I attended a lovely ceremony at Strathclyde Police HQ this morning, when all of the cadets who successfully completed the Internet Safety award were presented with their certificates. Over 50 cadets were present and the Assistant Chief Constable of Strathclyde Police presented the awards. It’s great to see a project come to completion like this. You can find out more about Internet Safety from Caroline.
Read moreRead more about Presentation to Police CadetsSOLAR is SQA’s new e-assessment system, and the team behind it are rapidly adding materials to it. Internet Safety is one of the first qualifications to be added to it. Both assessments and learning materials are available via the SOLAR website. So, any centre can now access the materials and undertake the assessments. Contact Caroline for more information about Internet Safety and Joan for more information about SOLAR.
Read moreRead more about Internet Safety and SOLARAt the Scottish Learning Festival event taking place at the SECC both today and tomorrow, Leckie and Leckie will be officially launching their new PC Passport publication for Beginner Level (ISBN: 9781843725916). PC Passport – Intermediate Level (ISBN: 9781843725923) is due to be published mid October. To place an order, please click on the URL below: http://www.leckieandleckie.co.uk/products/buy_online.asp
Read moreRead more about Leckie & Leckie – PC Passport Publications (New)I’ve alluded to imminent changes to the Computing team in a number of recent posts and today I met with my team to discuss the changes that are going to take place. SQA has been planning an internal restructure for a long time and the plans for these changes have now been finalised and will be implemented from 1 October. The changes do not greatly effect the Computing team, in the sense that the team will continue with its current…
Read moreRead more about Changes to the Computing teamI attended a meeting at SFEU this afternoon to discuss problems with HNC/D Computing at college. There were representatives of HMIE, the Funding Council and SQA (myself) there. For some time now, the uptake of HNC/D Computing has been declining. The decline has been less than the fall in university applications for Computing subjects but it still has been marked. And the performance indicators (such as student retention and student achievement figures) are not good. There has been an on-going…
Read moreRead more about Computing performance problemsMy paper about modernising assessment has got me invitations to speak at lots of events. This morning’s event was one of the smaller but more enjoyable talks – to a small group of Head Teachers from Inverclyde. They were a lively group… and surprisingly supportive of modernising assessment. This has been a recurring theme whenever I’ve presented my paper – that nearly every teacher (whether from school, college or university) agrees with the need to update assessment. My presentation usually…
Read moreRead more about Moderning assessmentPlease note that the Computing e-Learning materials are now fully hosted at the following URL: http://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/computing The temporary hosting site at http://www.e-learning-computing.com has now been cancelled as all materials are through the main SQA website.
Read moreRead more about Computing e-Learning MaterialsWhen I got back from London last night, I had a meeting with the person (Ted Hastings) who is developing the suits of new units relating to Digital Culture. Ted lives in Spain but, thanks to Skype, it’s no problem to meet with him. Ted has now produced a draft specification for each of the proposed units at SCQF Levels 6, 7 and 8. They make interesting reading. Not only from a content perspective, although they cover lots of interesting…
Read moreRead more about More on Digital CultureI spent today in London, attending an Awarding Body Forum, which is hosted by E-Skills UK. The purpose of these meetings is to provide a communication channel between the Sector Skills Council for IT (E-Skills) and the awarding bodies that provide IT qualifications across the UK. Although much of the agenda inevitably relates to England, they are always interesting meetings and it’s a good way for me to keep up to date with UK-wide developments. Today’s agenda included developments at…
Read moreRead more about Awarding Body ForumOver the past few months, we have developed additional interactive teaching and learning packs that cover a selection of HN Units that are included in HN Computing, Information Technology, Interactive Media and Computer Networking awards. These have now been uploaded to the SQA website and can be accessed by clicking on http://www.sqa.org.uk/e-learning/computing.
Read moreRead more about Interactive Teaching and Learning Materials