Renfrewshire ICT Blog » in-service

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!

A Quick Week

stevenwilson — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 08:36:34 +0000

A busy first week of the new session was dominated by an important meeting with representatives of the Glow national team. The training model which we have proposed for the implementation of Glow in Renfrewshire has been accepted and discussion is now focussing on the content and timing of the training we will deliver to staff. I was worried beforehand that the training dates scheduled prior to the summer break (albeit tentatively) would have to be revised but the meeting ended on a promising note and I am hopeful there will not be too many major changes. Confirmation is expected next week and I will keep you informed.

Computer Games and Learning is another area on which we will focus this session. I mentioned the magnificent work carried out using Gamemaker by Janette Thomson with her P7 class at Craigielea in a previous post. There is an in-service course on Games Design and Learning (and Gamemaker in particular) on Thursday 6th September – please try to come along if you are interested in becoming involved with this project. The Renfrewshire on line CPD catalogue contains further details.

We are also participating in the LT scotland computer games and learning pilot programme organised by Derek Robertson and the Consolarium based in Dundee. I distributed several games consoles (PS2 and Wii) to a number of Primary Schools in June. The idea is that the teacher develops a topic of work based around the context of a game which will open doors to learning for the children to such an extent that everyone is engaged and on task. Once again I will keep you posted as this exciting iniative develops.

Enjoy the weekend.

Steven

Change afoot

gordonmckinlay — Mon, 14 May 2007 18:25:19 +0000

Since I took over my new post as acting senior adviser I have not had much time to do anything with the ICT blog. I am now taking matters in hand. Our new staff tutor, Steven Wilson, is about to take it over so that schools in Renfrewshire can stay up to date with what is going on.

Social networking is an important aspect of our ICT strategy both within and without Glow. It would be odd, therefore, if we didn’t use the medium ourselves! There is a lot going on that Steven will keep you up to date with. This includes;

Glow;
games and learning;
interactive whiteboards; and
child protection on-line.

Expect to see an update on all of these here very soon.

I will keep my hand in every now and then when something of relevance crosses my horizon. For example, we are currently getting the in-service catalogue finalised at the moment. A letter should be out about that this and we are working hard on the curriculum for excellence conference at the end of May.

I hope you continue to find this medium of communication useful. I know that we have not had many comments over the past year but from conversations around it seems that lots of folk read the posts.

Digital Video Festival @ Lapwing Lodge

gordonmckinlay — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 13:57:34 +0000

We have just had two days of schools digital video festivals @ Lapwing Lodge. Pupils from 12 schools have come together to create, from scratch, there own film. The aim is that they use the skills they have learned back in their own school. The days were led by Oscar Stringer and supported by Ann Crawford.

The children have all had a brilliant time working from the original idea, story boarding, filming, capture and editing the final result. Some of the ideas were really interesting and imaginative. It was great to see the children being creative and working as aprat of a group in order to get the product created.

There is huge potential for using these techniques in the school setting. The teachers involved in the day should now feel far more confident about putting the techniques into practice in their own establishment.

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.

Curriculum for Excellence Seminar

gordonmckinlay — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 22:58:17 +0000

Tomorrow is one of our joint curriculum for excellence seminars with Inverclyde and West Dunbartonshire. The seminar is aimed at Computing and Business Studies teachers from across the three authorities and will take place at the Erskine Bridge Hotel. In the morning, Bernard McLeary of LTS will give the keynote address followed by a curricular update by Tom Liversedge and Joyce Henderson. In the afternoon David Muir will give a presentation on using web 2.0 technologies in the context of learning and teaching in computing and Business Studies. David seems to be spending more time in Renfrewshire than in Strathclyde University at the moment!

It should be an interesting day. I will add appropriate posts after the event.

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!

Masterclass Training Day

gordonmckinlay — Thu, 01 Feb 2007 19:37:45 +0000

We had a Masterclass training today in Abbey House. Oscar Stringer was here and took everyone through a series of tasks and activities learning how to create enhanced podcasts using GarageBand on the Macintosh.

I was at the workshop for some of the day and have blogged what I was at on my blogger account. I also uploaded some photos to my flickr account so you can see what it was like.