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Happy New Year, one and all, and for those of you back in the classroom I hope 2010 has had a productive beginning.

School closures have been a permanent fixture of the news over the last week or so, with many councils unable to keep their schools open in the face of the weather. about his first experience of closing a school because of adverse weather got me thinking. A school closure is undoubtedly frustrating for teachers and parents (perhaps even for some pupils!) and is clearly , but it has made me think more about the role of online learning.

An ideal situation in Scotland would have a system like able to transmit lessons via a webstream, so that learners can be taught even when they're snowed in. However, this isn't without its problems.

Firstly, the future of Glow is currently being debated fiercely (see the recent TESS piece on , and .) There's still a lot of about what teachers and learners want Glow to be able to do for them on a daily basis, never mind in a crisis situation where it could potentially enable learning to continue when schools are closed.

Even if that were established, this doesn't take account of the number of learners who do not have access to broadband internet at home. Glasgow, in particular, has been infamous for having the .

At times such as last week when so much of the country found itself unable to access basic amenities, digital accessibility becomes even more crucial. Schools and organisations such as ourselves must lead the way by encouraging young people to use the internet safely, rather than shying away from it.

I'm sure that if parents saw more of the educational potential of the internet, rather than being continually exposed to the negative aspects of the online world, many would be more likely to want an internet connection in the home.

It's the job of all of us to make sure that learning doesn't shut down when the schools do; and even when the schools are open, we all have to play our part in allowing learners to access the world beyond the school gate.

Image: by Lorne Robertson.

Update (18th January): Looks like some practitioners in Aberdeenshire were reading my mind - there is a lovely about using Glow in the snow. I notice their use of Learning Zone clips too!