October 12, 2011 - Bobby -
My recent update letter mentioned that the Heads of Computing event will take place on Friday, 2 December. The team organises one of these events every year. Last year’s event, in Edinburgh, was badly effected by the weather. This year’s event will be held in Glasgow. One of the main reasons for having the meeting is to meet you face-to-face, rather than the more usual virtual communications. We’re currently working on the agenda. So please let us know, via the…
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October 10, 2011 - Bobby -
The team took some time out this morning to meet with Derek Middleton to discuss the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE) programme. Derek is a Qualifications Development Manager (QDM) with special responsibility for Computing and Information Systems. Derek gave us an update on progress to date, and provided us with an opportunity to ask him questions about how the new Computing qualifications are shaping up. The big change is that the current separate courses (in Computing and Information Systems) are being…
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October 7, 2011 - Bobby -
We commissioned online learning and teaching materials to be hosted on SQA Academy to complement these awards. The material was supposed to be ready for August this year, however there have been some delays and estimated availability is now the end of October. I get a lot of enquiries asking when this material will be ready, and it would appear that many centres are postponing offering the NPAs until learning and teaching support is available. I must stress that everything…
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October 4, 2011 - Bobby -
There have been some significant changes (including removal of outcome) to the HN Unit Interactive Media Composition over the Summer and as a result we have added to the HND Interactive Media (G9AY 16) framework a revised version of this to run alongside the existing F6BW 35 Interactive Media Composition. Unfortunately we were unable to implement any changes before the start of the new session so we were unable to include this in our batch notification update in July. This means…
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September 30, 2011 - Bobby -
The first meeting of the QDT for the new National Certificate in Computer Games Development at SCQF Level 6 was held this morning, in the SQA offices in Glasgow. Ten people attended, representing colleges, schools and employers. There was a good geographical spread (colleges from Dundee to Kilmarnock were represented) and a good gender mix (unusually for this subject area, more women than men). It was particularly pleasing to see a school representative on the team. The purpose of this…
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September 28, 2011 - Bobby -
I’ve mentioned the NPA in Mobile Technology a couple of times in passing, but I thought it was time to give it its own post. The NQGA team in SQA is leading this work. The qualification is being developed by a consortium of colleges led by Anniesland College. The qualification is designed around the use of mobile technology, such as smartphones and tablets, and also the production of software (“apps”) for them. There will be two awards at SCQF Levels…
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September 28, 2011 - Bobby -
I’ve been working on my annual update letters over the last few days. They are now about to be dispatched to centres. Once per year I write two letters, one for non-advanced (NC/NPA) awards and one for advanced (HN/PDA) awards. The NC/NPA letter (see below) contains information about a number of non-advanced awards, including recently developed NC qualifications. It also includes important information about the forthcoming NC in Computer Games Development at SCQF Level 6. The HN/PDA letter (see below) contains…
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September 23, 2011 - Bobby -
The team attended this year’s SLF, at the SECC in Glasgow, at various times during the two day event. It was the 11th Festival. I managed to catch a couple of keynotes and some workshops. The Cabinet Secretary for Education, Mike Russell, gave an interesting talk on the future of Scottish education. He placed particular emphasis on the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), describing it as “the most important education reform for a generation”, which was taking place “at one of…
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September 20, 2011 - Bobby -
The first meeting of the Qualification Development Team (QDT) for the new NC in Computer Games Development at SCQF Level 6 will meet on 30 September, between 10am and 2pm, in the Glasgow office. This first meeting is a kick-off meeting where I outline the role of the QDT, and the nature and scope of the development. It’s an open meeting, from which we choose the core QDT members. Please contact Hilary if you are interested in attending.
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September 17, 2011 - Bobby -
There was another in the series of CUSP (College University Subject Partnership) meetings yesterday afternoon, at Caledonian University. Anne Russell, formerly of Central College now City of Glasgow College, convenes the Computing CUSP. These CUSPs are funded by the Greater Glasgow Articulation Project (GGAP), which supports a number of CUSPs for various subjects. Their purpose, as the name suggests, is to smooth the transition from college to university. The meeting began with an interesting presentation from Touleen Boutaleb, of Caledonian…
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