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

Overview

Richard Burgess is Principal Teacher of ICT Development at Broughton High School in Edinburgh. He is currently seconded as a Glow Development Officer to the City of Edinburgh Council. Due to timetable commitments and lack of specialist cover support, Richard is required to teach an Intermediate 1 Computing Studies class. For three of the five hours of class commitment, Richard is physically present with the class at Broughton. For the other two hours, when possible, Richard teaches and monitors the class remotely via Glow.

In this cookbook Richard will talk us through how he uses Glow to provide virtual support to his pupils.

Context

Richard’s Intermediate 1 Computing Studies class comprises of 17 S5 pupils. The pupils attend the Computing Department for one period, 60 mins, each day, Monday to Friday. Pupils have individual access to computers.

When Richard is not physically in the class (two lessons per week), lessons are conducted via Glow, secondment duties permitting. Richard sets this up by publishing the learning outcomes for the day’s lesson through the News web part. A Voki – a talking character/avatar which allows you to record spoken messages – is used to supplement the text information contained in the News web part.  Richard makes use of a Glow Chat room to work with the pupils in real time.

More information on Vokis and how to incorporate them into your Glow groups can be found at the end of this cookbook.

In this cookbook, we will:

• Hear Richard explain how he uses Glow to remotely support his Intermediate 1 Computing Studies class.

Ingredients

What Richard uses to support the remote teaching of the class:

1. A Glow Group
2. An XML web part to display the Voki
3. Discussion web part
4. News web part
5. Documents web part
6. Web links web part
7. A chat room
8. Glow Learn

Recipe

In the videos below, Richard talks us through how he uses Glow to support remote teaching:

Impact

This cookbook illustrates how Glow is enabling a situation that otherwise might not have come about: Richard remotely fulfilling a classroom commitment while carrying out a secondment as a Glow Development Officer.

Richard is very clear in his commentary that Glow is having a positive impact on his pupils. Apart from enabling his remote support for the class two mornings a week, Richard also points to benefits such as:

• Pupil voice – pupils who are normally quiet in class becoming confident and effective contributors in Glow Chat rooms
• Peer Support – pupils actively supporting one another during the Glow Chat sessions
• Archived support materials – as the term progresses, Richard is populating the document store with worksheets, assessment material and transcripts from the chat sessions all providing the pupils with anytime, anywhere access to resources
• Using Glow Learn to build a bank of re-usable assessment resources – helping to minimise teacher workload for coming sessions. 

Lesley Johnston, Headteacher of Broughton High School, regularly sits in with the class when Richard is conducting a virtual Glow lesson. Lesley affirms that the pupils are fully engaged in the remote lessons, probably linked to the fact that they enjoy learning in this way.

Well planned use of Glow will help pupils achieve many of the Curriculum for Excellence learning experiences and outcomes. The Glow activities described in this cookbook can be linked specifically to:

Technologies: ICT to enhance learning: TCH 0-04a, TCH 1-04a and TCH 2-04a

Technologies: Computing Science: TCH 1-08a and TCH 2-08a

For more information on Vokis please click here.

Follow the link below to see how Richard uses Glow web parts to emphasise lesson learning intentions:

Overview
All Local Authorities are required to have in place, measures to ensure continuity of learning for pupils. They are required to provide learning and teaching opportunities should a pupil or pupils be unable to attend school. This may be required for an individual pupil who is absent due to long-term illness, or for all pupils in the event of a school closure due to adverse weather, failure of the school heating system, or some other reason.
West Lothian has been looking at Glow as one way of addressing this.

Context
West Lothian has been keen to explore a range of ways in which Glow can be used to support pupils. Whilst this has been initiated by the need for continuity planning in the event of non-school attendance, there is also a desire to support pupils more generally.
Laura Compton, the Glow Key Contact for West Lothian, met with a small group of classroom practitioners and a member of the National Glow Team, to discuss the variety of ways in which they might use Glow for this. Within their discussions, the group was very conscious of the need to minimise the amount of work that this might involve for teachers.
Since all schools in West Lothian had previously had support in their implementation of Glow, many teachers were already creating Glow Groups to use with their own classes. The group therefore decided to capitalise on this in order to provide support across the Authority.
Rather than new Local Authority Glow Groups being created for each subject area, West Lothian decided to utilise existing school groups, with their initial focus being to provide support for pupils approaching SQA examinations.
All of West Lothian’s 11 Secondary schools were asked to nominate teachers who were already using Glow with their classes, and who already had learning and teaching resources held within a Glow Group. The teachers were asked if they would be willing to open up these Glow Groups to pupils from across the Authority, to enable them to have access to materials from not only their own school, but from others too. This meant that if, for example, a pupil studying Higher English did not have access to a Higher English Glow Group within their own school, they would be able to access one in another school.
It was then decided that a Glow Group would be created at Local Authority level, with all pupils and teachers from all school having contributor rights. Within the Group is a page for each subject, with links on the page to the existing school based Glow Groups. Pupils have reader access to the Groups that are not in their own school.
Also on each page is a Document store with learning and teaching resources, and a Web Links web part with links to useful subject-specific sites. Pupils will be able to receive remote tuition or advice from a teacher in any school across the Authority using the communication web parts, since each page also contains a Glow Chat, a Glow Meet and a Discussion Board.
Not all subject areas or levels will be covered initially, but it is hoped that the range available will increase as more teachers become involved. Also, provision will be extended to lower Secondary and to Primary pupils too.
In this cookbook we will look at
• The West Lothian Pupil Study Support Glow Group
• How to set up a similar Glow Group

Ingredients
What did West Lothian need to set this up?
• A Glow Group, accessible by all staff and pupils in the Local Authority
• Membership for all pupils to Glow Groups in schools other than their own
• The support of teachers

Recipe

In this section, we will look at the current structure of the West Lothian Pupil Study Support Glow Group and then find out how to set up a similar type of Group.

Video Clips:

What does the West Lothian Pupil Study Support Glow Group look like? (4:02)
Continuity of Learning and Emergency Closure Planning

How to create new List web parts (5:39)
Continuity of Learning and Emergency Closure Planning

Local Authority Thoughts
Listen to Laura Compton, Glow Key Contact for West Lothian, talk about the Authorities reasons for using Glow as part of their business continuity planning:

Interview with Laura Compton (2:00)
Continuity of Learning and Emergency Closure Planning

Next Steps
At the point of writing this, the Glow Group is still in the process of being populated and has not yet been opened up to pupils.
West Lothian is also considering the potential of Glow Learn to provide similar Authority-wide support for pupils. This will require further support for staff though to enable this to happen.