Scotland’s Colleges and SQA Academy are working together to support teachers who deliver the NPAs in Computer Games Development. A short course is available to teachers from 14-28 February. The course is designed to provide support for the delivery and assessment of the NPAs, and is open to any teacher in Scotland (college or school). It’s mostly an online course, but one day attendance (on 28 February) is required. The course is free. The programme begins on 14 February via…
Readers of this blog will be aware of the on-going discussions about Computing in schools. Co-incidentally to the Minister’s announcement about the subject, the Royal Society recently produced a report about the issue. Shut Down or Restart? [PDF] makes 11 recommendations about Computing in schools. Although the report focuses on England, most of the recommendations relate to the entire UK. It makes interesting reading. Of particular interest is the criticism of “ICT” as a description of the subject, and a…
The fourth meeting of the QDT for the new National Certificate (NC) in Computer Games Development was held yesterday afternoon in the SQA offices in Glasgow. The lead developer, Frank Duffy of Motherwell College, presented a draft framework to the meeting. In fact, Frank presented two frameworks: one for a “technical” NC and one for a “creative” NC. He has spent a lot of time since the last QDT meeting in discussion with various individuals and organisations, such as representatives…
We engage with stakeholders in a number of ways, such as the annual Heads of Computing event. But we run two committees that are particularly important in this regard. The Sector Panel for Computing & IT seeks to get feedback from you in a direct way — through bi-annual face-to-face meetings. The Sector Panel includes representatives from colleges, schools and industry, including E-Skills UK. The Qualifications Support Teams (there are two – one for non-advanced and one for advanced qualifications) are…
I mentioned the review of the Internet Safety unit previously. We’ve fallen a litte behind our original schedule. I met with the lead developer yesterday (thanks to the wonders of Skype) to get a progress report. The new unit will be validated in mid-February and available to centres from the end of that month. We will also have online learning materials available from the middle of February, including mobile phone materials that will permit learners to undertake the course via…
You may have noticed the on-going debate in England about the ICT curriculum. There have been criticisms about what is taught in English schools, with complaints that it is boring and only focuses on using software rather than creating it. This morning the Minister for Education, Michael Gove, spoke about the problem at the BETT conference in London. He described the current offerings as “harmful and dull” and pledged to change the curriculum in England. Some people have claimed that…
I was invited to serve on the Industrial Advisory Board (IAB) for the School of Computing at the University of the West of Scotland (UWS). I attended my first meeting yesterday afternoon, held on the Paisley campus. The Board serves a similar purpose to the SQA Sector Panel in that it seeks feedback and advice from external people. But the IAB is huge. There are 44 members, representing 40 external bodies (now including SQA). There was a good turnout at…
We are delighted that for the first time an International Oracle Academy event for school teachers and trainers will be held in Scotland. We have a strong working partnership with Oracle and it will be great to welcome teachers from across the UK and beyond to Scotland. There are well established links to the Oracle Curriculum from Higher , Advanced Higher and through to HNC/D and vocational qualifications SCQF 6-8 The Oracle Academy provides teachers and lecturers with the skills required to successfully…
The team returned to work today. We all had a nice, if wet and windy, holiday. Last year was a good year for the team. The main development was the HN Review, which culminated in the validation event for HNC Computing in December. We worked hard to develop and promote qualifications for markets outside of Scotland, and we hope that this will bear fruit during the coming year. The annual Heads of Computing event, held in early December, was also…
