Teachers' black marks for website

Published on Sunday 7 June 2009 22:07

TEACHERS have demanded an investigation into the use of an online education website, touted as revolutionising learning in Scottish schools.

Delegates at the EIS annual conference, at the weekend, called for a report into how well teachers are trained to use Glow, and whether councils even have the technology to use it all.

The online teaching intranet is a key part of Learning and Teaching Scotland's (LTS) strategy to implement the forthcoming new school curriculum. Star Wars director, George Lucas, who now heads up a computer education foundation in the United States, praised it as leading the world.

The 37.5 million project aims to link pupils and teachers across Scotland with shared educational resources and improve communications between schools and parents.

However, an EIS motion demanding the union's ruling council investigate Glow's effectiveness was passed unanimously by delegates at the union's Perth conference.

John Black, from the union's Aberdeenshire local association, said his authority, Aberdeenshire, had been held up by LTS Scotland as leading the way in use of the intranet.

However, he warned over-reliance on it could see teachers putting materials on the site "for the sake of it" rather than with a specific educational purpose in mind. He also warned wide variations in technological ability could see a postcode lottery of availability.

He said: "What is Glow supposed to be? It doesn't actually do anything but it's supposed to do everything. It appears Glow let's you do things you weren't needing to do, quicker. And you can connect with people you've never had any connection with before, but now you have to because you can."

David Drysdale, from the Angus local association, said: "Glow is undeniably important and welcomed by many but it can become just another priority for teachers and one they only learn to use partially.

"Given that local authorities seem to be buying into it at different levels, this means all the facilities available through Glow are not equally available to all teachers.

"In my local authority in Angus, teachers have been over-burdened for two or three years now.

"Teachers are busy enough without having to devote precious time to systems that don't actually meet their needs or the needs of their pupils."

Ken Brown, East Dunbartonshire council member, said: "We've undertaken an analysis and the existing equipment in schools isn't fit for purpose.

"The Glow system doesn't work – it's far too slow so none of us have the time to use it. It's simply not user-friendly."

A Scottish Government spokesman said: "The Glow team has provided mentor training to local authorities in Scotland to facilitate the system's roll-out."

ACTION PLAN

SCOTLAND'S biggest teaching union has voted for possible industrial action to reduce class sizes.

Members of the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) want to see class sizes in all Scottish schools cut to a statutory maximum of 20.

The motion was carried "overwhelmingly" at the EIS agm in Perth.

A spokesman for the EIS said some councils had openly refused to lower class sizes and warned that teachers expected the promises of politicians to be kept.