Computing – Page 87 – Computing & Digital Blog

Standards colloquium

March 1, 2013 - Bobby - 0

I attended a “standards colloquium” in the Grand Central Hotel, in Glasgow, yesterday. It was a full day event and this is a busy time of the year for me and my team but it was time well spent. These events are great for giving you a broader perspective on education. There were some top notch speakers at the event, including the Director of Qualifications from Ofqual, the body responsible for standards in England. There was also an interesting talk…

New community on Google+

February 22, 2013 - Bobby - 0

The team has explored the use of social media to communicate with you since 2004 when this blog was started. Over the years, some worked (Blogger and Twitter) and some didn’t (Facebook). We get around 50 page visits per day to this blog, and our Twitter account has almost 500 followers. Although Blogger and Twitter have been great for communicating information to you, they’re not so good for generating discussions, which was why we tried using Facebook around a year…

Computer Basics

February 19, 2013 - Bobby - 0

We’ve been working on a new introductory computing unit for some time now, and I am pleased to say that I carried out my final edits on it this afternoon. The unit has still to be validated but I don’t think much, if anything, will change so this version is pretty much the one you will see on the SQA website in the near future. It’s an interesting unit. It’s firmly aimed at beginners, and it’s very up-to-date, covering desktop…

HN Interactive Media

February 14, 2013 - Bobby - 0

There have been changes made to Units that are part of the HNC/D Interactive Media awards which have resulted in a re-coding. The following Units have now been added to the above awards and will sit alongside their previous version as an ‘either/or’ for centres to use: Sound and Vision for Interactivity – H31B 35Designing and Developing an Interactive Media Product – H2X8 35 The changes that were made were in relation to the evidence requirements and knowledge/skills across both…

Mobile Technology awards

February 8, 2013 - Bobby - 3

The qualifications in Mobile Technology recently funded and developed by NQGA team are available now for centres. This suite of qualifications consists of the following: NPA in Mobile Technology at SCQF level 4NPA in Mobile Technology at SCQF level 5NPA in Mobile Technology at SCQF level 6 NC in Mobile Technology at SCQF level 5 NPA in Professional Computer Fundamentals at SCQF level 6 (mapped to Microsoft Technology Associate) For more information, the Arrangements documents and Assessment Support available please visit SQA…

Ideas for new qualifications

February 7, 2013 - Bobby - 0

I attended a meeting this afternoon with a couple of teachers from a Scottish college who had an idea for a new qualification. Their idea was for a new HNC/D award in the areas of Business and Computing. We’re always delighted to receive ideas from centres. The process begins when you complete an ideas capture form. Once we receive that form, someone from Product Marketing will take it forward. It was a good meeting today and we felt that the…

Representing SQA

February 3, 2013 - Bobby - 0

One of my roles is to represent SQA on various national committees, and I attended two meetings on Thursday of last week in this capacity. In the morning, I attended the Scottish Government’s Child Internet Safety meeting, held in Edinburgh. My main input to this group is to promote SQA’s range of online safety awards, such as the National Unit in Internet Safety and the PDA in Online Child Protection. It was an interesting meeting and there was a lot…

NC review

January 25, 2013 - Bobby - 1

The review of some of the National Certificates (NCs) in this area commenced yesterday, when we held the first full-day meeting of the Qualification Development Team (QDT). We are specifically looking at the NCs in Digital Media Computing, which were first introduced in 2007. The QDT is responsible for reviewing the existing awards and suggesting how the awards need to change. Once this is agreed, the QDT leads the development. Part of the job of the QDT is to consult…

PC Passport review

January 16, 2013 - Bobby - 0

I announced the review of PC Passport late last year, and I recently noted that it was one of my priorities for the coming year. The Qualification Design Team (QDT) for this project met for the first time yesterday. The QDT is responsible for creating the new awards. There are representatives of schools (such as Bannerman HS), colleges (such as Cardonald College) and business (a Glasgow-based company) on the group . I convene the group. PC Passport was originally introduced…

HNC/D Information Technology – Research

January 11, 2013 - Bobby - 0

The current HNC/D Information Technology awards were first introduced in 2007 and are now due to be reviewed. Before we commence a review of both awards, we are looking to undertake a full scoping exercise to ascertain the need for the awards, monitor recent uptake, identify specific issues, look at the balance of computing/business units and gain feedback from delivering centres. We are looking for someone to take this scoping exercise forward by the end of the financial year (31st…