Glow Scotland

June 14th, 2012

Glow - maintenance notification

ggallacher

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This year we are planning a shorter maintenance period over the summer break. We are therefore planning to make Glow unavailable for three days, from 08:00 on Friday 20th July until 08:00 on Monday 23rd July.

Glow Mail will be available from 08:00 on Sunday 22nd July.

Please do get in touch if you have any queries.

June 8th, 2012

Join our Glow Meet from Rio

ggallacher

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11am – 12pm Tuesday 19th June 2012

What are your green dreams for the future?

What message will you send to world leaders?

How can Scotland become more sustainable?

What can we expect from this globally important event?

Over 150 heads of state and world leaders will gather in Rio de Janeiro from 20-22nd June 2012 for crucial talks at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. Stewart Stevenson MSP, Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, will be one of those travelling to Rio as part of the official UK delegation.

Education Scotland, through Glow, is giving you the chance to link with the Minister live from Rio to learn more about the event and the hopes and expectations of the UK delegation.

The conference, referred to as Rio+20, will mark 20 years since the historic Earth Summit in the same city in 1992 which put issues such as climate change and the protection of biodiversity on the map and gave birth to Agenda 21 – an action plan for a sustainable future which was adopted by national governments, cities and local authorities across the world. Rio+20 will focus on seven priority areas including: decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable agriculture, water, oceans and disaster readiness.

Rio+20 provides an opportunity to move away from business-as-usual and to take bold steps to end poverty and address environmental destruction.
This will be an interactive Glow meet so get your questions, messages, ideas and green dreams ready for Rio!

• What is Scotland doing to protect the environment and promote sustainable development? What more could we be doing?

• What are your green dreams and ideas for the future? What should we have achieved by the time Rio+40 comes around?

• What messages would you like the Minister to pass onto other government officials and world leaders when he meets them for discussions?

This Glow Meet will be suitable for learners in primary and secondary schools.
Visit http://bit.ly/glowrio20 to register and join the Glow meet on the day. Free Rio+20 resources are available at: http://bit.ly/JxZr5G

June 8th, 2012

Glow’s Next Phase

ggallacher

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Michael Russell, Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning blogs about Glow’s Next Phase

This is an extract below or read the entire blog post here

Context
I articulated in September last year my vision for the future of Glow, and in October the ICT in Education conference took place and the user community generated invaluable insights on how Glow could develop in future. Debate and suggestions examined how we could deliver on my 5 key principles for Glow:

- Change the culture of use of ICT
- Improve confidence in the use of ICT for learners, teachers, school leaders and parents
- Promote new behaviours for teaching
- Deepen parental engagement
- Strengthen position on hardware and associated infrastructure

Immediate Future
To ensure continuity we have taken the step of extending the current RM provision through to December 2013. Microsoft have agreed to provide the tools and services of their integrated application suite ‘Microsoft Office 365 for Education’ for free through to December 2014; this was the first offer of its kind in the world for a national schools project.

Microsoft have also agreed to go further and deliver a package over and above the integrated application suite to deliver on the 5 key principles for Glow. For example, the improvements to the functionality and ease of use of the Glow application suite will be aided by a full-time dedicated staff member funded by Microsoft to help support and promote the service.

As a Government we will also work to integrate the ICT choices made by local authorities for their own education communities within our co-ordinated national effort.

User-centred Glow
As I set out in September 2011 Glow must continue to evolve and become more dynamic. At the heart of this is seeking a secure way through Glow for pupils, parents and teachers to utilise the free tools and the open source services that already exist on the web or that will emerge in the future.

With the roll-out of the new and improved integrated application suite and the agreement to extend the services of RM, the work of the current iteration of the ICT in Education programme board will draw to a close. To oversee the next phase in development I have asked the Scottish Government’s new Chief Scientific Adviser, Prof Muffy Calder, to convene an ICT Education Excellence group. The excellence group will call on the expertise of education technology specialists and end users.

The excellence group will have the immediate task of scoping the long-term user-centred future of Glow. Their challenge will be to imagine a future for the service that provides a seamless user experience and connectivity on the one hand and an open pluralist range of tools and applications on the other.

The group will draw on the contributions made to date and further explore community generated contributions like Glew.

Future
11 years ago when Glow was first conceived it would have been hard to imagine the range of free online tools and services that could be used to enhance education today.

The exciting opportunity is to develop Glow to be a service that evolves with the demands of teachers and pupils, and utilising new tools as they emerge. Only by creating a user-centred Glow will we ensure that in 2023 the service remains relevant and vital to Scottish Education.

May 11th, 2012

Authors Live - David Walliams

ggallacher

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GlowTV brings David Walliams in to schools across Scotland

We hope you had the opportuntiy to join over 240 schools - around 7200 excited Glow users - across Scotland as they participated in the Authors Live Event. If you missed it then you can watch again, go to GlowTV watch-again.

About David Walliams (courtesy of the BBC)

David Walliams was born in Merton, London in 1971. He studied drama at the University of Bristol and one of his first jobs was to work as a writer for the Ant and Dec Show. Twenty years later he is a household name, as famous for his heroic fund raising efforts as he is for his TV and film appearances. In 2008 David released his first book for children The Boy in the Dress and the follow-up Mr Stink won the People’s Book Prize Award. Both books have since been adapted for stage and cinema. His third book Billionaire Boy was one of the biggest hits of 2010. David’s latest book Gangsta Granny was published in March 2012.

Gangsta Granny tells the story of Ben, who is bored every time he is made to stay at his grandma’s house, as all she wants to do is to play board games and eat cabbage soup. But then Ben finds out she was once an international jewel thief and they hatch a plot to steal the crown jewels.

Partners
Authors Live is produced in association with the Scottish Book Trust and Creative Scotland. The Scottish Book Trust is the leading agency for the promotion of literature, reading and writing in Scotland and their Authors Live programme is funded by Creative Scotland’s First in a Lifetime Fund. The Authors Live webcasts are also available through Glow - the world’s first national intranet for education allowing joined-up working the length and breadth of Scotland.

May 10th, 2012

Calling all educators interested in Modern Foreign Languages and ICT

ggallacher

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Thursday 17th May

We are hosting a CPDMeet on Glow on the use of technology in the learning of Modern Foreign Languages. Catriona Oates (facilitator of MLPSNet on Glow) will host the online webconference. It will be of interest to language educators in all sectors; primary, secondary and special education.

It starts at 4pm on Thursday 17th May. More details and sign-up here

MLPSNet is a community on Glow which is open to all educators. See more details.

Note that this CPD opportunity came about as a request from one of our CPD community members. You too can ‘order’ free, online CPD on any subject matter using the service

April 30th, 2012

Authors Live on Glow TV - David Walliams - Gangsta Granny

ggallacher

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Thursday 10th of May @ 11am

Join us for the first in the new series of Authors Live web casts.

Multi-talented funny man David Walliams will be talking about his hilarious new book Gangsta Granny. Guaranteed to cause an epidemic of smiles to breakout across the UK.

This event is suitable for P4-7 Ages 8-12.

Find out more here

April 30th, 2012

World of Work Wednesdays - working in science

ggallacher

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Wednesday 9th May 2012 @ 14:00

You don’t have to do the traditional route of University, then PhD to have a career in science. It often seems like the kind of job you’d have to spend years and years qualifying and training for. Well, this is not always the case. Young people, some not long out of school, are working in science right now and you could be too.

Science is part of our everyday life and Life Sciences are particularly important, with stories on the news nearly every week telling us about new medical technologies and treatments for diseases.

Science requires individuals with many skills and interests – and not all scientists work in a laboratory. The panel for this session al have different jobs and their qualifications, training and experiences are varied.

With Life Sciences, you are already at an advantage when it comes to job searching, as Scotland is regarded as one of the most successful countries in the world. The Scottish Government have made Life Sciences a Key priority Industry, which means that they see it as a means of us expanding our economy in the future. The industry has roles in sales, business development, research, clinical trials and many more.

Sign up and join us for this exciting event!

April 30th, 2012

Simple Acts - Share a Story

ggallacher

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Wednesday 2nd of May 2012 @ 11:00

This Simple Act is most suited for P1-P5. A story from another country will be told to students during the Glow Meet.

A discussion about the story will follow and then students will be invited to share their own stories should they wish to.

Find out more on the National Site - Glow TV

April 25th, 2012

The Beavers are Back!

Jennifer McDougall

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 : Categories Curriculum for Excellence, Events, Glow Meet, Pupils, Sciences, Uncategorized

Live from Edinburgh Zoo on Friday 27th April at 10.45am will be your chance to speak to Beaver Expert Robert Needham, Field Officer for the Scottish Beaver Trial.

Beavers became extinct in the UK 400 years ago, but now they are back in Scotland as part of a trial reintroduction, being co-ordinated by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust in partnership.

Since May 2009, four beaver families have been reintroduced to Knapdale, near Lochgilphead in Argyll and they have been busy since then making lodges, a dam and producing kits (baby beavers). This is your chance to ask lots of questions related to beavers and their habitat and to find out the latest news from the Trial.

Rob will be showing interesting photo footage of the beavers as well as showing you what beaver signs to look out for, just in case you want to go to Knapdale and find them for yourself.

This Glow meet is aimed at Primary and lower secondary learners. Sign up and join us in Glow TV!

April 23rd, 2012

Talking Stem Cells - The Ethical Dilemma

ggallacher

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