Computing Science is an incredibly exciting and inspiring area of the curriculum and it is essential that teachers and learners across Scotland benefit from the wealth of opportunities offered by the subject. The Glow Technologies Professional Learning Community provides teachers and learners with anytime, anywhere access to a wealth of contemporary, creative and engaging computing science online materials, resources and presentations. Continue reading Computing Science on Technologies Professional Network
Category Archives: secondary
How to use Sway
We’ve all being doing PowerPoint for a LONG time now and at times we’ve become sick to death of them. There is a new presentation tool available, also created by Microsoft, which uses a really simple toolset for really impressive results. You can, for example, take a Microsoft Word document and drop it into Sway and it will create the sections and slides and titles that are in your draft. You can add video, slideshows, twitter feeds and a whole host of other content. The killer is that you can then share it with everyone and anyone online because Sway is free for everyone and can be viewed through any browser.
Here’s a great example- this Continue reading How to use Sway
Coding skills using AppLab from Code.org
Computing Science is a subject which is developing into a real necessity in encouraging the skills and attitudes of learners in a digital economy. Over the last few years educators and industry have recognised that coding skills are an important part of developing computational thinking skills.
There are a Continue reading Coding skills using AppLab from Code.org
Microsoft Forms
If you’re looking for a way to set quizzes, polls and formal assessments to capture learning then Microsoft Forms is a fantastic new addition to the Office365 tools you have available through GLOW. The great thing is you can set it up so that it marks them for you and provides feedback to the pupils about their answers.
Pupils can pick Continue reading Microsoft Forms
Animation 17 Competition
This massively successful competitions is for all ages and is a fantastic way to engage young people in writing, reading, performing and animating. Last years entries were from all age groups and there are loads of different categories. Check out some Continue reading Animation 17 Competition
Social skills with Autistic pupils using Book Creator
Jon Smith is a teacher in the USA who found that a disengaged group of 4th grade pupils (9-10 yrs) responded so positively in their experiences of learning social skills by writing their own book. Book Creator helps them combine text, audio and video that you can publish for others to download.
iMovie with Health & Wellbeing
The S3 Computing Science pupils developed their creativity and digital skills by planning and making movies around the theme of Resilience. Each of the three classes split into different teams and their productions followed the 54321 rule – 5 people, 4 scenes, 3 minutes, 2 props and 1 theme.
An Oscars ceremony was held (an awards handed out!) Continue reading iMovie with Health & Wellbeing
Travel and Tourism book
S2 Home Economics pupils in Perth Grammar used their iPads and Book Creator to create an information booklet about culture and foods across the world
Each group Continue reading Travel and Tourism book
GLOW – Time to look again
GLOW. I wish they’d have changed the name. Mention GLOW to some people and the response is usually in the form of a low groan. That’s ok, I felt pretty much like that myself.
GLOW however has absolutely transformed what it once was. It is now a suite of tools and supports that can really bring digital learning to life and make yours easier, with opportunities for our young people to engage in their learning with you and each other in ways which reflect the future way sof working and learning.
I hope you’ll take a few seconds to look at the video below to give you a taster of the Office365 solution offered in GLOW and, if you’re interested, have a look at the other GLOW resources on this site and see how you can begin to make use of the tools in ways which are meaningful and useful for you.
iPad – Your starter apps
If you’ve recently been handed a council iPad to use in teaching and learning then you’ll notice some apps come pre-installed.
Here you’ll find video tutorial basics with links to further online training when they’re ready 🙂
Book Creator
Probably the best of the bunch in that it can pull together all your pictures and videos in one place, you can draw, write, records your voice telling the story (check out this example )
It is SO simple to use and we’ve seen it used across the spectrum from early years to senior phase. For example pupils creating a visual diary of their school trip, a pupil portfolio solution for teachers and pupils, creating a recipe book for Global Citizenship learning. It comes with your iPad AND they’ve just added the ability to create comics!
Puppet Pals HD
Puppet pals is such a great app for creativity and telling stories. Essentially it lets you create puppet shows where you can select characters and backdrops and records different scenes to tell your story. Even better you can take pictures of people or take photos of characters in books and cut them out to use as your puppets – kids love seeing themselves as puppets and they tell the best stories when they are in charge. I’ve seen it used in multiple ways – from pupils telling the story of a historical character or children retelling the story of an incident of bullying and how they want it to be fixed. It’s only our own imagination which limit the possibilities of this app.
Pic-Collage
This is an easy to use app for making image collages for sharing your experiences and learning, mood boards, artwork and photography, evidence of progress, comics…dozens of applications in your classroom.
Explain Everything
An incredibly powerful too – it’s both an interactive whiteboard and a screen casting tool (where it records all the things you do and say on the board and saves as a video for pupils to watch again and again)
-Tutorials soon
