Using Glow and Glow Learn to support an interdisciplinary project
Overview
Kelvingrove
Kelvingrove Glow Group
The English department at Carluke High School in South Lanarkshire has used Glow extensively over the last couple of years, with topics ranging from novel studies in S2 through to creative writing assignments at Higher.
Last autumn the English department worked in collaboration with other departments on a ‘Scottish Heritage’ project. In this cookbook English teacher Barry Wright describes how Glow was used to support this interdisciplinary project.
Context
The Scottish Heritage Project encompassed all S1 pupils and staff from the English, History and Computing departments. The project was aimed at:
- developing pupils’ understanding and appreciation of their local heritage;
- encouraging pupils to make connections between different areas of learning;
- building pupils’ skills in working independently;
- developing pupils’ skills in working in partnership and in teams.
The project explored a number of different themes of Scottish heritage, including music and arts, local industry and famous buildings.
Barry created a ’Scottish Heritage’ Glow Group and then sub-Groups for each of the different themes. All S1 pupils and the staff involved in the project were given membership of each of the Groups. Each Group contained links to web sites for background reading and for research tasks, discussion boards for pupils’ questions and feedback, and assignments created in Glow Learn .
Barry Wright provides a tour of the S1 Scottish Heritage project
Glow Learn quiz
Barry found many of the features of Glow Learn particularly useful to support the project. These included:
- sharing objectives with pupils. Objectives for individual activities, lessons or units of work can be included in Glow Learn materials. Objectives may be taken directly from curricular frameworks, such as Curriculum for Excellence or National Qualifications. Alternatively, objectives can be agreed by staff and/or pupils and expressed in terms of learning intentions or success criteria. Regular discussion of lesson objectives helped to maintain pupils’ focus on the standards and progress expected.
- Glow Learn tests. The ’test’ builder in Glow Learn allows teachers to create quizzes or assessments, using a range of question types, such as true/false, multiple choice and short answer. Barry used the test facilities, for example, to ask pupils to practise skim reading skills.
- automatic marking of Glow Learn tests. Most question types in Glow Learn tests are marked automatically when pupils submit their work, saving on marking and allowing rapid identification of common areas of difficulty amongst a group of pupils.
- linking Glow Learn to a Glow Group. Adding the ‘Learning Space’ web part to a Glow Group links it to Glow Learn. This allows the assigning and tracking features of Glow Learn to be seamlessly integrated with the collaborative tools of Glow Learn.
Ingredients
Barry created a ‘parent’ Glow Group for the project and a sub-Group for each of the area of study. Each Glow Group was also linked to Glow Learn, by the addition of the ‘Glow Learn – Learning Space’ web part. The ‘how-to’ clips below show how to replicate these ideas for yourself.
Recipe
* how to create a test in Glow Learn
* how to enrol pupils on a Glow Learn course
* how to use viewing and assessment options in Glow Learn
* a pupil’s view of a Glow Learn test
* how to review a Glow Learn test
* how to link a Glow Group to Glow Learn
* how to use a Learning Space folder in Glow Learn
Impact
For many of the first year pupils, the project provided their first experience of using Glow. They were very enthusiastic about the opportunities it presented, such as continuing their work from home and being able to give and gain feedback both from their peers and from staff. Their comments following the project included:
“I log onto Glow to research my topics. We research a lot of pages online our teacher loads up so we’ve been taught how to scan & skim the webpage gathering any key words & giving us more time to research other safe web pages. I like how you log onto Glow & everything’s there. Our Glow Group tells you what to do. I’ve been using the discussion board to ask questions from home.”
“The thing I like best is doing my homework on Glow. Because I’m online it’s so much quicker. I take things in a lot quicker and don’t feel like I’m missing out.”
“Glow helps me learn quicker which helps me feel good about myself and makes me feel smart. I’ve been learning lots about the Kelvingrove Art Gallery while learning how to use Glow at the same time, so it’s been 2 for the price of 1”.