Computing – Page 80 – Computing & Digital Blog

Aspect report on Computing in colleges

January 21, 2014 - Bobby - 0

I met with Sheila Page, of Education Scotland, on Friday morning to discuss her review of Computing in Scottish colleges. Sheila wanted to discuss a number of curricular issues with me, relating to provision in colleges. Education Scotland is in the process of carrying out a follow-up review to the 2009 Aspect review [PDF], which looked at teaching and learning (of Computing) in colleges. That report identified several challenges, and this one is going to look at what progress has…

Getting involved with SQA

January 9, 2014 - Bobby - 0

I’m a member of the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) of the University of the West of Scotland, which provides advice to the University about its programmes and courses. The Board meets twice per year. I attended its winter meeting yesterday afternoon. It’s a huge committee, with over 60 people attending yesterday’s event. SQA does something similar with our Sector Panel. The purpose of this committee is to provide strategic guidance and support for SQA qualifications. There are members from colleges, schools,…

Welcome back

January 6, 2014 - Bobby - 0

Me and the team returned to work today. I know many colleges and schools return today also, and we wish you a good New Year. Last year was a productive year for the team, with the main development being the HN Review, which revised four awards and introduced a new one. It was a large, relatively complex, development that significantly updated and modernised some of SQA’s most popular HN qualifications. Early signs are that the uptake for these new awards…

Digital Passport

December 20, 2013 - Bobby - 0

As you most likely know, we’ve been revising PC Passport for a while. Quite early in that development, the QDT realised that we wanted to change a great deal about the award so that it embraced lots of modern knowledge and skills. As a result, we made an early decision to create two awards: an entirely new one and one based on the current award. The development effectively split into two, and we’ve been working on the new award for…

Christmas Cyber Security lecture

December 17, 2013 - Bobby - 2

I attended a Christmas lecture on information (cyber) security at Glasgow University yesterday afternoon. It was organised by SISCA. Around 1000 local school pupils attended the three sessions in Glasgow, with more to follow in other locations later this week. It’s great to see so many young people interested in this aspect of computer science. The event was presented like the BBC’s Christmas Lectures, with interesting presentations and lots of interaction with the audience. Topics covered included: encryption, password creation,…

HND Computer Science

December 12, 2013 - Bobby - 3

I’ve written previously about my informal review of the HND Computer Science. This new qualification was first introduced in August of this year as part of the HN Review and has proven to be surprisingly popular in centres. We’re proud to be the first (and only) awarding body in the UK to offer a Higher National Qualification in this area. The reason for the “mini-review” was that I had received anecdotal evidence that, although popular, the title and contents of…

Heads of Computing Event

December 9, 2013 - Bobby - 0

In the recent HN Update letter to centres, you were informed that we were in the process of discussing plans for the forthcoming meeting of Heads of Computing. This years event will take place a little later than usual on Friday 31st January 2014 at 1000 hours (Registration from 0930 hours) in the Menzies Hotel, 27 Washington Street, Glasgow G3 8AZ. The event will cover current and future curricular developments as well as a number of spotlight items of interest…

Scottish Colleges Computing Consortium

December 6, 2013 - Bobby - 0

I was invited to attend a meeting of the Scottish Colleges Computing Consortium (SC3) this morning, which was held at the City of Glasgow College. The group is convened by Cameron Walker of Aberdeen College. I was invited to speak about two things: the new way of accrediting vendor awards within HN qualifications, and the new HND Computer Science. There was unanimity about the value of vendor awards within vocational Computing qualifications but some debate about how best to do…

Bridging the Skills Gap

December 3, 2013 - Bobby - 0

I attended an event on Friday, organised by Iain Shand of Glasgow Clyde College, about the current skills gap and how best to prepare students to fill the gap. The event was held at the Microsoft offices in Edinbugh, and was well attended with 18 colleges represented. The keynote was given by Polly Purvis, of Scotland IS, who set the tone for the day. Polly pointed out that 45,000 new IT jobs will be created in Scotland in the next…

CUSP meeting

November 22, 2013 - Bobby - 0

I’ve mentioned the CUSP group before. There was another meeting last Friday (I’ve been meaning to post a message since then) that I attended. The meeting was held at Caledonian University. The prime goal of the group is to promote and ease articulation from college to university so members were very interested in the alternative assessments that I am developing for the new HN awards. I gave a presentation on this topic, which seemed to be well received. The new…