I attended a workshop on mobile learning today, organised by the eLearning Alliance. Eleven people attended, representing diverse organisations ranging from Lanarkshire Council to The Royal College of Surgeons. It was a good event, and I learnt a lot about current developments. The presenter highlighted the huge growth in Internet access via mobile devices, from 0.02% of web traffic in 2009 to 13% in 2011, reflecting the huge penetration of mobile phones among the general population (94%). He also went…
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I attended the E-Safety Live event at the Edinburgh Conference Centre at Heriot-Watt University today, to present a couple of workshops on SQA’s qualifications in this area. SQA has developed a reputation as the leading awarding body in the area of online child protection, so it was flattering to be the only UK qualification body to be invited to speak at the conference. I spoke about our two awards in this area: National Unit in Internet Safety Professional Development Award in…
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A few weeks ago, I posted something about problems with the re-assessment of project-based Graded Units. This came to light as a result of discussions between EVs, when it became apparent that there was ambiguity in some centres about how arrive at a final grade when students required assistance from teachers and had to resubmit all or part of their project. I met with the Senior Verifier for Computing (David Drennan) this morning to look at the issues. We agreed…
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The HN 2.0 project commenced this afternoon. I received a large number of responses to my recent request for volunteers and I assembled what is, I think, a good team with a range of complimentary skills and backgrounds. There are representatives of FE (such as Aberdeen College), universities, and experts on e-assessment in the team. Today’s meeting was the first meeting of the team and, as such, we spent some of the time getting to know each other. I also…
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For an update on the new HNC Computing award, please see the dedicated HN Review Blog here
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February 29, 2012 - Bobby -
The event to support teachers of the new NPAs in Computer Games Development took place yesterday at Scotland’s Colleges in Stirling. There has been a fantastic response to this course, with it being over-subscribed many times over. Thirty-five people attended yesterday’s event, mostly teachers from Scottish schools but college lecturers too. The event was a collaboration between Scotland’s Colleges and SQA Academy. Participants undertook some [online] preparation via SQA Academy prior to yesterday’s event, which was a face-to-face meeting, led…
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February 28, 2012 - Bobby -
I was invited to a workshop in the Scottish Enterprise offices in Edinburgh today about the ICT Skills Plan for Scotland. The Scottish Government created an ICT Industry Strategy for Scotland in 2010, and part of this was a Skills Plan. It recently commissioned a company to update that plan. As a result, there will be an updated ICT Skills Plan, and part of the process of creating the new plan is a number of workshops, when the Plan’s creators will…
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February 23, 2012 - Bobby -
Chris Jones (Cumbernauld College) recently got in touch to ask if the Computing Team could add some information to our blog for a forthcoming HN College Collaboration meeting that has been organised by Marion McNab (City of Glasgow College) and himself to take place on Friday 2nd March 2012. The initial meeting is to define and outline the aims and outcomes of the collaboration, and methodology of creating and verifying learning and assessment materials. To find out the venue, time and agenda…
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February 23, 2012 - Bobby -
A new project has been announced in the HN Review blog. The HN 2.0 project aims to explore how Web 2.0/social media can be used within the new HNC Computing for assessment purposes. You can read more about it on the HN blog. It sounds like an exciting project — and the lessons learnt can be applied to other qualifications. Don’t forget to check the HN Review blog from time to time, to keep up-to-date with that project. Or contact…
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February 22, 2012 - Bobby -
We try to be fair and transparent when we ask for volunteers to work with us. Social media is a great tool for this. We have recently been looking for people to help us with a number of new projects. We use our online group for this. So, if you are interested in working with the SQA Computing team, please subscribe to the SQA Computing online community, and you will be kept up-to-date with the new opportunities as they arise.…
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