Author: Brian Clark

digital schools award

Digital Schools Award Scotland (DSAS)

Digital Schools Awards is a national awards scheme to promote, recognise and encourage a whole school approach to the use of digital technology in schools.

The Digital Schools Award Scotland (DSAS) programme helps schools assess progress and recognise excellence in the use of digital technology at nursery, primary, special education and secondary level while providing practical support and encouragement.

Discover how the digital schools award framework can support your setting to lead digital learning, teaching and assessment.

Back to Leadership and Awards

Learn more

DSAS Validation

Hear from one of the Digital Schools Award for Scotland validators, Catherine Cunningham share an overview of the purpose and structure of the award framework and criteria.  Catherine provides helpful advice and top tips from starting your journey in registering for the award through to the validation visit and what to expect.

Tullialan Nursery School, Fife

Hear from Amanda Sloper, DHT, share how the framework helped transform the culture and how digital is now embedded across the early level curriculum.

Fintry Primary, Dundee

Hear from Jayne Mays a class teacher and digital leader share her insights and top tips into how the DSAS framework transformed and supported practitioners to embed digital learning across the primary curriculum.  Jayne will also share how the school have continued to provide innovate digital learning experiences for all their learners.

Braes High, Falkirk

tech she can

TechSheCan – Resources and Industry Partners

About Tech She Can

At Tech She Can, the tech careers charity with member organisations spanning +40 sectors, we’re on a mission to increase the number of women and girls pursuing tech careers. We work at the very beginning, nurturing and inspiring the future talent pipeline, investing in the long-term with our free schools’ programme and at the later stages too, plugging the immediate skills gap.

 

About Tech We Can

Our Tech We Can resources have inspired tens of thousands of children to consider a future career in technology. We’re particularly focused on reaching underrepresented groups, and children and young people in social mobility ‘cold spots’ across the UK.

Through our live assemblies and learning materials, children explore the latest technologies, find out about the breadth of careers in tech and discover how these jobs link to their own passions and interests. We offer:

  • Downloadable Lesson packs for teachers or parents to use at home or in the classroom, with no registration or log-in;
  • Cross-curricular On-demand lessons for age +8yrs;
  • Award-winning Animated lessons for age +5yrs;
  • Live Assemblies – sign up to our newsletter or follow us on social media for updates;
  • Tech We Can Champions, our national volunteer scheme, placing real-life tech role models in classrooms across the UK. Request a Champion visit here

Searching with Digital

Searching with Digital – learner digital literacy theme

This page outlines some of the key digital literacy skills and knowledge that learners require for finding and evaluating information. This includes being able to use effective search terms, identifying and using reliable and trustworthy sources and evaluating the reliability of the information.

go to learner digital literacy

Digital Learner diagram (landscape)

Where to start

Learners should be able to:

  • find, evaluate and store or retrieve information online

See more information on this in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

Finding information

search skills

Information literacy

“The ability to think critically and make balanced judgements about any information we find and use. It empowers us as citizens to reach and express informed views and to engage fully with society.” – CILIP Information Literacy Group

 

go to the Cyber Toolkit for advice and guidance on Information Literacy

What next?

There are further examples and contexts in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

Literacy and English

reading skills

reading for understanding

Reading on a screen

alex quigley and note-making

Evaluate a text

youtube screenign shorts activity

Microsoft Search Coach tool

For teachers using Microsoft Teams, the Search Coach tool is useful to evaluate search results; each result in a search has a ‘reliability score’ that informs learners of the validity of the source: Microsoft Search Coach

 

 

Creativity with Digital

Creativity with Digital – learner digital literacy theme

This page outlines some of the applications of digital literacy skills and knowledge that learners could harness in creative ways to reimagine, create and share their ideas. This ranges from being able to use devices and platforms to draw, take photo, video or audio, to pulling this together when creating new texts and multimedia content.

go to learner digital literacy

Where to start

Learners should be able to:

  • use digital devices and platforms to communicate, collaborate and share information online
  • find, manage and store digital information and content securely

See more information on this in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

Creativity in Scotland

Creativity is a process that generates ideas which have ​value to the individual and to society. ​

It involves looking at familiar things with a fresh eye, examining problems with an open mind, making connections, learning from mistakes and using imagination to explore new possibilities.

​​

Scotland’s Creative Learning Plan | Creative Scotland

creativity-professional-guide-gtcs.pdf

Generic digital skills that support creativity

 

 

How to Take Photos on Your Phone

BBC Scotland – The L.A.B Scotland, How to Film on Your Phone

How to Film on Phone or Tablet

Top tips for recording audio on a phone or tablet

How to Record Sound

go to the L.A.B. at BBC Scotland for more ideas

Digital skills for supporting creativity on iPad

 

 

 

Everyone Can Create is a book of activities to introduce your learners to drawing, taking photos, capturing video and making music on iPad.

go to Everyone Can Create

Although these resources are developed for the iPad there are useful ideas and examples that could be transferred to other devices and platforms:

Why use photography in the classroom? on Apple Books
Why use Podcasting in the Classroom on Apple Books
Doodle-a-Day on Apple Books

Creative design tutorials

Free Creativity & Design Tutorials at GCFGlobal

What next?

There are further examples and contexts in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

Planning more creative learning

Creativity in your classroom

 

What is Bloom’s Digital Taxonomy? – YouTube

What is a text?

 

 

 

Although it can be considered an old document, the literacy and English principles and practice paper contains a very forward-thinking list of what can be considered a text. How many of these do you use for learners to read or write? Are they still writing in jotters or writing for purpose and an audience with digital tools?

Literacy and English: Principles and practice (education.gov.scot)

Creative contexts, projects and resources

Tech She Can – how creative industries use digtial skills

tech she can

 

 

 

 

 

Examples of where digital technology is being developed in a range of industries. Help your learners see a wider world of careers and imagine creative applications of some of these roles.
Lesson packs – TechSheCan

Make it Happen app development

make it happen

 

 

 

 

 

Apps don’t start with coding – they start with an idea. Make it Happen have resources, training and challenges to help teachers and learners explore the app development process. Can your learners identify a gap in the market? A problem that needs fixed?

Make It Happen Club

Daydream Believers creativity projects and resources

daydream believers logo

Unleash Creativity with Daydream Believers Resources – Daydream Believers

Film-making and film literacy

Screening Shorts

 

Film literacy skills and knowledge are critical to developing film-making. Move your learners beyond capturing video and into planning, shooting and producing films of their own. Screening Shorts provides short films to watch as texts and learn about how they were written. The films and resources are provided by Film Scotland who also offer learnign on film education.
Screening Shorts

BBC L.A.B. guides and projects

BBC Scotland – The L.A.B Scotland

Learning with Digital

Learning with Digital – learner digital literacy theme

 

This page outlines some of the key digital literacy skills and knowledge that learners could make effective use of in the classroom. This ranges from being able to upload, share and collaborate on platforms like Teams and Classroom to using platforms like SeeSaw and Showbie to journal and share their learning.

Back to learner digital literacy 

Digital Learner diagram (landscape)

 

Where to start

Learners should be able to:

  • use digital devices and platforms to communicate, collaborate and share information online
  • find, manage and store digital information and content securely

See more information on this in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

Using Glow to communicate, collobarate and store information

Glow provides access to Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace productivity suites allowing learners to practice and develop the skills and knowledge required to use these for learning, life and work.

Support for teachers with the fundamentals of these platforms can be found on the Teacher Digital Skills page:
go to Teacher Digital Skills page

What skills and knowledge should I start with?

Teachers should consider creating a ‘pencil case’ of essential tools they expect learners to use in the daily or weekly course of learning. This will reduce the choice overload (Baymer and Thomson, 2015) of apps and the cognitive load (TES/EEF, 2023) of content knowledge on learners. An example of this might be:

  • Teams for distributing learning
  • Whiteboard to collaborate and share ideas with peers
  • Stream to screen record a demonstration of a skill for teacher feedback or self-assessment
  • OneDrive to create and store documents, such as Word or PowerPoint
  • Immersive Reader screen read-aloud feature to support learners with reading on screen

What next?

There are further examples and contexts in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

Communication

bbc bitesize

The first aspect to consider is how learners can use Glow and other online platforms to connect, contact and communicate with each other. Are they using email, direct messaging or video calls? How are these skills useful in learning, life and work?

What are digital communication systems? – BBC Bitesize

go to Cyber Toolkit for advice and guidance on communication

Collaboration

tech she can

 

 

 

 

 

Using cloud drives, such as OneDrive (Microsoft) and Drive (Google), learners can create and share content with peers, teachers and even learners in other schools or countries. Not only can they be shared, they can be co-created and edited at the same time on multiple computers at once! How is this useful for life, learning and work?

Collaborating using IT – BBC Bitesize

Tech She Can has a short video explaining how cloud computing works for younger learners:

Tech for Katie and Tex explore the cloud (techshecan.org)

Literacy & English

When planning learning around the functional tools in Glow, it is worth considering their purpose and application. Text-based documents, such as Word, Docs, PowerPoint and Slides might lend themselves to Literacy & English Es and Os:

  • When creating documents (writing a text) consider the impact of layout and presentation 
  • Make use of lettering, graphics and other features to engage readers

Typing is a useful, but not essential, skill in modern digital literacy. Teachers might plan some typing practice as part of this functional suite of learning in order to enable learners to use them more effectively:

Dance Mat Typing for 7 – 11 year olds – BBC Bitesize

go to the Literacy Trust website for more examples and information

Numeracy & mathematics

numeracy and maths experiences and outcomes

When planning learning around the functional tools in Glow, it is worth considering their purpose and application. Text-based documents, such as Excel and Sheets might lend themselves to numeracy & Mathematics: 

  • When displaying data, consider the use of spreadsheets, graphs or tables to create clear visual representations 

Creating and understanding charts and graphs – BBC Bitesize

 go to the Joint Mathematical Council report on digital tools for maths

Microsoft and Google app tutorials

These two collections of tutorials may support teachers develop skills with the Microsoft and Google suites of apps:

go to the free Microsoft Office Tutorials at GCFGlobal

 

go to the free Google Tutorials at GCFGlobal

Living with Digital

Living with Digital – learner digital literacy theme

This page outlines the digital literacy skills and knowledge that learners should have to participate fully in the modern world. This ranges from awareness of digital devices, platforms and services and how they affect our lives to being able to troubleshoot common issues with technology. 

Back to learner digital literacy

Digital Learner diagram (landscape)

Where to start

Learners should be able to:

  • register and apply for services, buy and sell goods and services, and administer and manage transactions online
  • find solutions to problems using digital tools and online services
  • stay safe, legal and confident online.

See more information on this in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

setup and use accounts

accoutns

go to Cyber Toolkit for advice and guidance on setting up accounts

buying online

transactions

go to Cyber Toolkit for advice and guidance on online spending

troubleshooting

 

troubleshooting

accessibility

accessibility

safe and legal

safe and legal
Cyber Toolkit for Teachers – DigiLearn (glowscotland.org.uk)

What next?

Learners’ own digital literacy skills and knowledge  Essential Digital Skills (checkup.scot)

Essential digital skills – SCVO

 

There are further examples and contexts in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

Digital affecting the world around us

Scotland: a digital nation

chnaging nation scottish government policy 2021

“Scotland’s future will be forged in a digital world. It’s a world in which data and digital technologies are transforming every element of our nation and our lives – people, place, economy and government.”
(Scottish Government, 2021)

It might be worth exploring some of the features of this policy with learners and considering the impact of an evermore digital world.

How technology is shaping the world

tech she can

After learning about what computers and digital technology is, and how they work, learners could investigate how technology is used in a range of industries. These resources from Tech She Can are free to use and easily adapted to suit different ages and stages:

Lesson packs – TechSheCan

 

Environmental impact of technology use

bbc bitesize

 

 

 

 

All of the devices and technology we use has two obvious environmental impacts – the raw materials to make (which then need recycled again) and the energy to power them. There are lots of activities and lesson ideas on this page about Sustainability that could be linked into learning about device manufacture, energy consumption and eventual disposal.
Could your learners reimagine or improve this cycle?

2nd level Learning for Sustainability – BBC Bitesize

This page on the BBC Future site has some fascinating reading with lots of information and statistics for teachers. Do you know the CO2 emissions of sending emails and direct messages or watching a video on YouTube? There’s facts and figures that could be used to create challenges for learners to consider and solve:

 Why your internet habits are not as clean as you think – BBC Future

 

Computers, devices and apps

What is computing science?

go to the Digilearn Computing Science pages

What are computers?

bbc bitesize

Without going too far into Computing Science (a specific Technologies organiser within CfE) it is important to understand the basics of how computers and other digital devices work.

These BBC Bitesize pages are a great place to start:
What is a computer system? – BBC Bitesize (first level)
What is the internet? – BBC Bitesize (first level)
Input and output – BBC Teach (second level) 
Computer networks – BBC Teach (second level)

 

What are apps and how do they work?

Make it Happen

App design challenge

Apps for Good

Living with Digital

Living with Digital – learner digital literacy theme

This page outlines the digital literacy skills and knowledge that learners should have to participate fully in the modern world. This ranges from awareness of digital devices, platforms and services and how they affect our lives to being able to troubleshoot common issues with technology. 

Back to learner digital literacy

Digital Learner diagram (landscape)

Where to start

Learners should be able to:

  • register and apply for services, buy and sell goods and services, and administer and manage transactions online
  • find solutions to problems using digital tools and online services
  • stay safe, legal and confident online.

See more information on this in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

setup and use accounts

accoutns

go to Cyber Toolkit for advice and guidance on setting up accounts

buying online

transactions

go to Cyber Toolkit for advice and guidance on online spending

troubleshooting

 

troubleshooting

accessibility

accessibility

safe and legal

safe and legal
Cyber Toolkit for Teachers – DigiLearn (glowscotland.org.uk)

What next?

Learners’ own digital literacy skills and knowledge  Essential Digital Skills (checkup.scot)

Essential digital skills – SCVO

 

There are further examples and contexts in the accordion menus below (click to expand the blue bars):

Digital affecting the world around us

Scotland: a digital nation

chnaging nation scottish government policy 2021

“Scotland’s future will be forged in a digital world. It’s a world in which data and digital technologies are transforming every element of our nation and our lives – people, place, economy and government.”
(Scottish Government, 2021)

It might be worth exploring some of the features of this policy with learners and considering the impact of an evermore digital world.

How technology is shaping the world

tech she can

After learning about what computers and digital technology is, and how they work, learners could investigate how technology is used in a range of industries. These resources from Tech She Can are free to use and easily adapted to suit different ages and stages:

Lesson packs – TechSheCan

 

Environmental impact of technology use

bbc bitesize

 

 

 

 

All of the devices and technology we use has two obvious environmental impacts – the raw materials to make (which then need recycled again) and the energy to power them. There are lots of activities and lesson ideas on this page about Sustainability that could be linked into learning about device manufacture, energy consumption and eventual disposal.
Could your learners reimagine or improve this cycle?

2nd level Learning for Sustainability – BBC Bitesize

This page on the BBC Future site has some fascinating reading with lots of information and statistics for teachers. Do you know the CO2 emissions of sending emails and direct messages or watching a video on YouTube? There’s facts and figures that could be used to create challenges for learners to consider and solve:

 Why your internet habits are not as clean as you think – BBC Future

 

Computers, devices and apps

What is computing science?

go to the Digilearn Computing Science pages

What are computers?

bbc bitesize

Without going too far into Computing Science (a specific Technologies organiser within CfE) it is important to understand the basics of how computers and other digital devices work.

These BBC Bitesize pages are a great place to start:
What is a computer system? – BBC Bitesize (first level)
What is the internet? – BBC Bitesize (first level)
Input and output – BBC Teach (second level) 
Computer networks – BBC Teach (second level)

 

What are apps and how do they work?

Make it Happen

App design challenge

Apps for Good

digital pencil case webinar 11 may 4pm

11 May 16:00, Developing Your Learners’ Digital ‘Pencil Case’

This professional learning will help teachers identify the Learning with Digital skills and knowledge of functional apps that learners will use to access, undertake and evidence learning. Having the skills and confidence to use these apps regularly will empower learners to apply this learning across other curricular areas.

Sign up with this link to EventBrite: Sign up now!

Digital Learner diagram (landscape)

 

Attendees will get an overview of the revised digital literacy planning support and its themes and focusing on the Learning with Digital theme. They will identify the digital literacy skills, and the corresponding apps, that they will require learners to use across the school year.

As a result teachers will have a clear picture of the skills they will require learners to have, examples of planning and resources for teaching these skills and then be able to embed these across the curriculum.