Practising Mandarin. Click to enlarge.

Jacqui Clark is a Primary 5 teacher at Lynburn Primary School in Fife. She has been using Glow for about eighteen months initially just with her own class and now supporting colleagues throughout the school. Jacqui is very positive about the learning opportunities Glow has opened up – allowing pupils to discuss and collaborate, to share their work with their peers and their families, to record and assess their own progress.

This cookbook illustrates a number of ways in which Jacqui has embedded Glow in daily learning and teaching.

Context

Jacqui’s first use of Glow was a project on the Declaration of Arbroath. Her class contacted a history teacher at Arbroath High School who was able to support their project remotely through a Glow Group and a Glow Meet session. This provided an excellent testing ground for Jacqui to explore the potential of Glow to expand learning beyond the classroom. Through Glow Meet pupils engaged in a question and answer session with the history teacher, their learning enhanced by his expertise and local knowledge.

The children subsequently became very enthusiastic about participating in national Glow Meet events, often checking the calendar on the National Site themselves and asking if the class could sign up for events of interest.

Jacqui Clark talks about how she got started with Glow (2:26)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

Following the success of her first experiences of Glow, Jacqui this year created a class Glow Group for her P5s. The Group evolves during the course of the year, as the learning progresses.

Her class have begun to learn Mandarin. Resources used in class, such as PowerPoint files, and links to websites have been added to the Glow Group for pupils to use to support their homework. Pupils have used a discussion board to post their thoughts about the Mandarin lessons.

A story in the Daily What about the arrival of two new pandas at Edinburgh Zoo caught the children’s attention. They studied the story together in class and then used some of the accompanying lesson suggestions and resources. They researched what pandas would require in a zoo environment, designed suitable habitats and wrote reports. The results were uploaded into the Glow Group to be shared with the rest of the class and discussed with parents and carers at home.

Learning Tai-Chi. Click to enlarge.

A trip to Edinburgh Zoo was then organised, where pupils enjoyed furthering their understanding of Chinese culture by taking part in a tai-chi lesson, and learning from zoo staff about the logistics of transporting pandas and settling them into a new environment. Evidence of pupils’ learning is recorded in the photos uploaded into the Glow Group and through the presentations they created, recording their experiences.

Jacqui Clark talks about the P5 Glow Group, pt 1 (4:30)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

Santa visits Lynburn. Click to enlarge.

Jacqui is keen to use Glow to develop pupil e-portfolios. As a pre-cursor she is introducing the children to the concept of blogging. At Christmas Jacqui used two additional Glow accounts, created in the names of Santa C and R. Rudolph, to post messages on a blog. The posts rapidly engaged the pupils’ interest – indeed the scenario snowballed with other classes becoming caught up in the story of Santa’s search for his missing reindeer! Pupils responded to the tasks set through discussion boards and by adding their own posts to the blogs.

 Jacqui Clark talks about the P5 Glow Group, pt 2 (2:58)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

The enthusiasm of the P5s for Glow is evident in their independent use at home, such as updating their own pages (described in a separate cookbook), showing their parents and carers work they’ve been doing, and using games and activities on the National Site. Their parents have been keen to find out more about Glow and how they can support their children’s learning. Jacqui created a Homework page where parents could post up questions or comments, use links to suggested online activities and contribute their own website recommendations. To date, it has been the pupils, rather than their parents, who have used the discussion board to post comments, but it has remained a useful point of contact with families.

 Jacqui Clark talks about the P5 Glow Group, pt 3 (2:19)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

The Wedding invitation. Click to enlarge.

Jacqui’s remit includes supporting her colleagues with Glow. One facet of this has been establishing whole school Glow Groups which everyone can use. In April, a Glow Group was created to support a whole week of activities around the Royal Wedding. In a hectic, but clearly very enjoyable, few days pupils were involved in many aspects of wedding planning including making a cake, creating invitations and collecting the replies, organising the caterers and making sure the bride had something to wear! The week culminated in the school’s very own wedding on the Friday morning. A wealth of photos capturing evidence of the learning has been uploaded to ‘The Royal Wedding’ Glow Group. Jacqui’s P5 pupils provided peer mentoring to other classes in the school, supporting them with undertaking a series of challenges posted in the Glow Group. Pupils also supported members of staff in creating their own Glow pages. The week’s activities stimulated a lot of interest from staff about Glow, and this together with the pupil peer mentoring, has had quite a substantial impact on uptake within the school.

 Jacqui Clark talks about ‘The Royal Wedding’ Glow Group (3:07)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

Ingredients

For her P5 class Glow Group Jacqui:

* created a Glow Group on the school site

* added all her pupils as ‘Contributors’

* added additional pages

* created multiple Documents, Web links and Discussions web parts

* added topical features, such as the snowflakes and red noses

Method

The video clips below explain the processes of customising a Glow Group as Jacqui has done.

* how to add, rename or delete pages (2:56) Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

* how to upload a document (2:24) Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

* how to add a post to a discussion board (3:00)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

* how to add a web link (3:56)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

* how to create an additional Documents web part (7:42)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

* how to close, restore or move web parts (4:21) Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

* how to compress images before uploading to Glow (8:12) Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

* how to upload images to an Image Gallery web part (8:51)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

The Glow Help blog contains information about adding snowflakes and red noses to your own Glow Groups.

Impact

Jacqui feels that she has learnt much about using Glow – about the activities that she would definitely continue, such as pupils’ own pages – and the things she’d do differently (compressing photos before uploading, to speed up how long they take to display). She has been impressed by pupils’ enthusiasm for learning, and the motivation that Glow provides. She’s been delighted too with pupils’ sense of responsibility and their confidence: they have provided peer mentoring, supported school staff and talked about Glow to a meeting of Fife headteachers. Next year she’s keen to progress with introducing e-portfolios into the school.

Jacqui Clark talks about her next steps with Glow (0:44)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

Pupils have been keen to lead the learning, talking about news stories they’ve seen in the ‘Daily What’, games and activities they’ve found on the national site, or national Glow Meet events that they want to participate in.  

Lynburn pupils talk about their favourite activities on the National Site (0:58)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

Lynburn pupils talk about teaching others about Glow (1:14)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

Lynburn pupils talk about Glow Meet (2:22)Lynburn Primary: enthusing learners and promoting responsibility

Context

Operation Safety was conceived in 2000 as an expansion of the Road Safety course being rolled out in primary schools and initially involved Schools Services, Police, Fire Service and Ambulance Service.  Over the years Operation Safety has developed and additional partner agencies now participate. There are now 12 scenarios giving life skills in a safe environment to enhance the pupils’ knowledge of what to do in these situations.  It is hoped they remember these lessons in future if they find themselves in a similar position in real life.  The scenarios evolve to keep up to date with the current issues, for example, Internet Safety includes bullying on-line and on mobile phones. Each year over 2,200 P6/7 pupils attend Operation Safety. Operation Safety was first mentioned at one of the Glow Training courses attended by Community Police Officers as one of the officers involved saw the potential of using Glow.

Diane Webb is a Development Officer for Glow with Dumfries and Galloway. It was decided at a meeting attended by both the police and education that a Glow Group would be created for use within the authority to enhance the experience for the pupils attending the sessions. Discussions were held to decide what would be included in the Glow Group. They decided that a Glow Group would work well to showcase art work and creative writing by the pupils and also to facilitate feedback from the pupils themselves after they took part in the project. They were also keen that the Glow Group could contain film of the pupils, from different schools, participating in some of the activities and also films of interviews with the pupils about the activities. The plan was that pupils would only get access to the Glow Group once they had attended their Operation Safety session.

Ingredients

Tour of the Operation Safety Glow Group (6:30)
Operation Safety in Dumfries and Galloway

The basic template for the Group was created and the surveys were created and added.  The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) film, Jigsaw, was added after seeking permission from CEOP and the YouTube video, Children See, Children Do. The layout changed as Diane and her team added various items to the pages to make them more attractive and useful for the pupils and teachers.

Creative Writing Page

Be Safe Be Bright – click to enlarge

The Glow Group also includes a Creative Writing Page and they’re hoping to expand this to include more pieces of pupil writing as the Glow Group starts to be used.

Picture Library Page

Posters – click to enlarge

There were hundreds of posters available from running the project previously and it is was really difficult for the team to choose which ones to showcase on this page. Again, it is hoped that they will be able to use this page to showcase pupil artwork from around the local authority.

Filming

Armed with a video camera, tripod and microphone Diane and her colleague Andrea Austin attended Operation Safety in Stranraer and filmed the scenarios they wanted to use for the Glow Group.  They also collected pupil work from PC Milven.  The videos were edited back at base by one of their colleagues on the Glow Team. It is intended to extend the range of videos available on the Glow Group by filming further videos the next time Operation Safety runs.

Beer Glasses film from the Glow Group (2:16)
Operation Safety in Dumfries and Galloway

What did Diane need to successfully set up the Operation Safety Glow Group?

• A Glow Group created at local authority level in Dumfries and Galloway.
• Pupils to be added into the Glow Group school by school, once they have completed the Operation Safety course.
• Surveys created and put onto the Noticeboard page for the pupils and staff from the schools to respond to.
• Various pages created within the Glow Group.
• A picture library created to hold pupils’ art work.
• A Creative Writing documents web part to hold pupils’ work.
• Various videos uploaded to TeacherTube and then embedded into xml web parts within the Glow Group.

Recipe

There are many aspects of the Operation Safety Glow Group which could have been included in the recipe section. However, I have chosen creating the survey for the focus and you will find videos on this below. You will find links to other Cookbooks containing how-to videos on similar aspects to the ones additioanlly included in the Operation Safety Glow Group.

Creating a Survey (10:04)
Operation Safety in Dumfries and Galloway

Adding the survey to the page (2:06)
Operation Safety in Dumfries and Galloway

These Cookbooks contain information about embedding video in your Glow Group:

Embedding Video as a Stimulus for Writing

Engaging Videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

LEGO activities at SLF: Part 4- Pictures and Videos

These Cookbooks contain further information about using surveys in Glow

Embedding Glow in daily learning and teaching

Raising attainment in literacy in Primary 3

Encouraging deeper learning: pupils creating surveys

Enabling Pupil Voice – using a Glow Survey

Impact

The following videos are really about the impact of the project rather than the Glow Group as it is too early yet to be able to tell how well the Glow Group is extending the learning.

The first video is Diane describing the project and the Glow Group and the remainder of the videos are from the What we Learned page of the Glow Group and also available on Teacher Tube.

Diane Webb speaks about Operation Safety (3:06)
Operation Safety in Dumfries and Galloway

In their own words (0:37)
Operation Safety in Dumfries and Galloway

The Best Bit of Operation Safety – Pupil Comments (0:50)
Operation Safety in Dumfries and Galloway

What scared us most – Pupil Comments (1:36)
Operation Safety in Dumfries and Galloway

Top Tips – Pupil Comments (2:51)
Operation Safety in Dumfries and Galloway

What we learned about online games (0:19)
Operation Safety in Dumfries and Galloway

Earth and Space Topic Glow Group

Judith Lennox was P7 teacher at Coylton Primary School in South Ayrshire and is now DHT in the school. When it came to their topic work on Earth and Space, the P7 pupils at Coylton Primary School had lots of ideas about what they would like to learn about. Judith incorporated all of these ideas into the Glow Group she put together for the topic.

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 1 (3:40)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 2 (2:45)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

This second Cookbook on Judith’s work with her P7 pupils on their Earth and Space Project will focus on the use of video. Four further Cookbooks will look at reusing a Glow Group through a template; the use made of a wiki within the Glow Group for pupils to present research; the use made of picture libraries within the Glow Group and lastly on the use of a survey for topic evaluation.

You will find links to the other Cookbooks on the Earth and Space Topic Glow Group below as they are written:

• Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic
• Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary
• Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries
• Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Judith Lennox

Although they do so much more, sites like YouTube and TeacherTube can act as incredibly powerful search engines for rich, engaging and relevant content for learning and teaching. It is estimated that at least 20 hours of video is uploaded every minute to YouTube. When teachers can sift through and find gems of content to use then they can often create a context which provides pupils with a visual connection to a particular area of the curriculum. Concepts which can be particularly difficult to teach in the classroom, like gravity, can suddenly come to life with a couple of well chosen videos which can act as a bridge to understanding and a stimulus for discussion.

You Tube Animaniacs Videos

Glow is a perfect tool to be able to share these short videos with pupils. Videos can be embedded within the pages of a Glow Group and then used in the classroom on the whiteboard but then also used by pupils at home to consolidate their learning. Of course, some local authorities may have restricted YouTube so that videos from it cannot be used on the school network. Some local authorities restrict this for pupils but not for teachers. However, if teachers have embedded well-chosen videos into their Glow Groups, pupils should still be able to access these from home.

Judith felt that the videos worked extremely well in terms of “hooking” the pupils into the Glow Group and focussing their enthusiasm for their Earth and Space topic. This was the case with a couple of the Animaniacs videos which came from YouTube, Our Solar System Singalong and Yakko’s Universe song. Judith added these to the Noticeboard page of the Glow Group to set the scene for the pupils and the pupils wanted to return to them time and time again.

Videos in the Glow Group – click to enlarge

Further use was made of video on the Mars Rover page with the Mars Rover Animations videos, again from YouTube; the first moon landing on the Space Exploration page; both some instructional and some fun videos on the Gravity page; more TeacherTube videos on the Earth, Moon and Sun page and great NASA TeacherTube videos bringing in a health and wellbeing aspect on the Future Astronauts page.

Ingredients

Click to enlarge

What did Judith need to be able to embed videos in her Earth and Space Topic Glow Group?

• A Group created within Coylton Primary School with pupils set as members of any level
• Appropriate videos selected  from YouTube and TeacherTube
• embed codes copied from TeacherTube and YouTube for each video
• xml web parts added onto pages where videos are required
• embed codes added to xml web parts and titles of web parts changed to reflect the video content

Recipe

In the videos which follow we will recreate with one video what Judith did in the Earth and Space Glow Group to add videos to several pages.

How to find a video to use in your Glow Group and copy the embed code (2:48)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

How to add an xml web part (1:27)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

How to add the embed code (2:13)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

These are the links to the videos Judith used in her Glow Group:

YouTube Videos

• Animaniacs – Our Solar System singalong…
• Yakko’s Universe Song
• mars rover to mars holst the planets
• Mars Rover Blooper Reel
• First Moon Landing 1969
• Harry Discusses – Gravity
• Eureka! Episode 6 – Gravity
• I’m a Victim of Gravity

TeacherTube Videos

• TeacherTube Videos – Phases of the Moon
• TeacherTube Videos – What Causes Seasons on the Earth
• TeacherTube Videos – The Mystery of the Earth’s Tides
• TeacherTube Videos – Forceman Animation – Gravity
• TeacherTube Videos – NASA – Base Station Walk-Back
• TeacherTube Videos – NASA – Mission Control
• TeacherTube Videos – NASA - Crew Strength Training
• TeacherTube Videos – NASA - Do a Space Walk

Impact

Below you will find some videos where Judith talks about the impact of various aspects of the Earth and Space Topic Glow Group and also videos where pupils, Dana and Brandon talk about why they like Glow.

Judith explains how the pupils were “hooked-in” to Glow (0:29)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

Judith explains how she used videos and discussion boards to teach gravity (0:50)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

Judith speaks about the Mission to Mars Activities (1:05)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

The videos on the first page were little Animaniacs videos from YouTube that the children loved and insisted on watching just about every time we did the topic.

But it did grab their attention and it meant that they were interested and hooked-in to using Glow from the start.

Brandon on why he likes Glow (0:29)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

Dana on why she likes Glow (0:23)
Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary

Burns Supper at Coylton

Judith Lennox was P7 teacher at Coylton Primary School in South Ayrshire and is now DHT in the school.

Judith Lennox

Judith explains the Burns Supper Enterprise Project at Coylton Primary (0:53)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

Primary 7 pupils at Coylton Primary School used a Glow Group to help in the planning of an interdisciplinary enterprise event. This event was the organising of their annual Burns Supper.

P7 pupils took responsibility for all aspects of planning this event, which involved:

• writing newsletters to parents
• inviting special guests
• selling tickets
• handling cash and cheques
• rehearsing songs, poems and dances
• writing and learning speeches
• publicising the event in the school community.

All 60 P7 pupils took on a role in organising the event, as well as having an ‘on the night’ job.

Glow Group Pages

Co-ordinating this number of pupils, from different classes, who were all completing different tasks, was made easier by the great idea of using a Glow Group for communication. This meant that pupils were able to communicate easily between the 2 classes by using various discussion boards, a moderated chat room and a Glow Meet room. The pupils made use of these both in and out of school. Using Glow enabled class teachers to oversee the planning process, whilst allowing pupils to work independently. It meant that the teachers didn’t have to keep bringing the 2 classes together and disrupting the school day. Teachers were able to answer queries as they arose and challenge pupils’ thinking by contibuting to the discussions in the Glow group.

The Coylton P7 Burns Supper

On the night, pupils chaired the event and provided high quality entertainment for their 90 guests.  After the event, pupils continued to use the Glow Group to celebrate their success. They were able to discuss their favourite memories and look at photos of the event which their teachers had uploaded.

Judith’s Tour of the Burn’s Supper Glow Group (3:14)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

This Cookbook will focus on the use of the Glow Group as a planning tool for the P7 classes.

Ingredients

What did Judith need to be able to allow the pupils to use Glow as a planning tool for their enterprise event?

• A Glow Group built at school level in Coylton Primary School
• Pupils from a both P7 classes set with Contributor permissions
• Use made of a general discussion board
• A Job Discussions page created
• Additional discussion boards created on this page to aid different teams of pupils in their planning
• A chat room
• A Glow Meet room
• A Page Viewer web part with the World Burns Club website
• An additional Page Viewer web part with Address to a Haggis
• A Memories page with photos and an additional discussion board for pupils to comment on the event

Recipe

Discussions in the Group

In this Cookbook we have chosen to focus on creating the Jobs Discussions page and additional discussion boards.

In the videos below you will be able to see how Judith did this.

How Judith created a new page in the Glow Group (1:47)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

How Judith created additional discussion web parts (2:47)

Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

How Judith added these web parts to the page (1:03)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

Impact

Judith explains why she wanted to use Glow for the project (0:32)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

Judith explains why she thinks using Glow was successful (0:49)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

The Burns project worked really well. The pupils were extremely enthusiastic. They had only just got their Glow log-ons and they were really keen to use Glow as much as possible. They were logging in at home quite a lot and also in school they were given a chance to log in whenever they had any free time.

The discussions worked really well. It was a good way for the pupils to collaborate without having to be in the same room as each other. Because it was 2 classes working together, it meant that we could do that without any disruption to the school day.

Brandon and Dana from P7

Brandon on why he likes Glow (0:29)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

Dana on why she likes Glow (0:23)
Burns Supper – Using Glow to support an Enterprise Project

Margaret Hamilton

Margaret Hamilton is PT Raising Achievement at St Aidan’s High School in North Lanarkshire. She is also the Glow Mentor for the school. As part of the many things Margaret was using Glow for she wanted to work on a Transition Glow Group which she just started before the end of term. Margaret had been impressed by what she saw in the Glow Cookbook, Transition Glow Group in Angus Schools, particularly by the involvement of the S1 pupils and also with their Interactive Map.

Some of St Aidan’s High School’s associate primary schools are as much as 12 miles away and Margaret was attracted by the idea of being able to use tools such as Discussion Boards and Glow Meet to keep in contact without having to wait for physical visits.

The video below is Margaret’s description of the Glow Group and tour of the Interactive Map:
Margaret’s Tour of the Glow Group and the Interactive School Map (2:42)
St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map

Ingredients

The Noticeboard of the Transition Group – click to enlarge

The St Aidan’s High School Transition Glow Group has been built at local authority level in North Lanarkshire so that all primary schools will see the Glow Group name in their list of Glow Groups. If the Group had been built in St Aidan’s High school site they would have to have sent a link to each primary school.

Graphical Interface

As you can see from the screenshot a graphical interface has been used for the design of the Glow Group. This was done to simplify the interface for pupils and teachers. There are only 2 visible page tabs in the Glow Group, the Noticeboard and the Glow Meet page. The other pages in the Group have been created as ‘Hidden Pages’ and are accessible by clicking on the named button links on the Noticeboard graphic.

Content of the Glow Group

The Questions Page – click to enlarge

The Glow Group is mainly about sharing information with the schools. There are pages with pictures and information about the Senior Management Team; the captains and prefects; pupils care and support; the student council; subjects within the school; tutor time; student planners; competitions and the schedule of primary visits. However, there are also 3 more interactive areas in the Questions page, the P7 wiki and the interactive map of the school. It is planned that the following year there will be much more participation from subject departments within St Aidan’s High School. This will possibly be in the form of challenges and competitions which the primary pupils will be able to participate in.

Pupil Voice

The Questions Page is about the primary pupils being able to ask questions which the S1 pupils will answer. There is also a separate discussion board where the S1 pupils will ask and answer questions that they feel they wish they had known about before they came to secondary school. These discussion boards can be set up so that they are moderated and an administrator of the Glow Group has to approve posts before they are seen by all members of the Glow Group.

The Angus Schools Cookbook mentioned above has how-To videos which will take you through the process of setting up moderated discussion boards if this is of interest.

The P7 wiki

P7 wiki – click to enlarge

Although it is early days in the set-up of the Glow Group, Margaret has created a Glow wiki with a page for every associate primary school. It is hoped that the schools will use these pages to give information about their school to be shared with the other primary schools in the cluster. In the wiki area they can easily use text, images, audio files and even videos to describe their school. It is also hoped that they will showcase pupil work in these pages.

The Interactive Map

Interactive Map – Click to enlarge

Margaret originally made the Interactive Map in a PowerPoint document, with a separate page for every photograph of the different areas of the school. She carefully annotated the corridor photographs so that they would provide detail on the direction of further corridors and stairwells and to every classroom within them. Every photograph of a corridor links to each of the classrooms within it and onto further classrooms. Each classroom has the name of the subject and the teacher(s) who teach there. On every page there is a small version of the photograph of the front of the school at the bottom right-hand corner to allow users to navigate back to the home page. Margaret also compressed every individual photograph to minimise the size of the finished document. When it was completed in PowerPoint and the links were all set up, the file was converted to a pdf. This was to reduce the size even further. Once placed into a document library the photo of the front of the school, on the interactive map page was linked to the pdf document.

What did Margaret need to be able to set up the Transition Glow Group:

• A Glow Group set up at local authority level with Margaret given Administrator access to this
• Contributor membership set for every associate primary, for all teaching and non-teaching staff; P6 and P7 classes; teaching and non-teaching staff at St Aidan’s High School and all S1 pupils
• Several PowerPoint slides saved as images to be used as graphical interfaces at different points within the Glow Group
• Hidden pages set up for the different areas of the Glow Group
• The pdf version of the interactive map available in the document library and linked to from the photograph of the school on the school map page
• Moderated discussion boards set up for S1 and P7 pupils
• A P7 wiki created with a page created for every associate primary school

Recipe

The videos below show how you could re-create some aspects of the St Aidan’s High School Transition Glow Group in your own Glow Group.

Saving the pdf document into the document library (1:58)
St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map

Adding a text editor and image of the school (3:33)
St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map

Linking this image to the pdf document (1:50)
St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map

You may wish to visit any of these Cookbooks for further information about creating Hidden Pages:

Std Grade Music – A Glow Group using a Graphical Interface

LEGO activities at SLF: Part 1 – Hidden Pages in a Glow Group

“Which Writer Wins?” Chapter 1: The Author & Book pages

FIFA 2010 World Cup in Inverclyde!

Impact

Interactive Map – Click here to enlarge

The S1 pupils were really keen and enthusiastic to be involved in the project. They did all the work to take the photos of every classroom in the school.

Some of our associated primary schools have now looked at it and they’re now going to make a map of their school. It just shows how it catches on.

The S1’s are really really keen to have a link with the primary pupils.

Click below to see the videos where Margaret talks about what she was setting out to achieve with the Transition Project Glow Group.

Why did Margaret want to use Glow for Transition? (0:32)
St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map

Why was Margaret interested in the interactive map? (0:50)
St Aidan’s High School Transition – Interactive School Map

The Transition Project at St Aidan’s High School Cluster has obviously only just began and will grow in many exciting ways under Margaret’s steer. What a great resource the Interactive Map is for pupils, not only when they’re in P7 but also when they arrive into S1 and are having to navigate their way around the school on a daily basis!

You may wish to visit other Cookbooks written about St Aidan’s High School:

• Sharing Instrumental Performance Videos at St Aidan’s High School
• Using a wiki as an evidence store for pupil e-portfolios

The statement above comes from Katy Sowden, a teacher from Williamston Primary School in Livingston. Katy and pupils from her Primary 7 class were recently asked about the impact that Glow Science has had in their classroom. You can watch what they had to say in a video clip later on in this cookbook.

Overview

Glow Science is an online resource featuring over five hundred video clips aimed at enhancing pupils’ understanding of science in the modern world. Developed in partnership between Twig and Education Scotland, Glow Science is for teachers and for learners from age 8 to 14 and is mapped to Curriculum for Excellence experiences and outcomes. The video content and associated learning materials, quizzes, diagrams and downloadable PDF documents cover all four science disciplines: Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Earth Science; and present key learning points within engaging real-life contexts.

Watch a short excerpt from a featured video. 

Drawing on the highest quality film footage from around the world, researched and written by teachers and scientists and produced by television writers and film editors, Glow Science offers Scottish Education a unique and dynamic learning resource that brings science to life through engaging visuals, music and graphics.

Williamston Primary School 

In the video clip below, Katy and her pupils tell us how Glow Science has impacted on the learning and teaching of Science in class. While the pupils are keen to comment on the quality of the videos and the associated support material, Katy highlights how the real world content raises engagement levels, how the videos link directly to Curriculum for Excellence and the potential for continuing professional development offered by the Glow Science resource.

Accessing Glow Science

For information on accessing the Glow Science resource and adding a shortcut to the resource from Glow Light, please see the video clip below.

Click on image to enlarge

As we heard in the clip from Katy, Glow Science has been developed to aid teachers with their planning and implementation of Curriculum for Excellence. Videos and associated support materials are currently categorised into four broad modules – Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Earth Science. On their web site, the Scottish Association of Geography Teachers (SAGT) highlight the value of the Earth Science module to the teaching of Geography. A new module, Healthy Living, is planned for August 2011 and will include videos and materials to support the topics of Nutrition, Fitness, Health and Disease and Substance Misuse.

To view the Glow Science resource, click the link below to log into Glow (Glow login required), then navigate to the National Site and locate the link to Glow Science. Log in to Glow.

Context

Museums Galleries Scotland works alongside the nation’s museums and galleries to achieve the shared vision of creating a welcoming museums and galleries sector that opens doors and celebrates collections, inspiring creativity, learning and enjoyment for all. It’s the lead voice of 340 museum and gallery members, welcoming 25 million visits each year and representing an industry worth up to £800 million to the Scottish economy.

This cookbook came about because Museums Galleries Scotland (MGS) were keen to explore how Glow could be used to support collaborative learning projects involving schools and museums.

Clydebank Museum was poised to develop a new learning project with Dalreoch Primary School in Dumbarton. This would build on an earlier heritage learning project which had taken place in the school the previous year. This new project would involve the use of Glow.

The key aim of the project from MGS point of view was to develop a cookbook which would provide a guide for schools and museums wanting to develop partnership working and would highlight for schools and museums the opportunities for delivery of the Curriculum for Excellence by using Glow to enhance collaborative learning projects.

Dalreoch PS have a close relationship with Clydebank museum. They had previously run an experiential, interdisciplinary learning project with their P5, P6 and P7 pupils. This ran over most of one term and culminated in an ambitious ‘showcase’ to which parents, partners and guests were invited.

The project this year focused on the science and technology aspects of the shipbuilding industry in Clydebank linking with its historical progress through the years from the First World War. It was planned by the Clyde Community (upper school) class teachers with specific IT and Glow guidance from Glow mentor Karen Scott and in collaboration with Maeve Dixon, Learning Development Officer at Clydebank Libraries and Museums.

As well as numerous cross curricular active learning activities in school led by teachers and by the staff at Clydebank Museum, the project involved visits to the shipbuilding exhibit at Clydebank Museum, to the Titan Crane at the site of John Brown’s shipyard and to the Denny Tank at the Scottish Maritime Museum, Dunbartonshire. It also involved input from many partner organisations, experts and members of the local community. One of these was ‘Mr. McDonald’ the irascible manager of the Harland and Wolff shipyard who kept the pupils in line as they designed their own cruise ships.

A Glow group was set up at local authority level (West Dunbartonshire) to hold documents and photographs provided by the museum which could be used as a resource for the Dalreoch project and for other local schools in the future.

A group was also set up at school level to hold a selection of resources from the local authority group, work created by the pupils, a discussion forum,  a Glow Meet room, pictures of the showcase event and an interactive survey which was used to evaluate the project. The group also allowed the pupils to show their parents what they were doing in school.

As the project progressed, Glow Meet was used to enable Mr. McDonald to check up on the progress of the pupils’ designs. During one session he delivered the devastating news that war had been declared and that their ships would have to be converted to war work. Much discussion followed on what changes would have to be made and on the importance of weapons and camouflage in the new designs.

A Glow Meet session was also run from the storeroom of the museum so that pupils could be shown objects related to the topic and have the opportunity to ask questions about them. This allowed the pupils to see a part of the museum not accessible to visitors and to see objects not currently on display. In addition to the Glow Meet session, pupils had the chance to handle a selection of objects in a ‘handling kit’ on loan from the museum.

The project culminated in an amazing showcase event. Parents and invited guests gathered in the school hall to be welcomed with celebratory drinks and snacks. They were then led off by designated pupil guides to enjoy various activities related to the project. These included the design room, the tracing room, the floating and sinking tank, the museum room and the Glow experts. At each stop pupils explained the work of that department and parents had a hands-on task to complete. Everyone then gathered in the hall for the launch of the ship HMS. Experience. A fanfare was played, the crowd broke into ‘God Save the Queen’ and  Mrs. Bance, the wife of the head teacher, spoke the appropriate words and swung a bottle of champagne against the bow. The ship then slid across the stage while the crowd waved their Saltires and gave three cheers. A recording of a ship launch was played in the background and primary one deafened everyone with their party tooters! A fitting end to a fantastic project.

If you are interested in running a similar project you can find details of your local museums by using the search facility on the Museums Galleries Scotland web site.

Recipe

• Glow accounts for all participants (Glow key contact to arrange)
• access to school Glow group for museum staff (school ASM to arrange)
• a Glow group
• internet access at school and museum
• internet ready computer(s) at school and museum
• digital cameras for recording the project
• involvement of teacher and class
• involvement of museum education officer
• involvement of school Glow mentor
• joint planning involving school and museum staff and local authority
• local experts and enthusiasts
• risk assessment for museum visits (available from the museum)

Additional Ingredients for Glow Meet

School

• a webcam
• interactive whiteboard or digital projector
• a microphone (preferably portable)

Museum

• a digital video camera
• a good microphone
• an expert to take part in the Glow Meet

Method

The videos below give a flavour of the project from the point of view of the class teacher, the pupils and the museum development officer.

There is also a short clip from one of the Glow Meet sessions with ‘Mr. McDonald’.

Overview of the Project (3.40)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

Glow Meet with the Shipyard Boss (3.40)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

How Glow Enhanced the Project (1.00)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

The Pupils Talk about Glow (2.53)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

The Pupils Talk about Glow Meet (2.17)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

Tour of the School Glow Group 1 (4.11)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

Tour of the School Glow Group 2 (3.19)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

Tour of the Local Authority Glow Group (3.40)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

The Ship Launch (1.46)

Testing the Waters: Schools and Museums Working Together

Useful Documents

Lesson Planning

Project Overview

Useful Links

Local Authority Glow Key Contacts

Glow 101 Video Tutorials

Glow Guides

Glow Help Blog

Glow Meet Guides

Museums Galleries Scotland Web Site

Museum Galleries Scotland Grants

Museum resources which support delivery of the Curriculum for Excellence and links to Museums

Heritage Education Forum

Clydebank Museum

Denny Tank Museum

Olivia and pupils

Olivia Wexelstein teaches a P4-7 class at Wellwood Primary School in Fife. She has been using Glow since January 2010 and is very positive about the opportunities it has opened up. Glow is rapidly becoming embedded into daily life in the classroom: to share learning, to record pupils’ experiences and achievements, and to give pupils a voice.

This cookbook looks at the P4-7 Glow Group which Olivia and her class use daily. A second cookbook to follow in Spring 2011 will explore how Olivia has created e-portfolios within Glow and how pupils use these to reflect on their learning.

Context

Seeing Olivia’s Glow Group for the first time a couple of things are immediately apparent – and appealing. Firstly, the Group is constantly evolving with more content and extra pages being added as learning progresses in the classroom. Secondly, there is a strong sense of identity – this is a Group that the teacher and pupils have very much made their own working space. For example, for reading work the class splits into 5 small groups. Each group has their own page in the Glow Group, with a photo of the group members, a list of learning intentions, an image of the book they are currently reading and a document area where they can upload their written work. Pupils are proud of their group and keen to share this with their parents and carers at home.

Olivia Wexelstein talks about her P4-P7 Glow Group, part 1Embedding Glow in daily learning and teaching

Cake baking – click to view

The most recent Maths topic saw the class cooking fairy cakes together, to gain practical experience of measurement and weight. Photos of the activity have been uploaded into a Picture Library, providing an excellent record of pupils’ learning experiences. A Discussion Board web part was used to capture and display the results of a class discussion about common examples of weighing and measuring. Pupils were then able to continue to add to the discussion board as other examples sprung to mind.

The Maths page also includes links to ‘weight’ related games and Olivia has also embedded games from the BBC website directly within the Glow Group. She finds this aspect of Glow – being able to collate resources, links, learning intentions and discussions all in one place – very valuable and finds that it supports even the youngest members of the class in working independently.

Olivia Wexelstein talks about her P4-P7 Glow Group, part 2Embedding Glow in daily learning and teaching

Solar System page – click to view

The class is currently working on a rich task about the Solar System. The topic started with some brainstorming to discover what pupils knew about the solar system and what they wanted to find out. Photos of the pupils at work, discussing and drawing up mind maps, have been uploaded to a Picture Library as a record of pupils’ understanding and learning experiences. At the conclusion of the topic similar mind maps will be recorded to show how the pupils’ understanding has progressed.

Solar System – pupils' key questions

Pupils are leading the learning on the rich task. They have set themselves a challenge, brainstormed a list of key questions to be explored, and decided upon activities. One day pupils were delighted to receive a surprise visitor to the classroom – Spud Lightyear! Pupils have enjoyed interacting with Spud and designing activities for him.

Pupils clearly feel a sense of ownership and are highly engaged in their exploration of the topic. The challenge, questions and activities are all prominently displayed on the ‘Solar System’ page so that pupils can refer to these whenever they wish. Throughout this topic Olivia again has found Glow an excellent tool, as it allows her to bring together a wide range of content and activities, that is easy for pupils to find and use.

Survey on pupils' use of ICT at home

Parents and carers do not yet have their own Glow accounts at Wellwood, but Olivia has been keen to get them involved. She recently ran workshops to introduce parents to Glow, and was delighted with the very positive response, with parents keen to understand how their children were using Glow in school and how they could support them at home. Olivia added a Parents page to the Glow Group, where parents can post up any queries about Glow and respond to a survey about what access to technology their children have at home.

A survey is also used on the ‘Celebrating Success’ page. Each week pupils nominate their peers for each of the Curriculum for Excellence capacities. Previously this feedback had been gathered on paper, which proved time-consuming. Using the survey, pupils can log on to Glow at any point during the week to submit their nominations. On Friday it is then a straightforward matter for Olivia to look at the survey results and announce the winners.

Blogs are a new feature within Glow, introduced in August 2010. Olivia has integrated these into the P4-7 Glow Group, with each member of the class having their own blog. A blog – described by one pupil as a ‘personal diary’ – allows the user to add text, images, audio and video. The Wellwood pupils are using their blogs to write about what interests them and share this with an audience both within their class and beyond. The blogs include creative writing and descriptions of school trips, along with posts about school holidays and likes and dislikes. Pupils have been keen to use their blogs at home during evenings and weekends, as well as in class. Olivia is delighted with her pupils’ responses, seeing even previously reluctant writers keen to update their blog. This motivation and increased confidence with writing is paying dividends with the quality of written work in the classroom.

Wellwood pupils give their feedback about using GlowEmbedding Glow in daily learning and teaching

The pupils’ blogs are a key element of the e-portfolios which Olivia is creating in Glow. These are still under development and a further cookbook in Spring 2011 will explore how they have progressed.

Ingredients

Olivia created her Glow Group on the Wellwood site in Glow. She has customised the Glow Group by:

• adding new pages/changing the names of pages
• creating multiple Documents, Web links, Picture Library and Discussions web parts
• using Text Editor web parts to display learning intentions
• using XML web parts to embed games from the BBC website
• creating surveys 

Recipe

The ‘How-to’ videos below show how to replicate many of the elements Olivia has used in the P4-7 Glow Group.

* how to add, remove or rename pages in a Glow GroupEmbedding Glow in daily learning and teaching

* how to create a new Picture Library (or other web parts)Embedding Glow in daily learning and teaching

* how to compress images before uploading to GlowEmbedding Glow in daily learning and teaching

* how to upload and view images in a Picture LibraryEmbedding Glow in daily learning and teaching

* how to create a survey and add it to a Glow GroupEmbedding Glow in daily learning and teaching

* how to change permissions on the Survey web partEmbedding Glow in daily learning and teaching

* how to respond to a survey and view survey resultsEmbedding Glow in daily learning and teaching

Impact

Olivia is delighted with her pupils’ response to Glow and the impact it is having on their engagement with learning: “This has been the children’s first experience of using Glow. It has had an amazing impact on their learning. They are more engaged and feel in control of their own learning. Glow is very flexible allowing the content to be tailored to the current needs and requirements of the class. The children are very motivated to use Glow in the classroom and are always excited to see and use new content as it is put on.”

Glow is also having a significant impact on the way Olivia teaches:“Teaching has become easier as it very easy and quick to focus learning in the area you require through the use of web links, instructional text boxes and discussion boards.” 

Parents have also noticed the impact Glow is having on their children’s enthusiasm for learning: “The feedback from parents has been very positive and they love being able to share with their child the learning that has taken place in school. One of the things the pupils like best is the ability to upload their work into Glow to share with their parents and others which is something they were unable to do before.”

Photo credits (images used in ‘how-to’ videos): Mads Boedker, Ernst Vikne, Turbojoe, Mike Monteiro, Royalty-free image collection

In this cookbook we will look briefly at how West Lothian used a Glow Group to support a project across the authority. In particular we will look at how they used a Glow Blog to share the learning across the authority.

Context

At the beginning of term West Lothian Council’s Chief Executive Alex Linkston and colleagues took part in the Auld Alliance Charity Bike Ride from Edinburgh to Paris to raise funds for schooling in Malawi. Laura Compton, the Glow Key Contact for West Lothian thought that this would be an excellent opportunity for schools in West Lothian to embrace the Curriculum for Excellence and demonstrate how Glow can be used as a tool to support this. Initially Laura worked with her colleagues from West Lothian and the National Glow Team to brainstorm what would be the most effective way to use Glow to enhance the project. They worked together to set up a Glow Group with four main areas:

Listen to Laura explain the project. [0.56]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

Follow the journey

This area was at the centre of all the excitement and gave pupils and teachers the opportunity to follow the cyclists. In this section a Twitter feed allowed Alex and his team to keep the pupils up to date with what was happening on their journey. There was a tracker so the pupils could see where they were on their journey and video diaries from the cyclists. Two schools even completed a cycling challenge in their classroom where the pupils had to cycle the same distance as Alex and his team; one school streamed live into Glow, so that everyone could see what was happening. This section also included a sharing area, where schools could share the Glow Groups they had been working on in their classrooms in relation to the project. The event kicked off with a Glow Meet, where over 30 classes logged in to ask Alex and his colleague Sue Cook questions before they set off on their bike ride. A recording of the Glow Meet was uploaded into this area.

What’s it all about

This section included a brief overview of the project and links to websites that teachers and pupils might find useful. It also included a Sign-up sheet for the project so schools could see which other schools were involved, so they could begin to make links with them.

Teacher Resources

This area allowed teachers to collaborate for lesson ideas. Teachers could upload lesson ideas and plans that they had completed with their classes. They uploaded and tagged their resource to a Custom List, which meant teachers could easily search for resources. Teachers only, could access this area.

What’s happening in your classroom

This area was at the hub of the project. In this area pupils and teachers could share what they had been learning in their classrooms in a Glow Blog. On the Noticeboard teachers found instructions on how to create a post on the Glow blog and add a photo. Then teachers and pupils could go in and create a post for the blog and there was also a section to view the blog. Pupils took part in numerous class activities including; Glow meets between classes to share the learning, learning about different parts of a bike, using Purple Mash to create cyclist profiles, Early Years Glow Meet, making monuments from Paris using Knex and Lego, running and cycling activities, and lots more. The Glow Blog was made public so that parents and carers could view it. To view the blog click here.

Listen to P4 pupils at Harrysmuir describe some of the learning that took part in their classroom. [0.39]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

Listen to P5 pupils at Harrysmuir describe some of the learning that took part in their classroom. [0.31]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

In this cookbook we will look at the What’s happening in your classroom Glow Group.

What does the What’s Happening in your Classroom area look like?

XML Web Part

On the Noticeboard there were instructions in text and video detailing how to add a post to a blog and how to add an image to your post. This was created using Wix. When you create your Wix you are given an embed code which can be copied and pasted into an XML Web Part.

Glow Blog

In this area the teachers and pupils could create a blog post about what they had been doing in their classroom. The blog was set up with categories relating to CfE areas and levels. Teachers were also asked to tag their post with their school name. Pupils and teachers could also view the blog in this area.

Page Viewers

Two page viewer web parts were used. One as a direct link to add a post within WordPress, so it was easy for the teachers to find where they actually added the post to the blog. The other was used to display the blog.

Ingredients

What did Laura need to set up the West Lothian CfE Development Glow Group?

1. Glow Group at Local Authority Level
2. Several Pages
3. XML Web Part
4. Wix
5. Glow Blog
6. 2 Page Viewer Web Parts

Recipe

In the following videos, we will take a look at the What’s Happening in your Classroom Glow Group and find out how to replicate its structure and content.

What does the What’s Happening in your Classroom Glow Group look like? [2.23]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

How to create a Wix. [1.41]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

How to add a Wix to a XML web part. [1.22]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

How to create a Glow Blog. [1.39]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

How to add a header image to your blog. [1.19]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

How to add a ‘sticky’ to your K2 blog. [1.46]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

How to add categories. [1.41]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

How to create a blog post. [1.47]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

How to add an image to your blog post. [1.44]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

How to add a Page Viewer web part of the ‘add post’ area to the Glow Group. [2.14]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

 Impact

Impact of the project

This project provided the opportunity to investigate the potential of running one cross curricular project across a number of schools, stages and curricular areas. Laura Compton wanted a project that was fluid and encompassed the experiences and outcomes of CfE as well as utilising the tools of Glow.  She wanted to show what Glow had to offer in terms of CfE as well as demonstrating that sharing between teachers and learners does not need to be onerous. Glow allowed ‘realtime’ response and reaction within the classroom.  Although third party tools like Twitter and Google Latitude were used they were easily pulled into the Glow Group and accessed from there. Using the Glow tools meant that the opportunity was created for different levels of access for staff and pupils in different areas of the project. For example, the ability to have a Staff Area worked very well whereas the Blog meant pupils could post easily and quickly to share their learning and celebrate their success.

Listen to Laura explain how Glow was used to support the project. [3.11]
Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

Listen to some P4 pupils from Harrysmuir Primary tell us how they used Glow to help with the Auld Alliance Project. [0.48]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

Listen to some P5 pupils from Harrysmuir Primary tell us how they used Glow to help with the Auld Alliance Project. [0.31]
Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

Impact of the Sharing the Learning Glow Group.

Using a blog gave the pupils and teachers an area to celebrate what they had been doing in their classrooms. As the blog was public facing, pupils could home and show their parents/carers what they had been doing in school that day.

Listen to Laura explain the benefits of using a blog to support this project. [2.22]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

Listen to P4 pupils from Harrysmuir Primary explain why the benefits of using the blog. [0.39]

Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

Listen to P5 pupils from Harrysmuir Primary explain why the benefits of using the blog. [0.45]
Sharing the Learning Using a Glow Blog

To view the Auld Alliance Glow Blog click here.

Northern Lights is an expressive arts project involving schools in three local authorities in Scotland and partner schools in Norway and Russia.

In this cookbook Irene Pandolfi of North Lanarkshire Council and Ron Cowie of Stirling Council explain the background to the project and show examples of pupils’ work shared through the Northern Lights Glow Group.

In the Ingredients section you can find information about creating Glow guest accounts if you’re interested in setting up similar links with schools abroad.

Context

Irene and Ron were amongst a number of delegates who in 2009 participated in a study visit to Norway, organised through the Scottish Continuing International Professional Development (SCIPD) programme. The focus of their interest was a national initiative, the Cultural Rucksack, which gives all pupils in Norway access to professional arts and cultural activities in addition to the basic expressive arts curriculum.

As a result of the SCIPD visit, and the relationships established with Norwegian schools, Irene and Ron created the Northern Lights project. The projects links schools in North Lanarkshire, Perth and Kinross, and Stirling with partner schools in Norway and Russia.

The aims of the project are to develop pupils’ skills in expressive arts, in literacy and in peer assessment, and to encourage pupils to learn about and appreciate other cultures.

In order to encourage collaboration between all the partner schools, the Northern Lights Glow Group was established. Guest accounts were created for pupils and staff in the Norwegian and Russian schools to give them access to Glow.

Irene Pandolfi and Ron Cowie talk about the Northern Lights project
Northern Lights: an international project

Organisation of the Northern Lights projectNorthern Lights: an international project

The Northern Lights Glow Group provides a welcome area, news updates about the project, and links to useful tools such as online translation facilities. A ‘Help for teachers’ page provides background information about the project, its aims, suggestions for learning and teaching activities, and guides to using Glow features, such as the discussion boards.

The group then contains a number of sub-groups, each named after heavenly bodies, such as Comets and Shooting Stars. Each of these sub-groups links a smaller number of partner schools across the local authorities and countries.

Christmas – Norwegian style. Click to enlarge.

In each of these sub-groups, staff and pupils have found a whole host of ways to communicate, discuss their culture, exhibit their work, and give feedback to one another. Pupils have used discussion boards extensively – to write simple introductions, messages and greetings, to give feedback and to write poetry. In the Documents area pupils have uploaded presentations, describing, for example, how they celebrate Christmas. This has led to interesting comparisons about the similarities and differences in traditions between the countries.

Art from nature. Click to enlarge.

Pupils undertook an ‘art from nature’ activity, creating images using materials from the environment. Photographs of the images have been uploaded into the Documents area and shared with the partner schools. Other schools have created video clips, such as short dramas, and audio broadcasts, all also uploaded to the group and shared with an audience across three countries. Pupils have been very motivated by having their work seen and reviewed by a far wider audience than it might typically receive.

Some schools have also used Glow Meet to communicate with their partner schools, adding a whole new dimension to the opportunities to practise literacy skills, share work with an audience and learn about different cultures. Glow Meet is an area that many of the schools are keen to pursue further as the project develops.

Irene and Ron describe the project as having been ‘free-flowing’ and ‘growing arms and legs’ this year. Each school has taken the original idea, developed their own areas of interest and been creative – which indeed was the central aim of the project!

Ingredients

The Northern Lights Glow Group was created on the National Site in Glow. This was to ensure that all staff and pupils in the Scottish schools would be able to see the Group listed on their ‘My Glow Groups’ page. (This would not be the case if, for the example, the Group had been created on the North Lanarkshire site, in which case only the NLC schools would see it on their ‘My Glow Groups’ page.)

If you are interested in running a project which involves schools across a number of authorities, then a suitable Glow Group can be created on the National Site for you. Contact the Glow Admin team (glowadmin@ltscotland.org.uk).

In order to give access to Glow to the pupils in schools in Norway and Russia, guest accounts were created. Such accounts can be created by the Accounts and Services Manager (ASM) for your school or local authority. If you are interested in using Glow to communicate with a school abroad, check with your school’s ASM to see if there is a policy about guest accounts already in place. If not, talk to your authority’s Glow Key Contact who will be able to give you further advice. A list of the Key Contacts is available on the GlowScotland website.

Three documents about guest accounts have been created by Learning and Teaching Scotland and are attached here. Schools and local authorities may wish to use these for reference and adapt them as appropriate: Glow Guest User Account conditions of issue, Glow guest user AUP, Guest Account Application Form.

Recipe

The ‘How-to’ clips below show how to replicate some of the features used in the Northern Lights Glow Group and its sub-groups.

* How to add, rename or remove pagesNorthern Lights: an international project

* How to post messages on a discussion boardNorthern Lights: an international project

* How to change the display of the Discussions web partNorthern Lights: an international project

* How to use Text Editor to display a set of world clocksNorthern Lights: an international project

Impact

Feedback from Norway. Click to enlarge.

Feedback from the schools involved in the project has been very positive, with all keen to continue it into the new session (2010/11). The key benefits have been inclusion: large numbers of pupils in three local authorities and two other countries have been able to access and contribute to the same project; pupils from the traveller community have participated and pupils who may be otherwise been disengaged from learning have also been enthusiastically involved. 

The project has developed Scottish pupils’ expressive arts and literacy skills and motivated a desire to learn about their own culture and to share it with others. Norwegian and Russian pupils have benefited tremendously through engagement in the project, developing their English language skills, and the opportunity has been much valued by schools and parents.

The impact of the Northern Lights projectNorthern Lights: an international project

Future plans for the Northern Lights project
Northern Lights: an international project