The National Site in Glow has been in need of a makeover for some time. If you have visited it, you’ll be familiar with the ‘Noticeboard’, ‘National Events’, ‘National Groups’ and ‘Resources in Focus’ page tabs. When I joined the National Glow team a couple of years ago, we at Learning & Teaching Scotland added some different content to the noticeboard page, changed the way the events were displayed and presented the procured content in a different way, but little has been done with the National Site since then (aside from an ever growing list of national groups! – I’ll come back to this issue in another post)

I made one massive error in the work we did on the National Site – we didn’t ask all of you what you want to do there, or what you want to find there.

It’s time to rectify that mistake.

If you go to the National Site from tomorrow onwards in Glow, you’ll find the noticeboard changed – it’ll simply ask one question – “if we were to redesign the National Site in Glow, what would you want to find here?” There will be a discussion board there for you to tell us all what you want the National Site to be.

The important word in the sentence on the noticeboard is ‘we’. Glow isn’t the product of selected individuals, or the product of one central organisation (although it could be argued that’s how it’s been perceived so far) – the National Site in Glow needs to belong to all the users of Glow, and more importantly be shaped by us all collectively.

We’ve a great opportunity here – we can all chip in with our thoughts and talents, and turn the National Site in Glow into somewhere not that we ‘must visit’ (after all, how many things do you have on your ‘must do’ list?), but somewhere that we ‘need’ to visit.

I don’t often ask for favours. But if you’re reading this, and you’ve got access to Glow, please go and join the conversation. If you don’t have access to Glow but you’ve got ideas about what it should offer all its users then leave your comments here.

Together we’re greater than the sum of our parts.

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In April 2007 I took part in the phase two pilot of what Glow would become. I  attended a presentation by the Glow team in the ‘classroom’ in LTS and sat on my hands, biting my tongue – wanting to ask ‘what about…’, ‘does it…’, ‘can we…’ That week, I was given a login and allowed to play with the portal. I wrote a blog post about it, and recorded a screencast of my thoughts about the initial process of changing a theme. That week, a number of us got together online to look at Glow Meet, and had quite a frank discussion about what we’d seen in the portal, and shared our thoughts about how people might use it. As you can see and hear, I wasn’t that impressed with what I saw, and regarded what was being offered as a step back for the ‘edutechnorati’ but at the same time a step forward for those that weren’t using collaborative technology in their work. I was worried that it was only a step forward for the majority, when what I was really hoping for was a stride.

At that time, I found myself faced with a choice. I was working as an Education Support Officer in Argyll & Bute Council (all be it on secondment to LTS) and at that moment I saw the future of ICT in Scottish Education for at least the next 3 years. When I was to return from my secondment, my role in the LA was to roll out Glow. So my choice was laid out for me – stay in the LA and roll out something that I thought needed some changes, or try and get into the centre and change it for the better. History shows my decision, but it would be fair to say that beyond a number of discussions and decisions, I don’t feel I’ve had the impact I wanted to have on the direction of Glow as a whole.

Last month I interrupted my paternity leave to attend an interview for the post of ‘Head of Glow’ at Learning and Teaching Scotland. I was lucky enough to be successful, and since taking up my post on the 2nd of November, have set about a number of challenges, which I intend to write blog posts about. To help my focus, we set up a ‘first 100 day’ challenge to ensure we’re not wasting time and energy with my appointment – I’ll share the intentions of that 100 day challenge with you all in a blog post soon too.

Why am I writing this here, now? I feel it’s important that I have a place to share my thoughts, and that doesn’t detract from the great work being shared on the GlowScotland blog. I’ve always used my blog as a place to think out loud, and I don’t think I’ve ever needed a space like it as much as I do now. If you read my online bio on social networking sites, it says my aim is ‘to convince teachers that sharing is a good idea’. Over the coming weeks and months, I want to see how we can collectively achieve this through Glow.

A week ago, there was a great discussion on twitter and a number of blogs about making #glowbetter. I came away enthused that a number of people cared enough to pass comment, and were committed enough to make a difference. This isn’t something that the team at LTS or even the Local Authority staff will change on their own though – it’s all of us, collectively, that will make a difference. Glow gives us a great opportunity to have people sharing in Scottish education – and not just the small percentage represented by the ‘edutechnorati’, but a much larger number of people who regularly are logging into Glow at the moment and saving their documents and weblinks online in Glow groups.

So I’ve stopped sitting on my hands, and am stuck into the challenge of making #glowbetter – what about you?

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