Computing – Page 112 – Computing & Digital Blog

Qualification Support team for HN awards

October 22, 2010 - Bobby - 0

The Qualification Support Team (QST) for HN/PDA/SVQ awards met this morning. It meets twice per year. The QST has responsibility for ensuring that our HN/PDA/SVQ awards are properly supported by SQA. The main part of the meeting is spent going over the various forms submitted by centres, which ask for changes or clarifications to units or assessments. If these suggestions are supported by the QST then I would normally implement them. We received eight suggestions for change today, of which…

Scottish Education Quality and Improvement Agency

October 20, 2010 - Bobby - 0

I got back from holiday yesterday and started working through my inbox. I got to an important message this afternoon about a new education body called the Scottish Education Quality and Improvement Agency that will take over the functions of the Inspectorate of Education and Learning and Teaching Scotland from 1 July 2011. This new body sounds like it will be an important part of the Scottish education scene in the coming year, particularly with the introduction of the Curriculum…

PDA in Web Design

October 7, 2010 - Bobby - 0

We are currently undertaking consultation on the development of a new PDA in Web Design (linking with CIW Web Design Specialist qualification). As part of this consultation, a questionnaire has been compiled which the results will help form the structure of the new award. I would be grateful if you could take a few minutes to undertake the questionnaire by clicking on the URL below. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/K6X9YY5 The deadline date for responses is Friday 29th October 2010. Your input would be…

Annual Heads of Computing Event

October 7, 2010 - Bobby - 2

It’s that time again!! The Annual Heads of Computing Event will take place this year on Friday 3rd December 2010 at 1000 hours in the Barcelo Edinburgh Carlton Hotel. We are busy organising this event and hope to have a range of items for presentation and discussion. To register, please click on the URL below: http://headsofcomputing.eventbrite.com/ As places are limited, please ensure you book early to secure your registration. A maximum of two places can be reserved by each registered delegate. Look…

We’re moving

October 1, 2010 - Bobby - 2

I appreciate that the readers of this blog don’t really care about the internal structures of SQA, but the vocational Computing team are moving to a new area due to an internal restructure. The new area is called Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) and the important bit is that the two parts of the Computing team will be working together (the “school” team and the “vocational” team). We’re not physically joining, so I will continue to lead the vocational…

National Qualification Frameworks

September 29, 2010 - Bobby - 0

SQA runs a series of research seminars when we hear from educational researchers about their latest projects. I attended a seminar this afternoon about National Qualification Frameworks (NQFs). Scotland’s own NQF – the Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework (SCQF) – has been on the go since 2001 and countries across the world are introducing similar frameworks. Stephanie Allais, of the University of Edinburgh, reported on her work for the United Nations comparing NQFs across the world. She looked at 16…

Scottish Learning Festival

September 24, 2010 - Bobby - 0

I attended the Scottish Learning Festival on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. It’s always interesting to catch up with the wider educational issues but we also used the event to promote some of our qualifications. Wednesday’s keynote by Mike Russell, the Education Secretary, was particularly interesting. His talk focussed on the Curriculum for Excellence (CfE). He spoke about “the unparalled opportunity to change the qualification system” and how there was “too much emphasis on tests and exams”. He emphasised the…

National Certificate Games Development

September 21, 2010 - Bobby - 0

I went along to the third meeting of the QDT for the new NC award in Computer Games. There was a good turnout with 13 people in attendance. It was a crucial meeting and involved a lot of important decisions about the structure of the award. One decision was the name of the award: we agreed NC in Games Development at SCQF Level 5. We also made decisions about the precise structure of the award, deciding what should be mandatory and…

NPA Computer Games assessments

September 18, 2010 - Bobby - 0

Hilary and me attended an assessment writing training event today, held in Glasgow. It was for the teachers who volunteered to write the assessments for the new NPAs in Computer Games Development. I don’t normally attend these meetings but we are taking a slightly unusual approach to these units. We plan to write integrated assessment support packs (ASPs) for each theme within these courses. There are three themes: (1) game design; (2) media assets; and (3) game development. Each ASP will…

Today’s Times Educational Supplement

September 17, 2010 - Bobby - 0

Today’s Times Educational Supplement (Scotland) has an interesting article on the new NPAs in Computer Games Development. These new awards are generating a lot of interest — in the media and also in the classroom. You can find out more about these qualifications here or contact Hilary. The qualifications are being launched at next week’s Scottish Learning Festival.