It’s certainly been an eventful year for me. Looking forward to a beach in Turkey next week, I got a big dose of the reflection city blues and have been thinking all day about how best to sum up 2007-8 in a single post. I suppose I started this academic year back last August knowing that most of it would be dominated by GLOW, and of course, that proved to be the case. The GLOW roll-out took me in directions that I’d not envisaged with regard to my teaching as it made me fundamentally examine my own professional practice in depth -the how and why of what I do, but more importantly perhaps, the how and why of my students’ learning. My own particular GLOW journey has been well documented on this blog, but I guess if I have to sum it all up in one sentence it would be…. “empowering pupils by giving learning back to the learners”.

GLOW is not perfect and will never satisfy the technophiles but it’s a great, great, starting base for encouraging teachers to use ICT more and a powerful set of tools for delivering ACfE. In many ways it can be a re-working of the resource-based learning concept but updated in that the students can control the resources and by collaboration with others, create their own communities of practice. This is really the true essence of an authentic individual-centered learning community. This was the point I tried to get across to South Lanarkshire headteachers and education 0fficers at the curriculum conference this year from the main podium; you don’t need lots of money and huge banks of computers in every classroom to make GLOW work in your school. Managing existing resources in creative and innovative ways can be just as inspiring. All it takes is a little imagination and a ‘can-do’ attitude.

Going to Finland was also a truly enlightening experience and it was wonderful to be able to observe good and innovative teaching and discuss educational practice and research with colleagues in such a forward-thinking country as well as taking in the sights and sounds of such a beautiful city as Helsinki.

I  picked up my Psychology teaching qualification this year as well as professional recognition in using ICT in teaching and learning, both from the GTCS, and my classroom-based research study on raising attainment using ICT/GLOW for the teacher researcher programme is just coming to the end of it’s first phase. I’ve been quite involved in the Eco-school scheme as well, and the work with our school blog and podcast group continues with plans to investigate the possibility of an internet-based school radio station and a ‘blog/podathon’ to raise awareness of HIV issues for world AIDS day in December.

One thing has bugged me this year though, and it’s this….I’ve been on many courses, attended quite a few conferences, and sat through numerous meetings this year and keep thinking…Why do many people giving presentations read from their powerpoint slides ? - as if the delegates aren’t capable of doing that themselves. Should not the slides just be what it says on the tin – powerful points from that particular strand of the presentation ? key facts and figures ? images illustrating and reinforcing an argument? If you are going to stand up and deliver a presentation or run a CPD course, please, please think about taking some lessons in presentational skills. If I taught my classes this way, my students would very soon switch off, and I do the same very quickly when assaulted with the voice of a presenter or speaker reading a powerpoint slide word for word.

So what’s up for next year then ? well, more GLOW, with training in school to continue, a GLOW video diary to start, the VLE/learn application to get up and running, and LA presentations. Extending our use of gaming in science teaching and learning and, fingers crossed and funding permitting, a P7/S1&2 ICT-gaming project to set up and run. Publication of my research paper results on raising attainment through ICT will be in July or August . Not giving too much away on this yet, but I will reveal some fairly significant attainment gains. I’m presenting the paper at this year’s Scottish Educational Research Association conference in Perth. Phase two of this research this year will involve detailed examination of the way in which using ICT/GLOW affects the classroom dynamic and pedagogy.

 I’d like to say that all of these have been the highlights of my year, but if I’m honest, they have strong competition from seeing David Coverdale and Whitesnake last week. I’ve been a fan for thirty years now and seen him on nearly every tour and with every incarnation of the band. Here is his infamous ‘loose women’ interview..

As DC himself would say, I wish you well…