MDLT Blog

Teams Breakout Rooms

Microsoft have released breakout room functionality within Teams Meetings. This allows meeting organisers to create breakout rooms, and allocate meeting participants for small group working within the main meeting.

Glow’s guidance (https://glowconnect.org.uk/teams-in-glow/teams-meetings-with-learners/) is that for learner safety we recommend that additional staff members are present within meetings and that learners should not be unsupervised within Teams meetings. The introduction of breakout rooms makes this more challenging to achieve, and there is the increased risk of learners being unsupervised with video enabled within breakout rooms. On that basis we strongly recommend that breakout rooms are not used with learners unless staff members are able to constantly be present in all breakout rooms created.

The existing guidance (https://glowconnect.org.uk/teams-in-glow/managing-a-teams-meeting/) is also that the end meeting option should be used by the meeting organiser to remove all participants at the end of a Teams meeting. Please note that this will not end any associated breakout rooms. The separate ‘close rooms’ option within the Breakout room control panel must be used to close the rooms, and remove participants from the breakout rooms before ending the main meeting.

Details on the Breakout Room functionality and how to assign attendees to different rooms can be see in the video below-

Please remember that currently in Glow learners do not have access to Chat functionality after the meeting has ended; however the organiser will be able to view everything.

Glow Teams Functionality Update

Insights

Insights is an app available within Teams which allows educators to see how and when students are engaging with you, course materials, and their peers, as well as how they are performing on assignments. After feedback from educators the a Class Overview is now available within the Insights app in Glow Teams. This new functionality allows teachers to add a personal app to their left app bar menu that provides an overview of all their Class Teams all in one place. The insights app must be added to each Class Team via the top navigation for them to appear in the overview.

You can find a full guide on Insights for educators – HERE

Only Me Lobby Functionality in Teams

The ‘Only Me’ lobby will be the default option for creating Teams meetings using Glow from Thursday 26th November. For any meeting arranged with colleagues where you may wish attendees to be able to join the meeting prior to the organiser you may need to update the meeting options. For any meetings with learners please ensure that the default is unchanged to ensure learners do not enter the meeting prior to their teacher. More advice can be found on the Glow Connect website – HERE.

Public Teams

Please be aware that some other local authorities or Glow users may have made the decision to leave a number of their Teams public so anyone can join at will. If learners are joining these Teams they should be reminded that any posts will have their Glow username logged and are easily traceable.

By default Class Teams are created as private Teams; however other templates used to create Team may have public as the default. The creator of the Team should ensure the setting applied is what they intended.

Professional Learning Opportunities

Please see below some professional learning opportunities that are now available from the Education Scotland Professional Learning and Leadership Team

Coaching & Mentoring

The 1:1 coaching for headteachers matches them to a professional coach for a series of online coaching conversations at a time of their choosing. The social enterprise organisation KnowYouMore are coordinating this work. For further details about this visit ‘Coaching and Mentoring Matters’. This online resource provides a link to the 1:1 coaching offer as well as to the other professional learning opportunities around coaching and mentoring

https://professionallearning.education.gov.scot/learn/coaching-and-mentoring-matters/

Support for teachers in their first four years post probation

The Stepping Stones programme supports teachers in their first four years post probation. It includes a calendar of online events including webinars and informal ‘blethers’ as well as a dedicated Stepping Stones Teams space for participants to network with each other and share resources. The teachers on the programme are also offered a series of online 1:1 coaching and mentoring conversations with a current middle leader to support them through this time, again supported by KnowYouMore.

Further details about the programme can be found on the dedicated programme area

https://professionallearning.education.gov.scot/learn/programmes/stepping-stones/

Reflective supervision support for school staff

Place2Be are offering its Place2Think programme to teachers and school leaders across Scotland. Participants will join a small group of peers remotely on a monthly basis, to reflect on how they are impacted by their work in school, and how emotional factors can impact learning for some young people.

Place2Be will also be supporting schools staff wellbeing through a series of webinars covering a range of topics including ‘recovery and self-care’ and ‘understanding and managing anxiety in uncertain times’.

https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/strengthening-support-for-school-staff/

Barnardo’s Scotland are offering a workshop programme for school staff who wish to develop Spaces for Wellbeing, which will support the mental health and wellbeing of staff.

Links to this support will be added to the following webpage as they become available:

https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/strengthening-support-for-school-staff/

There is also an offer to headteachers to join the Columba 1400 programme. This is currently sold out so we have started a waiting list

For further details on all the above information here’s the link:

https://education.gov.scot/improvement/learning-resources/strengthening-support-for-school-staff/

Updates to Loom account for Educators – screencasting service

Loom have announced some changes to educator accounts which were upgraded to Loom Pro during the initial stages of lockdown. Loom have created a specialised Education account which all previously verified accounts will be migrated over to automatically. The next time existing users log in they may see pop-ups explaining the changes. Loom will remain free for verified educators to use and new Loom Education accounts will also be free.

Loom is a screencasting service which allow educators to record their computer screen, webcam and audio simultaneously to created pre-recorded lessons, greetings or presentations. These can downloaded or be shared via a link in a Team, Google Classroom or other platform. Screenscating is a technique that can be used for in flipped, blended, hybrid or remote learning. For examples of how Loom could be used click – here

Just as a reminder Loom has been signed off for use by educators in Moray; however only via the Chrome extension. The desktop application can not be used on the network; however educators may chose to use it on their own personal devices. Please remember an education email must be used to create your account, this can be either your Edunet or Glow email address. You can find details on how to create and verify your Loom account, and install the Chrome extension – here.

Foe existing account holders the main changes educators should be aware are –

45 minute video recording length
New Teams libraries
Ability to capture screen shots

The new Loom for Education accounts will continue to have

Unlimited videos
Unlimited Viewers
Calls-to-action functionality
Face, Cam and audio recording
View insights

Loom have also updated their branding, including the new Loombeam logo. You may notice the change of symbol in your Chrome browser if you have installed the Loom extension. More details about all the changes being made to Loom can be found – here.

Glow Update – Password reset, potential copyright infringements, Google Meet and SharePoint

Glow Password Change Reminder

The national learner Glow password reset began on the 24th August and staff will be prompted to reset their passwords from 7th September. Please note you will be prompted to change your password on login so no action is required prior to this.

It is recommend that staff encourage, where possible, learners to update their passwords to ensure they know them in the even of a local lockdown or requirement to learn remotely. As part of the password reset we would encourage everyone when they are updating their password to review the Glow Community Rules .

For full detail on the password reset and advice on setting up strong passwords see our previous blog post – here or visit Glow Connect – here

Changes to Google Meet functionality for external guests

Google have made some changes to the G Suite for Education offering within Glow which impacts staff’s ability to conduct Glow Meet sessions with non Glow users. Full details on how this could affect meetings with external guest (non Glow users) can be found in our previous blog post – here

Storage and publishing of Copyright Material in Glow

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 websites/social media. While it is recognised this was done with the best of intentions to assist in teaching and learning it does contravene copyright regulations.

Please be aware copy written materials should not be published or shared on 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”.

More details can be found in our previous blog post – here on the content providers website or the CLA (Copyright Licensing Agency) website – here

Moray Glow SharePoint Site Updates

Following an audit of the Moray Glow SharePoint site we have identified a large number of document storage sites which have no content in them and have not been accessed in the last 12 months. These sites will be made read only from 31st August and deleted during the Autumn holiday. If you wish to retain any of these sites contact details will be posted at the top of each site with instructions on what action is required. This is the initial phase of a larger SharePoint project intended to create a more user friendly document storage space, the design of which will allow for flexibility, security and longevity.

What Glow should be used for?

The Digital Learning Team are receiving increased requests and queries with regards to creating Glow accounts for non-teaching/non education staff, the storage/sharing of sensitive information through Glow and allowing external users to collaborate using application accessed through Glow, such as Teams. We would like to remind everyone that Glow’s remit is as a tool to enable learning and teaching with stringent guidelines on account eligibility. Non Glow users can not be added to Teams or access SharePoint sites. More details on what constitutes appropriate uses of Glow can be found here – Glow Appropriate Use .

Changes to Google Meet functionality for external guests

Google have made some changes to the G Suite for Education offering within Glow which impacts staff’s ability to conduct Glow Meet sessions with non Glow users. Following the update staff will only be able to conduct face to face video meetings via Google Meet in Glow with users who are signed into Google with either their Glow Google account (@my.glow.scot) or a recognised Google account. This means that Google Meets can no longer take place with users who were previously joining with other types of email accounts (hotmail, outlook, or moray.gov.uk) or joining the meeting by entering a display name prior to joining.

External guests can still join Google Meets, but they will have to be signed into a Google account to do so. This will mean that the host will see the user name and email address when the guest tries to join the Meet rather than the name they had typed prior to joining.

Please note Google Meet is not enabled in Moray to allow learners to participate in face to face online sessions when accessing Google Meet via their Google account in Glow.

ALERT – Phishing email targeting teachers and education staff

There have been reports by a number of teachers and education staff in local authorities across Scotland that they have been receiving phishing emails which appear to have come from their Head Teacher’s personal or school email account.

The fake email requests that the recipient purchase Amazon vouchers on behalf of the Head Teacher as a gift for staff due to their hard work during lock-down and that the voucher details are then sent to the Head Teacher’s personal account as they are having issues with their corporate or Glow email account.

These emails are a scam! Please do not purchase any vouchers. Delete the email and inform your Head Teacher if you receive one.

Citizens Advice have reported that 36% of British adults have been the target of a scam since lockdown began, and phishing is just one method being used. For more details on how you can protect yourself against scams visit Take Five To Stop Fraud and remember their top five tips –

1. Never disclose security details, such as your PIN or full banking password
2. Don’t assume an email, text or phone call is authentic
3. Don’t be rushed – a genuine organisation won’t mind waiting
4. Listen to your instincts – you know if something doesn’t feel right
5. Stay in control – don’t panic and make a decision you’ll regret

For more information on staying online check out our Internet Safety Page – click here.

Share your digital learning journey

We would like to start running short educator lead webinar sessions to highlight and share all the fantastic work going on in the digital learning space in Moray.

If you have a created a Blog, Google Site, OneNote, Sway, Form, SharePoint Site or anything else you think others might be interested to see or benefit from hearing about your experience, please let us know at – learntech@moray.gov.uk

We will assist you in delivering a short (20 to 30 minutes) informal webinar and Q&A session.

Answers to the top 10 questions Learning Technologists get asked everyday about Glow

TEAMS

Teams is telling me to download the app, do I have to?

No, you can use Teams in your internet browser, Chrome works best. Teams will suggest you download the app, which is free and does have some additional features for video conferencing; however it is not available on school computers and is not required. When working/learning at home you can chose to use the app on your own device if you have permissions to do so.

I can’t chat 1 to 1 with my teacher/learner in Teams, it says this feature is disabled by the administrator can you switch it on?

The chat function in Teams for learners is disabled nationally within Glow and can’t be switched on locally. Discussions are taking place with Education Scotland, Glow Key Contacts and RM Unify who operate Glow. Any changes will be communicated. Questions you do not wish to post inside the Team should be sent via your Glow email.

I can’t see my pupils when I am doing a video conference meeting in Teams, can you switch it on?

The video is disabled for learners nationally within Glow and can’t be switched on locally. Discussions are taking place around two way video conferences with learners and any changes will be communicated.

GOOGLE CLASSROOM

I have tried to email a learner/teacher in Google Classroom and its says it disabled by the administrator, can you switch it on so it will work?

Gmail is disabled for all Glow users nationally, so any emails regarding learning should be sent via your Glow Outlook email address. Any notifications from G Suite products will be forwarded automatically to your Outlook email account.

I can’t see my pupils when I am doing a video conference meeting in Google Classroom via Google Meet. It says it’s disabled by the administrator, can you switch it on?

Can I use Microsoft Word/Excel/PowerPoint with Google Classroom?

Yes, but these documents will have to be added as attachments. The default programmes used to create new documents within Google Classroom are part of the G Suite such as Doc, Sheets and Slides.

GENERAL

I am being asked to enter my Microsoft account details when I try to get into my email or other Office 365 applications, what do I enter?

When you see the Microsoft sign in pop up box you need to enter your full Glow email address. Your Glow email is your user name followed by @glow.sch.uk for school users or @glowmail.org.uk for non school users.

When I am trying to use Glow sometime I get an error saying my browser does not support the action, what do I do?

When using Glow it is best to use Chrome as your internet browser. Some applications accessed within Glow are not comparable with other browsers such as Firefox or Internet Explorer. It is also worth ensuring that your browsers is update with the latest version of the software.

I have forgotten my password, how to I get it reset?

Contact the school in the first instance and they will be able to reset your password.

Can I use [insert product name] now that we are teaching/learning remotely?

The same data protection procedure is in place even when working remotely and only approved software, apps and websites should be used. If you wish to use a new product a DPIA form will be required to review the product prior to use.

Remote Learning Support

A website has been created to help parents/carers support learners in accessing Glow and saying safe online. The aim of this resources is to get learners logged into Glow where they can access long term support resources.

You can access the website using the following link – Digital Support Website

You can also find links for families of children in primary schools to support their child’s learning and development – here.