational keynote presentations by:

• Michael Russell MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning
• Eric Booth, an award-winning actor, author, entrepreneur and arts education specialist
• Richard Gerver, author of Creating Tomorrow’s Schools Today
• Prof Sugata Mitra, professional of Educational Technology and Newcastle University

In addition, the programme includes eight expert-led spotlight presentations and 160 seminars covering all areas of education. There are also full timetables of discussions and showcases involving young people from across Scotland.

For those who can’t visit during the day, visit the SLF website for further information about the twightlight conference programme.

As with previous years, we will be extending the life of the festival with ‘SLF Extra’ a national Glow Group packed with all the information you need including: live news feeds, video footage, information about seminars and live Glow Meets. Watch this space for more information.

Register here for SLF 2010

May 25th, 2010

Cabinet Secretary Michael Russell launches Engage for Education website - get involved through Glow

Lorna Arbuckle

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When Michael Russell first took up the post of Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning, he said that he wanted to listen to the people who know best about the way forward for Scottish education.

Mr Russell also promised that nobody would go unheard and today, he is delivering the means to do that as he launches Engage for Education - a new website to enable people across the education community to engage directly with the Scottish Government about the issues that are important to them.

The Cabinet Secretary along with Education Ministers want to hear your thoughts, views and ideas on how we can make Scottish education even better. www.engageforeducation.org will act as a hub for direct conversation with and feedback from all parts of the education community. You can get involved by leaving a comment or an idea via the site itself or by visiting our dedicated area in Glow or through various social media channels.

Mr Russel said: “As leaders, you hold a very important position at the heart of our education system and I encourage you – and your colleagues - to take this opportunity to get involved and, ultimately, help influence Scottish education policy”.

May 25th, 2010

Homecoming Feedback - give us your views

Katie Barrowman

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 : Categories research

Evaluation of Homecoming 2009: Get involved on Glow!

Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) has commissioned Blake Stevenson, a social research and development company, to evaluate the impact of Homecoming 2009 on learning and teaching. In particular the study will explore whether Homecoming 2009 was a useful vehicle to allow practitioners and young people to engage with Curriculum for Excellence.

As part of the evaluation we are very keen to hear about the views and experiences of practitioners working in schools and early years centres who were involved in organising and developing Homecoming 2009 activities and events.

There is a discussion forum on the Homecoming 2009 Glow Group where you can share any thoughts or experiences you have. You can access the discussion forum by clicking here to go to the Glow Group.

Blake Stevenson complies with the Data Protection Act 1998, and the Market Research Society’s Guidelines for the handling of databases and confidential survey data. All data will be stored securely, confidentiality will be ensured and all responses will be anonymised. The findings of the research will only be reported to LTS and other partner organisations.

May 21st, 2010

WoWW - World of Work Wednesdays

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: 2 Comments » Tags: Tags: careers, engineering, enterprise, Heather Reid, science
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Glow Meet, Local authorities, Sciences

Introducing the new Enterprise in Education feature – Work of Work Wednesdays.

Have you ever wondered how business people start out on their chosen career path? How do you get to become what you most want to do – what are the qualifications that you need? How can I learn a trade and start my own business?

Well wonder no more as World of Work on Wednesdays is here to give you some ideas, help and advice on making your way into the World of Work from the people who really know! Yes we will be Glow Meeting with the people who really have the jobs that you are interested in doing and they can tell you what it is really like and how they made their way into their chosen career pathway. Ask them questions that are of interest to you and maybe even eventually follow in their footsteps!!

We are launching this exciting feature with television personality Heather Reid who will be interviewing three/four women from The Royal Observatory Edinburgh, who will be telling us more about what it is like to work in the field of science and engineering. Pupils will have the opportunity to question scientists who use data from the Hubble Space Telescope to study galaxies, an engineer working on technology for what will be the world’s largest optical telescope and find out about the different careers at the Royal Observatory Edinburgh.

Join us on Wednesday 2nd June from 12.15 – 1.30pm to hear more about science and how it can open doors for you into the World of Work.

May 20th, 2010

Digital art project supports transition stages for Perth pupils

Julia Fenby

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Co-Create, Curriculum for Excellence, Expressive Arts, Glow Groups, Outdoor Learning, Perth and Kinross, Technologies

Secondary pupils from North Inch Community Campus, and primary and nursery pupils from St John’s Academy, have been working with a team of artists and musicians to explore the theme of ‘transition’ as part of the ‘Hooks + Bites’ Co-Create project for Glow. Using creative approaches, learners have investigated what transition means, both in terms of moving on to a new stage, and in terms of their physical journey to a new campus.

The walk to North Inch has been explored from different perspectives, with pupils either gathering found objects in matchboxes; making drawings and maps of their route, or creating sound compositions using recordings they made on the way.

Team work plays an important role in the project with pupils working collaboratively in sound or animation crews, to make short digital art and sound works expressing what ‘transition’ means to them.

The resulting work will be presented at a red carpet launch at digital art gallery Threshold, Horsecross in June, and will also be shown at North Inch Community Campus at the start of the autumn term. It will be uploaded onto the Hooks + Bites Glow Group, forming the basis of a digital art bank for Glow, which other schools in Perth and Kinross and across Scotland can use and to which they can upload their own digital art work.

Plan B Collective is leading this project for Horsecross Arts. An initial CPD day involved teachers from each of the participating schools working together and looking at the Experiences and Outcomes the project could deliver, particularly across Music, Art, ICT and Health and Wellbeing.

Co-Create is funded through a partnership between Learning and Teaching Scotland and the Scottish Arts Council National Lottery Fund.

May 20th, 2010

Julia Donaldson live author event.

Katie Barrowman

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: authors, Glow Meet, Julia Donaldson, Literacy, Literature, Scottish Book Trust
 : Categories Events, Glow Meet

On 26th May, 2010, at 11.00am, the Scottish Book Trust will have their second event in the Authors Live programme in partnership with BBC Scotland Learning: an audience with the UK’s foremost picture book author Julia Donaldson. Julia will be leading a hugely enjoyable 35-minute session of stories and songs. This event is suitable for nursery-P4 pupils.

You can sign up to watch on the BBC Website by clicking this link, or you can also watch the live stream through Glow by clicking here to go to the Authors Live Glow Group.

So make sure you don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to see the author of The Gruffalo, Stick Man, and countless other children’s favourites live this coming Wednesday!

May 19th, 2010

Glowing Cookbook - Using the National Critical Skills Glow Group to collaborate with other Teachers

Lorna Arbuckle

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The Critical Skills programme (CSP) is a comprehensive and highly effective teaching model designed by classroom teachers in New Hampshire, USA, in the early 1980’s under the auspices of a state-wide education/business partnership.

It was introduced to the UK in 2000 and has been successfully adapted to the developing needs of Scottish education, especially in relation to Curriculum for Excellence. Due to CSP’s widely-recognised potential to transform young people’s lives, the UK company has recently converted to non-profit status and is in the process of becoming a registered charity.

Critical Skills run training courses using a programme which is based on four broad educational ideas; a collaborative learning community, experiential learning, results-driven learning and problem-based learning. While each broad idea is powerful in itself, they work best as a cohesive whole where the collaborative classroom culture develops through shared experiences and problem solving to help each pupil meet essential curriculum targets.

Since one of the main ideas which underpins Critical Skills is the development of a collaborative learning community the creation of a National Critical Skills Glow Group is an ideal forum to promote this. The Glow Group has enabled teachers from across Scotland who have (and have not) trained in Critical Skills to share their ideas and resources. It also allows teachers to see how other practitioners have been using Critical Skills, whether it is in early years, primary, secondary or at a management level.

This cookbook follows Marianne Flanagan the Acting Principal Teacher from Dalrymple Primary School, East Ayrshire as she gives us her views on Critical Skills training and the impact it has had in their school.

Visit the Glowing Cookbook

May 14th, 2010

Scottish CILT National Conference - Glow Meet with Michael Russell

Katie Barrowman

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Guest Post from Catriona Oates of Scottish CILT

At Scottish CILT, we have been active in promoting the use of technology to support language teaching and learning, and we intend to make full use of Glow for our forthcoming National Conference for headteachers, Languages - Unlocking the Potential on the 25th of May. This will involve, among many other things, the live broadcast of Michael Russell, the Cabinet Secretary’s talk via Glowmeet .

We have set up a dedicated glow group for the conference which you can find within our Glow group. If you are unable to attend the event but would like to join the conference via Glowmeet, please first of all make sure you are signed up to our group. You don’t need to be a headteacher to join in via Glow!

You can add to the discussion threads which are already there or start one of your own. You can also ask questions on the day using the chat function on Glow meet and I will put them to the Cabinet Secretary on your behalf. Please join us if you can. The new senior chief HMIe will be giving a keynote talk which will be relayed live on Glow, and will also be taking questions so if you are interested in contributing to the debate around what languages can add to Curriculum for Excellence, please don’t miss this great opportunity to engage in a national debate.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

May 14th, 2010

a RIGHT blether

Jennifer McDougall

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: a RIGHT blether, consultation, SCCYP, Tam Baillie
 : Categories Events, Glow Meet, Local authorities

Join Tam Baillie, Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People on May 20th at 11am.

Tam will be launching ‘a RIGHT blether’ to children and young people across Scotland on Glow. RIGHT blether is an exciting national consultation to make sure the opinions of all children and young people in Scotland are heard. It’s being led by Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People. His job it is to ensure all children and young people in Scotland have their rights respected.

Throughout 2010, he’ll hear from, meet and have a ‘blether’ with thousands of Scotland’s children and young people – to help influence his work over the next four years. However, none of it will be possible without support from people of all ages in Scotland. This website explains how you can get involved.

He will be in Dundee at the Contemporary Arts Centre with children and young people from local schools so join him for a lively and informative session and find out how you and your school can get involved in ‘a RIGHT blether’. You can sign up and get involved in the Glow Meet and take part in the interactive activities as well on our ‘a RIGHT blether’ page.

A new National Glow Group has been developed for this event and subsequent work - Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People (SCCYP)

May 11th, 2010

Glow Refresh Roundup

Lorna Arbuckle

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With so many new features on Glow, we wanted to provide you with a roundup of each new area, including links to help you get started.
Glow Forums
Glow Forums have been designed to allow increased manageability of the various discussions users may be involved with. Rather than having to click back into each individual discussion thread, Glow Users are now also able to view their own board index which will show activity across all the Glow discussions they take part in.
Visit the Glow Forums tab on the National Glow Refresh Group to get started.

Glow Mail
With its refreshed interface, Glow users can expect a smoother look and feel with many improved features including drag and drop; it is easier to organise your mails and folders. In the previous version of Glow Mail, text could not be formatted, now you can format your text with font, colours and tables to name a few. You can navigate more easily between mails without having to close any windows and a new icon is available to indicate if mails have been replied to, something that wasn’t available in the previous version. Glow Mail will also automatically check for new mails. Sharing address books also is easier to do.
Visit the Glow Mail Glow Group where we talk you through the new features step by step and answer your FAQs.
Glow Themes
Two new Glow themes have been delivered making 10 in total so far and choosing your themes is now done with images. In conjunction, we have updated the theme selector page so instead of text in a drop down you have preview images when deciding which theme to use. Visit the Glow Themes area of the National Glow Refresh group to find out more.

Increased Storage Capacity
In addition to the new Glow Forums, Glow users are now benefiting from increased storage capacity. This means that every school and local authority site now has more space to upload documents, images and videos.
Coming soon
Watch this space to find out about even more refreshed features you can expect to see in Glow including additional themes to choose from, new Glow Blogs and new Glow Wikis.
Would you like to find out more? You can log on to the interactive Glow Refresh Glow Group where we talk you through the planned improvements and you can get a sneak preview of what the new functions will look like.