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Computing & Digital Blog

August 25, 2017

CodeClan award ceremony

I was invited along to Codeclan’s award ceremony last night in Edninburgh. CodeClan was created in 2015 to address the skills shortage in programming. Forty students recently completed the course, which includes the PDA in Software Development, and were receiving their certificates. It was a nice evening. I took the opportunity, during my short talk, to congratulate the students for choosing a career in coding. It’s not only vital for Scotland that we produce more programmers but it’s a great…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 1

August 17, 2017

HNC Cyber Security development team

The Qualification Development Team (QDT) for HNC Cyber Security has now been created. There was an excellent response to our request for members. The QDT consists of representatives from colleges, universities, industry and special interest groups. Unusually, for an HNC development, we also chose a school representative to ensure that the HNC articulates with the NPA in this subject area. The QDT is responsible for determining the shape of the new qualification and, if members are willing, gets involved in…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 2

August 17, 2017

Digital Competence Framework for Citizens

The European Commission recently updated the Digital Competence Framework for Citizens (DigComp). The Framework is designed to “improve citizens’ digital competence”.  The Framework was originally introduced in 2013 but I hadn’t came across it before. The Framework has recently been updated to version 2.1. The Framework has five “dimensions”. The first dimension is “competence areas” (there are five). The second dimension breaks these down into 21 specific competences. The other dimensions expand these competencies in different ways. For example, dimension…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 0

August 16, 2017

Teaching and learning material for NPA Cyber Security

I recently mentioned that we received Scottish Government funding to develop teaching and learning material for NPA Cyber Security (at all three levels). Since then, we’ve formed a development team consisting of practising teachers and lecturers who will be responsible for developing the new material. The team consists of experienced classroom teachers (and a college lecturer), most of whom are currently delivering the qualification. The aim of the project is to develop a complete curricular package to help teachers and…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 3

August 8, 2017

Welcome back

Many of you will be returning to school and college this week, after the Summer holiday. Welcome back! The Summer is a relatively quiet time for me and my team, and we took the opportunity to press-on with developments. We commenced the reviews of NPA Digital Media (Basics and Editing) and NPA Web Design Fundamentals in late June and NPA/NC Computer Games Development in July. I announced two new developments relating to cyber security in July. One relates to teaching…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 0