Supporting collaborative working across schools
Overview
Glow groups can be created in a range of different contexts to support collaborative working between a number of different schools. At a national level a variety of online events have been developed to allow practitioners and teachers from across Scotland to work together using Glow tools in a variety of different subjects, topics and stages.
This Cookbook will explore the creation and population of a Glow group to encourage collaborative working across a number of schools. It will highlight some of the considerations when setting up this kind of opportunity. The examples to show how this can be done are from a national science event where pupils joined forces to explore scientific concepts both face to face in the classroom as well as virtually using Glow to create their own foam fire extinguishers.
Context
Organising a collaborative event across schools in a local authority can provide a number of benefits.
Staff will have the opportunity to:
- Access a central store of support materials.
- Use the Glow tools to engage pupils in interactive activity.
- Access discussion boards with the pre-set questions designed to stimulate pupils’ investigative skills throughout the activity.
- Access evidence of learning through a Glow discussion board.
- Share findings and experiences during the activity with other schools across the local authority via Glow Meet.
- Gain access to practitioner expertise using Glow Meet.
- The Glow group created for the event can provide ongoing access to CPD for other staff not directly involved in the activity.
Pupils will have an opportunity to:
- Take part in active learning opportunities.
- Use Glow tools to develop peer support.
- Take part in collaborative learning using the Glow tools.
- Gain an extended audience for their work.
This Cookbook exemplifies a Glow National online event, Science Challenge, which took place on the 1st of June 2009. This Glow opportunity was made available to schools from across Scotland, allowing teachers and pupils to join forces and explore scientific concepts both face to face and virtually.
From 9am until 3pm, pupils from Perth High School, Marr College and Calderglen High School explored a range of chemical reactions with the aim to produce foam. The design process and experiment then began as pupils from S2 – S3 strived to create a fire extinguisher which could put out a fire in the shortest time. One of the challenges they faced was to find a way to keep the chemicals apart to ensure the fire extinguisher doesn’t go off until they need to put out a fire. Other schools from across Scotland participated in the event by joining the Glow Meet to view the challenge as it took place and ask questions throughout the day.
The participating schools explored the possibilities of creating their own fire extinguishers through hands on experiments and had the opportunity to share their experience outwith their own classrooms as they collectively updated their findings in Glow Discussion Boards in a Science Challenges Glow Group. Pete Johnson from Kitchen Chemistry who is also a teacher at Stewart’s Melville College worked with all three schools to guide them through their scientific discoveries using the audio, video and white board in Glow Meet.
Pupils from each school shared their top tips on producing foam and their scientific findings as and when they made each discovery. After a discussion about fire safety from the local fire service they finished the day by demonstrating their completed fire extinguishers in action as they put out fires live via Glow Meet.
Curriculum for Excellence
Chemical changes – second, third level
I have collaborated in activities which safely demonstrate simple chemical reactions using everyday chemicals. I can show an appreciation of a chemical reaction as being a change in which different materials are made. SCN 2-19a
Through experimentation, I can identify indicators of chemical reactions having occurred. I can describe ways of controlling the rate of reactions and can relate my findings to the world around me. SCN 3-19a
Ingredients
Ingredients required to create a similar Glow group to encourage collaboration across schools in a local authority.
- Local authority SCA account
- Individual Glow logins for teachers and pupils involved
- Membership of Glow Group set for Glow users involved
- Glow Meet enabled as a service
- Access to computers that can run Glow Meet
- Projector, screen for each school/class involved
- Webcams
- Microphones
- Speakers
- Ideally have 2 or more computers set up for the event, one to use to display Glow Meet and the other/s for pupils to input their findings in to a discussion board.
Ingredients required to create the Science Challenges Glow group
- Text editor web parts x 2
- News web part
- What’s On web part
- Glow Meet web part
- Web links web part
- Additional pages
- Additional discussion boards
Product
If you have a Glow login, you can visit the Science Challenge Glow group by following this link: https://portal.glowscotland.org.uk/establishments/nationalsite/Science/Science%20Challenges/default.aspx
