This might be worth having a wee look at for engaging kids in some of the learning and teaching.

During next session we are expecting to continue to support the uptake of GLOW in learning and teaching.  All schools will have GLOW on their improvement plans and there will be lots of support for teachers developing theire practice.

If you are at SLF then find us and say hello.

Day 229 – close up,
originally uploaded by Gordon McKinlay.

The new session starts this week. We are about to start getting geared up for implementing Glow in Renfrewshire. A lot of planning has been done and things are now in place to get the ball rolling as the schools return.

Watch this space for lots of information about how we plan to proceed.

We spent a busy afternoon this week with staff from RM putting in place the plans that will allow us to implement Glow as early in the new session as possible. This was a very productive afternoon and I feel that we have now got all the important issues sorted out including the technical issues and training issues.

Importantly for staff in schools in Renfrewshire, EasyMail will not vanish at the end of June as we thought a few months ago. We are now looking at a direct switch from EasyMail to GlowMail in September or October. This should mean no loss of service.

On the training front, Steven and Ann have been working very hard to get all of this in place. There should now be an administrator a teacher administrator and a Glow champion in every school. Training for each of these people is in place. Steven will send out dates and further details at the start of the new session.

In the meantime, the last phase of Glow piloting has just about come to an end. Each of the elements being tested this time round all seem to work through our firewall. This was despit a wee glitch on mail day last week. Thanks to everyone who took part in that exercise.

It is now the end of term and staff in schools will be away for a well deserved break. Tose of us who don’t deserve a break are going to continue to work at making sure that everything is in place for the launch of Glow in the autumn.

You should also be aware of the Glow launch evening on the 9th of October. This will give everyone a great opportunity to see Glow first hand. This event has been designed on the back of the very successful showcase event we had last February. Watch this space for more details early in the new session.

Have a great summer!

Gordon

Day 170 – Is there anybody out there?,
originally uploaded by Gordon McKinlay.

I have now managed to get round to trying out some more aspects of the Glow phase 3 pilot. I was keen to try out the messenger feature. However, as far as I can see there is no-one else on-line!

Anyone fancy a chat? We can set up a time to try it out!

The course was delivered by Oscar Stringer who is a world leader in the teaching of video and animation for the classroom.  Oscar flew up from Bristol and created a flurry of activity in the office when we realised that all hotel rooms in and around Glasgow were booked by Spanish football fans who were in the city for the UEFA cup final.  Fortunately there was a cancellation and we managed to secure a room at the airport.  Otherwise I was to spend Tuesday evening frantically cleaning the house in preparation for an unexpected guest!

On Wednesday we had 30 P4 – P7 pupils from Arkleston, Fordbank, Moorpark, St James(Renfrew) and South primaries, along with S2 from Linwood High and accompanying staff.   Pupils from Bridge of Weir, Gallowhill, Mossvale, Ralston, St John Bosco primaries and Paisley Grammar attended Thursday’s session.

After demonstrating some examples of movie making ‘good practice’, Oscar set the theme for the day as horror. The youngsters then had great fun exploring the grounds (in the rain) and the lodge itself as they identified suitable locations at which to film.

The pupils were split ino 5 teams that comprised one person from each school and I was very impressed how quickly they bonded and contributed to the project – we had budding camera operators, actors and directors.  Staff were on hand to advise but, to be honest,  the pupils ran the show and there was no way that any aduklts were getting their hands on the camera equipment!

The afternoon session was spent editing the video using i-movie – once we eventually convinced the pupils to stop filming as they had more than enough material.  The video clips were edited, audio and captions added and we ended the day with a scary movie show as the rain tipped down from the heavens.

Each school will receive a DVD containing the movies produced during the day, and they have now acquired an ‘in-house production team’ that can capture important events in the school calendar . 

Thanks again to Oscar, Ann Crawford for the organisation and to school staff for their enthusiastic participation.  Watch this space for details of the next Video Festival (in September we hope).  If your school has not participated before then I strongly urge you to come along – it really is a joy to work with pupils from a variety of schools and agegroups outwith the confines of a classroom.

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.