Author Archives: J. McLean

Update on replacement for Safe Harbor

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In 2015, the US Safe Harbor scheme was deemed invalid by the European courts. As a result of this finding, the processing of personal data in the United States e.g. on websites such as SurveyMonkey, Classdojo and Edmodo has likely been in contravention of Principle 8 of the Data Protection Act. Advice from the ICO thus far has been to “watch this space” rather than remove all data from the US, as it was likely a new compliance scheme, between the EU and US, would have to come into effect.

The new US Privacy Shield scheme has now been approved by the EU as a replacement to Safe Harbor. Privacy Shield is another voluntary self-certification scheme where US companies can elect to comply with EU equivalent privacy rules in order to transfer personal data between the EU and US. The US Department of Commerce has been tasked with reviewing self-certifications to ensure compliance and is to maintain a website of US companies which comply with the scheme.

It will now take time for US companies to self-certify themselves and for US Department of Commerce reviews to take place. As yet there are no companies listed on the Department of Commerce Privacy Shield website: https://www.commerce.gov/privacyshield

Going forward, if the Council is to store any personal data in a US-based system, it is important from a Principle 8 compliance perspective that a check is undertaken to ensure the company is Privacy Shield accredited.

For any Council personal data already stored in the United States e.g. on SurveyMonkey, ClassDojo and Edmodo, it is important that we review the forthcoming list of accredited companies to ensure these companies end up on the list. If after a number of months we find that these companies are not self-certifying against Privacy Shield, we may need to consider removing Council personal data from these companies.

Given the UK has voted to leave the EU, there is current uncertainty around how this new EU – US agreement will impact the UK once it leaves the EU. Current thinking would appear to be that the UK is going to have to comply with, or have equivalent law to, GDPR

 

TWIG player is now available

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TwigPlayer is here, and the Learning through Technology team have logged a call to have the software installed onto teachers computers, however if you use Twig or Tigtag at home you could download the software (link is below) and keep videos to watch offline at home..no more buffering!

Twig World has just released the TwigPlayer, an application uniquely designed for Scottish users of the science, maths and geography resources available from the Twig On Glow, Tigtag and Tigtag Junior websites.

The player allows users to download and play films offline without being connected to the internet.

Everyone can now log into the Twig website of their choice using their Glow credentials, select and download films onto the desktop of the computer they are using and then play them back directly. The films will remain available locally as long as the computer has connected to the internet (via Wi-Fi or ethernet) at least once within 30 days. If a computer has not connected to the internet for over 30 days (e.g. over the school summer holidays), the films will disappear and will need to be downloaded again from the relevant website.

To download films users must first install the TwigPlayer software application for Windows machines.  This is a very simple and quick process, but it requires admin access for the machine that is being used. It may therefore be preferable for the school IT Coordinator or the local authority IT department to install the software via the IT network. Users at home can of course install the software onto as many of their own devices as desired.

Please find below a link to the webpage containing further information about the TwigPlayer (Windows only).  The same information appears on the Tigtag and Tigtag Junior sites for users who log in with Glow credentials.

https://www.twigonglow.com/twigplayer/

Exciting opportunity for S6 leavers

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Click on the link below to find out about a 3 week cyber course

This is of interest to S6 pupils before they go into University after the summer. It is fully paid for – food and accommodation, and they go home at the weekends. It will be held at Glasgow Caledonian University.

This may help them get on the Cyber First bursary of £4k per year!

http://www.arkwright.org.uk/exclusive/cyberfirst_advanced.htm

Brain Pop – Online and app software free trial

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BrainPop-e1447672119415

  • A safe way for children to study independently
  • A rich multimedia tool kit for teachers to illustrate curriculum concepts.
  • Learning games, lesson support, printable materials, and interactive quizzes
  • Mapped to the Curriculum for Excellence and available through GLOW

Log into Glow and on the RM Unify page , click on the Aberdeenshire Launch pad and if you scroll to the bottom of the page you will see the Brain Pop tiles, simply click to access the resource.

Annual Glow Survey

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Passport graphicEducation Scotland’s Glow Annual Survey launched yesterday and will remain open until the 1st July 2016. The survey is important as it allows Education Scotland to understand more about how their customers use Glow and where improvements can be made.

The Learning Through Technology Team are the local Aberdeenshire Glow Key Contacts and we would encourage to you to fill in the survey
All responses collected are anonymous.

If you would like to go straight to the staff survey, it can be found at: https://www.research.net/r/glow2016staff

The pupil survey can be found at: https://www.research.net/r/glow2016pupils

More information can be found at: https://connect.glowscotland.org.uk/2016/05/16/glow-annual-survey-2016/

 

Technologies: Assessing progress and achievement in significant aspects of learning

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Education Scotland have published a revised version of the progression framework  (Click here to access the document)

This document is incomplete but Education Scotland hope to add the progressions for the computing science SALs before the summer holidays. They apologise for the delay in this publication.

 

 

 

Digital Learning Week 2016

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Explore the benefits digital learning and teaching can bring to every level of the learner journey. Share your stories on this Digilearnscot blog of how you’ve been using digital to support, enhance and improve classroom practice. Inspire others and be inspired.

Click here for more information.

The site has lots of good ideas for all learners, please try and contribute and shout out to Scotland how your school is using technology to excite and engage learners.

Maybe your school has digital leaders, they could collect data and post on the Digilearnscot blog, maybe learners have created a great digital resource, then consider sharing  on the blog.

 

 

 

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Scholar

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Scholar logo used with permission

Scholar logo used with permission

From August 2016 comprehensive course materials will be available on SCHOLAR for NAT5, Higher and Advanced Higher English.

SCHOLAR has been supporting Scottish teachers and learners for fifteen years. The start of the new session will bring English into line with thirty courses across Maths, Science Subjects, Computing, Business Studies, Art & Design, Modern Languages and Gaelic. SCHOLAR materials are produced and monitored by Scottish teachers with extensive experience of the SQA courses in question. Two independent surveys over the lifetime of SCHOLAR have identified a clear correlation between frequency of SCHOLAR usage and pupil performance in SQA exams. Recent extensive online surveys of both pupils and teachers indicate a high level of user satisfaction with SCHOLAR.

Next session English teachers and pupils will have online access to the full suite of SCHOLAR materials for NAT 5, Higher and AH English. This includes comprehensive course notes, learning activities, targeted assessments, online tutorials, study guide books and more. Teachers and pupils will be able to access the SCHOLAR site at any time of day. In addition to pupils using SCHOLAR for home study, revision, catch up, monitoring of personal progress etc. teachers can use SCHOLAR in class as a teaching aid and as a top quality resource for directed, personalised pupil activity.

To find out about training opportunities for students and / or staff and to get specifi support with the new English materials please talk to your Scholar Co-ordinator or email me at james.mclean@aberdeenshire.gov.uk

Glow Logins

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TileFor those staff and students that have not logged into Glow for over 3 years you are missing some really high tech and cutting edge features in Office 365 and Glow.

The RM unify interface once you have logged in gives instant access via clicking a tile to lots of frequently used resources and applications.

Finding and using resources created by educators around Scotland are now easier to find and use, and it is also very easy to share resources created by either you or you students.

Your Glow username remains the same, but your password may have expired if you have not logged in for over 3 years, so please ask the Glow administrator in your school to reset your password, once this is done the new password you create remains in place, and even if you forget it you can reset it yourself via an email.

Please log in and have a look you will be surprised at how up to date , and user friendly new Glow is.