What is Glow? An animoto-ed explanation

I often often get asked by friends and colleagues abroad what Glow actually is. Thanks to Adam's handycraft on Animoto, we've got closer to an explanation. Seems this was made during a local Glow outreach event. Bit spaced out in parts - I wonder if that's an indication of how much they got through that day ;-)

Comments

[Jim McDougall]

Hi Ewan

I am fascinated by the concept of Glow (having being involved years ago with the BBC digital curriculum initiative and Bitesize programmes) but I am struck by a couple of thoughts.

What do people feel will be the impact of Glow on the current grassroots provision of blogs and wikis which teachers have created over the past few years? If you have put all your notes, power points, discussions on a wiki, for example, or if you have created a school/departmental intranet(eg using Moodle or similar)what will be the incentive to use Glow? Turning this point around, how will those who do not write/read/use blogs, wikis, e-homework, etc be any more interested in using a shared learning community?

In what ways can the success/effectiveness of Glow be measured? Does the HMIe have a specific remit to evaluate Glow? What happens to schools, departments or faculties that don't make use of Glow?

[Virtue]

I'm the Glow Mentor for my school, the Computing Studies teacher, and also a very online person who uses instant chat, blogs, discussion forums, social networks, etc, all the time. Whilst Glow is more than exactly what I am looking for to use in teaching myself, particularly since tools it contains are otherwise blocked in my school, I feel it is not going to be of much use to the majority of my colleagues.

Why?

1. We do not have enough computers in school for its use to be integrated into the
curriculum for every year group in every subject. There is one timetabled computing suite. £32 million pound cart before horse.

2. It vastly overestimates the general IT skill level of teachers. Like some other professions,i.e. medical, the use of computers isn't a main part of their job, and they certainly haven't made the Web 2.0 leap. I've stopped talking about my online life in school because it makes me feel like some kind of nerd alien. I had to tell the english principal what a blog was the other day. I am not slagging anyone here, because I think this reflects an increasing rift in society between those of us who live our lives partly interacting in cyberspace, and those who don't. I am an alien.

3.The school was given targets to implement without being given the time and resources to do so. Even if we had been given money for supply cover, we wouldn't have obtained the supply teachers we needed. Don't really understand this when there are so many unemployed probationers out there, but my school struggles to get cover teachers. We could have employed them to give every teacher a week's training in Glow, but then again this may be a waste of time because of (1) above.

4. I am supposed to train the whole school to use this in addition to my normal remit, and don't even think about time off timetable because I would refuse. No-one would be there to teach my kids and get them through their courses. That's much more important: stuff Glow. The teachers being trained wouldn't want to take the time out either.

5. After it is in use within the school, it has to be managed and maintained. Again, who is going to do this in addition to there normal duties? You can't just load people with extra responsibilities.

I will teach using Glow as part of the ICT curriculum next year, thereby increasing my own workload though I really don't mind, but I really can't imagine anyone else using it at all. It's going to take a few years before its use catches on.

Whilst it is fanatastic that we have Glow, its implementation is a fantasy.

How are other Glow Mentors getting on?

[fearghal]

Wow. I've been really looking forward to Glow, but your assessment is quite worrying virtue. If this is what an enthusiastic teacher who has experience of the system thinks, what hope does it have?

I can see what you mean though. I feel there are two major hurdles to these projects being a success in schools. Firstly, if my school (& yours) is anything to go by, access to the hardware is very limited. We can only centrally book the computers in the library which are not arranged as a classroom, but as a LRC (as they should be as this is what it is!) This doesn't accommodate a full class - even when they are all working (which is never). Accessing the other IT rooms in the school is done through the manager of each department - and this is difficult as they are heavily in use in the timetable. I came away from the Scholar conference last year full of enthusiasm, much of which is now gone due to the logistical problems.

I think this problem then feeds another - the lack of an IT/Web 2.0 culture in the school. As you say, this will not work as long as teachers and pupils are lacking the enthusiasm, confidence and skills needed for the resource. I believe this can grow gradually and naturally within a school - as long as the barriers to access are removed.

I have worked in a school which had introduced a number of mainly non-timetabled IT suites which could be booked centrally plus a wifi network with laptops for all teachers and have seen the effect that this high level of access can have on the embedding of IT across the curriculum.

Your cart and horse analogy is very apt I think.

[Virtue]

Mebbe we should contact Nicholas Negroponte (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/41)before HMi start evaluating us on the basis of our effective use of Glow.

[Jaye Richards]

I read these posts with some interest, having just come back from a national GLOW event in Stirling. I'm not a computing eacher, but I do have professional recognition from the GTCS in ICT in teaching and learning. I'm currently involved in rolling out GLOW in my school. I have to agree with posters on the 'cart before the horse' analogy albeit with some reservations. This was brought sharply into focus when on my return from Stirling I looked at the new staff timetable for the next session in my school and the maximum efficiency measure of all teachers being on minimum time. This, coupled with a reduction in ICT hardware in our new school building will pose significant challenges to the GLOW roll-out. Indeed teachers won't have the same access to computers that they currently enjoy. I will also struggle to train my colleagues who will all have less time. Nevertheless, I'm committted to GLOW not least because I know how much time it saves me in my day to day work, and for the enhancement of teaching and learning in my classroom that it brings. The problem of pupil access is always going to be with us until all schools are wireless and have enough pc's or tablets for most pupils, but we have to plan and be creative to get round these problems at the moment. GLOW is not an ICT issue, its a teaching and learning tool inextricably linked with AiFL and ACfE. I have one PC in my room, I get two or three students using GLOW whilst others may be doing other group or independent tasks.Or we use it as a class on the IWB. Not ideal, but it works after a fashion.
We don't live in an ideal world, and I'm afraid sometimes we have to make the best of what we've got, and at the moment, GLOW will be rolled out on good will as the money is just not going to appear. Many LA's are so shortsighted. They are building new schools without basic ICT hardware such as ceiling mouned projectors let alone enough PC's. But its always been that way hasn't it ? And teachers have always managed. Maybe we need to be a little more 'creatively subversive' to get the job done

[Virtue]

I intend to be very subversive, but I am an ICT teacher, with constant access to a full computing suite.
It's my colleagues I am worried about. When I explained Glow to one the other day, she had a genuine hot flush.
It is deeply worrying that AfL and ACE are inextricably linked to Glow usage when we simple don't have the environment in which that is possible. Have also heard that our local rebuilt secondary has opened with only 4 whiteboards available, not plumbed in everywhere as expected, so for many people that's not going to be an access option either.
I don't want to be negative about it: personally, it's great for me as a teacher, but not as the school's Glow Mentor.

[fearghal]

I am very much with Virtue on this. Many of us do indeed 'make do' with what we've got and try to make the best of things - I for one will do my best to stay in this camp. But I also feel that the reality is that as amazing as glow may be, and whatever teaching and learning initiatives it is linked with, it will not be the widespread success it could be as long as barriers to access remain. I actually believe it SHOULDN'T be an ICT issue, but should be a teaching and learning issue. I also however think it WILL be an ICT issue until access to resources reaches a critical mass.

I also believe that as it is my professional responsibility to try to make this work with resources I have, it is also my professional right to point out my opinion on the possibilities of the initiatives success and suggest improvements.

I do not think this is a negative approach to glow, but a positive one! It's an approach driven by a desire for it to be a success.

[Debbie]

I too am a Glow mentor in my school and I totally agree with Virtue. Some of my colleagues are terrified of their computers - our school has a computer in every room and I would estimate that 25% of them have never been switched on! How will those teachers embrace Glow?

[Ewan McIntosh]

Loads of great points made here, and ones that I and others have been discussing at LTS. I'm taking a wee holiday at the moment, but would love to come back in a follow-up post to examine them. Keep your thoughts coming!

[Jaye Richards]

I think all your points are important ones to consider. The teachers who are not using their computers Debbie, is that because they don't want to use them ? The standard for full registration is quite clear about registered teachers and using ICT in lessons.Maybe some teachers need to review their use of CPD to upgrade their skills if they don't meet the SFR.Maybe this is a management issue for your school. As to the points about lack of hardware, they are difficult to counter but even with one computer in a classroom, GLOW can still be put to many good uses. Pupils can use it at home to complete tasks as well.I think we have to accept that GLOW is not going to be rolled out in every class in every school across Scotland overnight. But its not going to go away either. More and more people will start to see the benefits to teaching and learning and adopt it into their work as time goes on. Its up to those of us who can use it and believe in it's transformative power to spread the word. Others may come on board when they see us using it and when the kids ask them why they are not using it 'like miss/mr so and so does'.
More and more teachers will start to access GLOW as the months go by. Those that choose not to will be increasingly left on the sidelines as more and more important information is communicated to teachers using GLOW. I think school headteachers need to make some clear decisions and give a lead on this issue - do they want regular widespread use of GLOW or not ? if so, then whole-school familiarisation, awareness-raising and training needs to be offered to staff.
In my own school, the senior depute and I work together to roll out GLOW. I think this imput from SMT has been a vital componant of our success with GLOW so far, but yes, others are slow to come on board.

[Dorothy]

I'm a Glow filament at the moment, as our authority isn't in the vanguard, but I am looking forward to moving forward.

I think that teachers will use Glow if they see something in it that will help them to do things better, quicker or more easily. If they see it as ICT for ICT's sake, they will find reasons not to use it.

I feel a bit like Virtue in our staff room. Talking about things like blogs, wikispaces, chatrooms and video conferencing only reinforces the perception that these things are for "experts" like me and are therefore best kept at arm's length - even though I never claim to be anything more than an enthusiastic adventurer in cyberland.

What I've seen of Glow so far, and the very fact that it requires "training" and "mentors", means there may be a perception amongst colleagues that there are "experts" and therefore "the rest" who are not really expected to have the same commitment or facility with it.

So when I am cascading knowledge to colleagues after I've done my training, I will hope to be able to offer them Glow elements that they will find a use for immediately and easily.

[Debbie]

Jaye - I absolutely agree with you, but I'm not going to be able to change their attitudes, unfortunately.

[Jim McDougall]

Lots of interesting comments here. I think what I am wondering is, how can Glow "compete" with the manifestations of the web 2.0 revolution, with its built-in flexibility and fluidity? Educators interested in harnessing new technologies have already done much spadework in setting up an informal Scotland-wide digital community that appears to have a growing audience. Teachers, pupils, schools, are creating a plethora of blogs, wikis and collaborative Google maps , uploaded podcasts and powerpoints and posted to YouTube and Flickr?
In what ways will Glow therefore reach the parts that these resources don't reach? Could Glow be overtaken by the very rapidity of online technology that most of us embrace?

[Virtue]

Animoto. Was very excited about this. Am teaching multimedia. It ran like a dream on my not-top-of-the-range-3yrs old-laptop at home. Doing multimedia at school...so what more could I ask for?
It wouldn't run even overnight on my kids 256mb pcs, and my own 500 mb nearly had a heart attack, performing finally in last 5 mins of 55 min class for one pupil.
This is reality.