Renfrewshire ICT Blog » gordonmckinlay

Visit of Professor Tim Brighouse

gordonmckinlay — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 16:57:24 +0000

You will be aware of the work of Professor Tim Brighouse through the two books issued to all head teachers over the last couple of years. The more recent book “How Successful Head Teachers Survive and Thrive” was issued to all schools at the start of this term. Professor Brighouse is a non executive director of RM, the company providing the infrastructure for GLOW. As such we are very pleased to give you advance warning of the visit of Tim to Renfrewshire on the 11th of March 2008. Plans are at an early stage but will include a conversation workshop with head teachers on leadership along with a keynote presentation at the third of our GLOW evening events. The evening event will be at Gleniffer High School from 7-9:30pm and will include presentations on the use of GLOW to enhance learning and teaching along with the keynote by Professor Brighouse. It will be possible to book your place at the evening event via the online CPD system (http://renfrewshire.cpdservice.net). You can book your place at this event using CPD online. Search for GLOW on 11/03/2008. If you have already logged in to CPD online then just click here. There is no charge for the evening.I am sure that you will not want to miss the opportunity of hearing Professor Brighouse so this early notification aims to help you in keeping your diary clear.

GLOW Launch

gordonmckinlay — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 11:00:00 +0000

Last night saw the GLOW launch in Renfrewshire at Gleniffer High School. About 250 people with representation from most schools in Renfrewshire attended the event. We heard from Alan Wait from Learning Curve about the importance of digital literacy in the 21st century. Paul Smyth gave a first live glimpse of some of what GLOW has to offer. Finally Douglas Chapelle from RM gave a presentation of the importance of thinking through the issues of ICT in learning and teaching. Douglas highlighted the Tim Brighouse book”How Success Head Teachers Survive and Thrive” which was distributed to all our establishments earlier this term. If you have not yet had a chance to look at this can I commend it to you.

This was a great evening and we are very thankful to all the contributors for the time they gave up. The next steps are all to do with implementation. Steven Wilson has been working hard at the ops training and this is ongoing with mentor training later in the month. It looks like it will be all go very soon!

Glow Phase 2 Pilot

gordonmckinlay — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 19:37:57 +0000

Tomorrow sees the start of preparation for phase 2 of Glow piloting in Renfrewshire. We have two meetings tomorrow: one for the pilot schools and the second for the mentors. In the afternoon the four pilot schools: Barsail and St Fillan’s primaries and Johnstone and ParkMains High schools will learn about what is expected of them as they pilot the use of the new tools which have been added. A day’s workshop is planned for the pilot schools before Easter with the main period of time with the children likely to be the couple of weeks after Easter. The twilight session will brief the glow mentors so that they know what is going on this time round. We are also planning practical workshop sessions for these folk, one of these will be a virtual workshop. All those who have agreed to be involved in this have agreed to be involved in the workshops so that we can get some solid feedback for the Glow team. The pilot is due to run from the 19th of March to the 3rd of May. This time staff will be able to get access to the system wherever they are. This should make things a lot better for everyone trying to get a good feel for what Glow is all about.

After the meetings tomorrow I shall post the powerpoint presentation here so that anyone else can keep up to date with what is going on.

Literacy Forum

gordonmckinlay — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 20:32:19 +0000

Today was a joint venture between Renfrewshire and Inverclyde related to a Curriculum for Excellence. The Literacy forum focussed on literacy in the 21st century. Eve Bearne from Cambridge gave a very interesting presentation on teaching literacy. You can find an interesting article about technology and literacy here. Andrew Gallacher gave a highly interactive presentation on Moving Image Education. There is an interesting article about the project here. Many of the clips referred to were sourced from the BFI. I did, however, find some of them (like “Killing Time at Home” could be found on YouTube!). The presentation by Andrew relates very closely to the work our staff tutor, Ann Crawford, has done with Oscar Stringer in our video festivals.

You can check more of my personal reflection by clicking here.

ACfE Seminar for Computing and Business Studies

gordonmckinlay — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 14:03:39 +0000

Today Computing and Business Studies teachers from Renfrewshire, Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire met together at the Erskine Bridge Hotel to learn about developments in a curriculum for excellence.

There were three sessions in the day. Bernard McLeary, the chief executive of LTS gave the keynote address highlighting the major developments and timelines for the programme.

Joyce Henderson led the second session outlining the development of broad outcomes in relation to ICT, Computing and Business Studies. Joyce was supported by Tom Liversedge and Jillian Samson who gave a very helpful insight into the actual subject areas

The afternoon session was led by David Muir to conside how teachers can utilise web 2.0 tools in learning and teaching in the context of computing and business studies. This included the use of social bookmarking sites such as del.icio.us which allow bookmarks to be shared in class. Other examples included the use of blogs and wikis in learning. I have recorded the afternoon session and will post it as soon as I edit it down.

I am very keen to get feedback on the seminar so if you were there then please let me know. I also have copies of the presentations. If you want a copy then please email me.

Glow – Phase 2 Pilot

gordonmckinlay — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 22:52:30 +0000

Phase 2 of Glow piloting is about to start. The four schools (Barsail and St Fillan’s Primaries and Johnstone and Park Mains High) will be involved in trying out more of the services which will be the final part of Glow. This time round the schools will be trying out web hosting, web conferencing, chat, mailing lists and secure file transfer.

We will provide feedback to everyone in Renfrewshire as we go on with the pilot.

ICT Showcase – Evaluation

gordonmckinlay — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 12:11:44 +0000

Many thanks go to everyone involved in setting up and running last night’s ICT showcase. We had 200 teachers plus a number of other in attendance. David Muir and Ewan McIntosh gave a brilliant and stimulating presentation on some possible uses of web 2.0 in learning. The previous posts give some of the detail.

Over the next couple of days the audio from the evening will be available here and on the Renfrewshire EDS site so you can download it and listen again! A DVD is being produced for distribution to all schools in Renfrewshire. If you want a copy then please let me know and we shall see what we can do.

Initial feedback has been very positive. If you were there last night, please make sure you complete the evaluation on the CPD online system and send me your feedback as well. The event last night was an experiment

ICT Showcase – One Day to Go

gordonmckinlay — Mon, 19 Feb 2007 08:53:19 +0000

It’s Monday morning and I have checked the final figures for the ICT Showcase on Tuesday evening. We have 180 teachers booked with another 20 or so guests including parents and some folks from outwith Renfrewshire. All the final details should be in place. The evening will be videoed so we can create a DVD for all those who couldn’t get there on the evening. The audio should go on the website and here pretty soon after it has been recorded. Wireless conectivity should be available for anyone wishing to blog on the evening (let me know if this is you!). The accomodation is all sorted, the tea, coffee and cakes are all ready and we have the programme is all in place. David and Ewan are prepared (well so they tell me!). I think we are ready to roll.

If you are coming to Gleniffer tomorrow night then I look forward to seeing you then. If you are not, then why not!

Is It Worth Spending Money on Interactive Whiteboards?

gordonmckinlay — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 20:48:49 +0000

An article on the BBC website highlights a report about a study of the use of interactive whiteboards inLondon schools. The report highlights concerns that investment in the boards has not resulted in any measureable improvement in learning and teaching.

If you are spending money on new boards to be installed before the end of this financial year then you should think carefully about how you will deploy this expensive resource. Putting one in a class will not, by itself, make learning and teaching any better! There are a number of training courses available in the catalogue and more are being added to take account of the upsurge in demand. We are also in the process of training a number of staff as trainers thanks to the good offices of Steljes. The training is very worth while and the boards can make a huge difference in class where they are well used and planned for.

ICT Showcase

gordonmckinlay — Wed, 31 Jan 2007 16:32:24 +0000

I spent some time yesterday with David Muir in final plannng for the ICT showcase on the evening of the 20th of February. It has been great to see how many places have been booked already. It is going to be very busy! If you are thinking about coming and not have yet booked a place then you had better get on with it!. Log on to the cpd on-line system here. If you from outwith Renfrewshire and want to come along then please drop me an email.

This will be a great staff development opportunity for anyone wanting to know more about using web 2.0 tools in learning and teaching.