Context

The Glow Wikis tool became available in January 2011, and several schools began exploring them straightaway. Wikis are collaborative online spaces, and Glow Wikis allow individuals and classes to work together on one ‘canvas’. There are hundreds of possible uses for wikis, such as class projects, inter-school work, peer assessment, or building up a bank of knowledge and resources. We will have a look at how some primary schools started out with Glow Wikis,

In this cookbook we will look at:

• How some primary schools started out with Glow Wikis
• How to create a wiki for yourself or your class

Burravoe Primary School, Shetland

Caroline Breyley is the headteacher of Burravoe Primary School, a small school on the island of Yell in Shetland. There are 11 pupils in the school, aged from 5-11. They have been using Glow Wikis collaboratively, working on different pages within the same wiki at the same time. One of their wikis is for Magnie the Whale, a stuffed whale who is travelling the world – he is currently with a school in Hampshire, and will be travelling to Dunedin in New Zealand soon. His wiki is a place for his travels to be documented, and also for the children to write about their community and their school. The wiki has text, pictures and video. The wiki is public, so anyone can read it and comment on it, but only the children at Burravoe can write to it. They give guest glow logins to teachers in the schools which Magnie visits. You can visit Magnie’s wiki and comment on it here.

The class are also using a wiki to collaborate with Longhaugh School in Dundee. Longhaugh set up the wiki in a Glow Group and made the children at Burravoe members so they could contribute to it. The wiki itself is public, so anyone can go and have a look – you can find it here. The classes at each school will be adding information about their schools and where they live, comparing town and island life. Lesley-Anne Weir, the teacher of the class (P3) at Longhaugh, said:

“Our new project we are working on is Urban and Rural, comparing areas and mapping. We also want to continue to build on the use of technology across the curriculum. This is also a good opportunity to engage with the Mairi Hedderwick Katie Morag stories. However we wanted to avoid this being a stereotypical picture of island life. In order to make this project relevant and meaningful we wanted to meet “real” people who live on a Scottish island, which is where Caroline Breyley and the children at Burravoe have stepped in. We are really impressed with the knowledge and skills her pupils have and it is certainly inspiring our pupils! Our wiki will be a place to share information about both areas, discuss similarities and differences and ask questions. Burravoe have started well and in the next two weeks we will be taking pupils out of school to photograph and take video footage of our area and city, which will be uploaded as we go.”

We asked the children at Burravoe what they had been doing with wikis and what they thought of them so far. Each of the children has been working on different pages in their wikis. Charlotte in P4 has been writing a page all about the island they live on. Mia in P3 has been writing about the local wildlife, and is putting a video of otters onto the wiki. Kerry in P2 has been writing about the pre-school group which meets in the school. She would like to find out more about the weather in Dundee from the children at Longhaugh. Lucy in P6 thinks that wikis are useful for finding out about other schools, and is looking forward to hearing about Magnie’s travels. Kay in P6 thinks that wikis would be good for project work, and there is lots of information already on the wikis about the class’s recent Romans project. She is pleased that she is able to use pictures, audio and video easily on the wikis. Brydon in P6 said that he likes that everyone could be working on the wiki at the same time. He thinks they’re really straightforward to use, and James in P7 agrees that they’ve been easy to use and he likes that he can use them anywhere, at home or at school.

The Children of Burravoe show off their Togas

Carronshore Primary School, Falkirk

Margaret Vass is a P6 teacher in Carronshore Primary school. Her class have been using Glow Blogs for several months as online diaries, and Margaret was keen to explore the possibilities of Glow Wikis with them. The class had already used Wikispaces wikis for collaborative story writing, so were familiar with the way wikis worked. Margaret thought that the wikis showed potential as an e-portfolio solution, so the class were encouraged to set up a wiki in their My Glow area. This gives them full control over their own e-portfolio, but they decided to make the wikis themselves public, which means that anyone in the world is able to view and comment on them. However, only the pupil him or herself (and any chosen individuals, such as their teacher) can edit the wiki.

The pupils set up their wikis with an introductory front page, then created pages for achievements inside and outside of school. They were encouraged to personalise the wikis with images and text, and upload pictures and media celebrating their achievements. The class are very familiar with internet safety guidelines, and are careful never to write their full names on the wikis, or post any pictures where faces are identifiable. As Margaret says, “I thought this was the safest option because they’re updating them from their own homes and so have complete control over them – and what they consider to be ‘ok’ pictures, might not be.”

Andrew set up his e-portfolio and described what it was for on the front page:

“Hi everyone! Welcome to my e-portfolio. Well, this is actually a Glow Wiki but I am using it as an e-portfolio. In case you were wondering, an e-portfolio is something online where you record your achievements throughout the years. You can use it to get a job when you grow up as well.”

He has added a Crazy Talk video introducing his e-portfolio, and has recorded his maths achievements. He is keen to upload his reading achievements too. He thinks that the wikis are easy to use, and he likes how simple it is to add videos and media files. He also likes that you can upload large files into the wikis. He is glad that he will be able to take his wiki with him when he goes to secondary school and keep using it through the rest of his school years. Click here to visit Andrew’s wiki.

Anna has uploaded details of her gymnastics achievements, including the details of her routine, and has also uploaded the audio of her class talk on her pet cat using Photostory 3, so people viewing her e-portfolio can actually hear the talk itself. She told us that she liked using the blogs alongside the wikis, as the blog was more like a diary, and the wiki was a record of what she had achieved. She said she enjoyed using the wikis as it was easy to make them look good. Click here to visit Anna’s wiki.

Lucy has also uploaded a record of her achievements inside and outside of school. She has written about her Tae-kwon-do achievements, and has uploaded a narrated slideshow video of her medals and trophies. She has also set up an area where she can update her achievements on her class topics through the year. She has enjoyed using both the blogs and wikis, and likes how you can use them both for different things. Click here to visit Lucy’s wiki.

Mrs Vass is interested in the idea of using the wikis to work with other schools, and would like to try collaborative writing using wikis again.

Ingredients

What is needed to create a Glow Wiki?

• Permission to use Glow wikis. The Accounts and Services Manager (ASM) for your school, or local authority, can switch on  this permission for you and your pupils.
• A Glow Group to host the wiki.
• Administrator rights to the Glow Group.

Recipe

In this section we look at creating and populating wikis

•Creating a Glow Wiki
Getting Started with Glow Wikis
•Editing a Glow Wiki Home Page, adding text and images.
Getting Started with Glow Wikis
•Adding pages to a Glow Wiki
Getting Started with Glow Wikis
•Adding links to a Glow Wiki
Getting Started with Glow Wikis
•Adding video to a Glow Wiki
Getting Started with Glow Wikis

Click to enlarge image

Overview

Kenny Stewart is Principal Teacher of Computing at Grove Academy in Dundee. All S1 pupils at Grove follow a common ICT course aimed at providing them with the ICT skills they will need for life-long learning. With the introduction of Glow to Dundee, Kenny saw an opportunity to consolidate the digital resources used in the ICT course into a Glow Group. In this cookbook, Kenny describes how he and his staff have structured the Glow Group to provide their pupils with anytime, anywhere access to learning intentions, course materials, homework exercises and how the group can facilitate personalisation and choice for the pupils.

Video Clips

Graphical User Interface

Kenny has introduced a graphical user interface to the group which allows pupils to navigate to a topic area by clicking on an image. Kenny was inspired to add the GUI element to his group after reading a cookbook outlining the work carried out by David Lines, Senior Officer (Curriculum) in Midlothian’s ICT Development Team. David has been a driving force behind the use of graphical user interfaces in Glow to streamline navigation. David has created a CPD tutorial aimed at showing users how to create engaging user interfaces using commonly available tools and the Text Editor in Glow. The tutorial is contained within a Glow Group and David has opened the membership of this group to all staff in Scotland. The link to the group is below (Glow login required).

Creating a Graphical Interface

Ingredients

What Kenny used to develop the Computing – S1 Course Glow Group:

1. A Glow Group
2. Multiple Documents web parts
3. Image web parts
4. Text Editor web parts (for the graphical user interface and coloured text)

Impact

From his commentary, it is clear that Kenny is very positive about the ability of Glow to support the learning and teaching of the S1 course. The group makes use of a number of Glow tools to add impact:

• The Text Editor web part allows Kenny to publish lesson learning intentions, provide advice on projects and attach support documents for homework and project work
• Web Links web part provides a quick jump point to frequently used web sites
• Document web parts –populated with worksheets, homeworks and assessment materials all providing the pupils with anytime, anywhere access to resources
• Discussions web part –  provides opportunities to explore topics more deeply

In making use of a variety of Glow tools, Kenny and his staff have developed a Glow Group that is engaging and relevant for their pupils. The group provides an easy access point for a variety of information sources, stimulus to deeper learning and opportunities for collaboration.

In the video clip below, Kenny sums up his views on the impact that Glow is having. 

Click to enlarge image

Overview

Gerry Munro is Head Teacher of Longhaugh Primary School in Dundee. As part of Longhaugh’s process of continuous improvement, Gerry set out to develop a Glow Group aimed at improving communications within the school. In this cookbook, Gerry will talk us through how the Longhaugh Staff Area Glow Group has become the first point of contact for staff when: looking for important information and documentation, sharing ideas, collaborating on planning activities, showcasing examples of practice or discussing where to go for the end of term lunch!

Video Clips

Ingredients

What Gerry used to develop the Longhaugh Staff Area Glow Group:

1. A Glow Group
2. Multiple Discussion Board web parts
3. Page Viewer web parts
4. Multiple Documents web parts

Impact

The Longhaugh Staff Area Glow Group has achieved Gerry’s aim of becoming :

A one stop centre for crucial information and staff development.

On a daily basis, staff access the group to:

• view administrative information
• share ideas
• collaborate on planning
• participate in CPD activity
• showcase learning and teaching practice from the classroom

In the video clip below, Gerry comments on how the Glow Group has become integral to the day-to-day running of the school.

Click to enlarge image

Overview

Jessie Porter Nursery School in Dundee is a pre-school centre catering for close on one hundred children aged three to five years. Jessie Porter was recently recognised by HMIE as providing a “positive, supportive and purposeful learning environment” where well planned use of ICT features to “promote links across the children’s learning”.

In this cookbook, Jo Bell, an ICT Staff Tutor (Early Years / Primary), describes how she worked with Jessie Porter to develop a Glow Group aimed at showcasing the work that is going on in the nursery, strengthen Nursery / Primary  transition links and to share how they are planning for and developing the Curriculum for Excellence in the early years.

Video Clips

Ingredients

What was used to develop the Jessie Porter Glow Group:

1. A Glow Group
2. Documents web part for storing planning and evaluation documents
3. Text editor web parts to display video and images

Impact

Particular strengths of the centre

Use of information and communications technology (ICT) to promote links across children’s learning.

Are staff and children actively involved in improving their centre community?

Priorities identified for improvement are evidently having an impact on children’s development and learning. The nursery shares their good practice with other nurseries and schools through their GLOW group.

HMIE April 2010

The Jessie Porter Nursery School Glow Group serves to showcase the work that is going on and acts as an aid to Nursery / Primary transition. Through the Glow Group membership, the planning and evaluation documents used by the nursery staff are available not only to the P1 teachers of the associated primary schools but also to the staff of early years establishments across Scotland.  Dorothy McHattie, Head Teacher of Jessie Porter, is rightly proud of the work that is going on at Jesse Porter and in the era of Curriculum for Excellence is delighted to be able to share what she and her staff are doing through Glow. Moving forward, Dorothy is keen to incorporate Glow into the children’s evaluation of their learning and to further develop parental access to the Jessie Porter Glow Group.

Follow the links below for cookbooks on how Dundee’s ICT Support Team is providing Glow support for early years practitioners:

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Wendy Lee teaches class P7B at Forthill Primary School in Dundee. In this cookbook Wendy will talk us through how she developed a class Glow Group aimed at improving home and school links.

Context

With the introduction of Glow to Forthill, Wendy was keen to investigate if the Glow tools and functionality would help improve pupil attitudes toward homework. Most of Wendy’s pupils have access to the internet at home but Wendy ensured that pupils were given access to computers during the school day to complete Glow tasks if required. To further strengthen pupil engagement with Glow, Wendy gave all her pupils contributor permissions to the class Glow Group and encouraged them to make use of the News web part. Over the course of a week, the pupils would post items of interest (new addition to the family; school football team results; visit to the theatre) into the News web part and the items would be discussed as a class activity, first thing Monday morning. Parents were informed about the class Glow Group at a parent’s night and encouraged to have a look at what their children were doing on Glow. Wendy created a Parents page, posting items of interest and encouraged them to contribute stories about themselves onto a Discussion Board.

Video Clips 

What Wendy used to develop the class Glow Group: 

1. A Glow Group
2. News web part for the pupils to publish items of interest
3. Multiple Discussion Board web parts
4. A Page Viewer web part
5. Multiple Documents web parts

Impact

Wendy has developed a Glow Group that is engaging and inclusive. The activities in the group are encouraging pupils to be more active in their learning and are clearly developing the capacities of Curriculum for Excellence. The parental participation in the class Glow Group further strengthens the link between home and school and facilitates their involvement with their children’s education.

In the video clip below, Wendy sums up her views on the impact that Glow is having on her class. 

In this cookbook, Jo Bell of Dundee City Council explains how a Glow Group provides support for practitioners using games-based learning technologies, such as the Nintendo Wii, in the classroom.

Context

Click image to enlarge

The use of games-based technologies in Dundee schools has grown rapidly over the last couple of years. The council holds a set of gaming resources, such as class sets of Nintendo DS and Braining Training software, which can be loaned out to schools for a term at a time. In order to manage this loan process, and to provide information, support and the opportunity to share good practice, a number of Glow Groups have been created.

The first of these Groups is the Gaming Glow Group, created on the Dundee City Council authority site, and open to all staff and pupils across the city. A number of sub-groups have also been created, for specific groups or projects. The Gaming Staff Zone, for example, is open only to staff and provides information about the centrally-held resources and the process for bidding for these.

Jo Bell demonstrates the Gaming Glow GroupsGaming Glow Groups in Dundee

The bidding process through which schools can borrow gaming resources has developed considerably over the last 18 months. Initially, bids were fairly brief: staff would, for example, outline the resources they wanted to borrow and how they were hoping to use them. The Gaming Staff Zone now provides information on how games-based projects support the delivery of Curriculum for Excellence and links to research on the potential of games-based learning. Guidance on submitting bids and sample documents are also displayed.  Bids submitted by practitioners now typically include reference to specific CfE outcomes, detailed planning of how a project will be organised, and the impact that it will have on learners. The level of detail in these bids reflect the commitment of the teachers involved to the projects, and has been invaluable in ensuring that the resources have been well used. As Jo comments, these bids – shared in the discussion board in the Glow Group – are also tremendously helpful to other practitioners wanting to plan similar projects themselves.

Click image to enlarge

Once schools have had their bid approved and received the gaming resources, the Gaming Glow Group comes into its own as a collaborative area where staff and pupils can share their learning. Downfield Primary School, for example, have used a discussion board to reflect on their use of Braining Training software. One pupil when asked his initial thoughts on using a Nintendo DS in class commented “when they said we had the nintendo I JUMPED IN JOY. I was really excited”! Mid-way through the project, another pupil commented “I love the DS because it is so fun and you get lots of games and now that we are half way through I know more than I used to on the games. And I am learning a lot more.” And asked about their favourite games at the end of the project, one pupil concluded “My favourite game is Low to High because I like memory games and I’m really good at it. I have the best score in the class.” It’s interesting to see from the discussion board that the staff involved felt similarly motivated and determined to improve their scores!

Two schools – Longhaugh and Charlestown primaries – used the Glow Group to share their experiences of using the Little Big Planet software on the PS3 . During the project, Jo set the pupils a number of challenges, such as taking photographs of the game characters, designing their own characters and finally designing their own levels for the game. The challenges were set, and the pupils’ work displayed, in the Glow Group. Throughout the project, pupils in the two schools used a discussion board to share their learning and then finally met face-to-face in a Glow Meet session. The staff involved in the project uploaded their plans to the Glow Group, including advice about how to organise the classroom to manage a games-based learning project. This provides a superb starting point for the next practitioners borrowing the equipment and embarking on a similar project.

Ingredients

The Gaming Glow Groups were created on the local authority site within Glow, so that all schools were able to access them. School staff generally do not have the permissions to create Glow Groups on their local authority site; if you are interested in a project, where you would like all schools in your authority to have access to a Glow Group, contact the Site Collection Administrator (SCA) for your authority who will be able to give you advice about how such a Group can be created and run. For contact information for your local authority SCA, click here.

Recipe

Once the Glow Groups had been created, Jo has used a number of Glow web parts, such as the Text Editor, to display images, text, hyperlinks and video clips. 

The ‘how-to’ clips below show how to use Text Editor in a similar way:

* adding a Text Editor web part to a page and entering textGaming Glow Groups in Dundee

* adding an image to a Text Editor web partGaming Glow Groups in Dundee

* creating a hyperlink in a Text Editor web part Gaming Glow Groups in Dundee

* displaying text, images and hyperlinks in a table in Text EditorGaming Glow Groups in Dundee

* displaying video in a Text Editor web partGaming Glow Groups in Dundee

Impact

The use of Glow to bid for resources has had a huge impact in Dundee schools. The same process is used elsewhere, to bid for early years resources, and has been similarly popular.

Jo Bell discusses the impact of GlowGaming Glow Groups in Dundee

Jo comments that the bidding process, which would previously have been done by email, has become far more effectively managed through Glow. Information on bids is shared, and the Glow Group has thus become a forum where practitioners can share their ideas and resources in a way that they wouldn’t have been able to do before.

Jo concludes “That’s great going forward into the age of Curriculum for Excellence, where everyone’s scrambling about to find new ideas, ways to motivate children and to develop cross-curricular projects. Gaming delivers all this, and so does Glow, so they marry well together.”

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Louise Henderson is an Educational Support Officer for ICT in Dundee with a remit for early years and primary. The Top Tips for Early Years Glow Group developed by Louise and her team aims to provide staff in Dundee with ideas, guidance and resources for Glow use in the early years.

In this cookbook, we will:

• Hear how Louise makes use of a Glow Group to provide stimulus and support for Glow use in early years.

Ingredients

What Louise used to develop the group: 

1. A Glow Group
2. Text Editor web parts to display various messages that combine text and graphics
3. Image and Picture Library web parts to give examples of how work can be displayed. The same parts are also used to provide explanations on how to do it.
4. Web Links web part to provide quick links to resources
5. Text Editor web part is used to show how to link to a web site from an image.
6. Page viewer web part to show how to bring favourite web sites into Glow.
7. Documents web part for storing help sheets
8. The Learnnewsdesk web part.

Recipe

In the first video clip, Louise talks us through her Glow Group.  The other video clips will take you through how to replicate some of the activities that Louise demonstrates in the group.

Impact

The Glow Group developed by Louise and her team not only provides ideas for Glow use in the early years but also the just-in-time CPD support that busy staff can tap into when needed. Other benefits include:

• Ideas for activities in Glow, resources for the activities and ‘how to’ guidance all contained and easily accessible through the Glow Group
• Central guidance and support on linking Glow resources to activities and experiences and outcomes from the Curriculum for Excellence

Follow the link below to see how Louise and her team use a Glow Group to celebrate and showcase the work being done in early years establishments across Dundee: 

Please note that this cookbook refers to Glow Meet using Marratech.  Glow Meet is now delivered over Adobe Connect which offers enhanced functionality.  To find out more about Glow Meet using Adobe Connect then click here.  The principles around the benefits of Glow Meet are the same regardless of the technology used for Glow Meet.

Context

Louise Henderson is an Educational Support Officer for ICT in Dundee with a remit for early years and primary. The Early Years Glow Group developed by Louise and her team is aimed at celebrating and showcasing the work being done in early years establishments across Dundee. By creating the Glow Group at the local authority level and opening the membership up to all staff in Dundee, the group provides a valuable insight into the work that is going on in the early years sector across the city.

Click on image to enlarge

In this cookbook, we will:

• Hear how Louise makes use of a Glow Group to provide one-stop-shop central support to early years practitioners in Dundee.

Ingredients

What Louise used to develop the group:

1. A Glow Group
2. Text Editor web parts to display various messages that combine text and graphics
3. Text Editor and XML web parts to display video
4. News web part to post messages
5. Web links web part to provide quick links to resources
6. A Picture Library web part to showcase work
7. Documents web part for storing relevant documents
8. Page viewer web part to highlight other useful web sites
9. A Discussions web part to enable staff to bid for ICT resources

Recipe

In the first two video clips, Louise talks us through her Glow Group. As Louise’s group showcases video examples of the work carried out by some of the early years establishments, video three outlines two methods of displaying video in Glow web parts.

Impact

The Glow Group developed by Louise and her team not only showcases the excellent work that is going on across the early years sector in Dundee but also encourages early years staff to develop their own use of Glow. Other benefits include:

• Through Glow Meet, the children and staff are gaining access to writers and storytellers
• The children and staff have a city wide audience for what they are doing
• The showcasing of work is encouraging staff to try new technologies for themselves
• The group is providing the ‘one-stop-shop’ space where staff can find out what is going on across the city and nationally and have easy access to relevant documents and resources
• Staff across establishments now have a place to share ideas and collaborate on projects
• The group provides Louise with an ideal method of allocating new hardware and software via a ‘bidding’ process in a Glow Discussion. The early years staff benefit from the transparency of the process
• The group acts as a source of CPD for staff by highlighting examples of practice and how to use particular resources in different activities

Overview

Joyce O’Fee, Depute Head Teacher in Clepington Primary Dundee had been ‘Glowing’ for about 9 months when she saw the potential to use Glow to further develop her Nursery – Primary Transition Project.

This cookbook will look at how Joyce added practitioners from other establishments into her Glow Group.  It will also look at how she used the Image web part to make her project more visual for the younger learner.  We will also have a tour of the Transition Glow Group looking at the type of content Joyce made available to her associated Nursery Establishments through the use of Glow.

Context
When Joyce was first introduced to Glow she immediately saw the potential to develop good practice. Her already successful Transition Project would fit perfectly into Glow and indeed enhance communication between the school and the 12 Nursery Establishments. Joyce with the support of Lorraine Munro from the Dundee Central Team spoke to each Nursery and asked for their thoughts on joining her Glow Group for the project. Their response was very positive as they thought that Glow would enhance the programme and increase communication. Given the green light by the nurseries, Lorraine made sure that all EYP’s and the teachers involved had their Glow Usernames and Passwords.

Joyce hoped that the Transition Group would encourage Listening and Talking not just amongst the staff in the discussion forum but amongst the pupils as they looked at the different images of school life posted on Glow. Joyce identified the following Outcomes from the Early CfE guidelines as the basis of her Glow Group.

As I listen and talk in different situations, I am learning to take turns and am developing my awareness of when to talk and when to listen.

*Responsibility of all

LIT 0-02a/ENG 0-03a

I listen or watch for useful or interesting information and I use this to make choices or learn new things.

*Responsibility of all

LIT 0-04a

Joyce had always used ‘Simon the bear’ as her stimulus for Transition.  Simon and his Logbook would be sent off to each Nursery and whilst there, the children would play with him and record the events of his visit.  This allowed the children to feel a little more comfortable when visiting the school for the first time as Simon would be there waiting for them.  Keen to continue using Simon, Joyce straight away with the help of Crazy Talk put a flash file of Simon talking into her Glow Group.  The children loved to see Simon each time they logged in and he would often cause a great deal of discussion, especially when pictures of them playing with Simon was posted on a variety of pages within the Glow Group.  Instead of just using the Logbook to record events, Joyce now used the Image web part to display images of Simon and the children.

This gave the children the opportunity to see each other before they met.  The image web part was also used to display helpful information such as School Uniform and People who work in our school.  More examples can be seen in the ‘Tour of the Transition Project’ video clip.

Ingredients

(What did Joyce do to get started?)

• Created a Glow Group in Clepington Primary
• Set the membership and permissions of the EYP and Teachers and made the Glow Group available for them to access
• Became familiar with the Image web part

Joyce also made herself familiar with an Image Resizing tool as she wanted her images to fit perfectly into the Image web part.  For the purposes of this cookbook www.webresizer.com will be used.

Recipe
The videos below show

1. A tour of the Transition Group
2. How to add a member from another establishment and share the group
3. Resizing and adding an image to Glow
4. How to add another image web part into Glow
5. How to rename an image web part to make it more personal

*A Tour of the Transition Group
Nursery – Primary Transition Project

*How to add members from another establishment and share the Glow group
Nursery – Primary Transition Project

*How to add an image web part
Nursery – Primary Transition Project

*Resizing an Image and Adding it to Glow
Nursery – Primary Transition Project

*How to rename an image web part
Nursery – Primary Transition Project

*Joyce O’Fee – Introduction
Nursery – Primary Transition Project

*Joyce O’Fee – Organisation and Impact
Nursery – Primary Transition Project

Product

(Impact of using Glow in the Transition Project)

Using Glow had a definite impact on the level of communication between the school and the associated nurseries. There has been a marked increase in the communication between the nurseries and the school. This good communication was enhanced through the use of discussion boards and will continue to be enhanced through GlowMeet.
Children were able to access Glow Group at anytime and become familiar with staff pictures, uniform and school life.
Joyce will now be able to add to this group each year as the basic template is in place, cutting down on level of work each year.

Overview

Peter Gilmartin is Learner Resources Manager at Dundee College with responsibility for libraries, e-learning/virtual learning environment and media service provision.

In this cookbook Peter describes how Dundee College have been using Glow Meet to enhance school/college links, ease the transition from school to college and complement existing college education programmes. We will also see how to set up and record a Glow Meet.

Context

The current Glow contract does not extend to further and higher education establishments other than the teacher education institutes. In preparation for the next iteration of the Glow contract, a number of education stakeholders not currently covered by the existing contract, were invited to pilot Glow. Dundee College agreed to participate in the pilot exercise with a view to explore how colleges could contribute to and benefit from Glow.

The aims of the pilot include:

• To see how colleges could use Glow, both for their own students and for school link students
• To examine how Glow could enhance school/college links
• To look at how Glow might ease school/college transition for pupils going on to college

In this cookbook, we will:

• Hear how Dundee College is using Glow Meet to enhance school/college links and support existing college courses
• See how to set up a Glow Meet
• See how to record a Glow Meet session

Recipe

Impact

Peter is very positive about the extra dimension that Glow Meet has brought to courses run by Dundee College:

• School pupils are able to interact with peers at college seeing first hand the vocational courses they can embark on. This gives the pupils a relevant, real world taste of the college experience, enriching and adding relevance to skills-for-work school programmes.
• Pupils are more confident when they come into the college as a result of having interacted in the Glow Meet sessions prior to visiting the college.
• Students of the Educational Support Assistants course are benefiting from Glow Meet sessions with the schools where they might end up on placement. This offers them the opportunity to view the kind of work they will have to do from a variety of different perspectives and contexts.  They are able to ask questions of experienced ESA’s and, with these Glow Meet sessions being recorded and stored in a Glow Group, revisit the recordings to review and research further prior to their placements.

For more information on how Dundee College are using Glow, follow the link below:

To download a copy of the Glow Meet Guide, click here: Glow Meet Guide