Autumn 2011
Welcome to our Autumn newsletter
The new academic year begins, and Scran is the ideal resource for copyrightcleared content for your teaching and learning. In this issue, you can see more new records we’ve recently added, projects we’ve been working on and news and views from the Scran team. As usual, if you’ve any comments, queries or suggestions, please get in touch!
Scran at the Scottish Learning Festival, SECC Scran will be participating in the 2011 Scottish Learning Festival at Glasgow’s SECC on September 21st and 22nd 2011. If you’re going too, please visit us on our stand, C20. We’ve got lots of giveaway goodies, and we’ll be happy to answer your questions, demonstrate our latest updates and features, or simply chat about Scran! Entry to the show is free. If you haven’t booked yet, or would like more information, go to http://www.ltscotland.org.uk/slf/index.asp 1
New Records All the collections below have been contributed over the past few months. Like all Scran records, they’re rights-cleared, meaning you can reuse and copy them for educational and personal use. Hindu Ceremonies and Sadhus at the Pashupatinath Temple Complex in Nepal An ideal resource for teachers of RME, geographers or anyone interested in South Asian religious practices, this set of images would also be useful to art teachers as they show off an extraordinary range of muted colours. Many of the pictures depict ascetics, practitioners of extreme self-discipline, often for religious reasons. The different houses of worship and different ways of worshipping that can be seen in these images will make a fascinating point of comparison for any lessons that touch on comparative religion. The full set of pictures can be viewed at www.scran.ac.uk/s/pashupatinath
NESTA and Highland & Islands Enterprise NESTA (the National Endowment for Science Technology & the Arts) and Highlands & Islands Enterprise teamed up recently to document the lives of lighthouse keepers in audio format, as part of NESTA’s idiscover project. The result is three 20 minute interviews with former lighthouse keepers, conducted by schoolchildren. These three audio clips are a fascinating insight into the past, and into the lives of people in a profession that has now been largely superseded by technology. To hear the interviews go to www.scran.ac.uk/s/nesta
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Vitra Campus, Germany Thanks to a German trip undertaken by one of our staff, Scran has recently acquired some new images of the Vitra campus in Weil-am-Rhein. Well-known to architecture and design aficionados, the campus is the headquarters of the Vitra furniture company, and each building on the campus (including a museum, a former fire station, warehousing and manufacturing facilities) has been designed by a world-famous architect such as Frank Gehry, Herzog & de Meuron and Alvaro Siza. Perfect for language lessons or for any product design, art & design or technologies courses, the photos can be seen at www.scran.ac.uk/s/vitra
Northern Ireland Scran has just added some images of iconic scenes of Northern Ireland, particularly the Causeway coast. These evocative pictures will be useful material for geologists, teachers of geography, and anyone interested in Ireland. To see them, go to www.scran.ac.uk/s/causeway+coast
Beechgrove Garden We recently had a request from an art teacher for more detailed images of flowers, so that she could use them with her drawing students. A recent batch of images by keen photographer Prof. Cairns Aitken should help to meet that need. The images, of the renowned Beechgrove Garden in the Borders (not the equally-renowned Beechgrove Garden in Aberdeen), tell the chronological story of the garden throughout the year, from cultivation and maintenance in winter, to blooming in spring, to full blossoms throughout the summer, before the flowerings start to die off in the autumn. They are a fascinating resource for horticultural enthusiasts, for those studying agriculture or horticulture at FE/HE level, or equally for primary teachers wanting to illustrate the changing seasons. See them at www.scran.ac.uk/s/beechgrove+garden
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Making Waves We’ve recently pooled our resources to create a new online exhibition looking at swimming and bathing throughout the centuries. It’s called Making Waves, and you can see it at http://www.scran.ac.uk/learning/lifelong/exhibits/index.php We’ve also created many new Pathfinder Packs for Making Waves. Some of them are highlighted below. Bathing in Japan Looking at bathing customs in Japan, this pack collates a number of exquisite woodblock prints from masters such as Hiroshige to tell the story of ritual purification. Find it at www.scran.ac.uk/s/bathing+japan
Tuberculosis Not the most edifying of topics, perhaps, but important in the story of bathing and health, nonetheless. This pack looks at the killer disease that was virtually eradicated in Britain, but which is once again becoming prevalent. An excellent accompaniment to any PSHE work, or biology courses, or health & wellbeing studies, it can be viewed at www.scran.ac.uk/s/tuberculosis
North Berwick Bathing Pond Britain was once thronged with outdoor bathing pools. Now, sadly, they have mostly disappeared. North Berwick’s outdoor lido was particularly well-loved and on sunny days was often filled with holiday-makers. Relive its heyday by going to www.scran.ac.uk/s/north+berwick+pool and opening one of the four new Pathfinder packs we’ve created.
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More news Scran-in-a-Box
away your copyright. Visit http://www.scran.ac.uk/ learning/contribute/index.php to find out more.
Did you know that as well as maintaining our own website, the technical wizards at Scran also provide sites for other people? We call it Scran-in-a-Box, and many organisations have used it as an inexpensive solution for building effective, database-driven websites. Using existing Scran site architecture and code, we can quickly create a site for clients that is fully customisable, can easily be maintained by non-technical staff, and is robust and flexible. Why not take a look at some of the Scranin-a-Box sites? These include:
Libraries remote access Holders of library cards in 12 different local authorities can now access Scran from their home computers. Many libraries around Scotland already offer access to Scran for the general public. Now, in a special initiative from a number of local authorities, library members can access Scran from the comfort of their homes, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, using their library membership card.
http://www.languagesonscreen.org.uk http://www.scotlandonscreen.org.uk http://www.burnsscotland.com
The authorities participating so far are: Edinburgh, East Lothian, Aberdeenshire, East Ayrshire, Fife, Midlothian, North Ayrshire, Orkney, Scottish Borders, Shetland, West Dumbartonshire and Perth & Kinross. If you’re a library card holder, or know one, in any of these areas and would like more information about how to access Scran using your library card, please contact your local library for more details, or visit the local authority’s libraries home page.
http://www.vhpt.org http://nms.scran.ac.uk
Welcome Hampshire schools Hampshire schools in England have recently opted to subscribe to the Scran service, and all pupils and teachers at the local authority are now able to access, download and reuse Scran’s 360,000 different images, video clips and sound clips, as well as our tools and services such as Create and Scribble. Welcome onboard! We’re looking forward to serving you.
Old Paisley graveyards Take a look at some new pictures of Paisley’s historic church graveyards, contributed by Scran user Richard M Smith. They’re at www.scran.ac.uk/s/paisley+graveyards Do you have materials you’d like to upload to Scran? It’s quick, easy, and you won’t be giving 5
More news Training
Modern languages
Glasgow Necropolis
Scran offers training for teachers, librarians, trainers, managers and students. Most of these are faceto-face and last for about 90 minutes. These sessions are free of charge and can be arranged to suit your needs.
The Scran site has a wealth of images to support the modern languages curriculum, including plenty of pictures of life and culture from France, Germany, Spain and further afield. In addition, we’ve recently created a number of Pathfinder Packs that feature common, simple nouns and adjectives in French, Spanish and German.
We’re very grateful to Ruth Johnston of The Friends of Glasgow Necropolis, who has provided us with some stunning images of the cemetery. The Necropolis, one of the most celebrated cemeteries in the United Kingdom, is the final resting place of many of the great and good of Scotland, as well as the site of some architectural marvels by designers such as Alexander “Greek” Thompson and Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
For bookings and information, contact our Schools Education Officers, Andrew James or Jackie Sangster on 0131 651 6816/6817 andrew.james@rcahms.gov.uk / jackie.sangster@rcahms.gov.uk, or our Lifelong Learning Officer Helen Foster on 0131 651 6815 helen.foster@rcahms.gov.uk. You can also find out more information about the types of training we offer on the Scran website at www.scran.ac.uk/help/ training.php.
In addition, the Create tool can be a boon to busy language teachers. Simply click Create under any picture (postcard or thumbnail size) and with just a few clicks you or your students can create easy, personalised flashcards, posters, lists, scavenger hunts and more.
See more on Scran at www.scran.ac.uk/s/friends +necropolis or visit the Friends’ own site at http:// www.glasgownecropolis.org/
Contact us Schools, FE/HE: jackie.sangster@rcahms.gov.uk 0131 651 6817 Schools, FE/HE: andrew.james@rcahms.gov.uk 0131 651 6816 Libraries, lifelong learning: helen.foster@rcahms.gov.uk 0131 651 6815 General enquiries: 0131 662 1456 www.scran.ac.uk
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