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Computing & Digital Blog

January 6, 2014

Welcome back

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…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 0

December 20, 2013

Digital Passport

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…

Categories: Computing

Bobby 0

December 17, 2013

Christmas Cyber Security lecture

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,…

Categories: Computing

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December 12, 2013

HND Computer Science

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…

Categories: Computing

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December 9, 2013

Heads of Computing Event

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…

Categories: Computing

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