I participated in a conference call this afternoon, organised by E-Skills UK, to discuss how Scottish colleges can access the E-Placement Scotland scheme. Around 15 people participated in the tele-meeting. Mark Ratcliffe, of E-Skills, went over the background to the project. The project runs over the next three years and hopes to generate 750 new work placements for students in IT companies in Scotland. Mark pointed out that the project also hoped to make better use of existing placement opportunities.…
I had an interesting discussion this morning, among colleagues in other subject areas, about the rules for resubmitting Graded Units, either to convert a fail to a pass or to upgrade a result. We found some useful guidance on this topic in a document entitled Guidance on the Implementation of Graded Units in HNC/Ds [PDF]. There is information on page 23 (about project-based GUs) and page 31 (about exam-based GUs). The key thing is that the re-assessment is based on…
We had an away-day yesterday at Kelso Nursery School, in Yoker. Although the day was meant to be a team building day, it had a more concrete objective — to improve the gardens in the nursery school. The weather was kind and we had a great day. We planted trees, bushes and flowers, and, I think, made a real difference to the place. The teachers and kids expressed their appreciation by awarding us a certificate for our efforts! Contact Hilary if…
On Friday afternoon, I attended one of SQA’s occasional research seminars. This one was presented by Professor Geoff Hayward, of Leeds University, and was about vocational education systems. Or, more specifically, it was about why vocational education systems have become so complex. He pointed out that vocational education has become complex in every country in the world but that England has “unquestionably the most complex in Europe”. This, he said, was due to several factors, including the introduction of qualification…
I know I said that I wouldn’t contaminate this blog with lots of posts about the HN review, but I posted a summary of progress yesterday on that blog, which pretty much brings you up-to-date with where we are right now with that development. So, if you are at all interested in the changes to a number of Higher National Computing qualifications, please check it out.
We work with a range of global vendors in a non exclusive way through the DIVA Programme. A number of Scottish Colleges use CompTIA Certification as part of their National Certificate programmes. We have been asked to alert School , Colleges and Universities in Scotland to their new membership scheme. The details of this can be found on the CompTIA Website here.
The second part of the Game to Learn Conference started today, at the University of Abertay in Dundee. There was a fantastic turn-out — around 200 teachers attended. Today’s keynote was given by Derek Robertson, of Learning & Teaching Scotland, who spoke widely about game-based learning (GBL), with particular emphasis on how it can be used for assessment. Derek spoke about the “gamification” of learning – in other words, how education can use some of the features of computer games…
Today and tomorrow, I am attending the Game to Learn Conference organised by Jisc. In fact, it’s a three day conference, but yesterday’s event was for “code-bashers”. The agenda for today and tomorrow is more accessible to the non-programmer. Today’s event is being held at Dundee College. SQA is directly involved in two workshops – one relating to our Gamespace project and one related to the NPAs in Computer Games Development. Colin Maxwell, of Carnegie College, is leading a workshop…
Late last year I provided an update on the new PDA in Web Design award to let you know the timescales in which we planned to have this made available to centres. There has been a delay in the development of the award, however we are now finalising each of the units and putting the finishing touches to the validation document. The award will consist of three single credits at SCQF Level 7. The Units will be: 1. Website Design: Planning…
I posted a message in December about a project being undertaken to look at ways of measuring performance in vocational Computing programmes. The project was requested by the Sector Panel for Computing & IT, and is being undertaken by Ron Dillon (Stow College) and Joanna McGilvray (Forth Valley College). I met with Ron and Joanna this afternoon to get an update on their progress. The aim of the project is to look at ways of measuring success within vocational Computing awards.…
The Sector Skills Council for Computing (E-Skills UK) and the awarding bodies across the UK meet every few months to discuss national issues at Awarding Body Forum meetings. I attended a meeting today at the Edexcel offices in London. The agenda always covers a wide range of issues. Today’s event included an interesting presentation from Mark Elkins from the BBC about their plans to revamp their long-running, and highly successful, Webwise initiative. The updated version should be available from May…
I was invited to give a presentation at the Internet Safety & Responsible Use Conference organised by LTS. The conference was opened by the Minister for Children and Early Years, Adam Ingram. My own presentation was about national qualifications in this area, specifically: Internet Safety (unit) Child Online Protection & Safeguarding of Children (PDA) Internet safety conference View more presentations from bobbyelliott I was pleased at the interest in my talk and, hopefully, many people will take it forward by…
Readers of this blog will know that there is a separate blog for the current review of a number of HN frameworks. There is a side-panel (see right) on this blog that imports a feed from the review blog so that you can see the latest posts. I use a separate blog for important developments, rather than include lots of messages in this blog since I appreciate that some readers may not be interested in the development. For example, there…
