SWAN June 27, 2007
Posted by Brian in : swan , 1 comment so far
The upgrading of our Schools Wide Area Network was completed today.
Our computers were down for most of the day which allowed our IT department to weave whatever magic they needed to do to increase the bandwidth and thus the speed of the connection here.
It all seems to have gone swimmingly well and the dreaded lag when streaming video from google or some other such site appears to have disappeared.
Lets hope that the frustrations that staff have regarding the speed of the network when accessing the internet will vanish.
Greater bandwidth will encourage greater use of IT in the classroom therefore giving staff increased opportunity to enhance the learning and teaching experience of our pupils.
Learning and Glowing June 13, 2007
Posted by Brian in : GLOW , add a comment
At Knox Academy last night there was an informal gathering of staff who were connected with the GLOW project in East Lothian.
We were all there to get a briefing from GLOW mentors extraordinaire Tess Watson and Glowboy Dave Rawson as last week they attended a special training event for staff of schools taking part in the phase three pilot.
Dave and Tess explained the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) component of GLOW and ran us through some its features. We had look at the ability within the VLE for staff to use templates to create tests for pupils, email and instant messenger.
The test templates come in a variety of formats i.e simple true or false, fields requiring a numerical input or short written answer and the old favourite of multiple guess choice. Apart from the short written answer questions GLOW can automatically mark these tests. To avoid cheating, tests such as the multiple choice can be structured so that each pupil is presented the questions in a different order.
The email facility looks straight forward so there was no surprises there. The instant messenger also looked very familiar. Anyone who has used any of the standard instant messengers available should have no problem at all using it.
There were a few reservations about the time it took to upload material to the virtual learning environment an also the blandness of the templates used in the automatic testing but generally I think staff are reasonable happy about how things are progressing, given that its still in its test phase.
A few minor problems were identified at authority level, mainly browser and java based, but at least its given us a heads up to potential hiccups that could occur.
Many thanks to Tess and Glowboy Dave for giving up their own time to keep everyone abreast of developments.
Technorati Tags: glow, glowscotland, glowboy, knox academy
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Ready to Glow June 12, 2007
Posted by Brian in : GLOW , add a comment
Just before I left work last night I noticed that I had received my log on name and password for the latest phase of the GLOW trial.
I logged on and immediately started exploring.
I cant put my finger on whats different about it but was much easier to navigate around t and felt more Web 2.0 than it had before.
One difference I did notice was that instead of the 600 or so mentors being lumped together in one “school”, we have now been assigned our local authority “school” which in East Lothian is called John Muir House School.
I haven’t had much time to explore the new tools and functionality promised in this phase but I will be heading down to Knox Academy after work this evening with a few other of the East Lothian mentors for a briefing on it by Tess Watson who spent a couple of days last week in Stirling finding all about this part of the trial.
Technorati Tags: glow, glowscotland, elcouncil, haddington, knox academy
Over to Fife June 7, 2007
Posted by Brian in : Uncategorized , 1 comment so farI headed over to Fife yesterday to attend one of the quarterly meetings of the Scottish Technicians Advisory Group (STAG).
Technicians from all over Scotland meet at the Scottish Schools Equipment Research Centre (SSERC) quarterly to discuss a variety of topics including Health and Safety, CPD opportunities for technicians and other matters pertaining to the technician service in Scotland.
All 32 local authorities in Scotland are members of SSERC and although for some authorities its quite a journey it is very well attended with members coming from as far afield as Highland, Moray, Aberdeenshire and Ayrshire councils.
A lot of time at the meetings over the past two years has been taken up with the report SSERC and STAG were commissioned to write for the Scottish Executive with regard to provision of CPD and related activities for technical support staff. The report has now been finalised and is in the hands of the Scottish Executive and will also be made available to every Director of Education in Scotland.
It will be available for download from the SEERC website very shortly and I would urge all technicians, or indeed anyone interested in the future of science education in Scottish Schools, to read it.
The report makes a number of recommendations to the executive. I have listed what I think are some of the key points below and would welcome your comments on them.
With the final report having been published, this particular phase of the project has now come to an end. Project officer Phil Muggins is returning to the sunny shores of Inverclyde whilst project manager Brian Richmond will be carrying on for a couple of days a week to make sure that all the i’s are dotted and the t’s crossed. Project Co ordinator Ian Buchanan has retired and, I am reliably informed, will be taking his camper van around Scotland on a grand tour.
There were many other individuals involved in the project and I would just like to thank everyone for their hard work and effort on behalf of all the technicians in Scotland.
Its now all in the hands of the executive and should the worst happen and they decide not to act on any of the recommendations it certainly wont be as a result of lack of effort by the project team.
Key recommendations
Formulae for scales of provision
- There is a clear need for a national agreement on minimum levels of technical support across all Scottish local authorities.
- An agreed formula for calculating the numbers of technicians allocated to each secondary school should be introduced. The formula should mainly be pupil roll based with account taken also of the teaching time for science and technology courses.
- A nationally agreed formula should be used to calculate technician complements only and be separate from arrangements for calculating the number of other non technical support staff in schools.
- Trainee or modern apprenticeship appointments should be in addition to the calculated technician complement.
Central Support Services
- There is strong support for some form of central support service in each authority - managed by a chief technician, technical support service manager or similar appointee.
- The chief technician should have responsibility for managing school based technicians.
Raising the Technicians Professional Profile
- Technicians should be involved with teachers at the development stage of all new science and technology curricula and course materials.
- They should be seen as part of the a professional team and be able to offer assistance and advice - particularly on what is practical given available time and other resources. They should also contribute to making risk assessments (particularly where rocesses will involve them directly).
- Technicians should be entitled/expected to attend relevant national conferences , or similar professional events.
- Having a central technician resource service with a chief technician (or equivalent post) to communicate with heads of service would give technicians a “voice” outwith the school and at the whole authority level.
- Technicians should be interviewed as part of the HMIE school inspections (by an HMIE inspector rather than a “lay” inspector). The quality, or otherwise, of technical support services in schools should be specifically mentioned in the inspection report.
Technorati Tags: stag, sserc, scottish executive
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All Systems Go / Any Questions? June 5, 2007
Posted by Brian in : transition , add a comment
Its been all go for a couple of weeks as the school prepares for the new term which started at the beginning of the week.
Pupils and staff alike are adjusting to the new timetables as the cycle of learning starts again.
P7’s from our primaries are also visiting this week for a taste of what life will be like at the Grammar when they start here in August.
A lot of excellent work has been done by staff over the past few years to ensure the transition from Primary to Secondary education takes place with the minimum of disruption.
Acting Depute Ollie Bray has even started a blog where P7’s can have their questions about the Grammar answered by S1 pupils.
It makes fascinating reading and members of staff can get an idea of some of the concerns that pupils currently have.
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