The future is ing
Susan Galloway and Katie Barrowman
Leaders of Learning, Glasgow City Council
@digifuturescot

“We don’t have the luxury of things taking
hundreds of years to change anymore. They
change ridiculously quickly. We’re living in an
age where you are experiencing the fastest
change you’ve ever experienced in your life,
things are changing faster than they ever have
in anyone’s lifetime, and it will be the slowest
pace of change you will ever experience
again.”
- Chris Van Der Kuyl, Scottish Learning Festival Keynote
September 2015

Curriculum for Excellence
• Entirely new Scottish curriculum introduced
for 3-16 learners in 2010 (now birth - 18)
• Based on sets of curricularly linked
experiences and outcomes (Es and Os)
• Founded on a skills based approach that put
learners at the core
• Not perfect - still evolving and changing to
best meet learners' needs - it is a real
challenge to make a curriculum fluid enough
to adapt to challenges of a rapidly changing
society

Scotland’s Digital Economy
• It is estimated that 90% of jobs across the UK
today already require the skills to use digital
technologies confidently in a wide variety of
ways, with over half requiring more advanced
skills
• Today, 84,400 people work in digital jobs in
Scotland
• The digital sector alone contributes £4.5 billion
value added to Scotland’s economy
• In the five years to 2013, the number of digital
businesses in Scotland increased almost twice
as fast as across the UK as a whole

Background on Glow
• Launched 2007
• Government funded, SharePoint based
intranet
• Offered opportunities to share files,
discuss, webconference, embed content
etc. across Scottish Education.
• Local Authorities chose whether or not to
sign up – last one came on board 2010
• Use varied across country – some LAs
used it for all online business, others barely
used it.

Changes to Glow
• Moved to Office 365 for main
functionality in 2012
• Scotland’s largest LA (Glasgow)
moving all email to Glow over 2015-
16
• More positively viewed – better
functionality, more means of access
(e.g. mobile).
• No cost to end user.

How Good Is Our School 4
• New inspection framework for Scottish
Schools
• Digital education the explicit
responsibility of all teachers (from June
2016)
• "All staff take responsibility for
developing literacy, numeracy, health
and wellbeing and digital literacy
across the curriculum. Learners
demonstrate these skills at a high level

How Good Is Our School 4
• "Young people make informed choices
about the way digital technology can
and should be used. "
• "The development of digital skills
enables children and young people to
be creative and use digital technologies
to meet a personal or social need."
• "Young people understand the
importance of developing their own
digital skills for learning, life and work."

Where are we now?
• On the brink of the most important
change to the Scottish curriculum in
decades.
• Universal access for learners and
teachers to Glow, allowing true
collaborative working.
• Recognising that digital skills and
competencies are key to the success
of the Scottish economy.

What are the challenges?
• Teacher confidence and skill
• Change of mindset and priorities
needed
• Needs to be universal acceptance of
the importance of digital learning
• Access to hardware and connectivity
in schools
• Unequal playing field - impact of
poverty (Scottish Attainment

How does Glow contribute?
• Same suite of tools for all learners
• Free access to MS office
• Free, secure access to WordPress
blogs
• Collaborative working
• Requires strong understanding of
digital responsibility – Health and
Wellbeing
• Opportunities to publish and celebrate

What is a teacher?
Changing Role of the Teacher
Traditional
21st
Century
• Expert
• Knowledg
e
Transmitte
r
• Facilitator
• Coach
• Contractor

What is a teacher?
"(teachers') skills are up-to-date with
technological advances informed by a range
of
sources including the expertise of the young
people themselves." - HGIOS 4

Next Steps
• Sharing of good practice and ideas
• Schools collaborating on projects both
internally and with other schools
• Schools of Education and NQT Training
Programmes
• Risk taking
• Flipped Teaching
• Change of dynamic within classroom
• Models of change – grassroots? Top