New Teachers Ask For Email Training August 20, 2008
Posted by David Gilmour in : CPD, Glow, Schools ICT, infrastructure , 5commentsFeedback from an introductory training session on ICT for this year’s East Lothian NQTs apparently included the request that we should have covered how to use the school email system, in place of introducing Glow.
Maybe this is a sign of the times, as increasing numbers of younger people make less use of email, preferring instead the immediacy of MSN? If so, these people are going to be out of their comfort zone if they find they can’t keep in touch - with colleagues as well as friends - via MSN while in school.
Taking things a step further, we may be seeing a new generation bringing new expectations of what communication tools should be on a school PC desktop. Glow Chat may just have arrived in time.
New Glow Group Will Keep East Lothian’s NQTs Connected July 31, 2008
Posted by David Gilmour in : CPD, Glow , 2comments
East Lothian’s newly qualified teachers (NQTs) will be able to stay in touch, support one another and find their programme documentation, via their own Glow Group this session.
Their induction training before the session starts includes a day-long session on use of ICT in East Lothian schools. This year, the session will include some time on Glow. Of course, we wanted that to be hands-on and relevant, which is where the idea of a Glow Group to support the NQTs came from. By doing this, we’re hoping to make it easier for them to get their heads round what Glow is all about through practical experience.
So far the site has been populated with some sample links, Glow Meet, Glow Chat and a couple of documents from the Probationer Programme. It’s hoped that the group will have plenty of ideas for further improvements.
Helping Internet-Savvy Staff Make Sense of Glow July 23, 2008
Posted by David Gilmour in : Glow , add a comment
We’re noticing that staff new to Glow view it through the prism of their existing model of how the web works. Most of the time, that’s fine, but in some areas it can cause confusion. Clearly it’s better if we can avoid that confusion, and we’ve been talking today about how we might do that.
The catalyst for the discussion was a planning meeting today with Martin Brown and Karen-Ann MacAlpine of the Glow team for a probationer training session on Glow in August. We expect the probationers will be very experienced internet users, so might be particularly at risk of this confusion.
So where is confusion occurring? Some examples are:
- an expectation that as it’s web-based, it will be possible to search for content with a search engine
- an expectation that if you’ve access to a Glow Group, you’ll be able to see it in your list of Glow Groups
- an expectation that because it’s a private intranet, you won’t be able to hyperlink to things from the public web
What is it that’s happening? We’re presenting people with a very large, complex system which is completely new to them. We do it in relatively short training sessions of only an hour or two, inevitably fairly jam-packed with new terminology. To help make sense of it all, people will use their “best fit” mental model - in this case the one they’ve built up over recent years of how internet stuff works, and - mostly - that’s fine. The confusion occurs, though, when something happens that doesn’t make sense in terms of that model.
What might we do about it? Today we were discussing the possibility of creating some big, simple, “building block” diagrams that could help speed teachers through the process of developing their own mental model of “how Glow works”. We talked, for example, about maybe showing Glow as an iceberg, with just a little bit - the web publishing facility - above the waterline and in public view.
Will Glow need this much juggling? February 28, 2008
Posted by David Gilmour in : Glow , add a commentBefore today’s Glow Mentor training started, Paul Trickett of Preston Lodge High School gave an impromptu demo of some 3-ball juggling.
Juggling Maths teaching and Glow Mentoring, we feel, won’t cause Paul any difficulties.
First Exc-el Meeting of 2007 January 9, 2007
Posted by Gilmour David in : Exc-el, Glow, eduBuzz, meetings, training , 6commentsUpdate 10/1/07: Tess Watson was present too!
Here are notes from Monday’s meeting. Comments welcome. (Word doc: Notes of Exc-el Meeting No.1, 8.1.2007)
See also:
http://edubuzz.org/blogs/donsblog/2007/0…
http://edu.blogs.com/edublogs/2007/01/a_…
http://olliebray.typepad.com/olliebrayco…
EAST LOTHIAN EDUCATION & CHILDREN’S SERVICES
EXC-EL DEVELOPMENT - www.exc-el.org.uk
Notes of Exc-el Board Meeting No.1, held in John Muir House on Monday 8th January 2007
(more…)
