Caroline and I met with Cally Beck and Linda Grigoleit of IBM this morning to discuss ways of incorporating IBM-curricula into SQA qualifications. It was a productive meeting and we agreed to identify existing HN units than could be used to deliver IBM skills. IBM has a new qualification relating to their System I and we were confident that we would be able to map this into existing (or new) HN unit(s). Cally talked about a number of ways IBM…
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The SQA has created a guide to credit arrangements for PC Passport. These arrangements cover centres and candidates who may be undertaking the existing version of PC Passport, who wish to obtain credit for units in the refreshed version of PC Passport. It is recommended that centres note that registration of candidates for the existing version of PC Passport will only be accepted by the SQA only until July 2008. Candidates cannot be registered for the existing version of PC…
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This is a final reminder that there is a dedicated blog for this development. You can keep up-to-date with everything that’s going on via this link. Please bookmark it (if you’re interested) and visit regularly. But no complaining that you didn’t know!
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Thought you might like to see this example of a blog that a Computing teacher uses with his students. Are there any other examples of teacher blogs?
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An HNC Computer Games Development has been available to centres for some time. We didn’t develop a corresponding HND award because there were question marks about likely uptake. Nearly all of the HNC students progress to university degree courses (in a related area). But I have received a small number of requests to develop an HND. Although not large in number, these requests are regular. So I plan to arrange a meeting of interested parties later this academic year (probably…
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As you probably noticed via TV/radio last week, the Byron Review of children’s use of new technology was published last Thursday. You can download the full report here [PDF]. It makes interesting reading. You don’t have to read it all – the Executive Summary [PDF] contains the key recommendations. It seems to me to strike a good balance between seeking to protect children without scare-mongering. All of the recommendations sound sensible. A recurring theme is the need to educate young…
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I spend a lot of my time talking to vendors. As you may know, as part of the DIVA initiative, SQA has developed links with many leading industry organisations, such as Microsoft, Oracle, Cisco and Adobe. Caroline and I met with Marjorie Quigley of ComputerPREP this morning to talk about the CIW qualification. The newly developed PDA in Web Technologies at SCQF Level 7 covers the CIW Foundation curriculum. According to Marjorie, a large number of FE colleges in Scotland…
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Some time ago, I mentioned how much I enjoyed visiting centres to see at first hand what’s involved in delivering SQA awards and also hear about some of the issues that face lecturers “at the chalk face”. Well, another one of my ex-colleges took me up on my offer. My old boss, Ron Dillon, invited me to Stow College to participate in the weekly staff meeting, which is held every Wednesday afternoon (yesterday). My presentation covered the range of IT…
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There was an EV meeting in Glasgow today, in the SQA offices. The EV team meet several times per year to discuss operational issues. David Drennan, the Senior Verifier, leads the meeting, which is a great opportunity for the EV team to discuss field issues and debate standards. Today’s agenda includes an interesting presentation about SOLAR and Graded Unit verification. Me and my team always take the opportunity to attend and provide a qualification update, so that the EVs are…
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E-Skills has recently published an interesting report on trends in the IT industry. It can be downloaded here [PDF]. It’s quite a large report but it’s worth printing and reading the Executive Summary (pages 8-16). It’s full of facts and figures, and is a fabulous source of information for validation documents.
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