The Dark Side of Glow: Balancing the Discourse

Abstract

Glow is a £40m public-private partnership project that aims to connect 800,000 Scottish pupils, parents and teachers, equipping them with online tools and resources for email, electronic conferencing and file sharing, that will support the new Curriculum for Excellence. The discourse that has developed around Glow focuses almost exclusively on the technology’s intended outcomes, all of which are said to be benefits. However, as with all technology, there will also be some unintended outcomes, some of which may be unwelcome. This paper explores what might be termed ‘the dark side of Glow’: the opportunity costs of the project and its risks and threats, including those of project failure, managerialism, inequity, cultural trivialisation and surface change. It is argued that an acknowledgement of the dark side is essential in order that risks and threats can be addressed and mitigated. At present, the lack of balance in the discourse not only reflects badly on the quality of critical thinking in Scottish education but also increases the likelihood of unwelcome outcomes.