Glow in the Classroom: Personal Reflections of Changing Practice using Glow

GLOW promised so much. Visions of the "glowing angel" from the first GLOW videos still haunt many. Were the promises kept? Does GLOW move on from the conceptual to be a successful, effective and reliable tool to be used by teachers and students?

This seminar will examine how GLOW has been used in an S4 mathematics class for a whole academic year. It will consider:-

• The changes in pedagogy adopted by the teacher and the uses being made of GLOW's many tools by students

• moving from the traditional "real" classroom to a virtual 24/7 learning environment

• the changing dynamics within the classroom as students become more confident of sharing their learning with each other and take ownership of their GLOW classroom.

The journey of students logging onto GLOW for the first time to full active participation within a class GLOW group will be examined in the seminar. Time will be given to consider problems that had to be overcome during this journey as well as some of the more notable highlights of a personal experience of using GLOW with students.

John Sexton is a teacher of mathematics at The James Young High School, Livingston. After completing teacher training in Exeter he has now gained nine years experience of teaching mathematics back in his native Scotland. For the past two years he has been the GLOW Mentor in The James Young High school.

He has an active interest in the many ways technology can effectively be used in teaching and has presented seminars at The Scottish Maths Council conference in Stirling on best value use of ICT in the classroom.