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.

PRT Glow accounts

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

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 11th August and 25th 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 digilearnmoray@moray.gov.uk

I am not a robot

The Digital Learning Team have been getting reports recently of educators and learners getting the following reCAPTCHA message when using Google as their search engine.

reCAPTCHA is a free service from Google that helps protect users from spam and abuse. A “CAPTCHA” is a Turing test to tell human and bots apart. It is easy for humans to solve, but hard for “bots” and other malicious software to figure out.

The reCAPTCHA message is generated when  Google notices unusual traffic from your computer network.  This activity could be anywhere on the Moray Council network, so not necessarily in your school or classroom.  The message will usually stop 24 to 48 hours after Google has established the risk has been removed.

Here are some suggestions to allow you to continue with your online activity –

    • Use an alternative search engine – Bing, Yahoo etc.
      • Type the search engine address directly into the address bar at the top of the Chrome browser, for example bing.com
    • If you know the website address you are trying to access type the address  directly into the address bar.
      • For frequently visited sites add them to your bookmarks
    • Complete the Turning test to prove you are not a robot!

Maddie is Online – digital citizenship cartoon series

‘Maddie is Online’ is an education cartoon series and classroom resources which focuses on digital citizenship skills for 9 to 12 year olds.  Developed by  Dr Konstantina Martzoukou, Teaching Excellence Fellow, at Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen, it is free resource focusing on developing skills to safely navigate online spaces.

Currently there are three series available focusing on –

Each series comprises of short videos playing out a common scenarios for young people online and the different ways it can be tackled.  Accompanying class resources and lesson plans can be found on the Maddie is Online blog – HERE

The project has been funded by the Scottish Library and Information Council, the Scottish Government with the support of Digital Xtra Fund and the Robert Gordon University Innovation Accelerator.

New – Search Coach from Microsoft

Hand, Magnifying Glass, Earth, Globe

Microsoft Education announced a suite of new tools at their ‘Reimagine Education’ event on Thursday. To see the full announcement visit the recording page HERE. The new tools include a new category called ‘learning accelerators’ – in addition to Reading Progress and Coach which is already available. There will be Math, Search and Speaker Progress and Coach.

Most of these tools will not be available until later in the year. However one very useful tool is now available to be added to all class teams. It is called ‘Search Coach’ and it is essentially a search engine designed to teach learners the important skills of information literacy in a safe way.

It is the perfect place to show learners how to research effectively by giving hints about their search queries, allowing them to filter by domain, date and file type. As an educator you can also customise the results learners receive.

Installing Search Coach (instructions from Microsoft.com)

Any class team owner in Microsoft Teams for Education can install Search Coach today!

  1. From the general channel of any class, select +.
  2. Search for and select Search Coach.
  3. Select Add then select Save. 
  4. Search Coach will appear as a tab app in your class. Repeat these steps for any additional classes you want students to have Search Coach in.
thumbnail image 1 captioned Select "+" to open the Teams App Catalog

More information about search coach can be found HERE. There is also a Microsoft Learn Course available HERE.

Copyright Guidance for Moray Educators

Storage and publishing of Copyright Material in Glow – action required

Education Scotland have reported that they have received concerns from publishers and content providers that some Glow users in Scotland may have contravened copyright legislation by storing or publishing non-licensed materials through Glow.  This included the posting entire books on publicly available  school websites/social media.  While it is recognised this was done with the best of intentions to assist in teaching and learning during lockdowns it does contravene copyright regulations and should be removed immediately.  The Digital Learning Team would suggest that all schools check what is currently published on their School website or other public facing communication channels.

Please be aware copy written materials should never be published or shared on School websites, Glow blogs, Google Sites or social media without a license or permission to do so.  Unlicensed materials should not be stored in Glow if they fall outside of the fair dealing requirements which allow extracts of licensed material to be used for “giving or receiving instruction”.

Back ground information and Guidance

Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection that applies to original literary, dramatic, musical and artistic works, as well as layouts of published works, sound recordings, film and broadcast.

While there are some copy right exceptions for educational instruction, these are fully detailed below, it is worth noting that this does not provide teachers or learners with carte blanche to use copy right materials without a license.

A teacher or learner can use an extract of a copyright work for the purpose of “giving or receiving instruction”, with full attribution of the original source.  This includes videos, images, songs and printed works issued in classrooms, during online learning or as part of the assessment process.

The use of copyright material within education should be defensible by meeting the following ‘fair dealing’ requirements set out in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988

  • relevant to the topic under discussion (not merely decorative)
  • fully attributed
  • a ‘reasonable’ amount
  • for a limited audience (not published on the open web)
  • for a limited time
  • with no impact on the rights-holder’s market —  if you are copying from a published work

Tips

Teaching Exceptions as listed on https://www.gov.uk

Several exceptions allow copyright works to be used for educational purposes, such as:

  • The copying of works in any medium as long as the use is solely to illustrate a point, it is not done for commercial purposes, it is accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement, and the use is fair dealing. This means minor uses, such as displaying a few lines of poetry on an interactive whiteboard, are permitted, but uses which would undermine sales of teaching materials are not
  • Performing, playing or showing copyright works in a school, university or other educational establishment for educational purposes. However, it only applies if the audience is limited to teachers, pupils and others directly connected with the activities of the establishment. It will not generally apply if parents are in the audience. Examples of this are showing a video for English or drama lessons and the teaching of music. It is unlikely to include the playing of a video during a wet playtime purely to amuse the children
  • Recording a TV programme or radio broadcast for non-commercial educational purposes in an educational establishment, provided there is no licensing scheme in place. Generally a licence will be required from the Educational Recording Agency
  • Making copies by using a photocopier, or similar device on behalf of an educational establishment for the purpose of non-commercial instruction, provided that there is no licensing scheme in place. Generally a licence will be required from the Copyright Licensing Agency

Changing Role – staff Glow account reminder

The Digital Learning Team and MIS Support have received a number of queries recently regarding access to Glow accounts for staff who have changed roles within the authority.

When you leave your school based role a closure date will be added to your work record in SEEMiS, this will automatically disable your Glow account.  You should ensure you download anything you do not wish to lose before leaving your current role.  A new Glow account should be requested from missupport@moray.gov.uk  by your line manager.  Details of your PVG check may be required to create the new account.

If you have not downloaded all the content you wish to keep by the time the school you are leaving has updated you SEEMiS work record a 60 day grace period can be applied to your account, after which it will be automatically permanently deleted.  You should also provide your new Glow details to the owners of any Teams, Google Classroom or Groups you will still require access to so you can add you as a new member.

Staff moving to a role in a different school within Moray will retain their original account; however staff accounts can not be transferred to other Local Authorities.

Education Scotland support for practitioners

There is a massive amount of anytime/anywhere support for practitioners in all sectors on digilearn.scot .  Below are some links to help you find support for your sector, for a specific tools, programmes and CRIS.

Anytime/anywhere learning for practitioners in all sectors.

Support for specific tool or platforms

Programmes and courses

Cyber Resilience and Internet safety

Teams meeting co-organiser functionality in Glow

When scheduling a meeting staff can now add a co-organiser to meetings scheduled within Team in Glow. After inviting people/scheduling your meeting, you can add up to 10 co-organisers to help manage your meeting.  Co-organisers can be added in the Meeting Options screen which is accessible after the meeting has been created.  Only those who have been added as named attendees can be promoted to co-organisers. Co-organisers are displayed as additional organisers in the meeting participant list and have most of the capabilities of the meeting organizer.

A co-organiser can perform the following actions –

  • Open the Meeting
  • Admit people from the lobby and switch off the lobby
  • Manage Breakout rooms
  • Present content by default
  • Change another participants role to allow the to present content
  • Make changes to meeting options
  • End the meeting for all

Due to these extra capabilities it is not recommended to add a learner as a co-organiser as this could result in meetings which are only attended by unsupervised learners.

This additional functionality could be very useful in staff meeting or for those who arrange meetings on behalf of other.  More details on adding a co-organiser can be found – here.

Glow Blogs – Accessibility by UserWay Plugin

Glow Blogs have added a new plug in that improves the accessibility.  The Accessibility by UserWay plugin can be activated by anyone with Administrator permissions for you Glow Blog.  Enabling this plugin will give your site visitors a button on the bottom right of your site that allows them to make changes to the how the site is displayed to support accessibility.

The Moray Digital Learning Team would recommend adding this plugin to any existing Glow Blogs to make it easier to access for all users.  Below is a video that will demo how to activate the plug in and how it works.

You can find more information – here

Microsoft Educator Centre changes

In May Microsoft Educator Centre is merging with Microsoft Learn to become the single training hub to empower digital classrooms. On Microsoft Learn users have access to the same content that you love from the Microsoft Educator Centre, and many other online courses.

Current MEC users need to link their account with Learn Educator Centre to keep all achievements and transcripts. Head here to find out how: Click Here or follow these instructions-

 

All badges/achievements will be migrated from the MEC to Microsoft Learn, but if you do wish to download your MEC Transcript to have as a record until this work is completed follow these instructions

  • Log into the MEC (https://education.microsoft.com/en-us)
  • Click on your avatar in the top right corner of the screen
  • Select the My Profile
  • Select View Transcript
  • Select the save icon to save a copy to your computer

 

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