My little brother is in the news again with an article in The Times.

It seemed the most unlikely of joint-billings – the Star Warsdirector George Lucas and a modest Scots initiative to improve e-communication within schools.

In what must rank as one of the most heady compliments ever given to an education system, the film maker announced to members of the US House of Representatives that America should adopt Scotland’s pioneering school websites as a way to improve pupil access to technology.

May the force, indeed, be with Glow, a scheme which sets up chatrooms and shared resources for pupils and is being held up as a shining international example of how ICT can help teaching and learning.

Mr Lucas, who heads his own not-for-profit education foundation and is on the quest for what he calls “edutopia”, told representatives on the telecommunications and internet sub-committee that the US is lagging behind Scotland in using 21st century tools to teach its children.

Laurie O’Donnell, director of learning and technology at LTS, who was honoured by George Lucas’s Educational Foundation for his work on the scheme, said:

“Scotland has led the world in the development of Glow. Our goal at the very beginning was to ensure our children and young people had access to the very best technology and tools for learning.”