Category Archives: Technologies

Join the ‘Commonwealth Class’

The BBC, the British Council and the Commonwealth Secretariat have joined forces to bring you Commonwealth Class, an exciting new opportunity for schools.

Commonwealth Class is a special initiative that provides teaching resources, online debates and interactive activities for schools to mark the run-up to the 2014 Commonwealth Games. It celebrates the values of the Commonwealth and connects schools and young people as they learn about how to be active, responsible global citizens as part of the Commonwealth family.

The Commonwealth Class education pack is an exciting resource designed to teach young people about Commonwealth values such as rights and responsibilities, protection of the environment, respect for others and what people need to lead healthy lives free from poverty.
Produced by the British Council, the resource pack contains cross-curricular activities, short films and discussion guides with learning outcomes that link to key skills, curriculum subjects and Commonwealth values. Activities include what qualities you need to be a successful Commonwealth athlete, and an exploration of the route of the Queen’s Baton Relay which will visit all 71 countries and territories taking part in the 2014 games.

Get set for 2014 and download the British Council Commonwealth Class education pack today.

BBC online debates
Commonwealth Class partner, the BBC, is hosting a series of monthly online debates commencing this summer. The debates are intended to create a platform for schools in the UK and Commonwealth countries to teach and learn together.
The first debate in the series will take place on Thursday 13 June.
Visit Schools Online and sign up to Commonwealth Class for more resources and interactive activities that support lesson planning and teaching across the curriculum
And a week before the first debate you can visit the BBC’s Commonwealth Class website to find out how you can take part!

Scottish Learning Festival 2013

Registration is now open for this year’s Scottish Learning Festival (SLF), which takes place on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 September in the SECC, Glasgow.

The Cabinet Secretary for Education and Lifelong Learning will give the opening address to SLF.

In addition, there will be the keynotes from the following international renowned speakers:

  • Prof Andy Hargreaves, Thomas Moore Brennan Chair, Lynch School of Education, University of Boston;
  • Dr Avis Glaze, Edu-quest International Inc. and former Chief Student Achievement Officer of Ontario; and
  • Dr Pasi Sahlberg, Director General, Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation, Finland.

As well as round table discussions led by:

  • Prof Petra Wend; and
  • Dr Bill Maxwell and partners.

The full programme of keynotes and seminars along with details of the range of additional activities are available on the SLF website.

Seminars which may be of interest

The M Factor

Finding their Voice: Engaging teenagers with poetry and debate through rap and performance

3-18 Curriculum Impact Reviews: Creativity 3-18

Launch of Education Scotland’s Building Capacity for Continuous Improvement strategy

Global Citizenship – Bringing It All Together

Learning experiences through Glow – Partnership working

Moving image education: Screening Shorts

Expressive arts: What’s on the third horizon?

English language class arts exhibition project: East Kilbride

Short & sweet: Short films as a route to developing modern foreign languages

Look, Capture, Create

Curious and creative learners from across Scotland have been exploring the importance and beauty of Scottish Biodiversity through Scottish designer/illustrator Johanna Basford’s exhibition ‘Wonderlands’ via Glow TV. This interdisciplinary learning experience has been developed in partnership with Dundee Contemporary Arts and is being supported by Sarah Derrick, Head of Education at DCA and Anna Rossvoll, Emerging Technologies Development Officer with Education Scotland.

Look Capture Create outline for educators

Johanna Basford is an ink evangelist who creates beautifully intricate hand drawn designs using black ink. ‘Wonderlands’ is her first solo exhibition and it is proving to be a magical context for creative learning through expressive arts, science, mathematics and languages.

Before the project went live learners were invited to join the Look, Capture, Create Glow group by submitting an InkyME! The response was astounding. Currently there are  InkyMEs exhibiting from Burravoe, Carron, Clackmannan, Hythehill, Lochgelly West, Lincluden, St Andrews and St Patricks primary schools.  The InkyMEs have even travelled to Dundee to attend the first live Glow TV event ‘Wondertales’ at Dundee Contemporary Arts on 13th May.

‘Wondertales’ encouraged learners to look at the intricacy of Johanna’s designs and to capture the detail in words to create a Wondertale!  Wendy Woolfson, an incredibly talented storyteller led the event, creating breath taking stories based on three of Johanna’s wallpaper designs. She then went on to create a collaborative tale as learners submitted their ideas live during the event. You can watch Wendy in action here.

This use of an exhibition as a form of text truly captured the imagination of learners and they have submitted incredible  Wondertales to the Glow wiki.  Learners are taking the  time to read each other’s work and leave comments. It would be lovely if you could do the same. (Glow username and password required)

Keep up to date with the Look, Capture, Create Glow blog and the next Look, Capture, Create Glow TV event will take place at Dundee Botanical Gardens at 10am on the 4th June.

Post taken from Education Scotland’s Learning blog written by A.Rossvoll

Learning Through Gaming

Thursday 20 June 2013 (10:00 – 16:00)
Dundee College, Gardyne Campus


This event will consider the current and developing context of games in education and how education can embrace the potential for these environments.
As part of the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, participants at the event are encouraged be as ‘dangerous’ as possible in considering how gaming can influence pedagogy and encourage greater engagement with learning.
Speakers include Chris van der Kuyl of brightsolid, Derek Robertson of Education Scotland and David Renton of Reid Kerr College.
For more information about the Festival of Dangerous Ideas, visit the website,TwitterLinkedIn and Facebook.

Twig on Glow Summer Challenge

This summer term, Twig is offering Scottish students the chance to tackle some ‘Big Questions’ that even the best scientists struggle with today. Using Twig Studio, a brand new film editing resource, students can create their own films in these topics. Professor Robert Winston will be judging all entries and winners will receive personal commendations from the renowned scientist.

The challenge helps deliver levels 2, 3 and 4 experiences and outcomes from the broad general education including those from topical science. It is a great opportunity for students to demonstrate a secure knowledge and understanding of the big ideas and concepts of the sciences. For more information, please visit the Summer Challenge page on the Twig On Glow site.

Say4Schools Internet Safety Competition (P6/7) – Now open!

Fife Council Education and Learning Directorate, Adam Smith College, Fife Constabulary and the seven Community Safety Panels in Fife have joined together to promote the Say4Schools Internet Safety competition 2013.

The competition is open to all primary 6 and 7 pupils in Fife and Community Safety Police Officers will be visiting schools to help promote the competition.  The theme of the competition is “Be Aware… Don’t Share” and highlights the dangers of sharing personal information online whether through social networking sites or online gaming.

Bryan Kirkaldy, Head of Education explains, “The digital age is upon us and our children are increasingly connected to the web whether it’s gaming online through their consoles or using social networking on their smart phones.  The aim of the competition is not only to make young people aware of the dangers of sharing personal information but as part of Curriculum for Excellence, to develop the skills they need for learning, life and work.”

Building on the success of last year’s competition, which attracted over 700 entries from primaries across Fife, this year’s competition is now open and will close on Friday 17 May 2013.

David Imrie,Curriculum Technology Adviser said, “To help pupils in this year’s competition, we will promote the use of Digital Techologies such as Digital Animation, Digital Comic Books and Digital Music to help them with their storyboards.  The website Say4Schools is a great resource and I would encourage parents to visit the site.”

Finalists will be selected from each of the seven community safety areas with an overall winner being announced at a dedicated prize giving ceremony in May.  Prizes include an iPad mini for the winning pupil and a Zulogic ZU3d animation kit for the finalists.

John Wood, Treasurer of the Glenrothes Community Safety Panel said, “The Community Safety Panels are constituted groups of volunteers, dedicated to promote crime prevention and community safety.  On behalf of all the panels we are delighted to sponsor and promote the Say4Schools competition.  Each year the competitions influence grows and this partnership is really showing its effectiveness in dealing with issues that effect us all.

On behalf of Say4Schools, I would like to wish all the pupils who enter the best of luck.  On the evidence of last year’s competition, there are a lot of creative minds out there and I cannot wait to see this year’s entries.”

For more information and how to enter click here or alternatively, contact

Mai Hoang, Project Officer – Communications 
Tel: 01592 583372 Contact Mai Hoang online
By Post: Fife Council, Rothesay House, Rothesay Place, Glenrothes, KY7 5PQ

or

David Imrie, Curriculum Technology Adviser 
Tel: 08451 55 55 55 + Ext 44 19 55 Contact David Imrie online
By Post: Fife Council, Rothesay House, Rothesay Place, Glenrothes, KY7 5PQ 

What does remembrance mean?

This year Poppyscotland has teamed up with Glow TV to bring you a series of events about remembrance. 

This is the first of this thought provoking series. During this Glow Meet you will get the chance to hear from and chat with St Brigid’s Primary school as they talk about their experience of entering and winning Moving Stories 2011 and how you can enter the competition this year! Other Glow TV events on Remembrance will take place on 8 November and 22 November

For full details of this event, please log in to Glow and view the current schedule (Glow log-in and password required).

Finding out about Glow at The Scottish Learning Festival

Glow is changing, see the new solution

A key priority of Curriculum for Excellence is to improve the life chances for all of Scotland’s children and young people, through improving attainment and raising ambition. Fundamental to this is encouraging and nurturing creativity, to improve the self-esteem, motivation and achievement of our learners.

Creativity can mean different things to different people. For some it means being imaginative or inventive, taking risks or challenging convention. For others it is about original thinking or producing something new.

As CfE is being implemented across Scotland, practitioners are developing their creative teaching and learning as well as nurturing creative skills in learners.

The Scottish Learning Festival 2012 offers practitioners opportunities to learn more about the importance of creative skills for themselves and for their learners.

Why not come along to one of the Glow seminars at this years’ festival

Code: K2E
Speakers: Education Scotland, Microsoft and RM Education
Seminar Date: 19 September 2012 @ 16:15
Code: L2F
Speakers: Education Scotland, Microsoft & RM Education
Seminar Date: 20 September 2012 @ 09:30

Code: D2I
Speakers: Education Scotland, Microsoft and RM Education
Seminar Date: 20 September 2012 @ 13:15

Representatives from Education Scotland, RM Education and Microsoft will take you on a tour of the evolving Glow solution. You will see the new Glow Launchpad, RM Unify, which will give users access to Office365 for education, RM Books along with other popular application for the education community. This launchpad to the cloud will allow you to tailor the apps you see and use in daily learning and teaching.

Find out more on the SLF site here