All posts by Phil Slavin

20#20 Strategy

Scottish Government Digital Strategy

The Scottish Government are refreshing the Digital Strategy for Scotland and aim to publish the strategy early in 2017. A public dialogue has been launched today to gather views and inform the development of the strategy. The strategy will set out a range of ambitions and actions to ensure that Scotland has a clear vision of its place in the modern, digital world.

The 6 key themes are: Connectivity; Economy; Skills; Public Services; Participation; Cyber Security and Resilience

Please consider sharing your views on any of the themes at : https://www.ideas.gov.scot/++admin++/a-digital-strategy-for-scotland-2013-2017-and-beyond

And if you have views specifically on cyber security resilience in the Digital Strategy then please add those to : https://www.ideas.gov.scot/++admin++/a-digital-strategy-for-scotland-2013-2017-and-beyond/cyber-resilience-2

20#20 Strategy, Help, iPads

Free iPad training from iTeach

As schools across Scotland are developing strategies for effective ways to use digital technology in Learning and Teaching – iTeach are here to help.

They can offer no-cost training to any schools who wish to look at making learning mobile, personal and powerful using iPads.

If your school have purchased iPads and would like to find ways of effectively using them in school – or if you are considering purchasing iPads they can support you with a number of planning and training sessions tailored to where you are and the vision that you have for your school.

iTeach work as education partners on the government procurement framework, their trainers are all teachers with local experience of Scottish education, and they are the largest educational training organisation in the UK.

In addition they support schools with free resources for coding through the ‘iCode’ initiative ( http://www.iteach-uk.com/programmes/icode)  and help to run effective student digital leaders programmes with ‘Digital Leaders’ ( http://www.iteach-uk.com/programmes/digital-leaders).

If you are interested in any or all of the above please contact Anna Millar, Region Manager for Scotland at anna@iteach-uk.com

 

20#20 Strategy, Glow

Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland

The Digital Learning and Teaching Strategy for Scotland was published today.

The strategy aims to create the condition to allow digital technology to enhance learning and teaching across all curriculum areas. In doing so it will enable educators, learners and parents to take full advantage of the opportunities offered by digital technology.

Aim of the Strategy

“In order to realise our vision, partners at both a national and local level must work together to achieve all four of the following essential and interrelated objectives that are central to successful digital learning, teaching and assessment:

• Develop the skills and confidence of educators in the appropriate and effective use of digital technology to support learning and teaching

• Improve access to digital technology for all learners

• Ensure that digital technology is a central consideration in all areas of curriculum and assessment delivery

• Empower leaders of change to drive innovation and investment in digital technology for learning and teaching”

Click here for the full document.

Glow, Social Media

John Swinney on Glow TV

Deputy First Minister and Cabinet Secretary for Education and Skills Mr John Swinney MSP will be leading a Glow TV broadcast on Monday the 29th August at 12.45pm.
The blog post below will give you details of how to register and how to submit a question before the event if you are unable to watch live on Monday.  The broadcast will be recorded so you will be able to view it in the Watch Again facility on Glow – we will send out this link after the event.
I’d encourage you to circulate this to colleagues and encourage them to send in any questions in advance as this is expected to be a popular broadcast.
 
20#20 Strategy

Exciting Twig/Tigtag news

Twig features over 1700 award-winning three-minute films for Science, Maths and Geography.

Check out the list of all 1700 films here!

The great news is that a new player has just been released which allows users to download and play Twig / Tigtag films offline.

twig infographic

To download films you must first install and run the Windows (only) Twig Player software application.

The same information will appear on the Tigtag and Tigtag Junior sites for users who log in with Glow credentials.

Further information here

Direct download link here

Leave your feedback here

20#20 Strategy, Glow

Twig, Tigtag & Tigtag Junior

Tigtag and Twig online resources are currently accessible via the Glow login and are used by schools across Scotland.  These award-winning resources provide high-quality videos and accompanying learning materials for sciences, mathematics and social studies. They were procured by Education Scotland in July 2015.  The contract was for one year initially with the possibility of a one year extension.

Education Scotland and Twig World agreed to the further one year extension in March 2016 which means that both Twig and Tigtag, and also Tigtag Junior and Reach Out CPD, will continue to be available to state schools through Glow until 31st July  2017.

It will not be possible for Education Scotland to extend the contract further beyond this date.  Scotland Excel, the local authority procurement organisation, will include Education Software and Digital Content as an additional lot within their re-tender of their Education Materials framework with a start date of 1st April 2017.  It will therefore be for local authorities or individual establishments to purchase digital content via this route in the future.

Please take advantage of these resources while they are freely available to you.  I have ‘priority placed’ tiles for each site on the Glow Council Launchpad.  Please log in to Glow and have a look. Please then try and find a little time to leave some feedback.

You can leave your feedback here.

 

Glow

Have you used BrainPOP, Twig or TigTag? I need your feedback.

15 Comments

If you have not yet had the opportunity to try out the BrainPOP and Twig/TigTag resources, you still have time!

Just log into Glow and choose the Council Launchpad.  There you will see tiles for each of these resources.  By accessing through the Glow Launchpad, you will automatically be signed in.

  1. Twig/Tig Tag are premium science resources available through the Glow Launchpad. Funding for Twig/Tig Tag will expire next year.
  2. BrainPOP is very extensive covering almost all areas of the curriculum.  We have had free access to the BrainPOP premium resource since February. Access to BrainPOP was due to expire at the end of April, but I have been able to extend this for a further month.

I would appreciate your honest feedback about BrainPOP, Twig and Tigtag, and if/how you have used it/them…

  • as a class/individual resource?
  • number of pupils involved?
  • the type of content (eg Science) you accessed?
  • whether you would it useful as a paid for resource?

Please use the comments box below to leave your feedback for me.  Your help and input is greatly appreciated. Phil

Glow

A useful feature for pupils & teachers using e-Portfolios

GLOW BLOGS READER

Feature in Development

In the coming weeks there will be a Blogs release that will introduce aggregation functionality to the Glow Blogs service. This will allow teachers, students and non-teaching staff to see an aggregate view of latest blogs posts from blogs (public, private and Glow-only blogs) that they choose to follow. It will also be possible to group the aggregate view into different folders/groups which will make it easier for users to manage a large number of blogs that they are following.
This has been implemented in the form of  a plugin that will be activated across the network for all users.

The Glow blogs reader allows you to ‘follow’ a number of Glow Blogs. In following blogs you will be able to see which of these blogs has been updated in your dashboard rather than have to visit each site to check for updates.

We envisage that this feature will be particularly useful to teachers whose pupils are using the Glow Blogs e-Portfolios.

Click on this link below to get more information on this upcoming feature:  Glow Blogs Help