Category: waiting
Digital Xtra Fund
The goal of Digital Xtra Fund is for every young person in Scotland to have access to innovative and digitally creative activities regardless of their gender, background, or where they live. Through supported initiatives, the Fund aims to inspire young people to understand and create with technology, not simply use it. Schools and educational organisations positively engaging young people in tech can apply for up to £5,000 to support an extracurricular activity which focusses on digital tech, especially initiatives that also provide opportunities for young people to informally engage with industry and learn more about how digital skills and tech are relevant in the ‘real-world’.
Find out more about Digital Xtra Fund with this link: https://www.digitalxtrafund.scot/
Since its inception in 2016, Digital Xtra Fund has awarded £875,000 in grants to 137 exciting and meaningful extracurricular computing and digital technologies initiatives across Scotland. This funding has helped grant recipients engage nearly 45,000 young people in tech. For the current academic year, Digital Xtra Fund has recently awarded 35 grants to schools and educational organisations which are projected to engage another 7,500 young people (including 3,800 girls and young women) and show them the breadth of opportunities these skills can provide.
View the 20/21 impact report with this link: https://www.digitalxtrafund.scot/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Digital-Xtra-Fund-2020.21-Impact-Report.pdf
Applications for next round of grant awards (Round VIII) will open in January 2023 for activities delivered during the 2023/24 academic year. However, now is the perfect time to think about what you would do with the funding and who you could work with to better engage more young people!
Find out more about the latest recipients and their projects using this link: Digital Xtra Fund awards 35 grants to drive digital skills.
Please follow Digital Xtra Fund on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn for future updates.
Quick Links for Digital Xtra Fund
Round VII (2022/2023) initiatives supported by Digital Xtra Fund
05 December 16:00, The Future of Digital in Scottish Education with Maureen McKenna, former Executive Director of Education, Glasgow City Council
Education Scotland are hosting 3 highlight sessions focusing on ‘The Future of Digital in Scottish Education’. Each of these sessions will include an input from a key figure in Scottish Education followed by a short question and answer session.
Sign up for THIS SESSION with Maureen McKenna using this link to Evenbrite
If you would like to ask a question at any of these sessions, please complete the registration form using this link Registration Form
(If you have any issues using the form, please contact kirsty.mcfaul@educationscotland.gov.scot)
The Future of Digital in Scottish Education with Professor Ken Muir, the University of the West of Scotland
Education Scotland recently hosted three highlight sessions focusing on ‘The Future of Digital in Scottish Education’. In this video Professor Ken Muir, The University of the West of Scotland, explores:
- the generational shift and the increasing use of digital amongst young people
- the skills and technologies of the future and what this means for learning and work
- the Scottish curriculum
- noteworthy innovative projects
- future developments, such as AI
You can view Professor Ken Muir’s slides with this link Slides for digital presentation.pptx (dropbox.com)
YOU CAN NOW LISTEN TO AN AUDIO ONLY VERSION OF THE CALL
The Future of Digital in Scottish Education with Ollie Bray, Strategic Director Education Scotland
Education Scotland recently hosted three highlight sessions focusing on ‘The Future of Digital in Scottish Education’. In this video Ollie Bray, strategic director at Education Scotland, explores:
- the future
- ‘shiny’ v appropriate
- COVID
- technology in learning
- building strong digital communities
- practical pedagogies
- our digital landscape
YOU CAN NOW LISTEN TO AN AUDIO ONLY VERSION OF THE CALL
Be part of Nature Discovery Map Scotland – an education toolkit
Are you interested in developing your skills in technologies and digital literacy? Would you like to collaborative with fellow educators and digital experts?
Join our pilot project September 2022 – March 2023!
NatureScot are looking for educators to help create and pilot a Scottish version of the UK Government Initiative the National Education Nature Park.
The toolkit will be hosted on a webpage and will consist of:
- a mapping tool using a free, online application called ArcGIS. This will enable learners to map the nature in their establishment grounds and local greenspaces. It will also allow schools to upload any biodiversity improvements they make;
- a dashboard to allow schools to compare the biodiversity of their establishment grounds and local greenspaces with the national picture;
- resources to support the teachers and learners to make the most of the map and dashboard.
The toolkit will support learners to:
- discover the biodiversity and the ecosystems of their area;
- understand the importance of sustainability and climate adaptation;
- develop a sense of ownership and pride in their establishment grounds and local greenspaces.
It will support the development of:
- practical and knowledge-based skills through biodiversity and climate action;
- digital and other STEM skills through geospatial mapping;
- improved wildlife habitats and increase in biodiversity in and around educational settings;
- real world and outdoor learning opportunities.
What’s in it for me?
- A professional learning opportunity to develop your digital skills through a co-design approach.
- The opportunity to work collaboratively with other teachers, technical experts and NatureScot staff.
- Input to the development a new, innovative teaching resource that could be used across Scotland to support STEM learning.
- A platform to help discover and develop nature around your establishment through outdoor learning and Learning for Sustainability.
How do I get involved or find out more?
Check out our Nature Discovery Map Scotland webpage or contact:
Sue Munro (Project Manager) by email sue.munro@nature.scot
Sharon Cunningham by email: Sharon.cunningham@nature.scot
Penny Martin by email: penny.martin@nature.scot
The CPD Award in Computing Studies for Teachers
The CPD award in Computing Studies for teachers was created for primary teachers and secondary teachers for 1st and 2nd year pupils to give the confidence and skills to teach computing to pupils. More than 50% of our current cohort are primary school teachers. The course is open to any teacher with the relevant entry qualifications (degree and existing teaching qualification) who have an interest in computing.
There is normally a weekly lecture and support session that lasts for approx. an hour, or more if required, with further e mail support available. The sessions are certainly beneficial as they allow you to ask questions there and then. However, the course is designed to be taught when is convenient for all the students and all lectures and tutorial session are recorded for viewing at your leisure.
There is only one module delivered each semester with no time off required during the school day. The lectures are recorded for students unable to attend in person. All activity is carried out online the majority of which happens asynchronously. The modules have a notional 200 hours per module over the semester. It would depend on your previous experience on whether you needed all that time. If you were able to set aside a day at the weekend or a couple of evenings for study, you would not be far off what is required for achieving the award.
The Coding and Web technologies module will be delivered over 14 weeks and the semester will start Week beginning 29th August 2022 with an online induction with the course commencing week beginning 5th September 2022.
You can apply to join the course HERE or searching for the Computing Studies for Teachers CPD award at https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/ under courses.
The price is £215 per module, and this can be paid on a module-by-module basis. As the modules are 20 credits each if you were to do two in an academic year you may be eligible for SAAS funding. It is suggested contacting SAAS directly if you are planning to start next semester and confirm whether you would be eligible for funding.
The course does not carry any GTCS accreditation.
Please get in touch if you have any further questions
Schools Challenge for International Women in Engineering Day – 23rd June
The Civil and Environmental Engineers at Abertay University are running a video competition for INWED22 (International Women in Engineering Day – 23rd June). The challenge is open to students at Secondary Schools, Colleges, Universities and Graduates.
The challenge is to create a 2 minute video which highlights: a female engineer; a structure designed by a female engineer; &/or showcases the impact of the inventor or her innovation or how it could shape future developments. The winner will receive a £50 amazon voucher. The finalists and winner will be announced at an Abertay event on INWED day (23rd June).
Deadline for entries 20th June 2022.
Save the Pacific Northwest tree octopus activity
Welcome
We want to alert you to our very important activity this week: we want the learners of Scotland to help us save the Pacific Northwest tree octopus!
This website has lots of great info about the octopus and ways for you to help it:
Once you’ve read a bit more about the octopus – have a think about how you could use your digital literacy skills to find out more about it and use this info to create some posters, slides and websites to raise awareness of the octopus’ plight and help save it!
What next?
Hopefully, you spotted the clues that the tree octopus isn’t real pretty quickly and pointed this out to your teacher!
We think that by learning some of the skills used to make the fake info on this website, you’ll be better prepared to spot other info like this and know how to check it for accuracy.
We want you to create your own fake animal awareness campaign. You’ll need to think of an animal and then imagine it living in a biome, or habitat, that isn’t it’s natural home… like a mountain-dwelling narwhal or Arctic elephant!
Then you’ll need some facts that sound believable, even though they’re not true – so things like what your imaginary animal eats, where it sleeps and how big it is.
Finally, you’ll create some online content, maybe using slides, websites, blogs or even a video.
You can share these with us on twitter: @DigiLearnScot
Activity 1 – fact finding and note making
- Use your web browser to find out three (or more) facts about an animal
- Then pick a biome it wouldn’t normally live in and find out three facts about that place and how animals normally survive there
- Make notes of this info as you go – it’ll come in handy later
teachers might want to use some of these ideas to expand upon the features of fake news and unreliable sources:
Digital Media Literacy: The Blur Between Facts and Opinions in the Media (gcfglobal.org)
Activity 2 – photo manipulation
The photos on the octopus site were faked and so are many other photos online and in newspapers and magazines too.
Read this page to find out more about manipulated photos
You don’t need fancy software to edit photos, here are some tips:
PowerPoint – remove background
Keynote – instant alpha
- Start with a background photo of the place your imaginary animal is going to live – add it to your app
- Then add the photo of your animal
- Now, use either the remove background in PowerPoint or instant alpha in Keynote, for example, to cut out any background on your animal picture
- It should now look like your animal lives in the place you have as the background
Here’s my mountain-dwelling narwhal from earlier:
Activity 3 – making fake news
You now have an imaginary animal, some facts about it and a photo proving its existence – now all you need to do is put it together and share it with the world to convince them of it’s existence!
You could have a look at these:
https://www.beano.com/games/random-animal-mash-up
https://switchzoo.com/newzoo/zoo.htm
There are lots of great tools for creating and sharing content online, here are just some of them:
Sway
We can’t wait to see your fake news imaginary animals on twitter!
ALL CREDIT FOR THE OCTOPUS CONTENT TO THE SITE’S OWNER: Save The Pacific Northwest Tree Octopus (zapatopi.net)
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