End of Year – Glow and Digital Learning Platforms Information

As the end of the academic year draws closer, now seems like a good time to remind Glow users of some important information regarding their accounts, information management and data protection.

All staff

  • Leaving MS Teams and Google Classrooms you don’t want to be a member of –  Leave the team, don’t Delete it.  Click here for instructions on Teams and here for Google Classroom.  If you delete a team, you are not just deleting it from your account, you are deleting it for everyone.  Deleted Google Classrooms cannot be restored.  Deleted Microsoft Teams can be restored by RM Unify for a very limited period after the deletion.  They need the exact Team name along with other details such as deleted time/date and Glow usernames of the Team owners.  If you are the last owner to leave the Team/Google Classroom please do consider deleting it as orphaned Teams will automatically select a new owner which could be a learner.
  • Learners can be removed from the Team or Classroom if you wish to use them again for the new academic year; however, you may prefer to create a new Team or Classroom.  For details on how to copy existing Teams click here and here for Google Classrooms.  Please not that there are differences between Teams and google Classroom in what is copied to the new space.
  • Archive MS Teams and Google Classrooms that are no longer needed.  Only delete when you are sure you will never use it again.  Remember you can reuse posts and assignments you have created in your new Teams/Classrooms.   Click here for instructions for Teams and here for Google Classroom.
  • If you intend to use your existing Teams or Google Classrooms again in the new year you may wish to mute all learners over the summer to ensure there are no unmonitored posts or comments added to the team during the summer holidays.  Click here for guidance on muting in Teams and here for Google Classroom.
  • Cleanse data from any other systems where learner data has been stored as per the retention policy or guidance provided when a new product is signed off for use.  Personal data should either be deleted or anonymised as appropriate for the system in question.

Glow Accounts

Staff Accounts

Staff moving to another school, role or local authority

If you are the sole owner or administrator of any of the below, you should transfer ownership to another Glow staff user(s) before you leave your post.  It is always best practice to have more than 1 owner/administrator.

        • MS Teams and Google Classrooms
        • Glow Blogs
        • Google Sites
        • SharePoint sites
        • Stream video channels
        • MS or Google Forms and Surveys

Moving to another School in Moray

Your Glow account will move to your new school however it will be inactive from the end date in your old school until the start date in your new school.  If you will need access over the summer, you should request a grace period via missupport@moray.gov.uk.

Moving to another Local Authority 

Staff Glow accounts cannot be transferred to another LA.  You will get a new Glow account in your new LA.  Your existing Glow account will be inactive from the end date in your old school.  If you will need access over the summer, you should request a grace period via missupport@moray.gov.uk.  Also, refer to Glow Connect website and scroll to section “Content that is associated with your account and will be deleted” to ensure you back up everything you require to keep before your account is deleted.

Moving to a new role in Moray

Teaching and Non-Teaching SEEMiS generated Glow accounts cannot be transferred to a non-school based establishment in Glow.  If you are taking up a role in Moray outside of a school e.g. in a supporting Education Team based in HQ, Beechbrae, etc. a new Glow account will be required.  School based Glow accounts are generated via your record in SEEMiS and when a leaving date is added your Glow account will be closed.  As per the advice above back-up anything you do not wish to lose and transfer ownership of Teams, Blogs, Google Sites etc.  New Glow accounts for non-school based staff should be requested from MIS Support.

NQT Glow accounts

Information specific to NQTs has been emailed directly to all NQTs.

Learner Accounts

Senior Secondary leavers

Glow accounts will be deleted after a leaving/closure date is added to their record in SEEMiS.  Any work they wish to retain should be downloaded and any systems using their Glow email account should be updated, for example College applications.

P7 learners going to S1

Learners Glow accounts will become inactive from their end date in SEEMiS in primary school (last day of school) until their start date in SEEMiS in their secondary school.  If they will need access to Glow over the summer you should request a grace period for them via missupport@moray.gov.uk.

Any learner moving to another school within or out with the Local Authority

Learners Glow accounts will be transferred with them.  However, learners Glow accounts will become inactive from their end date in SEEMiS in their current school until their start date in SEEMiS in their new school.  If they will need access to Glow over the summer you should request a grace period for them via missupport@moray.gov.uk.

National Password Reset

The national Glow password for all Learner accounts will take place from 9th August and 28th August for staff Glow accounts.  It can take a couple of days from the starting date for all users to be prompted to change their password.  You can find tip on how to create a secure password – here.

Accessing Glow Accounts outside the UK

If staff or learners are planning on accessing Glow outside of the UK over the summer break, please contact the Digital Learning Team to request more details on to ensure your access is not revoked as part of the RM Unify security checks.

Information Management

Data Protection – Glow

Glow provides educators and learners access to the most up to date industry standard digital tools and cloud storage which can be accessed on any internet enabled device.  It also provides them access to an email account to facilitate their learning.  Glow is the perfect place to store non-sensitive learning and teaching materials; however not all documents, information or email communications are appropriate to be stored, shared or sent through Glow.  Educators can find more information on the types of information which can be stored safely in Glow – here.

The end of the year is good time to remind learners about the appropriate use of Glow and what they should be storing, both in terms of sensitive information and copyright.

Sensitive or confidential information should only be stored in the secure school shared drive which is part of the Moray Council network.  Educators may use their Glow email to communicate with learners, but for more sensitive content should only be emailed via the moray-edunet.gov.uk address as it has higher levels of encryption.

To ensure that both Educators and Learners use Glow in a positive, safe and responsible way the Glow community rules can be reviewed – here.

Data Protection – General

Regular data cleansing in any system is vital to ensure that the fundamental tenets of data protection are adhered to.  The start or end of a term or year is a natural point at which to conduct these reviews.  Further information on the Moray Council Data Protection processes can be found – here.

Staff are also encouraged to complete the Moray: Data Protection (inc. GDPR) e-learning course on CLIVE, the council’s online learning management system.  More details on CLIVE and details on how to access the system can be found – here.

We have put together an end of year checklist to help guide you through the tasks detailed above –  click here.

If you have any questions on the above please contact learntech@moray.gov.uk or attend the CPD session we have scheduled on 5th June at 4pm (places can be booked on CPD Manager).

National Glow Password Reset for Learners – 9th August

From 9th August all learners in Scotland will be required to change their Glow password. This is an annual process to ensure the security of Glow accounts. 

The process will start from Friday 9th August to ensure that all learners returning to school after the summer holidays will be required to update their Glow password.  In Moray the national password reset will fall a few days before learners return to school.  Learners logging into Glow following the reset will be asked to create a new password.

We would like to encourage everyone when they are updating their password to review  the Glow Community Rules .

When setting up a new password it is vital to remember – Be secure: always keep your Glow password to yourself and remember to log out of Glow when you are no longer using it. 

The Digital Learning Team recommend using the Three Random Words method to select a new password.  You can find Password Guidance on Glow Connect to help stay safer online and to find out what makes a strong password when using Glow.   

Staff should be aware that if they are supporting learners in the classroom to choose a strong/new password that the password should be unique to each learner.   We would encourage learners to change their password in school, however we are aware that some learners may be at home, with the password change being supported by parents/carers. We would ask that parents/carers do not access Glow directly. 

The use of password grids like the one below could be helpful in assisting younger learners to chose a password.

When prompted to choose a new password there is a minimum requirement and a password rating is displayed to reflect this. The Change Password button will only be enabled when the minimum requirement for this account type is met.  A full guide on how to change your Glow password can be accessed here-  Glow Password Change Guidance

Any issues with changing passwords should be directed in the first instance to your schools Glow Administrator.

The national staff account password reset is currently scheduled to take place on 28th August, with further details being provided nearer the time.

Safer School Scotland App – Summer Reminder

As the summer holidays approach the Digital Learning Team would like to remind all our educators and learners in Moray about the brilliant resources available to them through the Safer Schools Scotland app.  While we have our fingers crossed for good weather so everyone can get out and enjoy everything Moray has to offer, we know that for some the holidays mean they may be spending more time online and need some support and guidance to make their online experience as positive as possible.

The Safer Schools Scotland App is a free app for mobile or tablet devices which provides school communities with up to date digital safeguarding and online safety information.  Each school has their own bespoke version of the app with their own school’s details and join codes.  The version of the app a user sees is based on their role – Learners, Teacher, Safe Guarding Lead or Parent/Guardian and has appropriate content for each role.  Schools can contact the Digital Learning Team for details of their schools join codes and log in details if required.

In addition to the Safer Schools Scotland app the we also like to highlight two other free resources from Ineqe Safeguarding Group the which families can access for guidance and support –

    • Safety Centre – contains guides on popular app, reporting/blocking content and how to use safety and privacy setting on different types of devices.
    • Home Learning Hub – library of resources, articles and guides on how to help children and young people be safer online.

All the resources listed above are constantly monitored and updated to reflect changes in the online landscape, emerging trends and to highlight credible risks.

Microsoft Office Desktop Apps Downloads via Glow

If you have previously downloaded Microsoft 365 Pro to your personal laptop/computer via the ‘Download Office Now’ Tile in Glow and signed in with your Glow credential this change from Microsoft will impact you.

Glow’s Office A1 Plus licenses used to allow Glow users to download and/or activate the Microsoft Office suite for free; however Microsoft are implementing some license changes that will impact this functionality.

From the 1st August 2024 users will no longer be able to download the desktop applications through their Glow account.

Users will not be able to activate products such as Word, Excel or PowerPoint desktop apps using their Glow M365 credentials.  Please note that if you have previously downloaded and activated Microsoft Desktop Apps, they will no longer work with your Glow account after this date.

This is a change in Microsoft licensing that affects all Glow users, both staff and learners, and may impact home devices as well if the user’s Glow account has been used to download or log into Microsoft applications.

This licensing change will not affect access to Microsoft 365 web applications, so you will still be able to access Word, Excel and PowerPoint through your web browser.  The Microsoft Team app or and and Microsoft 365 mobile apps you have downloaded will also not be affected.

For more details on the changes to our Glow licenses and the actions you can take please go to the Glow support page – HERE.

Micro:bit Playground Survey

You may have seen that the micro:bit Foundation have launched a ‘Playground Survey’ for the summer term. This is part of their ‘next-gen’ roll out of 30 micro:bits to schools across the UK and has featured in CBBC content, so you or your learners may have already seen this.

The lesson resources give children the skills and code to collect data in a survey of their playgrounds (temperature, biodiversity, area and physical activity). There is also an opportunity to upload the data to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) who will publish the findings in Autumn (We have a DPIA in place so you are free to upload this if you wish).

You will find the resources HERE with videos, lesson plans, worksheets and code. They are quite self-explanatory. You can make it a big project over several weeks or do it in an afternoon by just downloading the appropriate programs to collect the information.

Due to my work as a micro:bit Champion over the past couple of years I’ve been asked to be involved in PR for the project. This may involve education media visiting some schools to highlight the great work with micro:bits happening in Moray. So do let me know if you plan to take part in the survey and I may reach out when I have more info.

Any support/questions as always, just reach out to learntech@moray.gov.uk 

 

Notes

Just to note that for the ‘Tracking our Physical Activity’ lesson – You won’t be able to open the file directly from the micro:bit but need to copy this to the learner’s drive (U) and then it should open fine. The machine learning tool may be hit or miss as it requires the micro:bit to pair but with perseverance I’ve tested it to work.

New Teams Default in Glow

From 26th February 2024, RM Unify are enabling New Teams as the default within Glow. This will allow users to continue to familiarise themselves with the New Teams interface in advance of the retiral of Classic Teams at the end of March 2024.

Users will still have the option to revert back to Classic Teams between 26th February 2024 and end of March 2024; however as Classic Teams will no longer be available after March 2024 we would encourage all Glow users to explore New Teams as it will be what all users will be utilising moving forward.

Click here for more details on New Teams read our previous Teams post.  Or to see the differences in functionality between Classic Teams and New Team click – here

New Teams rolling out in Glow from 7th Dec 2023

The new Teams experience will be rolling out in Glow from 7th December 2023 for all staff and learners to try before it becomes the default experience when Microsoft retire the current ‘classic Teams’ in mid May 2024.  The changes will be rolling out on the desktop app and for the web client (Edge and Chrome).  Users should start to see the option to switch to new Teams within a few days as a significant update rollout take time across the whole of Glow.

New Teams has many additional benefits including –

  • The ability to easily switch between Microsoft accounts (e.g. a local authority M365 account and a Glow account) allowing more seamless collaboration and less disruption. This is referred to by Microsoft as Multi Tenant Multi Account (MTMA)
  • Less resource intensive
  • Updates such as new channels and chat experience, ability to see raised hands and participants while presenting in a Teams meeting and a new look based on system settings e.g. dark mode or other high contrast settings

Switch to new Teams using the toggle in the top left area of the Teams App.

You can switch back to ‘classic Team’ up until mid May 2024 by visiting the three-dots menu in the top right corner of your Teams window, then toggle the New Teams switch to off. New Teams application will close the Teams classic will open.

For more information and to view a video run-through of all the new Teams functionality visit the Glow Connect help page – HERE

Google Jamboard is winding down

Google Jamboard will no longer be available after 31st December 2024.  This will be across across Web, iOS, Android, and Google Meet devices, internationally, and is not Glow specific.  Google have made this decision following feedback from customers that other whiteboarding tools have grown in capability and they have chosen to focus their resources on core content collaboration across Docs, Sheets, and Slides.

Timeline for the Jamboard wind down:

Until 1st October 2024 – Your Jamboard device and application will continue to function normally.

Starting 1st October 2024 – The Jamboard app will become view-only. You’ll no longer be able to create new or edit existing Jams on any platform, including the web, iPhone, iPad and Android.

After 31st December 2024 – You’ll no longer be able to access the Jamboard app or your Jam files.

Google will be working with other digital whiteboard suppliers on the migration of existing Jams onto these alternative platforms; however currently these platforms are subscription based.  Google have suggested Google Slides or Google Drawings may be an alternative option to Jamboard in some situations

More details and a timeline can be found on the Glow connect website – HERE.

Please note that some of the products list on the Glow Connect or Google support pages are not approved for use in Moray and a DPIA would be required prior to use/account creation.

Changes to OneDrive storage in Glow

Microsoft recently announced changes in storage allocation on their A1 Education license, which is the license all users have through their Glow account. As of February 1st, 2024, users will be restricted to a maximum of 100Gb storage within their individual OneDrive.  This is a reduction from the 1TB currently available in Glow.  The vast majority of Moray users will be unaffected by this change as they are not using anywhere near 100Gb of storage.

Education Scotland have provided the Moray Digital Learning Team with a list of accounts whose OneDrive storage exceed these new limits, as well as users that are close to this limit (i.e. those with storage space of 90Gb and over).  We will be contacting these account holders individually.

All Glow users are encouraged to undertake regular housekeeping of their cloud storage to ensure they remain with the limits. These housekeeping tasks can range from, but are not limited to

  • Deleting unwanted / unused files
  • Delete unwanted / unused versions
  • Empty Recycle bin
  • If the material is still required, consider storing in an alternative location like G Drive
  • To learn how to review and delete large files in OneDrive, go to this site.

Tips For End Users

  • How to view your storage usage – Sign into OneDrive on the web. Review storage usage on the bottom left corner.
  • Clean up your files – Click the storage amount used and view the largest files in your OneDrive you may want to delete to free up space. After deleting the files, empty the recycle bin.

Following the licensing change in February 2024 users will receive warning notifications when approaching the storage limit. At 100% capacity, the user’s OneDrive will be limited to read-only access. Users won’t be able to upload, edit or sync new files to OneDrive but existing files will remain read-only

Computing Science Scotland Week – Nov 6th – Nov 10th 2023

Join Education Scotland and their partners to celebrate Computing Science Scotland Week – Monday 6th – Friday 10th November 2023 with a series of live lessons exploring different aspects of Computing Science.

During the week you and your learners can dive into Computing and learn new skills with practical code and create a long sessions as well as some unplugged activities broadly suitable for BGE levels 2/3.

Topics covered during this week include

  • Data Science
  • Coding
  • Design
  • Prototyping
  • Physical Computing

 Live Lesson Schedule

Most of the live lessons will take place via a Team in Glow; however if you are unable to join the Glow team then you can still access the live lesson via direct link but won’t have access to chat.

More information about the activities and partners contributing to #CSScotland23 can be found – HERE.

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