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

Recently, a large amount of Spanish content was added to Glow Learn. This content comes in the form of Sonica Spanish activities and is relevant for both Primary and Secondary pupils. There are approximately 150 activities,  particularly suitable to second and third levels.  

Context
The Spanish activities are located in two places in Glow Learn – in the Resources Tab and in the Courses Tab. Where you access the activities from will have an impact on how you can use them and whether or not pupils will have access.

Resources Tab:

National Resources

In the Resources tab, the Spanish resources sit within the National Folder. Click the plus sign to open this folder and you will see three sub folders. The third is called Sonica Spanish by RM Education.

Spanish Topics – Click to enlarge

Within the Sonica Spanish folder, there are sub folders for a range of  topics commonly covered within the Modern Languages curriculum at second and third levels. The topics are listed alphabetically. Inside each of those folders are folders are the activities. 

Resource information – click to enlarge

Each activity has accompanying teacher notes is tagged with the appropriate Curriculum for Excellence levels. This was kindly done by an experienced Modern Languages teacher.

You can learn how to find the tagging information in the ‘how to’  videos later.

Courses Tab:

The activities have also been made into courses.

Using the Sonica Spanish activities

The Spanish activities can be accessed and used in a range of ways.

It is important to know that the computer being used to access the resources has to have Adobe Shockwave Player installed in order for the activities to launch and run.
This can be downloaded free from http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/ 

Whole Class Teaching

If you have access to a data projector and interactive whiteboard, you can use the Spanish activities as a whole class teaching resource. By launching one of the activities from within the Resources tab, the whole class can engage with it.  These activities can add enjoyment and challenge to lessons and can help to engage children, as well as offering opportunity for discussion and for teaching points to be made and explored.

Pupil Access

Pupils have no access to the Resources tab in Glow Learn.

Pupils can therefore only access Spanish resources which have been added to a course which the pupils are then enrolled onto. Here are a couple of suggested ways of doing this.

Recipe

Watch the videos below to learn how to access the Sonica Spanish activities and how to enable pupils to access them.

Accessing the Sonica Spanish activities from the Resources Tab (3:54)
Spanish Resources in Glow Learn
 Copying the Sonica Spanish Course for class use (4:33)
Spanish Resources in Glow Learn
 How to create a Glow Learn course (5:36)
Spanish Resources in Glow Learn
 Adding Sonica Spanish activities to your Glow Learn Course (5:08)
 Spanish Resources in Glow Learn
Adding your own resources to a Glow Learn course (9:34)
Spanish Resources in Glow Learn
 Enrolling pupils onto a Glow Learn Course (4:38)
Spanish Resources in Glow Learn
 Pupil View of a Glow Learn course (2:19)
Spanish Resources in Glow Learn
 

Impact 

There are many benefits to including the Sonica Spanish activities as part of the range of learning resources made available to pupils as part of their learning.

Adding a range of different resource types can increase pupil motivation and promote learning. Using the Spanish activities can help achieve this, as pupils often see them as a more fun way of learning. 

By giving pupils access to the activities, they have a resource that they can use as often as they wish, helping with initial understanding, consolidation and mastery of a topic.

Maths Alive Games – click to enlarge

Recently, a large amount of Maths content was added to Glow Learn. This content comes in the form of Maths Alive Games and Maths Alive Videos and is suitable for both Primary and Secondary pupils, containing nearly 200 activities from first to fourth levels. In Part 1 of this cookbook, we will look at how the resources can be accessed and used. In Part 2, we’ll learn how one school has been using the Games and Videos with pupils. 

Context
The Maths Games and Videos are located in two places in Glow Learn – in the Resources Tab and in the Courses Tab. Where you access the games and videos from will have an impact on how you can use them and whether or not pupils will have access.

Resources Tab:

click to enlarge

In the Resources tab, the Maths Alive resources sit within the National Folder. Click the plus sign to open this folder and you will see three sub folders. The first two are called Maths Alive Games by RM Education and Maths Alive Videos by RM Education. (The third is a collection of Spanish resources, called Sonica Spanish.)

click to view full image

Within each of the Maths Alive folders, there are sub folders for the Curriculum for Excellence Levels. Inside each of those folders are folders for the Maths and Numeracy lines of development, such as Angle. Symmetry and Transformation, Data and Analysis, etc.

click to enlarge

Inside each of these folders are the activities.

click to enlarge

Each activity has teacher notes attached and is tagged with both the Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes it supports and with key words. This means that if you search for, say, Second Level, or Fractions, you will find all of the resources tagged with those terms.

You can learn more about this in the ‘how to’  videos later.

Courses Tab:

The activities have also been made into courses.

click to enlarge

Again, these sit within the National folder, this time on the Courses tab. There is a sub folder within called Numeracy and Mathematics. This folder contains two courses – Maths Alive Games by RM Education and Maths Alive Videos by RM Education.

click to enlarge

As described above, within each course, the games and videos are organised by curricular level and then by the Maths and Numeracy lines of development and are fully tagged.

Using the Maths Alive Games and Videos

The games and videos can be accessed and used in a range of ways.

It is important to know that the computer being used to access the resources has to have particular software installed in order for the games or videos to launch and run.

For the games, Adobe Shockwave Player is required. This can be downloaded free from http://get.adobe.com/shockwave/

The videos require Quicktime. This can be downloaded free from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/

Whole Class Teaching

If you have access to a data projector and interactive whiteboard, you can use the Maths Alive games and videos as a whole class teaching resource. By launching one of the games from within the Resources tab, the whole class can engage with the game or video. en. The video openers offer great opportunity for stimulating class discussion and for setting the context for the learning about to be embarked upon. The games can add enjoyment and challenge to lessons and can help to engage children.

Pupil Access

Pupils have no access to the Resources tab in Glow Learn.

Pupils can therefore only access Maths Alive games and videos which have been added to a course which the pupils are then enrolled onto. Here are a couple of suggested ways of doing this.

click to see full image

One way, would be for the teacher to create a new course in Glow Learn, browse the resources for the Maths Alive Games and Videos, then add in the ones they would like to include. Pupils can then be enrolled on this course. In addition to the Maths Alive resources, the course could additionally include objectives, such as specific Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes, or other teaching resources that the teacher would like the pupils to have access to, such as lesson notes, homework sheets, or Microsoft Powerpoint files. Find out how to do this in the ‘how to’ videos in the ‘Recipe’ section below.

A second way, would be for the teacher to take a copy of, say, the Maths Alive Games by RM Education course from the National folder on the courses tab, then paste it into their My Courses folder (or the school folder). The course can be renamed as desired. Pupils can then be enrolled onto this course, giving the access to the entire range of games (or videos). In addition, individual games or videos can be assigned to pupils and their progress monitored and tracked. Again, find out more about this in the ‘how to’ videos below. 

Recipe

Watch the videos below to learn how to access the Maths Alive Games and Maths Alive Videos and how to enable pupils to access them.

Accessing the Maths Alive Games/Videos from the Resources Tab (7:30)
Maths Resources in Glow Learn – Part 1
 Copying the Maths Alive Maths Courses for class use (9:19)
Maths Resources in Glow Learn – Part 1
 How to create a Glow Learn course (5:18)
Maths Resources in Glow Learn – Part 1
 Adding Maths Alive Games/Videos to your Glow Learn Course (10:58)
Maths Resources in Glow Learn – Part 1
 Enrolling pupils onto your Course (4:38)
Maths Resources in Glow Learn – Part 1
 Pupil View of a Glow Learn course (2:19)
Maths Resources in Glow Learn – Part 1
 

 Impact

 There are many benefits to including the Maths Alive Games and Videos as part of the range of learning resources made available to pupils as part of their learning.

Adding a range of different resource types can increase pupil motivation and promote learning. Using the Games can help achieve this, as pupils often see them as a more fun way of learning. 

The videos offer an interesting way of introducing a new topic, stimulating discussion or providing a plenary activity. They can also help add real-life contexts to topics which can be seen as abstract.

By giving pupils access to the videos and games, they have a resource that they can use as often as they wish, helping with initial understanding, consolidation and mastery of a topic.

Coming soon! – Watch out for Part 2 of this cookbook which will look at how one school has been making use of the Maths Alive resources and using the Glow Learn markbook to monitor pupil progress.

Kelvingrove

Kelvingrove Glow Group

The English department at Carluke High School in South Lanarkshire has used Glow extensively over the last couple of years, with topics ranging from novel studies in S2 through to creative writing assignments at Higher. 

Last autumn the English department worked in collaboration with other departments on a ‘Scottish Heritage’ project. In this cookbook English teacher Barry Wright describes how Glow was used to support this interdisciplinary project.

Context

The Scottish Heritage Project encompassed all S1 pupils and staff from the English, History and Computing departments. The project was aimed at:

• developing pupils’ understanding and appreciation of their local heritage;
• encouraging pupils to make connections between different areas of learning;
• building pupils’ skills in working independently;
• developing pupils’ skills in working in partnership and in teams.

The project explored a number of different themes of Scottish heritage, including music and arts, local industry and famous buildings.

Barry created a ’Scottish Heritage’ Glow Group and then sub-Groups for each of the different themes. All S1 pupils and the staff involved in the project were given membership of each of the Groups. Each Group contained links to web sites for background reading and for research tasks, discussion boards for pupils’ questions and feedback, and assignments created in Glow Learn .

Barry Wright provides a tour of the S1 Scottish Heritage projectUsing Glow and Glow Learn to support an interdisciplinary project

Glow Learn quiz

Barry found many of the features of Glow Learn particularly useful to support the project. These included:

• sharing objectives with pupils. Objectives for individual activities, lessons or units of work can be included in Glow Learn materials. Objectives may be taken directly from curricular frameworks, such as Curriculum for Excellence or National Qualifications. Alternatively, objectives can be agreed by staff and/or pupils and expressed in terms of learning intentions or success criteria. Regular discussion of lesson objectives helped to maintain pupils’ focus on the standards and progress expected.
• Glow Learn tests.  The ’test’ builder in Glow Learn allows teachers to create quizzes or assessments, using a range of question types, such as true/false, multiple choice and short answer. Barry used the test facilities, for example, to ask pupils to practise skim reading skills.
• automatic marking of Glow Learn tests. Most question types in Glow Learn tests are marked automatically when pupils submit their work, saving on marking and allowing rapid identification of common areas of difficulty amongst a group of pupils.
• linking Glow Learn to a Glow Group.  Adding the ‘Learning Space’ web part to a Glow Group links it to Glow Learn. This allows the assigning and tracking features of Glow Learn to be seamlessly integrated with the collaborative tools of Glow Learn.

Ingredients

Barry created a ‘parent’ Glow Group for the project and a sub-Group for each of the area of study. Each Glow Group was also linked to Glow Learn, by the addition of the ‘Glow Learn – Learning Space’ web part.  The ‘how-to’ clips below show how to replicate these ideas for yourself.

Recipe

* how to create a test in Glow LearnUsing Glow and Glow Learn to support an interdisciplinary project

* how to enrol pupils on a Glow Learn courseUsing Glow and Glow Learn to support an interdisciplinary project

* how to use viewing and assessment options in Glow LearnUsing Glow and Glow Learn to support an interdisciplinary project

* a pupil’s view of a Glow Learn testUsing Glow and Glow Learn to support an interdisciplinary project

* how to review a Glow Learn testUsing Glow and Glow Learn to support an interdisciplinary project

* how to link a Glow Group to Glow LearnUsing Glow and Glow Learn to support an interdisciplinary project

* how to use a Learning Space folder in Glow LearnUsing Glow and Glow Learn to support an interdisciplinary project

Impact

For many of the first year pupils, the project provided their first experience of using Glow. They were very enthusiastic about the opportunities it presented, such as continuing their work from home and being able to give and gain feedback both from their peers and from staff. Their comments following the project included:  

“I log onto Glow to research my topics. We research a lot of pages online our teacher loads up so we’ve been taught how to scan & skim the webpage gathering any key words & giving us more time to research other safe web pages.  I like how you log onto Glow & everything’s there. Our Glow Group tells you what to do. I’ve been using the discussion board to ask questions from home.”

“The thing I like best is doing my homework on Glow. Because I’m online it’s so much quicker. I take things in a lot quicker and don’t feel like I’m missing out.”

“Glow helps me learn quicker which helps me feel good about myself and makes me feel smart. I’ve been learning lots about the Kelvingrove Art Gallery while learning how to use Glow at the same time, so it’s been 2 for the price of 1”.

Click to enlarge image

Emily Greenhorn teaches Geography at Jedburgh Grammar in the Scottish Borders. Following an introduction to Glow Learn (the virtual learning environment available to Glow users), Emily was keen to capitalise on the functionality provided to produce a Glow Learn course to support the learning and teaching of her Higher Geography class outwith the classroom. With Glow Learn, Emily was able to create a virtual course structure that matches her classroom course. She populated lesson and topic folders with digital resources (Worksheets, presentations audio and video clips) so that her pupils could access them anytime/anywhere.

Video Clips

Ingredients 

To enable pupil access to the Geography resources through Glow Learn, Emily needed to:

1. Create a Glow Learn course
2. Add resources to the course
3. Enrol her pupils on the course

If you would like to replicate what Emily did, follow the link below for cookbook video support on using Glow Learn:

Glow Learn cookbook videos

For downloadable versions of Glow Learn helpsheets and training guide, follow the link below (Glow login required):

Glow Learn guide and helpsheets 

Impact

Glow Learn enables Emily to organise her resources, replicating the structure of the Higher Geography course as it progresses. Pupils benefit from being able to access specific resources that support their learning at a particular time during the course and, because of the structure, are able to dip back into particular units of work as required. This has given them a form of support that they would not have otherwise had.

The Modern Languages Department in James Young High School in Livingston, West Lothian, is always looking for ways to provide pupils with innovative and interesting resources and activities that will help them develop their language skills.

Sophie Martin and Amanda Lyons have been using Glow Learn this year as a means of sharing resources with pupils.

Context

This year, Sophie and Amanda have created Glow Learn courses to share resources with their Advanced Higher German and Higher French classes respectively. As well as using Glow Learn, they also created a Glow Group for each class. You can find out more about the Glow Groups in the following cookbooks:

Encouraging independent learning in Advanced Higher German

Higher French: Peer support and enhanced communication

Glow Learn

Sophie and Amanda have always been keen to support pupils with their studies outside of the classroom. One of the areas of the Modern languages courses that they have previously found most difficult to support pupils with though, is listening practice.

Often, the audio files that they would wish to use for this are large and so have been difficult to share with pupils. Their only means of doing this was to put the files individually onto pupils’ USB memory sticks, which was time consuming. The alternative of emailing the files to all pupils was also difficult, given the file sizes.

This session, they decided to upload the audio files into Glow Learn.

Sophie created a course for Advanced Higher German and uploaded audio files to support listening practice along with Microsoft Word and Powerpoint files to support reading practice. She was also able to upload Smartboard files that she had saved during her lessons to give pupils continued access to teaching materials. Amanda did the same for Higher French.

They then enrolled the appropriate pupils onto the courses, so enabling them to access the resources. The only limitation in pupils being able to hear the files was that they needed to have a media player on their own computer that would play the files. This, however, was not an issue for any of the pupils.

There is much more functionality available within Glow Learn, but as they were just starting out, both Sophie and Amanda wanted to keep it simple.

Pupil access to the Course and Resources
The pupils access the resources within the courses by clicking on the Glow Learn link in the Lefthand Navigation bar. They then click on See My Courses. This shows them all courses they have been enrolled on. Pupils then click on the name of the course they want to view. This gives them access to all resources within the course (unless any resources have been hidden by the teacher, or the teacher has limited the dates that resources are visible. You can learn more about this in the Glow Learn Training Guide (Glow login required), or in other cookbooks.)

Ingredients

To share the files through Glow Learn, Sophie and Amanda had to:

- Create a course in Glow Learn
- Add resources to the course
- Enrol the appropriate pupils onto the course

The following videos will explain how to create a Glow Learn course, add resources to it, and enrol pupils onto it to give them access to the resources. Further information about other aspects of Glow Learn can be found in the Glow Learn Training Guide, or you may wish to explore other cookbooks relating to Glow Learn. These may contain additional videos on other elements, such as the Monitor and Mark facility.

How to create a course in Glow Learn
Écoutez! Using Glow Learn to support listening practice in Modern Languages
How to add resources to a course in Glow Learn
Écoutez! Using Glow Learn to support listening practice in Modern Languages
How to enrol pupils onto a Glow Learn course (5:39)
Écoutez! Using Glow Learn to support listening practice in Modern Languages

Impact

Glow Learn has given Sophie and Amanda a vehicle for easily sharing large files with pupils to support their listening practice. This has given them a form of support that they would not have otherwise had.

Combining this with their ability to use the Discussion Boards in their Glow Groups to ask questions of their teacher and their peers, the pupils now have a means of collaboration and communication and a way of accessing resources that has enhanced their studies.

Some of the pupils from Amanda’s Higher French class talk about the impact that having access to audio files through using Glow Learn has had. 

Pupils: Benefits of having access to the listening files (1:02)
Écoutez! Using Glow Learn to support listening practice in Modern Languages

Click to enlarge image

Gemma Pirie and Martin Coutts are staff tutors working for Aberdeenshire authority. Gemma and Martin were tasked with developing and implementing a training model to roll out Glow Learn to secondary schools across the authority.

Context

Seconded to Aberdeenshire authority as staff tutors, Gemma Pirie and Martin Coutts were tasked with developing and implementing a model for delivering Glow Learn training to the seventeen secondary schools in Aberdeenshire. Using the national Glow Learn training programme as a template, Gemma and Martin set about applying the tweaks they felt necessary to fit the local context. A training programme was agreed with each of the high schools where ten staff, providing a spread across all of the secondary departments, would be released for one and a half days of training. The agreed programme consisted of one full day of training followed by a half day, two weeks later.

In this cookbook, Martin takes us through the training model, how it was delivered and the response to date.

For further video support on using Glow Learn, follow the link below:

Glow Learn cookbook videos

For downloadable versions of Glow Learn helpsheets and training guide, follow the link below (Glow login required):

Glow Learn guide and helpsheets

Impact

It is clear that Gemma and Martin’s efforts have paid off and that secondary staff in Aberdeenshire enjoyed a valuable, worthwhile CPD experience in Glow Learn. The introduction of Glow is helping to develop a new era of cooperation and sharing in Scottish Education and through this cookbook, local authorities, schools and teachers across Scotland can benefit from the work done by Gemma and Martin in Aberdeenshire.

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This cookbook is a follow up to an earlier cookbook where Bruce McMaster, a teacher of Biology at Broughton High School in Edinburgh, took us through how he uses Glow to support the learning and teaching of Advanced Higher Biology. You will find a link to the earlier cookbook below.

In this cookbook, Bruce shows us how he uses Glow Learn to further support the learning and teaching of Advanced Higher Biology (Glow Learn is the virtual learning environment available to Glow users).

Context

With the introduction of Glow to Broughton, Bruce was keen to investigate how best to use the tools and functionality to further enrich the learning experiences of his Advanced Higher pupils.  He quickly developed a Glow Group that provides an easy access point to a variety of information sources, stimulus to deeper learning, opportunities for collaboration, peer evaluation and assessment.  Following the successful introduction of Glow to his class, Bruce has gone on to incorporate the use of Glow Learn into his teaching. In this cookbook, Bruce talks us through how he integrates the use of Glow Learn to further support the learning and teaching of Advanced Higher Biology.

What Bruce uses to integrate the use of Glow Learn into his Glow Group:

1. A Glow Group
2. Glow Learn
3. Glow Learn Learning Space web part

Video Clips

In the first video below, Bruce demonstrates how he uses Glow Learn and talks about the positive impact it is having on his pupils. In this video we see Bruce connecting to Glow Learn from a Glow Group. A Glow Group that links to Glow Learn is called a Learning Space. The second video, ‘What is a Learning Space?’, describes how you can create a Glow Group that connects to Glow Learn and the potential benefits of doing so. For support on using Glow Learn, see the links at the end of this cookbook.

Impact

Glow Learn enables Bruce to organise his resources, replicating the structure of the Advanced Higher Biology course as it progresses. Pupils benefit from being able to access specific resources that support their learning at a particular time during the course and, because of the structure, are able to dip back into particular units of work as required. By combining the resource structure of Glow Learn with the tools and information sources of the Glow Group, Bruce has developed an environment which he feels has positively impacted on the attainment levels of his pupils.

Follow the link below for the earlier cookbook outlining how Bruce uses Glow to support his Advanced Higher biology class: 

For video support on using Glow Learn, follow the link below:

Glow Learn cookbook videos

For downloadable versions of Glow Learn helpsheets and training guide, follow the link below (Glow login required):

Glow Learn guide and helpsheets

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Karen Maitland is a teacher of Biology at Queensferry High School in Edinburgh. Karen is an advocate of the use of technology aimed at enhancing the learning and teaching process.

In this cookbook Karen will talk us through how she uses Glow to support the learning and teaching of Standard Grade Biology.

Context

Through the appropriate use of technology in class, Karen has aimed to enhance the experience of her pupils during their time in the Biology Department. Through various websites and podcasts, Karen looks to provide her pupils with the opportunity to access advice, information and resources out with the barriers of the traditional school day.

With the introduction of Glow to Queensferry HS, Karen was keen to investigate how best to use the tools and functionality to further enrich the learning experiences of her pupils. In this cookbook, we will hear Karen outline how she has created a Glow Group to act as a one-stop-shop revision source for her Standard Grade Biology class.

Ingredients

What Karen has used to set up the group: 

1. A Learning Space Glow Group
2. News web part to post learning intentions
3. XML web parts to display a Voki
4. Web links web part
5. Text Editor web parts to play mp3 audio clips
6. Discussion web part
7. Page Viewer web parts to give students access to relevant web sites from within the Glow Group

Recipe

In the first video below, Karen talks us through the revision Glow Group. The other video clips will take you through how to replicate some of the activities that Karen demonstrates in the group:

For video support on using Glow Learn, follow the link below:

Glow Learn cookbook videos

For downloadable versions of Glow Learn helpsheets and training guide, follow the link below (Glow login required):

Glow Learn guide and helpsheets

Impact

Karen is very positive about how the tools and functionality of Glow can support her teaching. Karen makes use of a number of Glow tools to add impact to the revision group:

• The News web part allows Karen to direct the pupils to new material published in the group or to give instructions on upcoming work
• Text Editor web parts which are used to embed mp3 audio files that have been downloaded from the BBC Bitesize web site. The audio clips provide the pupils with further reinforcement and opportunities to study the material at a greater depth
• Web Links web part provides a quick jump point to other revision web sites
• Page Viewer web parts which give the pupils full access to external web sites for revision without having to leave the Glow Group
• The Learning Space web part which provides a route into Glow Learn where Karen has organised her resources in a structure to match the teaching progression of the course
• Going forward, Karen is keen to make use of the Monitoring and Tracking capability within Glow Learn to issue homeworks and assessments, have Glow Learn mark these automatically and quickly establish where her pupils are having difficulties with their learning

In making use of a variety of Glow tools, Karen has developed a Glow Group that is engaging and relevant for her pupils. The group provides an easy access point for a variety of information sources and stimulus to deeper learning. 

Robert Anderson is a Technology teacher at Penicuik High School in Midlothian. Many of the learning and teaching materials that Robert uses with his classes are digital resources, such as Powerpoint slides and pdf versions of reference guides. Currently these materials are stored on the school network, but Robert is uploading many of them to Glow Learn. The advantages that he sees are that pupils then have access to the resources beyond the school day, encouraging pupils to learn at a time and pace that suits them. Additionally, Glow Learn allows Robert to set assignments that pupils complete and return online, to set assessments which are marked automatically, and to combine the tracking benefits of Glow Learn with collaborative Glow tools such as discussion boards.

In the video clip below, Robert shows how he organises resources in Glow Learn. He has chosen to upload his resources to the school shared area in Glow Learn, which means that the resources can be seen and used by any member of staff across his school. Using the school shared area from the outset (rather than uploading to the ‘My Resources’ area) offers many benefits: encouraging inter-disciplinary working, the sharing of good practice, and reducing the need to ’recreate the wheel’. Robert explains how, in order to keep resources organised systematically, the school shared area is structured according to department, subject and level.

* Robert Anderson gives a tour of his Glow Learn resources and coursesStoring, tagging and sharing resources in Glow Learn

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Robert also emphasises the benefits of linking (’tagging’) resources to specific curricular objectives. Tagging gives an indication of the content of the material and the level it is intended for and is particularly valuable if resources are being shared within a school or authority or nationally. Other staff looking for content to support their teaching can then use Glow Learn’s search facility to find resources, not only by entering a keyword (as in Google), but by selecting a specific curricular objective. As the store of tagged resources in shared areas in Glow Learn develops, this will become a very powerful method of searching for content.

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Note that since Robert’s video and the how-to clips below were recorded, Curriculum for Excellence has been added to the Glow Learn list of frameworks. It’s now possible to tag resources to  CfE outcomes and therefore possible to search through all the shared areas in Glow Learn for content relevant to specific outcomes. Click the image to the left to see an example of the display of CfE outcomes in Glow Learn.

Recipe

If you’re interested in starting to use Glow Learn, the clips below will help you to get started. Further information is also available through ‘Learning about Glow’ area of the GlowScotland website.

 * uploading a resource to Glow LearnStoring, tagging and sharing resources in Glow Learn

* creating a Glow Learn courseStoring, tagging and sharing resources in Glow Learn

* enrolling pupils on a Glow Learn course
Storing, tagging and sharing resources in Glow Learn

* setting viewing and assessment optionsStoring, tagging and sharing resources in Glow Learn