Using Glow to support remote teaching

Overview

Richard Burgess is Principal Teacher of ICT Development at Broughton High School in Edinburgh. He is currently seconded as a Glow Development Officer to the City of Edinburgh Council. Due to timetable commitments and lack of specialist cover support, Richard is required to teach an Intermediate 1 Computing Studies class. For three of the five hours of class commitment, Richard is physically present with the class at Broughton. For the other two hours, when possible, Richard teaches and monitors the class remotely via Glow.

In this cookbook Richard will talk us through how he uses Glow to provide virtual support to his pupils.

Context

Richard’s Intermediate 1 Computing Studies class comprises of 17 S5 pupils. The pupils attend the Computing Department for one period, 60 mins, each day, Monday to Friday. Pupils have individual access to computers.

When Richard is not physically in the class (two lessons per week), lessons are conducted via Glow, secondment duties permitting. Richard sets this up by publishing the learning outcomes for the day’s lesson through the News web part. A Voki – a talking character/avatar which allows you to record spoken messages – is used to supplement the text information contained in the News web part.  Richard makes use of a Glow Chat room to work with the pupils in real time.

More information on Vokis and how to incorporate them into your Glow groups can be found at the end of this cookbook.

In this cookbook, we will:

• Hear Richard explain how he uses Glow to remotely support his Intermediate 1 Computing Studies class.

Ingredients

What Richard uses to support the remote teaching of the class:

1. A Glow Group
2. An XML web part to display the Voki
3. Discussion web part
4. News web part
5. Documents web part
6. Web links web part
7. A chat room
8. Glow Learn

Recipe

In the videos below, Richard talks us through how he uses Glow to support remote teaching:

Impact

This cookbook illustrates how Glow is enabling a situation that otherwise might not have come about: Richard remotely fulfilling a classroom commitment while carrying out a secondment as a Glow Development Officer.

Richard is very clear in his commentary that Glow is having a positive impact on his pupils. Apart from enabling his remote support for the class two mornings a week, Richard also points to benefits such as:

• Pupil voice – pupils who are normally quiet in class becoming confident and effective contributors in Glow Chat rooms
• Peer Support – pupils actively supporting one another during the Glow Chat sessions
• Archived support materials – as the term progresses, Richard is populating the document store with worksheets, assessment material and transcripts from the chat sessions all providing the pupils with anytime, anywhere access to resources
• Using Glow Learn to build a bank of re-usable assessment resources – helping to minimise teacher workload for coming sessions. 

Lesley Johnston, Headteacher of Broughton High School, regularly sits in with the class when Richard is conducting a virtual Glow lesson. Lesley affirms that the pupils are fully engaged in the remote lessons, probably linked to the fact that they enjoy learning in this way.

Well planned use of Glow will help pupils achieve many of the Curriculum for Excellence learning experiences and outcomes. The Glow activities described in this cookbook can be linked specifically to:

Technologies: ICT to enhance learning: TCH 0-04a, TCH 1-04a and TCH 2-04a

Technologies: Computing Science: TCH 1-08a and TCH 2-08a

For more information on Vokis please click here.

Follow the link below to see how Richard uses Glow web parts to emphasise lesson learning intentions:

Using Glow to support remote teaching5.053