John Cloherty, P6/7 teacher and ICT Coordinator at St Bernadette’s RC Primary, Falkirk and the P7 Digital Leaders Niamh Wallace and Molly Rodden explain how they have been using the Glow tools in their school.
St Bernadette’s Primary has 8 classes and a Digital Leader was assigned to each class. They are responsible for trouble-shooting and teaching classes through a skills based approach. There is a poster with a hotline number in each class! Staff and pupils then provide feedback about this approach.
During Digital Learning Week, the Digital Leaders were responsible for organising the week, including writing lesson plans for teaching each class. These had to include success criteria and learning intentions.
Initial training was recieved from Malcolm Wilson at Falkirk Council
Impact
The Digital Leaders are responsible for the school blog for their assigned class. Staff use their Glow email to send them pictures and information for inclusion in the blog. This has encouraged other classes to make better use of the tools and to actively seek new ways to use technology with learners. It has also encourage staff to listen to learners and to use their expertise.
The opportunities for collaborative work has been increased. Learners have been able to work together on PowerPoint, each taking responsibility for a different slide.
During Digital Learning Week, they took part in the collaborative story telling which allowed them to write part of a National story.
The learning has been more pupil led and has allowed personalisation and choice, linked to pupil interests. This ensures learners have ownership of the learning and more confidence, especially when teaching staff. The learners would recommend this approach as it helps to make learning fun. It has also helped consolidate their learning as they can’t forget how to do things when they are sharing with others. They have also learned it is important to be patient and enthusiasm is essential!
Future Use
The Digital Leaders programme will continue into next session and they are busy training the new leaders. It is hoped the Digital Leaders will continue training staff during collegiate times, pupils during class time and introduce some Parent sessions. They also have plans to use Glow Meet for a school TV channel.
To carryout similar work you can find help and support at
https://glowhelp.wikis.glowscotland.org.uk/
https://glowscotland.sharepoint.com/sites/GlowHelp/SitePages/Home.aspx
