Today’s Herald has an article about the use of Web 2.0 in the classroom – and it features someone that most of us know very well. Walter argues that safety fears over new technology are holding back the use of new technology in the classroom. Definitely worth a read.
Read moreRead more about Safety fears holding back education?There was a Sector Panel meeting on Wednesday morning. The Computing & Call Centres Sector Panel meets twice per year to discuss sectoral issues, such as employment trends and education issues. Members include SQA staff, Sector Skills Council representation, HMI, college staff, employers, and representatives of other national agencies (such as Learn Direct). Wednesday’s agenda was interesting and included uptake in Computing and gender issues. Chris Morrow (of E-Skills) gave a particularly interesting talk on the forthcoming changes to the…
Read moreRead more about Sector Panel… and Qualifications for the futureA couple of months ago, I posted a message about online communities to support specific Computing awards and this is a reminder that the groups are there to help you deliver SQA qualifications. Although the main means of support on these groups is peer-to-peer, me and my team are members of most of them and try our best to respond to queries. The membership of the groups is growing with, for example, 50 members of the National Certificate community. So…
Read moreRead more about Online communities for ComputingI’ve been in London this week for CompTIA‘s Breakaway Europe event. SQA works with a number of vendors, through our DIVA programme, and we offer CompTIA’s A+ certification through some of our HN units. The event has been interesting – especially the keynote speeches. I took the opportunity while down here to attend a few other events. On Wednesday evening I went along to the CEOP offices in London to attend the launch of their cybercafe, which is targetted at…
Read moreRead more about Vendors, children, IT skills and bloggingYesterday Bobby and I met to discuss kicking off developments for the HND Interactive Media. I am aware that we put out an email request a few months back for QDT members. Can I ask you to once again to email me if you are interested in becoming a member of the QDT and especially if you are interested in being considered for the lead developer. All emails of interest must be with me by 2nd November 2007.
Read moreRead more about HND Interactive MediaA delivery guide has been produced for Internet Safey and is now available for download from the SQA wesbite. It gives guidance on delivering the unit on a teacher-centred, student-centred or e-learning (self taught) basis. To download a copy, click on the following URL: http://www.sqa.org.uk/files_ccc/InternetSafetyDeliveryGuide.pdf
Read moreRead more about Internet Safey – Delivery GuideI met with the team this afternoon to discuss arrangements for the forthcoming meeting of Heads of Computing, which we organise once or twice every year. The next meeting will take place on Friday, 23 November at the Menzies Hotel in Glasgow. We also discussed the agenda, which will include updates on a number of developments as well as presentations about DIVA and Computer Clubs for Girls. Angela will send a letter to centres shortly but in the meantime you…
Read moreRead more about Head of Computing meetingYesterday I recieved a phone call asking the web location of the NC DMC arrangements documents. The documents are located on our NQ, NQ Group Awards Computing and IT page. I hope this stops any confusion.
Read moreRead more about NC DMC Arrangements DocumentsAngela and I met with Walter Patterson and Bill Brown yesterday, to discuss developments relating to the new National Certificate at Level 6 (Higher). We’ve been so busy in the last few months with the level 4/5 awards (which are available to centres now) that we had somewhat neglected this work. So yesterday was a catch-up meeting. We made important decisions about dates and who would do what. We agreed a validation date in January (provisionally the 17th) so, assuming…
Read moreRead more about National Certificate Digital Media Computing – Level 6Today saw the published version of the HN Assessment Exemplar DM33 35 Software Development: Object Oriented Collections posted to the SQA Secure Website. Access to this material is through your SQA Centre Co-ordinator.
Read moreRead more about Software Development – Object Oriented Collections