Glow Scotland

February 6th, 2012

Safer Internet Day 2012

pcurrie

Comments: Comments Off 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.

September 23rd, 2011

SLF Extra - Literacy across learning: using wider texts at second and third levels

Karen-Ann McSwiggan

Comments: Comments Off Tags:  : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Glow, Glow Meet, Health and Wellbeing, Literacy, Media Literacy, Moving Image Education, North Lanarkshire, Pupils, Technologies, West Dunbartonshire

Today the audience was packed into the seminar room at SLF 2011 with no sign of people losing interest on the last afternoon. They were there to see speakers Patrick Mooney, PT English at Caldervale High School in North Lanarkshire and Gilian Penny Headteacher at Gavinburn Primary School in West Dunbartonshire in the Literacy across learning: using wider texts at second and third levels seminar.

Let’s have a listen to why some of the audience were at the seminar today:

Click on the radio to hear why an education student has come to the seminar.
Click on the radio to hear why some international visitors have come to the seminar.

Patrick Mooney

Patrick Mooney is PT English at Caldervale High School and previously taught English at Cardinal Newman High School. He is passionate about using moving image education as a way to enhance literacy across learning.

Let’s have a listen to Patrick describing what he will be presenting on:

Click on the radio to hear Patrick describing what he will be speaking about in the seminar.

He spoke about the challenge of teaching literacy in a modern context and widening the definition of a text. As part of becoming a chartered teacher he researched moving image education and worked with Scotland on Screen. He explained that there are often perceived constraints in the secondary sector with teacher attitude, lack of kit and the need for leadership in moving forward with moving image education in the school. Although he told us that all the kit required is a web cam and a laptop. He stressed that moving image education is an fantastic tool to ensure that active learning is happening, that the pupils are highly motivated and that it builds on their resilience.

He went on to explain that the gains that can be made in terms of inclusion, true collaboration, creativity and enterprise and opportunities for teacher reflection on their own practice are substanial. Pupils with poorer literacy skills can be released from previous ‘failures’ they may have experienced with other forms of communication. Encouragingly, Patrick talked about the possibilities that moving image education opens up in the curriculum by acting as a gel for literacy across the curriculum and inter-disciplinary learning projects. He gave ideas for outcomes/products such as science news reports; documentaries on sports personalities/famous mathematicians/historical figures; movies to analyse performance in PE and projects such as documentaries to celebrate whole school life.

Pupils can really get to employ their own creativity and choice, they can be shown simply how to use the kit and then come up with their own ideas for projects backed by a framework of teacher planning. Patrick ended by speaking about how amazed he continues to be about how much effort pupils are willng to put into these projects - the planning, storyboarding, scripting, celebrating and performing. Pupils who have been very much switched off from the writing process are happily immersed in it due to the motivation of moving image education.

Gillian Penny

Gillian Penny is Headteacher at Gavinburn Primary School in West Dunbartonshire and is passionate about the wider text and digital creativity. Her presentation alternated between short, amazing video clips of pupils from her school and her explanation of the different projects they are invloved in.

Let’s have a listen to Gillian describe her presentation:

Click on the radio to hear Gillian describing what she will be speaking about in the seminar.

Gillian believes it is very important for children to have an audience and purpose for their work as this is highly motivating for them and can change the effort and pride they take in this work. She is also interested in creating opportunities for her pupils to be involved in more interdisciplinary and active learning. In the school they frequently use animation as she feels it is a very powerful tool for pupils planning and storyboarding their work. She notes that it forces them to really think about the story they are telling.

The school also uses the I Can Present tool and green screening to allow pupils to make presentations. We saw a video of children pretending to be in a band and making award acceptance speeches. Gillian notes that for teachers who need persuading about these ways of working it is hard to ignore the quantity and quality of written work from the pupils as part of their planning process when working with these kinds of tools.

The school also makes very successful use of Guitar Hero and other tools for what Gillian calls their ‘Band in a Box’ or ‘Band out of a Box’ project. Pupils are arranged into groups of 4 which are made up by the teachers in order to get an appropriate mix. They create a rock band with imaginative back stories for every member of the band. They write lyrics and put these to music and create a music video to go along with it. They also go on tour virtually to another country and have to plan all the arrangements for this down to hotels, sticking to budgets and preparing a speech in the language of the country. They have performances, including dance and awards sessions within the school. These award sessions have a red carpet where real awards are given out and important dignitries and parents come to watch.

Click here to see this video example from the Consolarium blog of one of the music videos a group of Gillian’s pupils put together:

Gillian showed a video of the pupils reflecting on the process, they are clearly very excited by and thrilled with the whole project. They are able to talk at length about all the aspects of it, how they approached these and how much of their work went into it all. Pupils get to play to their strengths, Gillian commented on the fact that perhaps the pupil who hasn’t succeeded before has a great idea for the band and the other members are able to help make this idea come to fruition.

Click on the radio to listen to some audience reactions to the seminar.
Click on the radio to listen to some audience reactions to the seminar.

So what’s next for Gavinburn? From next week Gavinburn will have their own channel on Glow TV where they will be showcasing digital work every week. This is work that is ongoing in Gavinburn but might not normally make it out of the computer.

You will catch the SLF11 Glow TV interview with Gillian Penny by clicking here where you will be asked to log in with your Glow username and password.

The Glow TV session interview with Gillian and 2 of her pupils is now available below:

In addition you might want to have a look at a video of Gillian presenting at the Games Based Learning Conference 2010:

September 2nd, 2011

Screening Shorts - New Moving Image Education Resource

GerryQ

Comments: Comments Off Tags: Tags: CfE, CPD, Creative Scotland, Education Scotland, English, Expressive Arts, film, Glow, Glow Groups, Learning and Teaching Scotland, Literacy, media literacy, moving image education, National glow groups, video
 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Expressive Arts, Glow, Glow Groups, Learner Resources, Literacy, Media Literacy, Moving Image Education, National Groups

The team is currently busy working on Screening Shorts, a major new online resource to help teachers exploit moving image education in the classroom.

Developed by Creative Scotland and Education Scotland, Screening Shorts will be unveiled at SLF 2011, 21-22 Spetember 2011.

The resource will provide:

• Approximately 50 downloadable short films, free to Glow users
• Film tutorials explaining the core concepts of film language
• Lesson examples in film format showing how short films can be used for a wide variety of classroom activities
• A link to CPD opportunities and activities for teachers wishing to explore how to use moving image across Curriculum for Excellence
• A gateway to the growing Moving Image Education online community on Glow.

Watch this space for more information before and during SLF 2011…