Who needs school when you have the internet?
Thousands stuck at home but there's snow excuse for
falling behind
Scottish pupils who were kept out of classrooms by the snow last
week have been logging in online to keep up with their work.
Loads of schools now use Glow, the world's first national
intranet system for education, which allows pupils to access class
work from home.
Homework assignments can be given out using Glow, and you can
join in activities like creative writing, photography and outdoor
activities by logging in.
The pupils at Carmondean Primary School in Livingston have been
kept busy on Glow. Special homework and fun activities have been
provided online by their teachers.
"Children have been encouraged to build snowmen, measure and
count the number of buttons, then go online to see who has built
the tallest," said Jan Lumsden, the head teacher.
Rebecca, a primary three pupil at Carmondean said: "I've been
out measuring the depth of snow in my garden and working out the
average depth.
"I'm making a bar graph which I will take to school on Monday. I
have also been doing a scavenger hunt where my teacher posted
photographs online to see how many we can spot including a snow
drift, red sledge and animal footprints."
The education secretary, Michael Russell, is keen for more
people to use Glow in this way while the big freeze continues.
"I would urge local authorities and schools to embrace Glow and
other remote learning opportunities for the benefit of pupils who
are unable to attend their local school."
Maybe this is a taste of what school will be like in the future
- if your teacher can be beamed into your living room over the
internet, you can do your lessons in the garden and send your
homework in by email, why bother going back to school at all?
Have you tried logging into Glow through the Daily What
News? We have loads of fun stuff for you to have a go on from
quizzes and games to photo stories and interactive diagrams, and
lots more.
Lesson ideas and suggestions
Who needs school when you have the internet?
Kids able to learn at home, but why have we ground to a
halt?
More than 1000 schools were closed in Scotland last week as a
result of the most severe early winter weather in about 45 years,
with about 250,000 pupils having time off.
Thankfully, the existence of Glow, the world's only schools
intranet system, has allowed many pupils to keep up with their
learning. But many parents and politicians are angry that so many
schools were closed, while transport chaos, and food and fuel
shortages have been raising one question - why can we not cope?
Glasgow came in for criticism on Wednesday after its late
decision to close all of its schools and nurseries, especially
since schools in neighbouring East Renfrewshire managed to keep
their doors open.
Meanwhile, there have been demands for the Scottish Parliament
to investigate the travel chaos caused by winter weather. The
Westminster transport secretary Philip Hammond has promised to find
out how the weather has ground airports, the rail network and roads
to a halt.
Charlie Gordon, from the Scottish Labour Party, demanded an
investigation into the country's preparedness to deal with the
winter weather.
He said: "I believe that an inquiry by the Scottish Parliament's
transport committee would be the best way to consider the issues of
long-term planning and the resources that are necessary to keep
Scotland moving."
And fuel retailers were warning that some forecourts had already
run out of petrol, with many more expected to dry up soon.
The Retail Motor Industry Independent Petrol Retailers
Association (RMI Petrol) said tens of thousands of motorists could
be without fuel by Monday.
"We are close to a critical point in what is fast becoming a
fuel crisis as well as a weather crisis. Acute problems of supply,
particularly of diesel, are being reported by our rural members in
the north east of England and eastern Scotland," said Brian
Madderson, the chairman of RMI.
Edmund King, the president of the AA, said:
"The UK has lost tens of millions of pounds over the last few
days due to road stagnation and rail paralysis in some areas. We
have had people trapped on motorways and on trains for hours on end
and that is unacceptable. In the 21st century we should not have
people stuck on the motorway all night or stranded on trains or at
train stations. We need better plans."
Some shops are reporting shortages of basic supplies like milk
and bread as customers stocked up their cupboards and lorry drivers
had problems making deliveries.
Scott Allan, 33, said supplies of milk and bread were low at his
Co-op store in the Ibrox area of Glasgow.
He said: "The shelves were nearly empty, with just a couple of
cartons of the more expensive organic milk left and a few loaves of
bread. Now that the weather looks like it's here to stay I am
planning to stock up on the way home from work."
It is a common complaint that the UK struggles to cope with a
few inches of snow, while other countries that are blanketed for
months on end seem to manage fine. So why is this?
One reason is that bad weather in the UK is unpredictable. As
David Quarmby from the RAC told the BBC, it is hard to know when
the British winter will start and how severe it will be, as this
varies from year to year.
He recommended "a little bit more investment in things like snow
ploughs, getting farmers' contracts in place to use more tractors
and so on - that's the kind of thing that is fairly low cost, and
you can bring those into action when you do get these relatively
rare events of large amounts of snow," he said.
Countries like Sweden and Canada have other solutions to rely on
in bad weather. Motorists use snow chains on their cars, for
example, which give them better grip in icy conditions and enable
drivers to continue to make journeys throughout the winter.
But snow chains are expensive and drivers here may use them for
a month one year, but not at all the next, so are reluctant to
splash out.
Other countries, like Norway, even have heated pavements!
But the idea that other places can cope every winter with no
hiccups may be a bit of a myth. Train passengers were stranded for
days in icy conditions in Norway in February and March this year,
while 3,000 passengers spent the night stuck on German trains last
Wednesday.
And innovations are afoot in the UK. For example, heated rails
for commuter trains are being trialled in Kent.
At least, unlike last year, we haven't run out of grit for the
roads…yet.
Today's stories were chosen by delegates from the US,
Norway, Holland and Italy at the Online Educa conference on
technology supported learning in Berlin, in our latest You Choose
the News event. If you would like to take part in a You Choose the
News event email: dailywhat@tinopolis.com
Lesson ideas and suggestions