Using a Glow Learn course in ASN

Using a Glow Learn Course with ASN

Overview

Invergarven School, South Ayrshire

Invergarven is a non-denominational nursery, primary and secondary school in Girvan, South Ayrshire. It caters for pupils with a wide range of additional support needs from behaviour all the way through to complex and profound. Pupils attend from a wide catchment area across South Ayrshire Council. As the ICT co-ordinator, Kat McClure is responsible to delivering ICT across the school. She has been using different aspects of Glow and after attending a course has recently been using Glow Learn.

The Glow Learn Course

In this Cookbook we will look at how Kat has put a Glow Learn course together, what she sees the impact of this has been and what her plans for further development with Glow Learn are for the school.

In this cookbook, we will find out:

• What the Media Matters Course looks like
• How to build a Glow Learn Course
• How to control the resources the pupils see
• How the pupil accesses their Glow Learn course and their assignments
• How the teacher can use Glow Learn to track progress

Context

Kat McClure

Kat has been using Glow Learn with ICT Groups for the whole school. The goal at Invergarven is to use Glow Learn with pupils to enable them to become more ICT literate but also to enable them to become more independent in their learning. This is very much an aspiration at Invergarven in terms of using ICT and Glow. They want to promote the pupils’  independence through creating learning materials with the 4 capacities of Curriculum for Excellence in mind.

Forward Plan for Media Matters

This block the topic they had been looking at was Media Matters. Kat thought it was important to use as many media tools as was possible for the project. They used simple animation applications, as well as the internet, images, word etc. She made a number of resources available to the pupils through Glow Learn, for example links to You Tube with videos of car adverts and an assignment designed for pupils to submit a message to Kat detailing their comment about their favourite car. The pupils also used a newspaper template assigned to them which they worked on and submitted back to Kat and also a simple assessment she had created.

Kat was impressed by the way she could use the tracking tools within Glow Learn to review assignments, looking at who’s accessed it, who’s handed it in, when they’ve handed it in etc. Indeed, Kat was checking on who had done what whilst away on a course herself.

In terms of how the project operated one of the groups of pupils involved as the ICT Group were a more able group. They were told to go on and use their Glow Log-ons to access the resources. It was pointed out to them that the assignments were all there waiting and it was up to them how they tackled them and submitted them back with messages to their teacher.

With the more complex need group Kat has put videos on for the pupils, linked to what they have done in class. This is to try to get the parents of these pupils accessing the materials with the pupils themselves and to allow the parents to be more onboard helping the pupils with their learning and discovering what the pupils are actually working on in school. Kat acknowledges that there may be some internet access issues with parents but feels that the school can get around these. She feels this brings more feedback from the parents back into school and allows them to work effectively in partnership.

In the future she is hoping to use Glow Learn with her Access 1 – Listening and Responding to Scottish Stories and push all the resources out to the pupils and the parents this way, giving everyone a chance to have a bit of input and to have more effective multi-disciplinary working.

Ingredients

• A Glow Learn course with various resources
• Pupils enrolled in this course
• Assignments pushed out to pupils through Glow Learn
• Pupils with Glow logins who are able to access Glow Learn

Links to Curriculum for Excellence

As I extend and enhance my knowledge of features of various types of software, including those which help find, organise, manage and access information, I can apply what I learn in different situations.
TCH 1-03a / TCH 2-03a

I explore and experiment with the features and functions of computer technology and I can use what I learn to support and enhance my learning in different contexts.
TCH 1-04a/TCH 2-04a

Recipe

Pupil Newspaper Assignment 2

Kat built a course in Glow Learn with a range of resources she wanted to give the pupils access to. She enrolled the pupils on this course and then assigned or “pushed out” work to them at the pace she thought appropriate. She was then able to view information about how many pupils had accessed the work and track when they had handed this in. She used the monitor and mark process to mark the work and release feedback to the pupils. You can learn more about this in the Glow Learn Training Guide (Glow login required).

In the videos which follow we will look at rebuilding the steps for some of the things she did. The videos begin with a tour through the course that Kat created:

What does the Media Matters Course looks like?

How to create a Glow Learn Course

How to add a file based resource to a Glow Learn course

How to add a link based resource to a Glow Learn course

How to add a simple text resource to a Glow Learn course

How to add a test resource to a Glow Learn course

How to enrol pupils in a course

How to hide resources from pupils

How to push out assignments to pupils

How the pupil accesses their Glow Learn course and their assignments

How the teacher can monitor the pupils’ progress

Impact

Kat was keen to use Glow to encourage the pupils’ independence. The pupils enjoyed being given this independence. They liked that it was marked and then posted back to them on Glow with the comments. It made them feel good about themselves and promoted their wellbeing. Kat also liked that she could hold back the pace of the assignments and the tracking of them with the tools in Glow Learn. Rather than allowing them to get straight into everything, she could plan the pace of the pupils access.

Progress Records for the Course

The pupils themselves are wanting more and more from Glow in terms of assignments and are motivated to work in this way. As Kat says, “they want it now!”

Kat speaks about the impact of using Glow Learn

Using a Glow Learn course in ASN5.054