On this page you will find links to general resources on topics connected with learning and teaching. Resources for specific subjects will appear on a sub-page.

Glow

'Glow is the new name for the Scottish Schools Digital Network. It is a national schools intranet, digitally linking Scotland's 800,000 educators and pupils. Glow is funded by the Scottish Executive and managed by Learning and Teaching Scotland (LTS) in partnership with RM.'

To find out more about Glow, follow this link Glow to their main website or click on miniGlow , from where you can download various information files.

North Ayrshire has signed up for Glow and is currently in the process of implementing the roll out to schools. Watch this space for any updates.

Smartboard

Various makes and models of interactive whiteboard are in use throughout North Ayrshire schools. The following information relates to the SMART Board supplied by Smart Technologies inc., using their supplied SMART Notebook software (currently v.10 beta), which can be downloaded from their website Smarttech .

In addition to software, the smarttech site contains resources including ready made smartboard lessons - see smart_lessons .

To download training and information files visit miniGlow and look for filenames containing the phrase 'SmartBoard' .

It appears the BBC will be broadcasting a new show called The Brainbox Challenge. To help promote the show, the BBC has a website that has some great interactive brain challenges. The games Shaping Up and Total Recall are perfect games for the SMART Board interactive whiteboard. The other games are okay but they require you to use a keyboard.

Screencasting

Making a screencast could just be a more appealing way of presenting material to your audience than say a powerpoint presentation or a block of text.

Watch the introduction from the sketchcast site to judge for yourself .....

Most commercially produced screencasts such as those used in training videos are produced using a tool like Camtasia Studio, but others like Sketchcast are freely available. Have a look at the Feb 27th post to watch a sample Maths lesson by James Hollis, which was created using a Smartboard.