Computing – Page 147 – Computing & Digital Blog

Strathclyde Police cadets commence Internet Safety

October 10, 2007 - Bobby - 0

I met with Rob Hay, of Strathclyde Police, and Steven Lamb, of James Watt College, yesterday afternoon to agree arrangements for delivering the new Internet Safety qualification to police cadets. I’m really pleased about this project since it’s a compliment to SQA that Strathclyde Police think that the qualification is good enough to give to every one of its new intake of cadets – with plans to adopt the unit as a formal part of the training programme in the…

Online meetings

October 8, 2007 - Bobby - 0

The results from the recent poll (see panel on right) are interesting. You’ve given a clear thumbs-up to occasional online meetings. So, I’d like to give this a try. The most widely used online communication program is Skype so I propose to use this. You can download it here. I plan to organise monthly meetings on a particular theme such as the HNC Computing Graded Unit and the support materials for the new NC awards. These meetings would also provide…

HNC Exam Exemplars

October 8, 2007 - Bobby - 0

Over the last few months, writers of the HNC Graded Unit Exam Exemplars have been busy finalising their materials and these have been through some rigorous vetting checks. These are now being passed over for verifier checks before being sent to our support materials section for publishing. We anticipate that the following will be published by late January 2008: DH36 34 HNC Computing – Graded Unit 1 (3 versions)DV6D 34 HNC Information Technology – Graded Unit 1 (3 versions)DE36 34…

Interactive Media

September 28, 2007 - Bobby - 1

Bobby, Caroline, Jacqueline, Vanessa and I had a team meeting this afternoon. The main topic was developing the HND Interactive Media. Discussions such as when to implement and how many strands were top of the agenda. We need to establish who is currently delivering the new HNC Interactive Media. Laura Hall will be call round centres next week, sourcing this information. Please feel free to contact me direct if you are currently delivering this award.

Women in computing

September 28, 2007 - Bobby - 4

Caroline and I met with Ron Dillon and Annamarie Kelly of Stow College yesterday afternoon to discuss ways of encouraging women to take-up Computing/IT courses. We came up with a number of ideas including: focussed marketing for women a women’s prize in IT promotion of women-friendly qualifications (such as Social Software, Interactive Media, etc.) approaching female organisations (such as the Girl Guides) to encourage young women to take-up technical careers. The forthcoming meeting of the Sector Panel for Computing &…

Interactive Media update

September 27, 2007 - Bobby - 3

I met with Alasdair Smith of Skillset this morning, in one of our occasional meetings to keep each other up-to-date with developments in our respective organisations. It was an interesting meeting during which we covered a number of topics including the new HNC Interactive Media award and the subject of women in new media. The new HNC Interactive Media was validated in June and is available to centres now. I wanted to discuss the next stage of the process –…

ASPs – PC Passport (FE Packs)

September 26, 2007 - Bobby - 0

The first batch of PC Passport ASPs for FE Centres will be uploaded to the SQA Secure website on Friday. There will be a mix of Beginner and Intermediate packs available. Our publications Team are busy finalising the remaining FE packs – all of which have a high priority. All ASP materials for School-Based packs are available for download from the secure website through your SQA Centre Co-ordinator.

Letters to centres

September 25, 2007 - Bobby - 1

While I was on holiday, a number of letters were sent to centres. One letter related to PC Passport, one related to National Certificates and National Progression Awards, and one covered Higher National Developments. The letters were sent to SQA co-ordinators so I hope that they have reached classroom teachers. If not, download them now since they contain important information about each of these qualifications.

Scottish Learning Festival

September 21, 2007 - Bobby - 0

I attended the Scottish Learning Festival this week and delivered a seminar on “Internet qualifications”, which featured SQA’s range of Internet-related awards including stand-alone units (such as Social Software) and Group Awards (such as the National Progression Award in Internet Technology). The seminar seemed to be well received. Representatives of the school sector seemed particularly interested in the use of these qualifications for fifth and sixth year pupils for whom traditional qualifications are not suitable. You can download my presentation…

Student Offer – Discounted Microsoft Office 2007

September 17, 2007 - Bobby - 0

We have been asked to disseminate this information on behalf of Microsoft to the field – please pass on this information to your students in order for them to take advantage of this fantastic offer! Student offer: Discounted Microsoft Office 2007We are aware that more and more of our students are arriving at college/university with your own computers, and recommend that you try and make the most out of this purchase by using legitimate and reliable software. We have learnt…