Computing – Page 123 – Computing & Digital Blog

DIVA Refresh Survey

December 10, 2009 - Bobby - 0

The SQA has commissioned a review of the Digital media & ICT Vendor Alliance (DIVA) programme with the aim of identifying any updating requirements and fresh opportunities relating to industry certifications and programmes in the IT, digital media and engineering sectors. The review is being undertaken by Sero Consulting, the consultancy team that worked with the SQA to establish the programme. Feedback from colleagues in the sector is an important part of the review process. We would therefore be grateful…

Professional Development Award in Online Child Protection

December 7, 2009 - Bobby - 5

A few months ago, CEOP approached SQA to ask if we would work with them to create a formal qualification based around their Ambassador programme. The Ambassador course is designed for professionals who work with children, and who want to be able to provide training to other adults in child online protection. We were delighted to work with CEOP, and today I got great news — the qualification is now validated! So SQA now has a formal qualification for people…

Heads of Computing annual meeting

December 4, 2009 - Bobby - 2

Every year, we organise an event for Heads of Computing in Scotland’s 43 FE colleges. We held this year’s event today. Around 40 people attended, which is pretty much someone from every college in Scotland. The day seemed to go well, although we won’t know for sure until we get the results from the post-event survey. If you attended, please complete this short questionnaire. The focus of the event was the recent HMIe’s Aspect report on the teaching of Computing…

External Verifier meeting

December 2, 2009 - Bobby - 0

I went along to the bi-annual meeting of External Verifiers on Saturday. The EVs meet twice per year to discuss field issues — issues that arise when they go about their verification duties. The lead verifier (David Drennan) led the event and a key part of the day was his annual report. I get a great deal out of the event since I can find out about the issues facing the verifiers when they visit centres. Many of the problems…

New teachers’ group

November 26, 2009 - Bobby - 0

I attended a meeting this morning at the Marriot Hotel in Glasgow to meet with David Coull, of Mintlaw Academy, who is trying to get a new association off the ground. David has recently formed the Scottish Institute of Computing Educationalists (SIOCE) with the aim of supporting the teaching of computing across all educational sectors – school, college and university. Although it only started in May, it already has over 200 members and several universities have promised to support it.…

Meeting with HMIe

November 24, 2009 - Bobby - 5

I met with Iain Lowson, of HMIe, today. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss how SQA could respond to the recent Aspect report [PDF] on Computing within FE. I agreed to take forward two things as a result of the meeting: (1) advice to centres about the teaching of programming; and (2) advice to centres about the use of portfolios. Programming remains a problem in FE. Some centres use advanced languages to teach the principles of programming, such…

Digital Literacy

November 23, 2009 - Bobby - 1

I went along to a presentation by Vanessa Ranaldi this afternoon about Microsoft’s Digital Literacy curriculum. Vanessa is a certified Microsoft trainer. Vanessa explained how Microsoft goes about updating its courses, particularly how it produces assessment questions. The Digital Literacy course uses objective testing. The updated course should be available from January 2010. We currently cover the Microsoft curriculum through out NPA in Digital Literacy (SCQF 3) [PDF] that we developed in 2007. But we will have to update this…

SQA Groupsite is growing

November 17, 2009 - Bobby - 0

To date, 77 people have subscribed to the SQA Groupsite, and me and my team have begun to use it to find people to carry out (paid) work for SQA. For example, Caroline recently requested volunteers to write assessment exemplars for a couple of Graded Units, and she got a quick and helpful response from several people on the group. The purpose of the group is to be as transparent as possible in the way we notify and allocate work.…

HNC/D Computer Games Development QDT

November 6, 2009 - Bobby - 1

The Qualification Development Team for HNC/D Computer Games Development met this morning to discuss how things are going with that project. The team are busy finalising units right now and also consulting with organisations such as Skillset and E-Skills, so it’s a very busy time for the team. Things are progressing reasonably well but it looks like our original target date of January 2010 will not be acheived, with a date of around March 2010 now more likely. The good…

OfQual audit of Internet Safety

November 2, 2009 - Bobby - 2

Auditors from OfQual visit SQA today to look at the awards we offer in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. One of these is Internet Safety. As part of my preparations for this audit, I have been revisiting the contents of the qualification and the support materials available to centres. Internet Safety was SQA’s first “e-qualification” and, as such, is very well supported with digital teaching, learning and assessment materials. The entire course can be delivered online but I had forgotten…