Glow

Glow preview material now on eduBuzz.org

If you want to follow what's going on in East Lothian with the national Intranet, take a look at eduBuzz's Glow pages for a daily changing glance at what's happening.

Meet Robert

Robert Jones is well known across East Lothian, especially with mathematics colleagues, for his blog Jonesieboy. He sees Glow supporting teachers' sharing of resources, particularly for the Interactive Whiteboard, but is keen to see how we support teachers in using Glow, which, after all, contains tools which are already out there for the taking.

Meet Malcolm

Malcolm is the last of our Preston Lodge staff to introduce himself. He, like Iain, sees the efficiencies in not reinventing the wheel but, with his interests in photography and the arts, also sees Glow as a means of introducing more creativity to learning.

Meet Iain

Iain Stuart is Principle Teacher of Science Development in Prestonlodge, the same school as Eilidh who we met last week. He sees Glow's importance in stopping us having to reinvent the wheel within Scotland - and hopefully beyond. Will Glow bring us this kind of coherence and get us into everything we need?

Meet Eilidh

As we get warmed up for the new term and the imminent Glow Mentor activities, we felt it was time to meet more of the Glow Mentors. So far, we've already met Tess, who was able to fill us in on the Glow Portal trials. To get us started with some more regular introductions this term it's time to catch up with Eilidh Proudfoot from Prestonlodge and her aspirations for Glow.

Catch up with the Glow portal trial in East Lothian

Our two secondary trialists of the Glow Portal have been blogging heavily in the past month about their experiences, from the trials Tess seemed to be having getting some elements of the resource sharing underway to the huge success of a sharing and peer evaluation session on the portal. Tess's blog will continue to be a great place to go for information as the portal is refined.

David (or Glowboy, apparently ;-) has also been busy accompanying some superb lessons using Glow as a means of formative assessment in the primary school, as well as a means of providing that all important audience for our kids' work. His notes on some of the drawbacks in the portal during a lesson (especially the password issue which Renfrewshire have also found a problem) offer an idea, though, on what kind of environment our kids will have access to.

He's even let his Advanced Higher Computing Studies students have a look in - maybe they'll be designing the next phase ;-)

There has been a great deal of interest in some of the social media reporting of Glow developments in East Lothian. I was invited down to RM's Executive Board to talk about the impact of what we are doing and how it might shape future Glows. Robert is also trying to see where the future lies as the RM techies get the portal ready for April's launch.

Other classroom developments in Argyll and Bute, for example, should help us learn from outside the Authority, too, and see where Glow might be used to further some good practice already going on. South Lanarkshire is enjoying the portal's widgets, and seeing how personalisable it can be. Communication on what can and cannot be offered remains a vital element which can never been underestimated. Finally, if you want to get to know some other Glowers not in East Lothian, Aberdeen's GlowBlog seems a great place to get to know some other mentors.

--Ewan

Glow will revolutionalise Scottish education - do you know about it?

Brian at Musselburgh launches a bit of a challenge: Glow will change Scottish education - do you know about it? Just to look at one part of his post, the ability for teachers with similar interests to find each other and meet up regardless of geography is transformative. Does this mean an end to the audience for the staffroom bore ;-) Will we all be able to find even more people that share our interests in Scottish education than the blogosphere can provide? That's another question whose answer will be beneficial to us all, regardless what the answer might be...

A win-win for Glow and social media on the horizon?

Pupil and Teacher Support Booklets for Glow

Aberdeen's Andy has blogged some pupil and teacher support booklets to help better understand Glow.

First glimpse of the Glow portal

Tess Watson is one of the first in the country to report back on the Glow portal which is being trialled in East Lothian and elsewhere at the moment. We can't wait to see more of the screen shots of activity on Glow and find out how it compares to the blogging medium when it comes to sharing views, resources and information. Above all, it's how the collaborative tools compare to those we have / don't have currently in our schools. Thanks, Tess!

Blogging in Ed workshop

If you know of anyone who would enjoy learning about how blogs can be exploited in their classroom please let them know that there is a session at Prestonpans Education Centre this Friday, the 10th, at 1.30pm. It'll be a chance to explore possibilities and possibly make a start on a blogging project. They can sign up in advance using the usual CPD routes or come along.