I gave a quick 'showcase' demo of Glow at our staff in-service yesterday. Despite a technical hitch - the projector failed 10 minutes into it - I got to show all of my colleagues a few of the things that I think make Glow an valuable tool in education. Encouragingly, a few people have spoken to me since, and their feedback has, on the whole, been positive.
Most have expressed interest in making some use of Glow, and some asked for help in getting started. Being a Glow Mentor, I'm more than happy to help, though I am quite concerned as to how this can best be achieved.
The most precious commodity that we have in our profession, it seems to me, is time, and there simply isn't enough of it to allow us all to do all the things we might like to be able to do. I'm pretty convinced that making effective use of Glow, and embedding it in my practice, will free up some of my time in order to do other things better, but I get the distinct impression that for many of my colleagues Glow is perceived as an 'extra' - something else to be added to the pile of things to do, rather than a means of dealing with some of it.
Lacking inspiration of my own, I put out a tweet seeking advice on encouraging staff to think of Glow as integral to delivering their subjects, rather than as an 'extra'. I'm hopeful that my PLN will give me some good ideas, responding to the tag #makeuseofglow .
I'm also hopeful that time will be made or found in order to allow me to support and train my colleagues, and to allow us all to share our successes (and failures too).
Please feel free to add any ideas you might have by leaving a comment, or by replying via twitter to @drewburrett using the tag #makeuseofglow .
Hi Drew
I've found the new Glow Cookbooks really inspiring. As a fellow scientist you might like this one: http://cookbooks.glowscotland.org.uk/blog/2010/06/08/supporting-int-2-biology-part-1-multiple-document-stores/
but there are loads of others for a wide range of subjects. I'll tweet this link using your hashtag too because I think that you raise a good point here. Using Glow has to add value to what we're doing in the classroom for the majority of staff to engage with it.
Looking forward to reading what others think too, Cathy.