Computing – Page 89 – Computing & Digital Blog

Satisfaction survey is closed

December 6, 2012 - Bobby - 0

I closed the centre satisfaction survey this morning. It’s been open for a couple of months now so we are unlikely to get many more responses. We got a total of 57 responses, which is comparable to last year (55), and much better than it was a couple of weeks ago (when it had around 35 responses). Thanks very much for taking the time to complete the survey. Although I don’t share the results, we use it within the team…

Presentations from Heads of Computing event

December 4, 2012 - Bobby - 0

I noticed, this morning, that the presentations from the recent Heads of Computing event are now available online. You can access them here.

Final chance to complete the satisfaction survey

November 28, 2012 - Bobby - 0

So far we’ve had 44 responses to the satisfaction survey, which is lower than a year ago (when we got 55 responses). I plan to close the survey soon so please take a few minutes to complete it if you haven’t done so already. We use the results to review our performance and identify things that we can improve so it’s important we get a good response or the results can be skewed. You can complete the survey here. It…

Review of NC Digital Media Computing and PC Passport

November 27, 2012 - Bobby - 1

I recently posted a message to let you know that we were planning to review the NC in Digital Media Computing and PC Passport. Both of these awards are due their “quinquennial” reviews. We recently asked for volunteers for the Qualification Development Teams (QDTs), and we got a good response. Hilary and me met this afternoon to select members. We try to be as fair as possible when selecting people to work with us. We use a combination of criteria…

Revisions to Graded Units

November 27, 2012 - Bobby - 0

I have posted a couple of messages about our plans to revise a few Graded Units (GUs) to improve the consistency between them. Me and Caroline met with David Drennan, the Senior EV, this morning to take this forward. We agreed to revise the following GUs: FP25 35 Interactive Media: Graded Unit 2 F8VG 34 Computer Games: Graded Unit 1 F8VH 35 Computer Games: Graded Unit 2. We hope to have the revised versions available to centres from March. David…

Heads of Computing event

November 26, 2012 - Bobby - 0

This year’s Heads of Computing event took place on Friday at Caledonian University in Glasgow. This annual conference is an important date in the team’s calendar since it’s part of the way we work with colleges, and provides an opportunity to meet with teachers and lecturers. The event was fully booked and there was an excellent turnout on the day. Most of the attendees were promoted staff from colleges, although some school teachers also attended. The reason for having the…

Getting ready for the Heads of Computing event

November 21, 2012 - Bobby - 1

I’ve posted a few times about the forthcoming Heads of Computing event, which takes place this Friday. The responsibility for organising these events falls on Caroline’s shoulders, and it has kept her very busy for the last few weeks (along with other tasks). We’ve had a fantastic response, and all of the available places (75) are now taken. This year’s agenda looks particularly interesting, and includes updates on Curriculum for Excellence, the HN Review, and the new mobile technology awards,…

ITPCS event

November 21, 2012 - Bobby - 2

I’ve been out of the office a lot recently, so this is the first chance I’ve had to write about an event I attended last Friday. Iain Shand invited me to Cardonald College to attend the annual IT Providers Consortium Scotland (ITPCS) meeting. The ITPCS provides support to centres that offer vendor qualifications, including a centralised system for ordering teaching materials and providing exams. A number of Scottish colleges are members. There were several presentations from organisations that support the delivery…

CfE Subject Implementation Event

November 13, 2012 - Bobby - 1

I attended the first Subject Implementation Event for the new CfE courses yesterday, which was held at the Stirling Management Centre. The purpose of the event was the kick-start the delivery of the new CfE courses in Scottish schools. Around 100 teachers from central Scotland attended. Derek Middleton, the Development Manager for CfE, introduced the event, and described the contents of the new courses in Computing Science available at SCQF Levels 4, 5 and 6 (called “National 4”, “National 5” and…

Internet Safety qualification

November 9, 2012 - Bobby - 0

We recently revised the Internet Safety unit to bring it more up-to-date and to focus more on online threats (such as cyberbullying) and less on the technical aspects of online safety. The revised unit [PDF] has been available to centres since May. There is also a comprehensive set of e-learning material to support the updated unit, which can delivered via a smartphone. The assessment support pack is almost ready, and will be published in the next few weeks. Online assessment via SOLAR…