School Libraries> ICT

A central part of the vision for developing Scotland's education system focuses on the use of new technologies to get young people excited about learning. The main component of this strategy is Glow, a national schools intranet which will electronically link Scotland's 800,000 educators and pupils. It is funded by the Scottish Government and managed by Learning and Teaching Scotland in partnership with RM.

Glow is a secure system of integrated learning tools, including an authentication system, email, instant messaging, a virtual learning environment and video conferencing platform. Access will be provided to national, authority and local subscription services.

In preparation for the launch in August 2007 extensive piloting has taken place and national mentors have been appointed with responsibility for early adoption and cascading training to colleagues.

Nothing of this scale has been attempted elsewhere in the world so Glow is an extremely ambitious pilot that could have far reaching implications for the school sector on a global level. At a local level, Glow will impact on all areas of the school including the library so librarians must set out their place within this new learning environment.

Read our Glow guide to get a better idea of the practical implementation of Glow in libraries.

This section will contain more information and resources to support school librarians as Glow implementation unfolds. Please contact us if you have any questions or suggestions about the content of this area of the website.