For many years, the staff at Hyndland Secondary in Glasgow have been teaching their S1 pupils about Intellectual Property Rights and Copyright. This year though, they decided to take a different approach to it. As one of the first schools in Glasgow to use Glow, Hyndland has included the use of Glow in their school improvement plan. Bill Sargent, Principal Teacher of Business Education and Computing, therefore decided to utilise Glow to support and enhance the S1 project work and embrace collaborative learning approaches promoted within Curriculum for Excellence.

 Context

The S1 project on Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) and Copyright is a long established one within Hyndland Secondary. However, with the implementation of both Curriculum for Excellence and Glow within the S1 curriculum this session, Bill Sargent saw an opportunity to further develop the project.

He and the other staff involved were keen to provide greater opportunity for pupils to work collaboratively, share their learning and provide feedback and evaluation on both their own and others’ work.

 Hear Bill talk about this in the following video clip:

The aims of the project: Bill Sargent (0:44)
Collaborative Learning in S1: IPR and Copyright

Bill created a Glow Group called Business and Computing Studies and added a page for each S1 class, making all S1 pupils and the relevant staff members.

After class discussions about IPR and copyright, pupils developed a greater understanding of the need to ensure that people should not simply go to Google (or any search engine), search for an image, and then add it to their presentation or report. Many were very surprised to learn this! They learned of the need to get permission to use resources found online, or to use sites whose copyright restrictions do allow for resources to be used. They learned to look at the Terms and Conditions associated with the use of online resources and of the need to credit sources within their own reports and presentations when they use images or information created by other people.

The classes were then set the task or researching information on the Loch Ness Monster.

Collaborative Learning
Each class was split into small groups, with each group being asked to research a separate aspect of the monster, with one group having particular responsibility for sourcing images. After a short period of research (around 25 mins), each group uploaded  the information they had found into the Document Library on their class’s page in the Glow Group, ensuring they credited their sources in their documents. The pupils responsible for sourcing the images uploaded the images they found into a Picture Library. They soured all the pictures from Scran, through the link on the ‘External Resources’ page on the National Site, so ensuring they were not infringing any copyright restrictions.

Uploading the documents to a shared area in the Glow Group enabled everyone to see all of the information about the Loch Ness Monster, not just the element they researched, making the learning truly collaborative and eliminating the need for every pupil to research every aspect themselves.

Having looked at all of the information uploaded, each pupil then wrote their own individual report on Nessie. Bill Sargent had provided a template document for the reports which the pupils downloaded from the Document store on the Noticeboard page in the Glow Group.  On completion of their report, they then uploaded it into a ‘Nessie Reports’ folder in the Document store on their class page. Again, they could then read one another’s.

Finally, the pupils were asked to evaluate their learning and upload a short report on this, again to a designated folder in the Document Library on their class page. They could also evaluate each other’s work.

This activity and the use of Glow, enabled the teachers to provide pupils with experiences which address a range of Curriculum for Excellence Experiences and Outcomes. For example, amongst others, they covered:

Health and Wellbeing

HWB 3-19a I am developing the skills and attributes which I will need for learning, life and work. I am gaining understanding of the relevance of my current learning to future opportunities. This is helping me to make informed choices about my life and learning.

HWB 3-24a I can analyse and discuss elements of my own and others’ work, recognising strengths and identifying areas where improvements can be made. 

Literacy

LIT 3-06a / LIT 4-06a I can independently select ideas and relevant information for different purposes, organise essential information or ideas and any supporting detail in a logical order, and use suitable vocabulary to communicate effectively with my audience.

LIT 3-14a / LIT 4-14a Using what I know about the features of different types of texts, I can find, select, sort, summarise, link and use information from different sources.

LIT 3-23a Throughout the writing process, I can review and edit my writing to ensure that it meets its purpose and communicates meaning at first reading.

Technologies

TCH 3-04a I enhance my learning by applying my ICT skills in different learning contexts across the curriculum.

You can look at the Business and Computing Studies Glow Group in the following video:

Tour of Hyndland Business and Computing Studies Glow Group (5:36)
Collaborative Learning in S1: IPR and Copyright
 

Ingredients

In order for this collaborative learning activity to take place, Bill Sargent had to do the following:

• Create a Glow Group
• Create a page for each class, by deleting/renaming existing pages and creating additional ones
• Make all S1 pupils and the appropriate staff members of the Glow Group
• Create multiple Document stores
• Create Multiple Picture Libraries

Document Stores

When a Glow Group is created, it comes with a Document Library by default. Bill needed every page in the Group to have a separate Document Library, so that each class had their own space for uploading their work.

If Bill had simply added a Document Library to each page from the Web Part Gallery, there would have simply been a duplicate of the original Document Library on every page, which was not what he wanted. He wanted a fresh, empty Document store on each page. So, he had to create new, additional Document Libraries from scratch using the Advanced Settings link available to the Administrator in the Glow Group. Find out how to do this in the ‘how to’ video below.

Picture Library

As with the Document Libraries, each page in the Glow Group required its own unique Picture Library so that each class could upload the images they sourced on Nessie. Again, had Bill just added a picture library to each page using the ‘Add web parts’ gallery, there would have simply been a duplicate of the first Picture Library on every page. Again, Bill had to create brand new Picture Library using the Advanced Settings link, available to the Administrator in the Glow Group. Find out how to do this in the ‘how to’ video below.

In the following videos we will learn how to replicate some of the elements of the Hyndland Business and Computing Studies Glow Group:

How to create a Glow Group (2:55)
Collaborative Learning in S1: IPR and Copyright
How to Add, Edit and Remove Pages in a Glow Group (3:08)
Collaborative Learning in S1: IPR and Copyright
Multiple Document Libraries in a Glow Group: How create a new Document Library (5:36)
Collaborative Learning in S1: IPR and Copyright
How to upload documents (2:58)
Collaborative Learning in S1: IPR and Copyright
How to add a Picture Library to a Glow Group (2:03)
Collaborative Learning in S1: IPR and Copyright
Multiple Picture Libraries in a Glow Group: How to create a new Picture Library (4:27)
Collaborative Learning in S1: IPR and Copyright
How to change the columns displayed in a Picture Library (4:38)
Collaborative Learning in S1: IPR and Copyright
 

Impact

By using a Glow Group for the topic on IPR and Copyright, staff have been able to provide a safe, collaborative environment for pupils to share their learning and to evaluate it.

Not only can pupils access the Group from school, they can also log on outside of school, so increasing their access to anytime, anywhere learning and enabling their parents to see the work being done in school.