Author Archives: J. McLean

Education Scotland Moderation Hub now live

The Moderation Hub is now live.  This is a virtual learning environment delivering career-long professional learning on all aspects of the moderation cycle, helping practitioners to make effective use of the Benchmarks for Literacy and English (glow username and password required).

This year’s programme of national moderation for reading and writing began in September this year.  Contact your local Quality Assurance and Moderation Support Officers (QAMSOs) to find out more about what is going on locally.

New and improved Glow Connect launching Tuesday 12 December 2017

Glow Connect is the official website that provides a single point of reference for all individuals, teachers, learners, parents and carers with information, help and support about Glow and the services it has to offer.

Feedback from GLOW  stakeholders has indicated the current site needed to be updated and improved to provide a better user experience.

In consultation with users we have now updated the content, improved the navigation and provided access to Glow help and support in one place.

The site transition will start on Monday at 4pm and will be live to all users on Tuesday 12 December.

The Glow Connect homepage address will not change (https://connect.glowscotland.org.uk/), however any bookmarked pages from the old site will no longer work but will redirect to the new website homepage. You may want to highlight this to your Glow users to update their bookmarks.

Making Scotland a STEM Nation

STEM Education and Training Strategy for Scotland has now been published

A STEM (Sciences Technologies, Engineering and Mathematics) Education and Training Strategy was launched in the Scottish Parliament last week by Shirley-Anne Somerville MSP, Minister for Further Education, Higher Education and Science.  The strategy, together with a STEM Evidence Base Report, is now available to download from: http://www.gov.scot/Publications/2017/10/1386/downloads

The strategy sets out the vision for STEM Education and Training for the next five years around the themes of Excellence, Equity, Inspiration and Connection. The ambitious actions for early learning and childcare, schools, colleges, universities and community learning and development (CLD) sectors have been developed through an extensive process of engagement and consultation.

Key commitments within the strategy include:

  • Improving the supply of high-quality STEM graduates into teaching
  • Recruiting a new network of STEM specialist advisors to support practitioners and raise STEM attainment
  • Enhancing opportunities for children in early learning and childcare (ELC) to learn about STEM and their natural environment through outdoor play
  • Delivering an enhanced programme of career-long professional learning for practitioners and technicians to improve STEM learning and teaching
  • Launching a new on-line STEM resource and directory for practitioners
  • Embedding best practice from the successful Improving Gender Balance project to improve participation by under-represented groups in STEM learning, courses and training, particularly for women and girls
  • Establishing a new Young STEM leaders programme to grow and spread inspiration and enthusiasm for STEM, starting in the early and primary years of education
  • Launching STEM Awards for ELC settings, schools and CLD settings
  • Growing successful STEM partnerships between schools and employers through the Developing the Young Workforce Programme
  • Helping science centres and festivals to attract under-served people of all ages and backgrounds
  • Creating a STEM hub network to strengthen regional-level collaboration between partners, including universities, science centres and employers.

A central focus on the strategy is to enable everyone to develop STEM skills for learning, for life and for work. Also included are commitments to expand Foundation, Modern and Graduate Apprenticeship Programmes to enable many to pursue jobs and careers in STEM through these pathways. This strong focus on skills and careers will further enhance national efforts to Develop the Young Workforce (DYW) and embed employment and career management skills in the curriculum through the Career Education Standard.

Education Scotland would like to take this opportunity to thank the many practitioners, authority staff and partners who helped to shape this strategy by participating in on-line surveys or by taking part in consultation and engagement events. We are very much looking forward to working with key partners to realise the bold ambitions within the strategy and to improving outcomes for learners, of all ages, across Scotland through STEM.

We would be grateful for any help you can give in disseminating the strategy to your colleagues and networks. Please remember too to share your ideas, practice and approaches in relation to STEM through Twitter @EdscotSciences #ScotSTEM and through our national STEM Yammer Group: http://glo.li/2A7gCgr.

5Rights Framework for

5Rights takes the existing rights of children and young people (under 18), and articulates them for the digital world. Signatories to the 5Rights framework believe that young people should be supported to access digital technologies creatively, knowledgeably and fearlessly.

Education Scotland has signed up to the 5Rights Coalition which champions young people’s digital rights and aims to develop a safe and empowering digital environment for them.

 

Other organisations which have signed up include Unicef, Sky and YoungScot.

 

Find more about the 5Rights framework.

External Sharing now available on Glow….

PLEASE TAKE TIME TO READ THIS BLOG CAREFULLY , INCLUDING ALL THE LINKS.

PLEASE DISCUSS WITH YOUR LINE MANAGER AND/OR SMT TEAM

Sharing files from Office 365 OneDrive

Microsoft O365 OneDrive allows you to share your content with Glow users and non-Glow users.

  • You can share files from your OneDrive with anyone you want
    There are risks and implications that you should consider before sharing
    There are a few ways to share and you should choose the method that suits your needs best and minimises your personal risk
    Why would I use it?
  • You can share files such as Word documents, Excel spreadsheets, PowerPoint presentations, PDFs and images with non-Glow users.

Education options include:

Parental engagement – learners and teachers can share content created in the classroom with parents
Peer collaboration – learners and teachers can collaborate with learners and teachers worldwide
Public blogs – teachers can embed externally shared files such as Word documents and PDFs into public blogs so that parents, other teachers, and interested parties that don’t have Glow accounts can view them.
As with everything in Glow, content should be appropriate for Glow, if you are unsure then please check the Glow Community Rules which should be followed at all times.

How do I get started?

Sharing files
First, navigate to OneDrive from the O365 App Launcher:


O365 App Launcher with OneDrive Icon Highlighted

You will be taken to the OneDrive screen which presents you with an overview of your files. All files in OneDrive are only accessible to you by default – not even system admins can access without taking steps that are recorded in a security log. Each file will have “Only you” in the ‘Sharing’ column. The exception is the ‘Shared with Everyone’ folder which has special permissions set to allow any Glow O365 user to access. (see ‘Shared with Everyone’ further below)

To begin sharing, select the file you wish to share (in this case Banff.docx) and then click ‘Share’ at the top of the screen or select ‘Share’ from the ellipsis menu (…) as highlighted.

                                                     OneDrive Screen with ‘Share’ highlighted

The Sharing dialogue window opens:

Share – Dialogue with default selected

The default option is to generate a link that will allow any Glow user to edit your file. Links generated are long and complex making them very difficult to guess, so people will only be able to access your file if you give them the link or someone you give the link to passes it on. Generating the link by itself doesn’t change the visibility of your file for search or Delve but will allow anyone in Glow who has the link to view and edit your file. If you want to change these permissions, click on the drop down arrow at the right hand side. You will be presented with the Share options

Share options explained

The options above are listed from top to bottom in descending order of exposure with the default ticked. To help you understand the consequences of each and make the best choice for your needs, we will start with the most controlled, ‘Specific people’, and work our way up the list. ‘Allow editing’ can be selected or deselected for the option you choose.

You have the following share options:

1. Specific people

2. People in Glow

3. Shared with Everyone

4. Anyone

Please click HERE for details on share options

Letting other users know they have access

You have two key ways of letting someone know they have access:

Email – You could email it directly from this screen; or,
Link – copy the link to send in something like Yammer or place on a website like SharePoint or Blogs. Many services also support ’embedding’ Office content and where this is true, that site will typically recognise the URL supplied and create a rich preview of the content. However, experience will vary and you should refer to the guidance of the service in which you wish to embed.

Removing Sharing
You can review, change or revoke the sharing status of any file at any time using the ‘i’ icon from the top menu or using the ‘Details’ option from the ellipsis menu

If you have any questions, please contact the Learning through Technology Team

Scholar revision sessions

Next week’s SCHOLAR online sessions will be:

National 5 English                               Tuesday, 10th Oct @ 6:00 pm

Higher Computing Science                 Wednesday, 11th Oct @ 6:30 pm

For more information on how to take part in our online sessions as well as upcoming sessions please visit: SCHOLAR’s Live Online Sessions

Regular updates via: Twitter @SCHOLARuk and Facebook SCHOLARprogramme

Young Scot 5Rights

 

Sexting, cyberbullying, catfishing, FOMO and digital footprints – these are just some of the topics and issues that the Young Scot 5Rights Youth Commission explored in their 15-month investigation. The 5Rights project looks beyond online safety and protection for young people online, and calls for the realisation of their rights in the digital world just as they are already realised in the offline world. With evidence gathered directly from the likes of Twitter, Facebook, Google, Education Scotland and See Me, as well as from over 2000 young people, the 5Rights Youth Commission published their findings and recommendations to the Scottish Government in their May 2017 report, ‘Our Digital Rights’, on how Scotland can become a nation that realises their rights online.

They are now looking for 15 young people, aged 11-15, from across Scotland to join them in the new Young Scot 5Rights Youth Leadership Group. The new group will spend 12 months investigating how some of their recommendations can be implemented, and create a real impact on how young people’s rights can be supported in the digital world.

Attached is a PDF flyer and digital display with more information about the project; the submission deadline is Friday 13th October 2017. I would be grateful if you could please share this opportunity with any young person between the age of 11-15, and encourage them to be a part of such an innovative and exiting project. To find out more and to apply, please visit http://young.scot/things-to-do/events/edinburgh/join-the-5rights-youth-leadership-group/

Barefoot Promotion (Computational Thinking and Coding)

Barefoot is currently offering a free ‘New Term Survival Guide’ to teachers who request a workshop before October 31st, and have it delivered before December 31st.

The Survival Guide provides great tools to help teachers get started, including FAQs, top tips, a quick reference guide, five hand-picked resources and Barefoot goodies. Teachers will receive a survival guide with their workshop packs and  can claim one by booking a workshop on www.barefootcas.org,uk and use the campaign code ‘007’.

This is what the pack looks like,…