August 26, 2009 - Bobby -
We had hoped to have the conditions lifted on the NPAs validated in June. These were: NPA Software Development (SCQF 4)NPA Social Software (SCQF 4)NPA Website Development (SCQF 5)NPA Computer Hardware & Software now Computer Systems and Networks (SCQF 5)NPA Digital Photography (SCQF 5)NPA Digital Media Production (SCQF Level 6) There have been some unforeseen delays but as all the documentation is now in place they should be on the system by mid-September. Arrangements for Digital Media Animation G9FC (SCQF…
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August 25, 2009 - Bobby -
Over the years, mainly thanks to ESF funding, we have managed to produce various e-learning materials for units within HNC/D Computing. The list has grown slowly and is pretty impressive. In fact, you could use it to offer an entire qualification online. Caroline reminded me a few days ago of the URL where the material is located and I thought I’d pass it on. It’s here. I’d be interested to know, from those of you who have used it, what…
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August 24, 2009 - Bobby -
Please note that from August 2009 there is a new Group Award code for NC Digital Media Computing at Level 6 (G9GK 46). This is because the core skills Numeracy Unit (optional within mandatory section) has been added to the framework at Intermediate 2 (F3GF 11). The Arrangements document is being amended accordingly and will be back on the website shortly. In the meantime please contact me for any further clarification required. This information will be included in Bobby’s update…
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August 21, 2009 - Bobby -
My team try to use ICT to communicate with teachers and lecturers. Once every year we take a day out to review our use and discuss new ways of working. Today was one of those days. We discussed the various online services that we use. Services such as Jiglu, Blogger, Drop.io and Groupsite. We took the opportunity to tidy the online groups — so don’t be offended if you have been removed from some old ones. We also spent some…
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August 17, 2009 - Bobby -
It’s the time of the year when you will be getting organised for the new term and preparing materials for your classes. When you contact SQA it will save a lot of time if you contact the right person. Here is an organisation chart for the vocational Computing team: Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io You might want to download it, and keep it handy for future reference. Please identify the person who deals with the specific area you want…
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August 14, 2009 - Bobby -
It’s the time of the year when teachers and lecturers return to their schools and colleges for a new session. Welcome back. I guess you will be returning to a mountain of paperwork and e-mails to get through but I hope you have some time to look over this blog to see what’s been happending over the summer. The highlights were: the computer games developments (see below), PC Passport changes, and revised Graded Units for some HN programmes. I set…
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August 13, 2009 - Bobby -
The Edinburgh Interactive Games Festival is on today and tomorrow at the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh. I attended today. It was interesting to listen to the presentations, which included a keynote from the President of Electronic Arts. I noted several interesting statistics… the games business is bigger that the music business; that 40% of gamers are female; and that one in four gamers are over 50 years old. A recurring theme was the rise of social gaming, particularly on mobile…
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August 12, 2009 - Bobby -
Running in parallel with developments at NQ level, we are also producing Level 7 (HNC) and Level 8 (HND) awards in Computer Games Development. This project has been running since last January and we hope to have the new awards available to centres from January 2010. The development team, led by Tony Gurney, are busy writing units right now, and we had a meeting this morning to discuss progress and review the draft units. We hope to have complete draft…
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I previously mentioned that we were about to make changes to the PC Passport units and assessments in the light of feedback received from centres that had delivered the revised awards. Elaine Cunnignhame is leading this project and we had a meeting this morning to double-check the proposed changes to ensure that they made sense and would not present problems to centres. It was a good meeting and we made final decisions about what changes to make. This review is…
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The first meeting of the Qualification Development Team (QDT) for the new NPAs in Computer Games Development was held this afternoon in the SQA offices in Glasgow.The Team has representatives from schools, colleges, Higher Education and industry. The lead developer is Julie McLaren, formerly of Forrester HS and about to take up a new post at Madras College in Fife. We had an interesting discussion on the contents of the awards. The Team is proposing new awards at SCQF Levels…
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