Last session, the Computing Department in John Ogilvie High School, South Lanarkshire, decided to create a Glow Group to host all of the resources that pupils studying Higher Computing would need access to throughout the year. Joe Kane is Head of the Business Education and Computing faculty and undertook the task of building the Group,

Context

Click to see full image

Joe was keen to ensure that pupils studying Higher Computing had easy access to all information and resources they would need for the course and also would have a place where they could give feedback.

He wanted to simplify the look of the Glow Group and aid pupils’ navigation around it and so decided to use a graphical interface along with hidden pages.

On the Noticeboard page of the Group, Joe deleted the default web parts from the page, added a Text Editor web part and uploaded an image to it. He then created ‘hot spots’ on the image to provide links to each of the hidden pages.

Each part of the image then acts like a button, linking to a separate hidden page and gives pupils access to course notes, tests, past papers, homework, study information, useful web links, a pupil voice feedback area and a blog giving specific course information.

Because of the use of hidden pages, only the Noticeboard page tab is visible in the Group, so Joe chose to create a navigation system on each page, to enable pupils to go from page to page without having to go back to the main page each time.

Like the Noticeboard page, this was done by uploading an image to a Text Editor Web part and creating hot spots to each page.

The Pages

Each page in the Glow Group is beautifully simple and easy to use, containing only a few web parts. For example:

Past Papers Page

Click to see full image

This page contains only three web parts – two text editors and a Document Store. Both text editor web parts have had their borders and title bars removed so that only the images which have been uploaded into them are visible.

The Document Store hosts Past Paper exam questions and marking schemes to aid pupils in their exam preparation and enables the staff in the Department to ensure that all relevant information is shared with pupils.

Notes Page

This page also contains Text Editor web parts (3) and a Document Store.

In order for Joe to ensure that each page contained a different Document store, containing the folders and documents relevant to the purpose of the page, he had to create new Document Library web parts from scratch for each page, using the Advanced Settings link in the Glow Group. Had he not done this and had simply added a document store to each page from the web parts gallery, he would have had the same document store, containing the same documents, on every page. You can find out more about this and how to create new web parts from scratch in the ‘how to’ videos in the Recipe section below.

Blog Page

Joe created a Higher Computing blog to enable him to give up to date information to pupils. Once he had created the Glow Blog, he copied the web address of the view of the blog. Joe then removed the blog web part from the page and instead added a Page Viewer web part, adding in the web address of the view of the blog to it. This enabled pupils to have a direct view of the blog content.

In the blog, Joe was then able to write posts to share information about the course revision guides, holiday revision and Supported Study.

Pupil Voice Page

The Pupil Voice page gives pupils the chance to give feedback on the Higher Computing course, to enable staff to then make changes in order to help them continually improve the learning experience for pupils.

On the page there is a Document store with evaluation documents which pupils can use to give their opinions on Positive, Negative and Interesting elements of the course. In here also are the results of a survey which Joe did with pupils last session to gather their thoughts on the course. This was done using ‘Survey Monkey’, however this year, Joe has decided to use a Glow Survey instead and so the web part for this is also on the Pupil Voice page. Using the Glow Survey will enable Joe to have an overview of the whole class’s feedback, as well as being able to see individual pupil responses. Results can be displayed in a variety of ways, including graphically.

These are just four of the pages in the Glow Group. In the following video we can take a look at the whole Group:

Tour of Higher Computing Glow Group (13:44)
Higher Computing- Pupil support and Pupil Voice

Ingredients

Joe chose to create the Higher Computing Glow Group using hidden pages, with links made to them via a graphical interface. This is done by uploading an image to a Text Editor web part then creating ‘hot spots’ to each of the pages on selected parts of the image.  In order to do all of this, Joe therefore needed to do the following:

-    Create a Glow Group at school level
-    Delete the Documents, Discussions and Glow Groups pages
-    Create Hidden Page
-    On the Noticeboard Page, delete the default web parts, upload an image to a Text Editor web part and create hot  spots on the image to link to each of the hidden pages
-    On each of the hidden pages, upload an image to a Text Editor web part and create hot spots on the image to link to each of the other hidden pages.

Since Joe needed separate document stores on many of the pages in the Glow Group, he also needed to create new Document Libraries from scratch, to avoid simply having the same Document store duplicated on every page.

A Glow Blog had to be created. Joe chose to then use the Page Viewer web part to show the view of the Blog.

A Glow Survey was created, with multiple choice questions using the ‘ratings scale’ option, to enable Joe to gather pupil feedback on the Higher Computing course.

Recipe

The following videos explain how to replicate some of these elements of the Higher Computing Glow Group. The context of these videos is different, but the process is exactly the same.

How to remove pages from a Glow Group and close web parts from a page (2:22)
Higher Computing- Pupil support and Pupil Voice

How to create a hidden page and hyperlink text to access it (10:39)
Higher Computing- Pupil support and Pupil Voice

How to hotspot an image and link it to a hidden page (6:22)
Higher Computing- Pupil support and Pupil Voice

How to create a new Document Store (5:57)
Higher Computing- Pupil support and Pupil Voice

How to add a Glow Blog to a Glow Group and create the blog (6:12)
Higher Computing- Pupil support and Pupil Voice

How to view a Glow Blog through the Page Viewer web part (4:53)
Higher Computing- Pupil support and Pupil Voice

How to create a survey (14:16)
Higher Computing- Pupil support and Pupil Voice

How to respond to a survey (5:19)
Higher Computing- Pupil support and Pupil Voice

Impact

Perhaps the best way to judge whether the Glow Group has been beneficial is to listen to the thoughts of the pupils who used it. Here are what some of them had to say:

“I thought that the glow group was very useful as it had all the required course notes which was easily accessible from home. I liked this because it meant that if I had missed a set of notes or lost a set I could easily get a new copy without using up the teachers time”. Sean

“Sitting Higher Computing last year, I felt glow was a great study tool.  With the online daily guide of what to study each night, it really helped me keep my studying on track, as it gave you a guide line of what to study, for how long and what was coming up. This section also updates us on homework or tests that were coming up. It allowed you to submit homework online at any point. This was great as you could receive immediate feed back, the following day. It also prevented you from losing or forgetting sheets.   It covered all the course and recalled on subtopics that we had done at the start of term. The notes on power point were also a great help to look over if I was unsure on any particular parts of a topic, these notes went into further detail and helped explain when I did not understand. With the past papers and marking schemes, this was a great study revision, as they were easy to access and find. Also the previous class test that we had sat were available online, this was a further study guide that was available nowhere else. The site was very easy to use and navigate around. I personally feel this would be a great revision and home tool for all subjects.  All of this helped me greatly to stay on track and achieve my grade B that I had hoped for.” Alix

“The Glow program was useful by providing remote and digital access to homework as well as a balanced revision timetable. Being able to download homework meant that the problem of losing sheets disappeared completely and being able to upload digital documents meant that when homework was handed in there was no loss of a jotter and thus access to notes, so studying could carry on in lots of little chunks instead of needing a big rush to catch up after a few days. I would recommend using Glow just because of how useful digitised work is when you have written notes, and having a good revision timetable always handy is a bonus”. Daniel

“Glow last year was good as Mr Kane was able to set us a study plan every week so we knew which to study every night in order to achieve the best grade possible. We were also able to access past papers as well as the marking instructions. Glow was effective when coming up to our exams as I was able to know what to study for when at home as well as at school”. Tommy

“I think glow was a useful, educational tool in which we were able to access at home and see our study plan and online past papers. This benefited me greatly and allowed me to work the best of my ability and achieve a high grade.” Stephen

“Good points about using the glow group in Higher Computing last year were that it allowed the class to gain access to all resources needed for the course and all past papers that would be needed for revision. It also gave us a study guide for specific subjects to study when at home which was optional which was good as it gave us areas that people may need help on as well as being able to issue homework and do homework on computer and send it back to the teacher”. Connor

Joe Kane also talks about the benefits that he got from using the Glow Group with the pupils. He feels that the blog has been the most useful element: 

“For me, the blog had the biggest impact as pupils would come to school having checked the revision guide. They would then be able to informally feedback on the aspects of the course that they found tricky when revising.”

Josef Fuchs teaches PE at St Ninian’s High School in East Renfrewshire. He was keen to learn how Glow could be used to support the activities pupils take part in in PE. After some exploration of the possibilities, he hit upon the idea of using a Custom List to record pupils’ fitness test results.

Context

The PE Department in St Ninan’s has had a Glow Group for some time, but Josef was looking for new ways to use Glow to support the work of the Department and to benefit the pupils.

He wanted pupils to be able to record the results from their fitness tests and update them after a period of time to track progress. He also wanted staff to be able to analyse the results by looking at, for example, all the results for one class or one pupil, or all the results for one particular fitness test.

He learned that a Custom List enables all of this and so began creating two – one for S1 and one for S2.

A custom list is a bit like a spreadsheet, and allows data to be entered, sorted and filtered. Unlike many other web parts, the custom list is not merely added to a page from the web parts gallery, it must first be created. This allows the person creating the custom list to choose the content, such as the data required and how it is presented to those adding an entry to the list.

In addition, it is possible to set up the custom list so that each user can only see their own entries, but that those with Administrator rights on the Glow Group where the list resides, can see all entries and so analyse them.

Josef chose to set up his custom lists so that each pupil can see only their own entries, but staff can see them all. 

Let’s look at the St Ninian’s PE Dept Glow Group and then specifically at the Custom list being used to record fitness test performance in the following video clip:

Tour of the St Ninian’s PE Glow Group and Fitness Test Custom List (7:07)
On your marks, get set, Glow!
 

Ingredients

Click to Enlarge

Josef needed a Glow Group to house the custom list, and decided to make use of the existing PE Glow Group (‘Physical Education Pupil Section’) which staff and all pupils already had access to. He needed to check the permissions for the Glow Group members to ensure that pupils could add content to the custom list. He also wanted to ensure that the Glow Group membership permissions were set in such a way that would allow staff to see all entries but for each pupil to only see their own. He therefore gave Contributor permissions to pupils and Administrator rights to staff. Josef then created his custom list and added it to the Glow Group. In the next section, learn how to do this.

Recipe

The following videos show how to replicate the custom list that Josef Fuchs created in St Ninian’s.

How to create a custom list (16:34)
On your marks, get set, Glow!
Editing the columns in a custom list (2:36)
On your marks, get set, Glow!
How to set user permissions on a custom list (4:56)
On your marks, get set, Glow!
Teacher use of the custom list: Filtering (3:23)
On your marks, get set, Glow!
 

 Impact

Josef, the other PE staff and of course the pupils, enjoy many benefits by using the Custon List in the PE Glow Group. Josef says:

“The main benefit is that pupils and staff can both access the Group at any point.  If the same information is written in booklets only pupils or staff would be able to do this at any one time.  Pupils can misplace booklets meaning that all their data is lost and them being unable to record their achievements. It also reduces the amount of paper being used and removes the need for staff to store paper booklets. Filling in booklets in all PE settings e.g. oustide, is problematic, so doing this digitally makes the experience much more positive and relevant to the pupils.” 

The way that the Custom List has been set up means that pupils can easily see their results over a period of time since they record scores at the start of a period of work and again at the end. Josef comments on this:

“Pupils can see their impovement between the start and end of the block. They can be motivated to improve their score between the 1st and 2nd time they complete each test and more between S1 and S2 for example.”

The list also aids staff, enabling them to easily look at all the results for one pupil, one class or one fitness test, by using the filter functionality. This enables staff to give specific feedback and advice to pupils to aid their improvement. Josef adds:

“Staff can sort the data easily to see who has got the best score, made the biggest improvement etc.”

Pupil Thoughts:
The pupils also have thoughts on the benefits of using Glow to record their fitness test scores. Hear what some of them have to say in the following video:

On your marks, get set, Glow!

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

Graphica Interface. Click to enlarge.

Glenwood High School in Fife, with a roll of 860 pupils and with 90 teaching staff, has seen a significant increase in the use of Glow over the last six months. By the end of the year, around 75% of staff and pupils had active accounts and in an average week over 200 pupils were using Glow during school hours.

The cookbook, “Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School“, describes how a number of staff from different departments, have been using Glow to enhance learning and teaching.

In this cookbook we focus on the work of the Computing department. In the Recipe section, video clips show how you can replicate the use of avatars, vokis and forums.

Context

In January 2011, a number of Glow training courses were run in Fife and staff from eight secondary schools were invited to attend. At Glenwood, volunteers were sought from across the school and 14 participated in the training. Most of the sessions offered were one-day Glow Basics training, which covered how to create a curricular Glow Group to support learning with a specific class. At the end of the day’s session, staff had a Glow Group ready to go and a good idea of how they wanted their pupils to use it. The aim for many of the staff was initially to upload revision documents in preparation for prelims and for pupils to be able to use discussion boards or forums to ask questions or look for help.

Clare Hunt is PTC of Business, Enterprise and Computing at Glenwood. She and her colleagues have begun to use Glow across S1-S6, and have created a series of attractive graphical interfaces to allow users to easily navigate between the different Glow Groups.

Pupils' work. Click to enlarge.

The S1 ICT course contains a unit of work on Cyber-Bullying. Following a class discussion, pupils were asked to create presentations to share their understanding of what cyber-bullying is, how it should be dealt with and how to avoid becoming a victim of a cyber-bully. Pupils uploaded their completed presentations into the S1 Glow Group, as it provided an ideal place for pupils to share their work. The Group enabled them to view each others’ presentations and to show their work to parents and carers at home. A number of parents have commented to Clare about how valuable this has been in stimulating a discussion with their children about staying safe online.

Pupils' forum avatars. Click to enlarge.

A Glow forum was then used to encourage pupils to think about the advice they would give if they discovered a friend was being bullied. Introducing the forum to the pupils enabled Clare and her colleagues to reinforce internet safety messages about keeping personal information private. Rather than displaying a photograph of themselves in the forum, pupils learnt how to create an avatar (a cartoon representation) using a free website, and how to upload this into their forum profile.

Clare Hunt: S1 Cyber-Bullying presentations and discussions (1:59) “Glow is an ideal place to share pupils’ work”

Pupil's voki

Towards the end of the academic year S2 classes were introduced to the Voki web site. Here they each created their own Voki (a talking avatar) to give their evaluation of the Computing course. The website allows users to give their Voki a voice, either by entering text or by using a microphone to record. Microphones work well with a bit of peace and quiet, but not so effectively with 20 pupils recording simultaneously. So the second years typed in their text and took great care over the comments, spelling and punctuation, as the Voki’s speech is only as good as the text that’s been entered. The Vokis were then shared through a Glow blog, so that pupils could see each others’ and Computing staff could hear all the feedback on the course. Pupils clearly found this a highly motivating activity, and the quality of comments was better than might have been recorded on a paper evaluation form.

Clare Hunt: S2’s Computing course evaluations (2:14)“Glow is an ideal place to share pupils’ work”

Ingredients

For the S1 Cyber-bullying project, Clare required:

- an S1 ICT Glow Group

- all relevant pupils given Contributor membership

- a suitable website for creating avatars

- Microsoft Office Picture Manager, or similar image editing software, to resize the avatars

For the S2 end of year evaluations, Clare required:

- an S2 Computing Glow Group

- all the relevant pupils given Contributor membership

- the Voki website

- a Glow blog created within the Glow Group

Method

* How to add the Glow forum web part and create a forum (2:57) “Glow is an ideal place to share pupils’ work”

* How to post messages on a forum (5:59) “Glow is an ideal place to share pupils’ work”

* How to create an avatar to use in a Glow forum (3:46) “Glow is an ideal place to share pupils’ work”

* How to upload an avatar to a Glow forum profile (1:36) “Glow is an ideal place to share pupils’ work”

* How to create a Voki (4:41) “Glow is an ideal place to share pupils’ work”

* How to add a Voki to a Glow Group page (6:50) “Glow is an ideal place to share pupils’ work”

* How to add a Voki to a blog post (4:50) “Glow is an ideal place to share pupils’ work”

Impact

The use of Glow at Glenwood has grown very rapidly over just a few months, not just in Computing. Glow is becoming well embedded in the curriculum: it’s not viewed as an adjunct, but a tool to be used, when appropriate, to enhance learning and teaching.

In the video clip below, Dave Dawson, DHT at Glenwood, explains the progress that has been made.

Dave Dawson: uptake and usage of Glow at Glenwood (1:35) “Glow is an ideal place to share pupils’ work”

The challenge now is to continue to develop. In the new academic year, each department has been asked to have a Glow representative and for Glow to be included in development plans.

Dave Dawson: next stages of Glow development at Glenwood (0:36) “Glow is an ideal place to share pupils’ work”

 

SG Drama Glow Group. Click to enlarge.

Glenwood High School in Fife, with a roll of 860 pupils and with 90 teaching staff, has seen a significant increase in the use of Glow over the last six months. By the end of the year, around 75% of staff and pupils had active accounts and in an average week over 200 pupils were using Glow during school hours.

The cookbook, “Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School“, describes how a number of staff from different departments, have been using Glow to enhance learning and teaching.

In this cookbook we focus on the work of one teacher, Clare Todd, and how she uses Glow Groups with each of her Drama classes. In the Recipe section, video clips show how you can replicate Clare’s use of surveys for self-evaluation.

Context

In January 2011, a number of Glow training courses were run in Fife and staff from eight secondary schools were invited to attend. At Glenwood, volunteers were sought from across the school and 14 participated in the training. Most of the sessions offered were one-day Glow Basics training, which covered how to create a curricular Glow Group to support learning with a specific class. At the end of the day’s session, staff had a Glow Group ready to go and a good idea of how they wanted their pupils to use it. The aim for many of the staff was initially to upload revision documents in preparation for prelims and for pupils to be able to use discussion boards or forums to ask questions or look for help.

Homework dropbox. Click to enlarge.

Drama teacher, Clare Todd, attended the training having been put forward as the representative for her department. She comments that she “was really excited when I first heard about Glow. It was exactly what I’d been looking for.” What Clare wanted was a collaborative area where pupils could find learning resources, use forums to discuss their work, hand-in homework and use surveys to evaluate their learning. While she didn’t have the skills to create her own website, she could immediately see the potential for Glow to deliver what she was needed.

Clare first created a Drama Glow Group open to all pupils in the school. The Group showcases current work, with videos of recent trips, photos of class productions and discussion boards where pupils can post comments. All pupils can interact in this Glow Group and get excited about what they might be involved in as they progress through the school.

Clare Todd: Drama Glow Groups – part 1 (7:14) “Just what I’d been looking for…”

Next Clare created a Glow Group for each year group, with separate pages for each teaching group. This structure allows her to upload materials appropriate for each class, guiding pupils in their learning. In the Standard Grade Glow Group, for example, there are links to theatre review websites, discussion boards where questions are set for homework, and a spreadsheet where pupils assess themselves against grade-related criteria.

The Documents area of each Glow Group has proved particularly useful. Learning resources are uploaded, so that pupils have access to all the materials, such as the course handbook, from home.

As a number of colleagues in other departments have also done, Clare has created a homework web part, where pupils can submit work for review. This has proved very successful in encouraging pupils to complete their homework, and in addition it allows Clare to monitor the progress of draft pieces before final submission. Clare gives feedback either within the web part or in more detail on the pupil’s document which is then returned to them. Permissions on the web part are set so that while Clare can see everyone’s work, pupils can see only their own.

Clare Todd: Drama Glow Groups – part 2 (2:29) “Just what I’d been looking for…”

Survey questions. Click to enlarge.

Survey results. Click to enlarge.

With many of her classes Clare has used surveys for self-evaluation exercises. The surveys are quick to create, easy for the pupils to respond to and, as the data is automatically collated, pretty painless for the teacher to review. For multiple-choice type questions, such as “When working in a group, I contributed imaginative and sensible ideas”, a bar chart provides a valuable overview of the responses. For free-text questions, such as “What were your main strengths in Drama?”, the bar chart view is less useful, but viewing pupils’ individual responses provides excellent personal feedback. When first experimenting with the survey options, Clare had hoped that it would provide a means of creating vocabulary tests, but having been introduced to Glow Learn by one of her colleagues, now feels that would be a more effective tool for assessments and tracking progress.

Ingredients

For each year group Clare required:

* a Glow Group

* the relevant pupils given Contributor membership of the group

Recipe

Having created each Glow Group, Clare has added many features, such as discussion boards, video clips, surveys and a homework web part. The video clips below focus on the use of surveys and show to replicate each part of the process from creating a survey to viewing pupils’ responses. A cookbook about Clare’s colleague, Kayleigh Brown, shows how to create and use the homework web part.

* How to create a survey (4:15) “Just what I’d been looking for…”

* How to add the Survey web part to a Glow Group (1:54) “Just what I’d been looking for…”

* How to change the permissions on the Survey web part (2:37) “Just what I’d been looking for…”

* How pupils respond to a survey (1:44) “Just what I’d been looking for…”

* How to view the results of a survey (2:42) “Just what I’d been looking for…”

Impact

From the outset Clare was impressed with how Glow would support her learners and it has lived up to expectations in day-to-day usage in the classroom. She’s already looking ahead to the next stages in her own learning and progression, ready to explore the potential benefits of using the assessment and tracking facilities offered by Glow Learn.

The use of Glow at Glenwood has grown very rapidly over just a few months, not just with Drama classes. Glow is becoming well embedded in the curriculum: it’s not viewed as an adjunct, but a tool to be used, when appropriate, to enhance learning and teaching.

In the video clip below, Dave Dawson, DHT at Glenwood, explains the progress that has been made.

Dave Dawson: uptake and usage of Glow at Glenwood (1:35) “Just what I’d been looking for…”

The challenge now is to continue to develop. In the new academic year, each department has been asked to have a Glow representative and for Glow to be included in development plans.

Dave Dawson: next stages of Glow development at Glenwood (0:36) “Just what I’d been looking for…”

SG History Glow Group. Click to enlarge.

Glenwood High School in Fife, with a roll of 860 pupils and with 90 teaching staff, has seen a significant increase in the use of Glow over the last six months. By the end of the year, around 75% of staff and pupils had active accounts and in an average week over 200 pupils were using Glow during school hours.

The cookbook, “Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School“, describes how a number of staff from different departments, have been using Glow to enhance learning and teaching. In this cookbook we focus on the work of one teacher, Kayleigh Brown, and explore how she has used Glow with her Standard Grade History class. In the Recipe section, video clips show how you can replicate Kayleigh’s use of an “Upload your homework” web part to allow pupils to submit work confidentially.

Context

In January 2011, a number of Glow training courses were run in Fife and staff from eight secondary schools were invited to attend. At Glenwood, volunteers were sought from across the school and 14 participated in the training. Most of the sessions offered were one-day Glow Basics training, which covered how to create a curricular Glow Group to support learning with a specific class. At the end of the day’s session, staff had a Glow Group ready to go and a good idea of how they wanted their pupils to use it. The aim for many of the staff was initially to upload revision documents in preparation for prelims and for pupils to be able to use discussion boards or forums to ask questions or look for help.

History teacher, Kayleigh Brown, was keen to use Glow with her fourth year class. Just before the prelims, she created a Standard Grade History Glow Group, the main purpose of which was to encourage pupils to revise at home. Learning resources, such as PowerPoint slides and revision mind maps, were uploaded to the Glow Group, along with web links directing pupils to websites relevant to the course topics. Kayleigh has shared these materials with other history teachers in her authority, through the ‘Fife Study Support’ Glow Group.

Kayleigh Brown: Standard Grade History (6:36) Using Glow to support an exam class

Kayleigh introduced pupils to Glow in a class lesson, showing them how to log in to Glow, navigate to the Glow Group and use the uploaded resources. She had also posted a question in a forum and asked pupils to reply to this. She was very pleased with the response to this: some pupils who rarely speak up in class were the first to get on and post their comments in the forum. Others were reluctant initially, but gained confidence through reading the contributions of other pupils and building upon them. As a first task, this proved very successful and Kayleigh feels there’s real potential in using the forums to stimulate pupils’ interest and build their skills in structuring exam answers.

Survey results. Click to enlarge.

Following the prelim Kayleigh asked pupils to respond to a survey she’d created and added into the Glow Group. This asked pupils to give feedback on their prelim result, how they’d revised and which topics they felt most or least confident about. The survey permissions were set so that pupils could see only their own response. The ‘graphical summary’ option on the survey results enabled Kayleigh to see at a glance the responses on questions such as ‘In the recent prelim were you pleased with your result?’ and then to look in more detailed at individual responses to read the more personal feedback that pupils had given, describing the topics they were finding difficult.  

Submitted homework. Click to enlarge.

One of the biggest benefits of the Glow Group for Kayleigh has been providing her pupils with a quick method of submitting homework and practice papers. Using the ‘Custom List’ option in a Glow Group, she created an ‘Upload your homework’ web part. Pupils attach the file(s) they have been working on and submit the work for assessment. The permissions on the web part are set so that, while Kayleigh can see everyone’s work, pupils can see only their own. Through the web part, Kayleigh is able to assess the work and give overall comments, or can re-attach the document giving detailed feedback. Pupils have appreciated the quick feedback they have received in this way.

As the Glow Group developed, Kayleigh has begun to add separate pages for each of the different units in the SG course. Each page contains everything pupils will need for revision, such as learning resources and web links, reducing the risk of pupils finding wrong materials or studying the wrong periods, as has always been the danger when pupils are asked to research using the internet. For topics that pupils struggle with, Kayleigh has added video clips from YouTube and similar sites. While these may be blocked by school filtering, it’s proved an effective way of directly pupils to use these clips at home. 

Ingredients

For her Standard Grade class, Kayleigh required:

* a Glow Group

* pupils given Contributor membership of the group

Recipe

Having created the Glow Group, Kayleigh customised it to fit, for example adding on additional pages, adding in a Glow forum, creating surveys and embedding YouTube video clips. For Kayleigh, one of the most useful features was the ‘Upload your homework’ web part that she created. The video clips below show how to replicate this web part, if you’re interested in using something similar with your own classes. For ‘how-to’ video clips on surveys, see the cookbook focusing on another Glenwood teacher, Clare Todd.

* How to create a web part for homework submission (4:57) Using Glow to support an exam class

* How to add the homework web part to a Glow Group page (4:42)Using Glow to support an exam class

* How to set permissions on the homework web part (3:39) Using Glow to support an exam class

* How to check the homework web part is ready to use (3:53) Using Glow to support an exam class

* How to view pupils’ work submitted in the homework web part (4:30) Using Glow to support an exam class

* How the Site Collection Administrator can save the homework web part as a template (3:40) Using Glow to support an exam class

* How to use the template to create a homework web part (4:10) Using Glow to support an exam class

Impact

Kayleigh has been very pleased with the response of her S4 pupils to Glow. Having seen the value of the Glow Group tools, and in particular the ‘upload your homework’ web part, she has established similar ways of working with first and second year classes.

The use of Glow at Glenwood has grown very rapidly over just a few months, not just with History classes. Glow is becoming well embedded in the curriculum: it’s not viewed as an adjunct, but a tool to be used, when appropriate, to enhance learning and teaching.

In the video clip below, Dave Dawson, DHT at Glenwood, explains the progress that has been made.

Dave Dawson: uptake and usage of Glow at Glenwood (1:35) Using Glow to support an exam class

The challenge now is to continue to develop. In the new academic year, each department has been asked to have a Glow representative and for Glow to be included in development plans.

Dave Dawson: next stages of Glow development at Glenwood (0:36) Using Glow to support an exam class

Glenwood High School

Glenwood High School in Fife, with a roll of 860 pupils and with 90 teaching staff, has seen a significant increase in the use of Glow over the last six months. By the end of the year, around 75% of staff and pupils had active accounts and in an average week over 200 pupils were using Glow during school hours.

This cookbook describes how a number of staff, from different departments, have been using Glow to enhance learning and teaching. The video clips and Glow Group tours show the work that has been undertaken, the pupils’ responses and the lesson learned. Additional cookbooks focus on each teacher in turn, and provide the detail of how you can replicate (or adapt) their ideas.

Context

In January 2011, a number of Glow training courses were run in Fife and staff from eight secondary schools were invited to attend. At Glenwood, volunteers were sought from across the school and 14 participated in the training. Most of the sessions offered were one-day Glow Basics training, which covered how to create a curricular Glow Group to support learning with a specific class. At the end of the day’s session, staff had a Glow Group ready to go and a good idea of how they wanted their pupils to use it. The aim for many of the staff was initially to upload revision documents in preparation for prelims and for pupils to be able to use discussion boards or forums to ask questions or look for help. As can be seen from the clips below, while these basic Glow features were used extensively, staff have also progressed on rapidly to using other tools, such as wikis, blogs and Glow Meet.

In the first clip here, Dave Dawson, DHT at Glenwood, describes the progress over the last few months:

Dave Dawson: uptake and usage of Glow at Glenwood (1:35)Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Alison Wood

Alison Wood attended one of the training courses in January and has since used Glow with S1, S3 and Higher English classes. With her first year class she was keen to encourage pupils to tackle more challenging texts. Pupils wrote book reviews, uploaded them into a Glow Group and commented on each others’ reviews in a Glow forum. For her Higher class Alison created a Glow Group, and uploaded notes and past papers for pupils to use at home in the run up to exams. She also used surveys during lesson time for pupils to assess their own knowledge of the set texts. Viewing the survey results allowed pupils to quickly see where their responses differed from those of other pupils. This generated a very valuable class discussion where pupils could identify for themselves where they’d got work to do, and the necessity of going back to revising the text.

With third year pupils Alison has created a wiki to stimulate pupils’ interest in the background of a set text. The third years have been intrigued by the possibilities of the wikis and many have gone well beyond the initial requirements in developing their own pages.

Alison Wood: ‘Poetry and Protest’ wiki created by S3 (1:51) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Alison has found the ‘Daily What’ an excellent resource in encouraging pupils to read newspaper articles. She can see a lot of potential for this, and is looking forward to making more use of it in the coming year when she will have a data projector in her classroom and therefore able to use this with a whole class, rather than needing to book an ICT suite.

Alison Wood: Glow enhancing learning and teaching in English (3:32) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

The full cookbook on Alison’s work can be found here. This includes ‘how-to’ video clips which show how to create wikis and how to make best use of the ‘Daily What’.

Clare Hunt is PTC of Business, Enterprise and Computing at Glenwood. She and her colleagues have begun to use Glow across S1-S6. With first year pupils, Glow offered an ideal place to share the work that pupils had been undertaking in class on a ‘Cyber-bullying’ project. Pupils’ presentations were uploaded to a Glow Group and discussed at home with parents and carers. In class the discussion around internet safety continued with pupils creating avatars and posting comments in a Glow forum.

Clare Hunt: S1 Cyber-Bullying presentations and discussions (1:59) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

At the end of the year S2 classes created Vokis to record their evaluations of the Computing course. Pupils found this a highly motivating activity, and took great care over their comments, spelling and punctuation, as the Voki’s speech is only as good as the text that’s been entered! The Vokis were then posted into a Glow blog, so that pupils could see each others’ and Computing staff could hear all the feedback on the course.

Clare Hunt: S2’s Computing course evaluations (2:14)Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

The full cookbook on Clare’s work is available here. It includes ‘how-to’ video clips on using Glow forums, and on creating Vokis.

Kim Yapp teaches Modern Foreign Languages. For the last couple of years, the department has run a Culture Project at the end of first year. Pupils are asked to work in groups, create a presentation on a cultural theme and deliver the presentation to their class. Prior to the arrival of Glow in the school, the project, though very successful, presented logistical difficulties, as pupils saved their work to their own network area, which is inaccessible to the teacher or to each other. If pupils were absent, their work could not be added to the group presentation. In addition, when classes were delivering their presentations, accessing the completed group work again caused problems. Either all work needed to be saved to a single location such as a memory stick or each group in turn needed to log on and off the network. Kim was delighted to find this year that using Glow easily solved all these problems! One Glow Group was all that was needed – for pupils to upload their individual work, to save their completed group work and from which to present it to the class. There were unlooked-for benefits too – Kim could monitor progress after each lesson as the presentations were being developed, allowing her to intervene with any pupil not pulling their weight in their group – and pupils could show their work to their families.

Kim Yapp: S1 Culture Project (6:36) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Further details on how Kim set up her Glow Groups and ran the Culture Project are available here. This cookbook includes ‘how-to’ clips on creating and customising Glow Groups, and using a Documents web part.

Janet Rutterford

Janet Rutterford teaches English, and as a guidance teacher also has a remit for primary-secondary transition. When Glow was introduced at Glenwood earlier this year, she was interested to look at ways in which it could facilitate transition. As a first experiment, a Glow Meet session was arranged between a first year class and a P7 class at Southwood Primary. Both classes were very well prepared. The P7s drafted their questions and sent them to the high school, giving the first years time to think about their responses. The preparation proved invaluable when the day came for the Glow Meet, as no-one got stage fright in front of the web-cam and all were happy to ask and answer the questions!

On the back of the overwhelmingly enthusiastic feedback from the first year, Janet has continued to develop the transition Glow Group. Pupils generated a wide range of ideas of the content they thought would be useful for the P7s, and Janet was impressed with their skills and confidence with Glow.

Janet Rutterford: using Glow to support transition (2:27)Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

A cookbook on Janet’s transition work will be coming soon. The ‘how-to’ clips will include the basics of setting up and using Glow Meet.

Craft and Design Technology teacher, David Lumsden, attended one of the Glow Basics courses but has since concentrated on using Glow Learn. He and colleagues in his department find this ideal for classwork and class tests. They are also developing a S1 and S2 homework policy which will be entirely delivered through Glow Learn, potentially offering considerable savings in paper and duplicating costs.

David uses Glow Learn to create tests and assessments. A range of question types, including multiple-choice and short answer, can be used and most will be automatically marked. Progress records allow him to see a summary of the class’s performance on all questions. Individual pupil’s responses can also be viewed, marking reviewed and feedback given to the pupil.

David Lumsden: assessments in craft and design technology (2:37)Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

David comments that pupils’ response to Glow Learn have been very positive and the hand-in rate for tests and homework has been much higher than previously.

More information on David’s work, including ‘how-to’ video clips on Glow Learn will follow shortly.

Kayleigh Brown teaches History at Glenwood and has used Glow extensively with her fourth year class to prepare them for the Standard Grade exam. For the prelims Kayleigh has uploaded PowerPoint files and revision mind maps – resources that pupils had used in class and were familiar, but uploading them to Glow ensured that pupils had access for homework and during holidays. Kayleigh has also shared these resources with other History teachers and departments through the Fife ‘Study Support’ Glow Group.

Kayleigh Brown: Standard Grade History (6:36) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Kayleigh asks her pupils to submit their homework through the Glow Group. She created a ‘Upload your homework’ web part, which allows a pupil to hand in their work but not to see the work of any other pupil. Kayleigh can see all the work her pupils submit, review it, add notes to it, and give feedback. Both teacher and pupils have found this invaluable. Using a survey to gather feedback from pupils about their performance in their prelim was also a big hit with Kayleigh. The graphical summary allowed here a rapid overview of where pupils felt they needed help, and viewing individual responses allowed her to see any private concerns about their progress which pupils had expressed.

A cookbook providing more detail on Kayleigh’s Glow Group can be found here. This includes video clips showing how to create a homework web part.

Drama teacher, Clare Todd, comments that she “was really excited when I first heard about Glow. It was exactly what I’d been looking for.” Clare wanted pupils to be able to access learning resources at home, use a forum to ask questions and discuss what they’d been doing in class. She knew that she didn’t have the skills to create her own website, so Glow’s arrival in the school really enthused her. She now has a Drama Glow Group accessible to all pupils in S1-S6 to give a flavour of what classes are doing in lessons and on trips. There are also separate Glow Groups for S1, S2, Standard Grade, Higher and Advanced Higher classes.

Clare Todd: Drama Glow Groups – part 1 (7:14)Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Clare Todd: Drama Glow Groups – part 2 (2:29) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Like Kayleigh, she asks pupils to submit homework and makes use of surveys for self-evaluations. She’s recently been introduced to Glow Learn by colleagues in other departments in the school and sees this as her next step, as it provides better options when asking pupils for personal responses, and will be easier to monitor and record pupils’ progress.

The cookbook describing Clare’s work in more detail can be found here. The ‘how-to’ videos show how to create and use surveys.

Next steps

Dave Dawson

The use of Glow at Glenwood has grown very rapidly over just a few months – thanks to the hard work of teaching staff and to those responsible for creating the accounts. Glow is becoming well embedded in the curriculum: it’s not viewed as an adjunct, but a tool to be used, when appropriate, to enhance learning and teaching.

The challenge now is to continue to develop. In the new academic year, each department has been asked to have a Glow representative and for Glow to be included in development plans.

Dave Dawson: next stages of Glow development at Glenwood (0:36) Glowing across the curriculum at Glenwood High School

Mini-Mentors – click to enlarge

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

This Cookbook will focus on the Mini-Mentor project that Judith ran with some of her P7 class pupils.

After Judith had received her Glow Mentor training her class and the other P7 class were using Glow regularly. Her headteacher wanted Judith to spread this use to all pupils of P3 and above in the school. This would involve giving out all usernames and passwords and making sure they were using Glow as much as they could be. Judith was given a day out of class to kick this off but as she was planning for it she quickly realised that it was going to take much longer than that. By this point Judith’s class had been making good use of Glow for some time and she thought it would be a good idea for some of them to come and help her out. She gave them the title of Mini-Mentors which made them feel really important. She also made them very official-looking badges and other accessories for their role.

Reactions from the Mini-Mentors – click to enlarge

The pupils were able to help her troubleshoot getting the other pupils logged into Glow and help them set up their new passwords. Judith feels there is no way in that day that she would have been able to get around all of the classes without the help of her Mini-Mentors.

Now, if any teachers are needing any help with Glow in their class the Mini-Mentors are called upon to go and help with anything they’re asked to do. They’ve done short presentations to classes about how to do certain things in Glow. For example, how to add Vokis to their My Glow pages. Judith feels that her P7 pupils have grown in confidence as they recognise the level of their own skills in Glow and in being able to share that knowledge with others.

Dana P7

P7 Pupil Dana explains the project:

Mini-Mentors is a group that Miss Lennox set up and we help the school with Glow things like surveys and stuff. We went down to the P5’s and we showed them how to do a survey. We got them to do it on a computer. A week after that we got them to do Vokis and put them onto their pages. I think they enjoyed the Vokis the best though!

Mini-Mentors News

Judith set up a page for the Mini-Mentors in the P7 Glow Group to allow them to share news, ad.vice and general discussions with each other.

The Mini-Mentor Page of the P7 Glow Group (0:51)
Mini-Mentors project at Coylton Primary

Ingredients

What did Judith need to do to set up the Mini-Mentor Project?

• Set up a P7 class Glow Group and have her pupils familiar with using Glow.
• Create a Mini-Mentors page within the class Glow Group.
• Select pupils from her P7 class to become Mini-Mentors.
• Enable these pupils to assist her to get the other pupils in the school onto Glow.
• Encourage these pupils to help other pupils and teachers across the school by delivering various sessions when called upon.
• The Mini-Mentors also help out by answering questions from other pupils within their class

Recipe

The Mini-Mentor project at Coylton Primary School involved practical aspects of helping with the other pupils and delivering sessions to the other classes. As such there isn’t really How-To videos using Glow which would cover this. Instead, I have included some videos below about setting up the Mini-Mentors page in the P7 Glow Group. The first two videos comprise a tour of the P7 Glow Group to set the project in the context of what the class were already doing in Glow.

Tour of the Primary 7 Glow Group – Part 1 (3:34)
Mini-Mentors project at Coylton Primary

Tour of the Primary 7 Glow Group – Part 2 (3:02)
Mini-Mentors project at Coylton Primary

Adding an image to a text editor web part (3:53)
Mini-Mentors project at Coylton Primary

Adding text to a text editor web part (2:28)
Mini-Mentors project at Coylton Primary

Creating a new News web part (2:31)
Mini-Mentors project at Coylton Primary

Creating a new Discussion web part (2:26)
Mini-Mentors project at Coylton Primary

Impact

Judith speaks about her P7 Mini-Mentors (1:53)
Mini-Mentors project at Coylton Primary

Judith talks about the impact she thinks the Mini-Mentor project has had on her P7 pupils:

I think definitely, for some of them, they would never have dreamed of standing up in front of another class to explain how to do something. I think they also didn’t  realise that they were already very good at using Glow, that they took those skills for granted that they didn’t realise they had. It has made them think more carefully about what they’re doing because they’re having to explain it to someone else. I think there’s a definite confidence boost for a lot of them but also just recognising the skills that they already had.

Dana on Mini-Mentors (0:48)
Mini-Mentors project at Coylton Primary

Dana speaks further about what she enjoyed about being a Mini-Mentor:

I found it quite fun because you were with all your friends. I was quite nervous though … I liked answering all the questions because they were quite good questions.

The Topic Evaluation

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)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 2 (2:45)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Introduction to the topic evaluation – click to enlarge

This fifth Cookbook on Judith’s Earth and Space Glow Group will focus on the use made of a survey web part in the Glow Group to evaluate the topic through giving the pupils an opportunity to express their opinions. Four further Cookbooks will look at reusing a Glow Group through a template; the use made of embedded YouTube and TeacherTube videos within the Glow Group; the use made of a wiki for pupil project work and lastly on the use of Picture Library web parts to showcase pupil work.

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

• Working with a Glow Group template for an Earth and Space Topic
• Engaging videos in an Earth and Space Glow Group at Coylton Primary
• Our Planets Wiki at Coylton Primary
• Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

Using the Topic Evaluation – click to enlarge

Judith used a survey with the class at the end of the topic to ask them what they thought about it. It was the first time this class had used a survey and they really enjoyed this and responded well to it. They gave very full answers where they were given an opportunity to respond about what they wanted. Judith was quite surprised at the fact that they had really enjoyed things that she thought they wouldn’t have been as interested in. She was also surprised that aspects that she thought they would all love were not necessarily enjoyed equally by all pupils.

Using the survey was obviously a very valuable tool to aid Judith in her planning, both in further work with this particular class and in running the Earth and Space Topic with the next class. Consulting the pupils, through using the survey, gave them an opportunity to be involved in constructive dialogue about their own learning, an opportunity for Pupil Voice.

Ingredients

What did Judith need to do to be able to set up the Topic Evaluation in her Glow Group?

• Set up a sub-group of her P7 Glow Group for her Earth and Space Topic.
• Set the pupils up with Contributor permission of the Glow Group.
• Create a Topic Evaluation Page.
• Add a text editor web part with instructions about the survey.
• Create a Voki to introduce the survey and make the page more attractive.
• Create a survey to use for the Topic Evaluation.
• Add the survey to the Topic Evaluation page of the Glow Group.

Recipe

The following videos will demonstrate how you can recreate the same steps Judith took to set up the Topic Evaluation Survey:

How to create a survey – Part 1 (4:12)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

How to create a survey – Part 2 (5:03)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

How to add a survey to the page in your Glow Group (1:32)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

How to edit the toolbar of a survey and how pupils will respond (2:50)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

How to change the display settings of your survey (2:25)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Impact

Judith Lennox

Judith explains how the pupils were “hooked-in” to Glow (0:29)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Judith speaks about evaluating the topic through Glow (0:55)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

It’s good at a glance. It was interesting to see that some of the things I had assumed they had really liked, only some of them had enjoyed. Also, some things I had thought maybe weren’t as good, they had enjoyed much more than I had thought.

It certainly came across that they had really enjoyed using Glow for their topic.

Their enjoyment was really heightened and certainly their enthusiasm was caught.

Brandon on why he likes Glow (0:29)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

Brandon and Dana

Dana on why she likes Glow (0:23)
Using a survey for topic evaluation to enable pupil voice

These additional links below are to Cookbooks which also demonstrate the use of the survey web part:

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

These additional links below are to Cookbooks which give further information about using Vokis:

Developing confident and independent learners

All Glow and no action? Pt 3 Vokis in a P6 Joint Literacy Project in Dumfries and Galloway

Space Mobiles – click to enlarge

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)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

Judith’s Tour of the Earth and Space Glow Group Part 2 (2:45)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

This fourth Cookbook on Judith’s Earth and Space Glow Group will focus on the use made of Picture Libraries in the Glow Group to showcase pupil work. Four further Cookbooks will look at reusing a Glow Group through a template; the use made of embedded YouTube and TeacherTube videos within the Glow Group; the use made of a wiki for pupil project work and lastly on the use of a survey for topic evaluation.

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

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

Mission to Mars – click to enlarge

The pupils were keen to study Mars as part of their Earth and Space Topic. Judith devised an activity for them which would allow them to use links and videos within the Glow Group for research and then, in groups, to build their own Mars Rover. As part of the activity, they were asked to photograph it and upload this into the Glow Group. Judith had previously created a Picture Library web part to allow them to display their work. This allowed the pupils to return to their work at any point during the project. It also allowed them to log onto Glow from home and show their families the work they had been involved in. It also meant that the models could be dismantled and that there weren’t Mars Rovers cluttering up the classroom throughout the whole project! Judith also took photographs of the pupils working on the models and uploaded these to the Picture Library.

The Mars Rover Mission – click to enlarge

During the topic the children’s Art project was to make some space mobiles and they planned these out based on the information they had been learning in their topic. Once they had finished Judith took pictures of them and got them uploaded into another Picture Library. The mobiles could then go home with the pupils.

Space Mobiles – click to enlarge

Taking photographs of pupil work and uploading these images into a Picture Library web part means that a permanent record of evidence can be stored. It also means that images can be captured of more active learning taking place within the classroom. Pupils enjoy going back to the Glow Group to see their work over and over again. Precious space within the classroom has also been returned for future activities.

Ingredients

What did Judith need to do to be able to showcase pupil work within the Glow Group?

• A sub-group of the P7 Glow Group was created for the Earth and Space Topic.
• Pupils were set with Contributor membership of this Group.
• New Picture Library web parts were created and added to the Mars Mission and Space Mobiles pages.
• Pupils took photographs of their Mars Rovers and uploaded these into the Our Mars Rovers Picture Library.
• Judith took photographs of the pupils working on their Mars Rovers and uploaded these to the Picture Library.
• Judith took photographs of the pupils with their Space Mobiles and uploaded these to the Pictures of our Space Mobiles Picture Library.

Recipe

The videos below recreate the steps that Judith took to showcase pupil work in Picture Libraries in her Glow Group. It begins with a discussion on the logic of creating a new Picture Library.

Why you should create a new Picture Library (2:17)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

How to create a new Picture Library (0:55)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

How to add the new Picture Library web part to the page (1:09)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

How pupils would add images to the Picture Library (0:58)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

Impact

Judith Lennox

Judith explains how the pupils were “hooked-in” to Glow (0:29)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries
Brandon on why he likes Glow (0:29)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries

Brandon and Dana

Dana on why she likes Glow (0:23)
Showcasing Pupil Work in Picture Libraries