Just a quick note to say I’m away from the next couple of weeks - we’re going camping in the highlands, so fingers crossed for good weather!

I’m overjoyed to announce that the GlowScotland site changed to have a new look today - why not head over and check it out?

Big changes on the site - now it’s easy to keep up to date with what’s happening in each local authority, easy to get up to speed with how to use Glow, easy to find out what you need to do to prepare for Glow and easy to find out where to get help and support.

Anne, Rebecca and the rest of the team have moved mountains on this new site, so my personal thanks for all their incredible hard work. It’s brilliant to see us having integrated a huge variety of media/solutions into the one website - flash, camtasia, google maps, blog and… wait for it… RSS.

Yep - that’s right folks. You can now subscribe to the news being added on a regular basis to the glowscotland site. Better still, the ‘news’ and ‘glow in your area’ elements of the site are built on wordpress technology, so why not join in the conversation?

A little bit late in sharing this news with you all due to ill health, but I was recently interviewed for the post of Glow Development Manager at Learning & Teaching Scotland and was the successful candidate!

It’s a great time to be changing my role from Glow Development Officer to the manager of the team, as we now really begin to enter the most exciting phase of the development of Glow in my opinion. Beyond the initial phases (that others can speak of far more eloquently than I), the most recent phase that we have been focusing on could be categorised as ‘Rollout’, as we work with local authorities in the process of signing the customer agreement and planning the initial training of their central staff and their mentors. Whilst this phase continues for the remaining local authorities we are working with at this stage, our attention can now shift to the next phase, which is the one that arguably the team are most passionate about. Ask anyone involved in Glow why they do the job they do, invariably the answer will be something akin to ‘making significant change in the learning experience of our students’, or ‘providing greater opportunity for our learners using technology’ - the phase we enter now has this as its focus.

Two key points classify this next phase of Glow development - ‘uptake and usage’ and ‘benefits realisation’. These two key points are inextricably linked, and provide the answer to the question ‘why should I use Glow’. Both points are huge areas in themselves, but I’ll return to discuss them in the not too distant future.

photocredit - biology big brother.

Last night we watched the Imagine programme on BBC 1 all about Anthony Minghella. One quote stayed with me since the programme, as Alan Yentob sat in discussion with Ralph Fiennes - Fiennes said that the one thing that stood out for him about Minghella as a director was that he wasn’t afraid of saying “I’m not sure”. This phrase would be closely followed by “but let’s find out”.

How often in education do we as teachers shy away from this phrase? It’s all too easy to adopt the role of the teacher that is resolute in their certainty, but perhaps the best thing a student can learn is that we can all learn, irrespective of our role.

I think I like Minghella’s phrase, and I would certainly place myself in the camp of not being afraid of saying “I’m not sure”. In the ever changing world of ICT, I think that’s a good standpoint to take - especially when “but let’s find out” closely follows not being sure.

Certainty can be a hugely valuable asset, but on occasion admitting uncertainty and then collaborating with your peers could make a team stronger, and achieve an objective more expeditiously.

Imagecredit: robonline.

On Sunday I was introduced by my nephew to GoGo’s. (If you’re reading this and have no idea what a GoGo is, then check out this video)

Forgive a moment of negativity, but I suspect that a number of school teachers may start to clamp down on kids bringing them to school, playing with them or trading them. If you’re a teacher and are thinking about trying to win back your kids attention, then have a wee think about turning interest in GoGo’s to your advantage…

In the sticker album that goes with GoGo’s, there are a number of activities that you could use them for. One of the activities involved throwing 5 GoGo’s in the air, and depending upon how they land you got a certain score. A nice simple bit of mental maths that is guaranteed to get your GoGo addicted pupils paying attention!

UPDATE: Add to that times tables? GoGo’s come in packets of three, so my nephew is now well versed in his three times table.

Seriously, remember how we used to view images and videos from search results before PicLens?

(I know probably everyone knows about this already, but I just can’t contain myself about its brilliance!)

Is this the largest staffroom in Scotland? We think it just might be. The national staffroom in Glow potentially connects every member of staff in education in the country in one place.

Maybe you want to ask a colleague a question, but they work in another establishment. Or maybe you want somewhere to tell the best joke you’ve ever heard, or advertise to sell your caravan. Whatever.

At the moment, it’s a bit of a blank canvas. But we’d love you to shape it into whatever you want it to be - after all, it’s a national staffroom. Why not drop by and tell us all what you’d like to see?

Photocredit: staff only and crowd.

I’ve been working (in my spare time!) on a Scottish version of ‘Shift Happens - Did you know’ with some Scottish facts and figures given to me by my colleague Sally Fulton of LTS and HMIe. It’s pretty much ready to go, except for one remaining issue - music!

Personally, I like the music accompanying the xplanevisualthinking version of did you know, as it’s a nice relaxing ambient piece, and loses the harshness of the Shift Happens UK version. I do however like the celtic lilt to the UK one.

So, what I’d love some help with is this - could anyone recommend a piece of music that could be used to accompany a Scottish Shift Happens? It would need to be creative commons and around the the 8 minute mark. Better still, does anyone know of some Scottish school pupils that have (or could) create such a piece of music for us to use? Something Scottish and ambient would fit the bill nicely I think.

All help, suggestions, comment or links most welcome!

Have just found out that our good friend Joe Sweeney from St. Benedict’s (formerly St Brendan’s) in Linwood was involved in a serious road accident a couple of days ago. He is in intensive care in the Southern General in Glasgow in a critical but stable condition.

Joe teaches RE in St. Benedicts, and is widely known in the RE world. Many of you might know Joe through the network of Caledonia Tutors that he helped run and establish around the Glasgow area.

A larger than life character, please hold Joe in your thoughts and prayers, as he needs all the support he can get at this critical time.

Very occasionally, Saturday joins the ranks of Monday to Friday. Today I have the pleasure of leading a seminar at the ‘Parents as Partners’ conference in the Crowne Plaza, Glasgow. My subject today is ‘Shift Happens - New Technologies’. I’m standing in for Nick Morgan, who unfortunately has other commitments today.

It’s a great opportunity to speak with a group of keen, motivated parents about the developments in new technologies, the impact this is having on education at the moment, and how we can harness this in the future. Breaking with tradition, I’m hoping not to use dreaded presentation software, as new technologies really should be about what’s happening - as we speak - in our connected world. I’ll add in the links I use here later on then.

In the meantime, any suggestions for ways new technologies are being used in education that I really ought to show a group of parents from around Scotland this morning? Leave a comment, or tweet me ‘@whereisab’

UPDATE: As promised to the folks in the room (even though Jim beat me to it!), here are the links to the sites I showed -

flickr - the photosharing site
istockphoto - sharing images/graphics and making money in the process
myspace - the first big social networking site in the UK
bebo - the digital home of many of our kids - 13 or not
blogger - an easy way to publish online
EeePC - the first really affordable laptop?
Elonex One - the first sub £100 laptop
iPod Touch - why get a laptop when this iPod has a browser in it?
Consolarium - games based learning from Learning & Teaching Scotland
Teen SecondLife - 3D worlds to make and explore
Ecodazoo - how about learning in a 3D environment?
CEOP - the home of internet safety advice
Byron Review - where to find the recently published Byron review
Glow - the Scottish Schools Digital Network
twitter - carry on discussions, anytime, anywhere with anyone from even a mobile phone?
A Midsummer Night’s Dream - a wiki for student’s studying this Shakespeare text
Holland 08 - using web technology to keep in touch during a school trip
Coffee Break Spanish - learn languages using an MP3 player

My thanks to all the participants at todays event. Please feel free to get in touch, or ask me a question!