Supporting Int 2 Biology: Part 2 – Weblinks and Page Viewer

Overview

Keith Varty teaches Biology at St Margaret’s Academy in Livingston, West Lothian. He is just approaching the end of his first year of teaching. Despite having had to find his feet as a new teacher, he has taken on the responsibility for creating a Glow Group to support pupils studying Intermediate 2 Biology.

In this series of cookbooks, we will look in detail at the content of the Intermediate 2 Biology Glow Group. In each part, there will be a general introductory overview of the Group. Each cookbook will then focus in on a different element, finding out how this has been used to support pupils studying Int2 Biology then learning how this could be replicated. The cookbook will be split into three parts:

Part 1 – Multiple Document stores
Part 2 – Weblinks and Page Viewer
Part 3 – Using Videos as a memory aid

If you have already read Part 1 of the series, you may wish to move on to the cookbook focus section of this one, as the initial context section is the same as in Part 1 (for the benefit of those who have not yet read part 1)

Context

Keith was introduced to Glow at the start of the session and was immediately taken with the potential it offered. Keen to embrace this as a way of supporting pupils, he decided to set up a Glow Group that would be accessible to all pupils studying Int2 Biology in the school, not only those in his own class.

Keith has worked extremely hard to make the Glow Group what it currently is – engaging, informative and useful.

There are seven pages in the Group, with a range of web parts on each.

Noticeboard Page:

The News web part is used to keep pupils informed about new resources being added to the Glow Group and give information on events relevant to Int 2 biology, such revision class details.

There is a What’s On web part on the page, which has been renamed as Deadlines
This has been used to advise each of the classes of the dates of upcoming ‘NAB’ assessments, prelim dates and revision sessions. This has helped pupils to plan their studies more effectively by having advanced warning of the dates and being able to organise their studying accordingly.

Keith talks us through the Noticeboard page in the following video:

Keith Varty: Noticeboard Page (2:31)

Cookbook Focus: Web Links and Page Viewer

Web Links Web Part
There is a separate page in the Intermediate 2 Biology Glow Group just for web links.

Here, the web links web part has been used to provide pupils with a range of useful website specifically designed to support their level of learning.

Keith has modified the basic web links web part though.

Rather than simply having links to websites, he has modified the web part to have the Notes field displayed. This allows him to type in additional information about the content of the website being linked to, so helping pupils when they are looking for information, resources or activities for a particular part of the course.

Keith talks about the Web Links page in the following video clip:

Keith Varty: Web links page (0:43)

Page Viewer Web Part
The Page Viewer web part has been used on the Exam Help Page to give pupils direct access to a website specifically created for Intermediate 2 Biology (http://www.oronsay.org/Int2.htm)

The website hosts a fantastic range of interactive resources and activities, to stimulate pupils and help develop their understanding of the concepts covered in the course. Amongst others, the activities include interactive crosswords, cloze passages and matching games.

By using the page viewer, Keith is able to keep all of the content within the Glow Group. Pupils can interact with the resources on the website being viewed without having to navigate away from Glow. He is also able to tap into resources published elsewhere, saving him having to create them himself and opening up the range of resources and activities available to pupils.

Keith explains the use of the Page Viewer web part as he talks us through the Exam Help Page:

Keith Varty: Exam Help Page (1:42)

Ingredients

Keith initially had to create a Glow Group at school level and make all staff teaching Biology and all pupils studying it, members of the Group. The pupils have contributor permissions to the Group to enable them to take part in Discussions, upload documents and respond to surveys.

Keith added and renamed the pages of the Glow Group to suit his purpose and make the Group easy for pupils to navigate around.

On the Weblinks page, Keith added the web links web part, then modified it to show the notes field which allowed him to include specific information about the website being linked to, adding comments such as “Useful for revising Living Cells”.

Keith added the Page Viewer webpart and linked it to a specific Int2 Biology website. He also edited the appearance of the web part, removing its border and changing its height to have a full page view of the website.

In part 1 of this cookbook series, there are videos explaining how to create a Glow Group, add members, and add and rename pages. There is also a video explaining how to create multiple document stores within a Glow Group.

The following videos explain how to replicate the elements of the Glow Group highlighted in this cookbook:

How to add web links and display the notes field (4:50)

How to add and use the Page Viewer web part (5:19)

Other features of the Intermediate 2 Biology Glow Group

As well as the pages already mentioned, there are a further four pages in the Group. Three of these have been explored in more detail in Part 1 of this cookbook series. Part 3 looks at the use of Videos as a learning and revision tool for pupils. However, you can see Keith discuss the content of these four pages in the following videos, to give you a complete picture of the entire Glow Group:

Keith Varty: Homework Help Page (1:29)

Keith Varty: Current Class Topic Page (0:38)

Keith Varty: Archive Page for previous topics (1:47)

Keith Varty: Videos page (1:01)

Impact

The Intermediate 2 Biology Glow Group has brought many benefits to the pupils in St Margaret’s Academy.

For the pupils, they now have a ‘one-stop-shop’ for all of their Biology resources, notes, homework exercises and exam revision materials. This gives them access both at home and at school to everything they might need when going over classwork, doing homework or studying for assessments.

They have a Discussion Board within the Group which gives them a place for asking questions and getting support, both from their own teacher, other teachers in the Department, or from other pupils, so widening their range of help sources.

For Keith and the other Biology teachers in St Margaret’s, they now have all of their resources stored and accessible online.