Tag Archives: Resources

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

 

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

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.

 

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

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

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

April Online Learning Opportunities

Bitesize

The BBC have updated their Bitesize app for Android

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.co.bbc.bitesize

http://www.bbc.co.uk/education

Twig is a premium resource for Maths, Geography & Sciences available for free, once logged in to Glow

https://www.twigonglow.com/Shibboleth.sso/RMUnify?target=https://www.twigonglow.com/secure

Scholar

All Stirling & Clacks Senior Phase pupils were sent Scholar cards earlier in the year, and should now have access to their Scholar accounts – which they can use without a password if they are logged into their Glow account (password only needs to be entered once). 

The next Scholar online live session is National 5 Maths (http://scholar.hw.ac.uk/Resources/Live_Online_Sessions/Upcoming_Sessions.html)

Scholar have also updated their ‘watch again’ service with a wide range of subjects – please share this with pupils.

https://blogs.glowscotland.org.uk/st/sctech4learning/2016/03/07/back-catalogue-of-scholar-homework-sessions-now-available/

 BrainPOP

A reminder that as part of the e-safety competition, we have free access for all Stirling and Clacks pupils and staff to BrainPOP resources until 30th April (closing date for the e-safety competition).  BrainPOP includes resources for English, Maths, Science, Technologies, Humanities, Arts, Health & Wellbeing, Computing as well as e-safety. 

To get free, immediate access to the BrainPOP resources, please log in to Glow, then select the Council Launchpad, then select the BrainPOP tile.

You will be automatically logged in and able to access all resources.  You will be directed straight to the digital citizenship resources (to support the e-safety competition) but you also have free unrestricted access to all of the other curricular related animated videos and teaching materials.

Please see below for further information on BrainPOP:

BrainPOP creates cross-curricular award winning cross-curricular digital content that engages students through animated movies, learning games, interactive quizzes, and supports teachers whilst adding excitement to lessons.

  • 700+ topics; 10,000 hours of teaching material
  • Animated movies explain concepts from across the curriculum
  • English, Maths, Science, Technologies, Humanities, Arts, Health & Wellbeing, Computing and online-safety
  • Interactive quizzes and high quality educational games
  • Lesson ideas, worksheets, and graphic organisers
  • Non-fiction research texts
  • Vocabulary guides
  • Printable activities
  • Mapped to the Curriculum for Excellence for primary and secondary schools

20#20 Technologies Toolkit

Building Society: Technologies and the Significant Aspects of Learning

On 9th March 2015, Education Scotland published the Technologies Impact report “Building Society, young people’s experiences and outcomes in the technologies”.

One year later, in March 2016, Education Scotland published “Technologies: Assessing progress and achievement in significant aspects of learning”.

The following pages and attached documents are intended to support schools to self-evaluate within this context.

Click on each title to open up a new page.

EDIT

Technologies SALS published today

Education Scotland have published the Significant Aspects of Learning for Technologies today.

This is a significant (!) release for all Stirling & Clacks establishments, because the content and structure has been so heavily revised and remodelled.  This was a consequence of the Building Society Technologies impact report, which requires that technology be placed “at the heart of learning“.

“In scrutinising the role technologies have played in recent history Education Scotland believes a change is needed in the emphasis around the role of ICT, seen previously as ‘enhancing learning’. The review confirms beyond doubt that our children and young people need digital skills and technologies to be given an absolutely central role in the learning process, no longer an enhancement or bolt-on but a foundation of learning.”

The Technologies SALS document has been carefully mapped to the updated expectations of HGIOS 4.  Consequently, there is a clear need for all schools to carefully consider the central postion of their technology strategy within their School Improvement Planning processes.

It is particularly interesting to note the following on P4 of the SALS:

“Digital Literacy  As with literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing, digital literacy should be placed at the heart of all learning, not only the technologies area of the curriculum.  

  • Using digital products and services in a variety of contexts to achieve a purposeful outcome 
  • Searching, processing and managing information responsibly
  • Cyber resilience and internet safety” 

20#20 Strategy – What can Glow do for us?

By making use of the tools and resources within Glow, the following aspirations have become achievable.  Using Glow enables…

…learners to share their work with their peers and teachers.

…learners to access and share their work with their parents at home.

…dyslexic learners to adapt & manage their own printed materials, increasing their independence and reducing staff input and costs.

…all staff to access their own files and resources from anywhere.

…supply and peripatetic staff to work more effectively.

…easier access to help, support and useful learning resources.

…iPads, Androids and other mobile devices to become the textbook and jotter combined, with files saved and shared through OneDrive.

…schools and offices to become virtually paperless, with potential savings of thousands of pounds every year.

…life-long digital learning profiles to become a reality.

…Bring Your Own Device to become a reality.

…vibrant blogs & websites to be created free of charge, maintained by staff and contributed to by pupils.

…meetings to be more productive, with agendas pre-shared digitally as PDFs and minutes written in a shared-access notebook.

…existing hardware infrastructure (PCs, servers) to become increasingly irrelevant for learning & teaching, reducing the need for replacement leading to further long-term financial savings.