Am Baile Web Site Development

With support from the Gaelic ICT Committee, the Am Baile web site will be refined to incorporate an specialist learning area for Gaelic medium education.

Gaelic Masterclass Update

Western Isles:

An Online Skills development day was held at the Nicolson Institute in
Stornoway on 25th October, attended by 12 teaching staff from Western Isles
Council. This represents a much better attendance than the two residential
courses at Stirling. It achieved positive feedback, with all participants
rating it 'good' or 'very good'. When asked about the future, they asked for
two things:

1. More professional development for ICT skills, with Powerpoint, Gaelic
Open Office software, and Interactive Whiteboards mentioned as specifics.

2. That the Internet filtering applied in schools be relaxed, or managed
differently, as 'excessive blocking' is preventing them accessing many sites
and services that are valuable for Education. These include most search
engines and a number of educational websites, including specific Gaelic
language resources. The filtering caused frustration among teachers, and
inhibits their willingness and ability to enhance learning through use of
online resources.

Highlands:

A course has been organised to take place on a local closure day at
Inverness High School on 22nd November, and information about the
opportunity is already being circulated around schools in the Highlands.