Scotland’s national education intranet recognised by US Congress
The US Congress was told that the States should adopt the same technology for its schools as Scotland’s pioneering Glow digital intranet.
Star Wars director George Lucas appeared before the House of Representatives to demand better access to technology for US students and held up Learning and Teaching Scotland’s national education intranet as a shining example of how ICT can help teaching and learning.
He told representatives on the telecommunications and internet sub-committee that despite being the nation that helped create the technology of today, the US is lagging behind Scotland in teaching its children with modern tools in the 21st century.
George Lucas said: ‘This year we describe a project from Scotland called Glow, the first national schools intranet, which provides every Scottish school with a common e-platform for student and teacher email, for parents to have regular communication with their schools, for publishing school websites and for features such as online course and videoconferencing between schools.
‘This kind of common platform makes perfect sense. As companies and government agencies do, school districts and states should invest in ensuring that each of their locations has the same suite of online tools for their work and communications.
‘Americans were pioneers in creating the truly wondrous technology we are talking about today. Innovation is in our DNA. Now, we need to make sure it is also in our classrooms.’
Glow is revolutionising Scottish schools, linking pupils and educators from Shetlands to the Borders, in a hive of educational activity, creativity and achievement.
The network is managed by Learning and Teaching Scotland, the body responsible for developing and supporting the curriculum in Scotland including exploring, promoting and developing new technology in education. It has been funded by the Scottish Government and developed by RM.
The network could eventually see around 800,000 pupils, teachers, parents and education professionals from all 32 Scottish local authorities linked together. Currently 17 local authorities are using Glow with the remainder scheduled to be up and running within the next year.
Laurie O’Donnell, Director of Learning and Technology at LTS, was honoured by George Lucas’s Educational Foundation in March for his work on leading and driving forward Glow. He said: ‘Scotland has led the world in the development of Glow. Our goal at the very beginning was to ensure our children and young people had access to the very best technology and tools for learning.
‘We want pupils to leave school equipped with the skills needed for life and work in the 21st century and so it is important that they have access to the tools of the modern world, in the classroom. Educators and government officials from across the globe, from China to Singapore to Australia, have been visiting LTS to see how Glow is going to be used to enhance learning and teaching in Scotland. It is great news for Scotland that the US, the wealthiest and most technology rich country in the world is looking to us to see how to modernise their education system.’
It is the second plaudit for Glow in the last month. Audit Scotland found Glow is one of the most competently handled public sector capital projects. The public spending watchdog gave the £37.5 million project almost full marks for its progress.
ENDS.
For further information please contact:
Lee-Ann Fullerton, Press Officer
T: 0141 282 5036 M: 07973512453
Learning and Teaching Scotland
The Optima, 58 Robertson Street, Glasgow, G2 8DU
www.LTScotland.org.uk
Notes for Editors:
- The full transcription of George Lucas’s statement to the sub committee is available to download here: www.edutopia.org/pdfs/testimony-of-george-lucas.pdf
- Images of Glow in schools are available on request.
- LTS is the body responsible for the development and support of the curriculum in Scotland including exploring, promoting and developing new technology in education.
- More information on Glow in your area can be found at www.ltscotland.org.uk/glowscotland