Scotland leads in having the world’s first national intranet for education. ‘Glow’ is an innovative educational venture aimed to break down barriers and make learning experiences and opportunities more widely accessible to all 54,000 teachers and 750,000 pupils across Scotland providing a platform for online collaboration and sharing enabling them all to communicate, work and learn together.

This study focuses on GlowScience resources – a suite of online videos and support materials for teachers. These resources are part of Glow which itself promotes ‘networking and exchanges of resources and information’ (Donaldson, 2010, p. 65) within a safe and secure online environment. Teachers can access these resources only through designated Glow usernames and passwords.

The launch of GlowScience resources in March 2010 was a direct response to the ‘Science and Engineering 21 – Action Plan for Education for the 21^st Century (The Scottish Government, 2009), which aims to increase the focus of science and engineering in Scottish education as well as to enhance understanding of its importance. In this regard, the primary aim of our study is to evaluate the extent to which GlowScience resources support the above-mentioned Action Plan. One of the key areas of investigation is the impact of GlowScience resources on teachers’ creativity and innovation in teaching; ability to deliver lessons; and confidence in teaching whilst exploring how the use of these resources increases pupils’ engagement; improves their understanding of the lessons and enhances their enjoyment in learning. Since these innovative resources are relatively new, our research also explores other ways in which these resources could be improved as the Scottish Government considers further development of similar resources to support other curriculum areas within the Curriculum for Excellence.

Findings from this research will also contribute to the scholarly debate that has its beginning in 1983 when Richard Clark made a controversial statement: ‘…media are mere vehicles that deliver instruction but do not influence student achievement any more than the truck that delivers our groceries causes changes in our nutrition’ (p. 445). Subsequent debates – the ‘great media effects debate’ – followed as a result (Hastings and Tracey, 1985, p. 38; Mellon 1999). We agree with Hastings and Tracey (1985) that the focus of the debate should be reframed to ‘not if, but how media affects learning’ (p. 30) and this is another vital area that our study endeavours to address.

This study was commissioned by Learning and Teaching Scotland and was undertaken by a research team from the School of Education, University of Glasgow between October 2010 and March 2011. This innovative study could potentially offer bright ideas on how new and advanced technology is harnessed for more innovative, creative and effective teaching and learning, not only in Scotland but further afield.

Davidson, J. K. and Elliot, D. L. (2007) A comparison of e-learning in Scotland's colleges and secondary schools: the case of National Qualifications in 'Core Skills'. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning (OnlineEarly Articles), 23 (6), 511-522. Online at doi:10.1111/j.1365-2729.2007.00250.x Donaldson, G. (2010) Teaching Scotland’s Future: Report of a review of teacher education in Scotland. Edinburgh: The Scottish Government. ISBN: 978-0-7559-9733-6. Hastings, N. B. and Tracey, M. W. (2005) Does Media Affect Learning: Where Are We Now?. TechTrends: Linking Research & Practice to Improve Learning, 49 (2), 28-30. Mellon, C. A. (1999) Technology and the great pendulum of education. Journal of Research on Computing in Education, 32 (1), 28- 35.