Glow is the world's first national intranet for education and connects 800,000 learners and teachers across Scotland. Glow encompasses over 2700 schools, 750,000 school students and over 50,000 teaching staff; there is also the capacity to accommodate 700,000 parents within the system. Glow is funded by the Scottish Government, managed by Learning and Teaching Scotland and supplied and delivered by RM.
There are a number of contractual stakeholders identified as users of Glow. These are the 32 local authorities, the 7 faculties of education within universities, Learning and Teaching Scotland, the Scottish Qualifications Agency, Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Education and the Scottish Government itself. The service is optional to these stakeholders and to date 28 of the 32 local authorities have signed a contractual customer agreement with 2 further local authorities in the very immediate pipeline. Each of the other stakeholders are at various stages of engagement.
Glow will break geographical and social barriers and allow joined-up working the length and breadth of Scotland for pupils and teachers.
Glow will transform the way education is delivered in Scotland by encouraging users to collaborate with each other on shared activities, to collaborate across national and international boundaries, to create and share resources, to connect across class, school and authority boundaries. It will work alongside Curriculum for Excellence (the national curriculum reform programme in Scotland) to build capacity and ensure a first-class education for Scotland.
Glow enables innovation in teaching approaches by offering unique learning opportunities.
Glow helps motivate young people to work independently and collaboratively.
Glow supports individualised learning, allowing for personalisation and choice.
Glow provides children and young people with relevance in their learning.
What Glow will provide
A trusted and safe environment for pupils, teachers and parents.
An area to create personalised programmes of work and share curricular resources.
A variety of online tools to enhance learning experiences.
Virtual learning to share information and take part in a lesson.
Tools to enable the user to communicate and collaborate across the network.
Glow Components
Introduction to Glow Components
Inside Glow there is a huge number of different components. These components provide a variety of tools and functions which are technically familiar and socially fit for a 21st century education. Below is an introduction to some of the features available within Glow, called Glow Components. It explains how these can be used to enhance learning and teaching.
National Directory
The National Directory is an index of all the users of Glow throughout Scotland. Using the national directory, users can find others with similar areas of interest or expertise. Users will be able to collaborate across the country and make connections with others to improve learning and teaching.
Glow Groups
A Glow Group is an area which connects people and ideas through communities of interest. Inside a Glow Group you can add tools such as discussion boards, chat rooms, document stores, image galleries and web conferencing, which can all be customised to meet the needs of the communities of interest. The flexibility of Glow allows for Glow Groups to be a closed community for specific users or open for others to join.
Glow Meet
Glow Meet is the web conferencing tool which sits in Glow Groups. It allows people to interact using video, audio and a shared whiteboard space.
Glow Mail
Glow Mail is a web based email system integrated into Glow. Anyone familiar with web based email will instantly be familiar with Glow Mail. The benefit of using Glow Mail is the single sign-on. Users will have access to an inbox within Glow without having to visit another website. As soon as a user logs in to Glow, they will have instant access to any new mail waiting for them.
Glow Learn
Glow Learn is the virtual learning environment (VLE) within Glow. It includes tools to share, organise and search for digital resources, create courses, monitor student progress and provide learners with access to structured content. Glow Learn can be used at any time, anywhere with internet access.
Glow Messenger
Glow Messenger is an electronic messaging service that allows users to exchange text messages with others online immediately. This component is used by teaching staff only.
Glow Chat
Glow Chat is a moderated chat room which sits inside the secure online environment. Moderation is very flexible and allows devolvement of moderation as well as multiple moderators. There is even the facility to have no moderation.
Resources
A significant and wide range of online digital content and resources sits within Glow. This content has been made available by LTS, but content can be added from individual, school or authority level if required. Content can be added into Glow Learn or into Glow itself.
The role of RM
Glow has been developed, supplied and delivered by RM. RM has worked very closely with the Scottish Government and LTS to deliver a national intranet to the specification determined by the customer. RM has significant development expertise which has been applied to the Glow solution. An implementation and delivery team from RM work alongside LTS to deliver Glow. The RM Glow team consists of Educational Consultants, Project Managers and an Operations team.
RM can tailor and develop a solution similar to Glow for large scale implementation across authorities, states or country. If you are interested in discussing this further, then please contact:
John Mc Carney, Project Director - email address: jmcarney@rm.com Stuart Sefton, Senior Service Delivery Manager - email address: ssefton@rm.com
