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I was sent a link this morning to an interesting new e-book, which explains what SQA does. It seems well presented and easy to follow. You can access it here.

The revised PC Passport ASPs are now available on the secure site. I believe they were published last week although the e-mail from SQA mycentre did not go out until 31 August 2010.

e-mail

The first meeting of the Qualification Development Team for the review of HNC/​D Computing and HNC/​D Networking was held this morning.

Adam Smith College

Once or twice per year, I get the opportunity to attend really interesting conferences, one of which is the annual computer games conference in Edinburgh, which I attended today.

The annual HN update letter was sent to Distribution yesterday to be sent to centres. It should arrive later this week. The readers of this blog can download it now.

The Scottish Further and Higher Education Funding Council is providing funding a for a new student placement programme, focussing on three areas -- one of which is IT.

The Sector Panel suggested that we look at qualifications relating to mobile phone technology so Hilary and me met with Jim Krieger, of Anniesland College, this morning to discuss a proposal from...

Although the qualification team spends most of its time developing and maintaining qualifications and their associated support materials, we can also help centres in other ways.

The annual update letter relating to non-advanced awards was sent to centres on Friday. You can download it here. This letter contains important information about NC/​NPA awards, including PC Passport.

Once every year, the Computing team try to take some time out to review our use of online services. We met today to discuss our use of existing tools and consider the use of new tools.

is the Sector Skills Council for IT. I came down to London yesterday morning to attend two meetings with E-Skills, relating to standardising the awarding bodies' approach to delivering NVQ/​SVQs.

As you are aware, over the last few years we have developed in phases a number of interactive e-learning materials for various Units within our HNC, HND & PDA awards across the Computing portfolio.

e-learning materials

I've spent some of today writing my annual update letters to centres. I'm a little earlier than normal this year since they are usually sent to centres in September.

I met with Alan Hamilton, a GLOW Development Officer for LTS, this afternoon to discuss Internet safety resources available to schools via GLOW.

The Group Award structures within each of the following HNC/​D Arrangements documents have been updated and can be downloaded from the SQA website from 1st August 2010: 1.

There is a new facility available on the SQA website which tracks all changes made to exisiting HN Unit Specifications and any changes to existing Group Award structures across all subject areas.

It can be confusing comparing qualifications from different awarding bodies and, especially, from different countries in the UK.

I attended the International Computer Assisted Assessment Conference today, in Southampton, where I presented a paper on the assessment of online writing.

I was in London today to meet with representatives of CEOP, who we are working with on a new qualification relating to child protection called the PDA in Online Protection & Safeguarding of Children.

I received an e-mail this morning to inform me that the new units that were developed as part of the NPA in Computer Games Development (at SCQF 4, 5 and 6) are now available on the SQA website.

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The UK's Digital Champion, Martha Lane Fox, recently published a report on the use of the Internet in the UK. The Manifesto for a Networked Nation makes interesting reading.

Online services provide a great way to communicate and collaborate with people, and I've recently been working on ways SQA can use web services when we develop new qualifications.

The details for this year's Scottish Learning Festival were recently published and the programme includes a seminar dedicated to the new NPAs in Computer Games Development.

I met with David McDade, of Stow College, this afternoon to discuss a proposal for a new HN award.

I updated the team organisation chart today. Discover Simple, Private Sharing at Drop.io Please download and print this document and use it when contacting SQA.

SQA has had formal links with Oracle for several years.

I recently mentioned that the units within the new NPAs in Computer Games had been finalised but I didn't mention that these units would also be included in the NC Digital Media Computing frameworks.

We recently developed three new NPAs relating to computer games, entitled NPA in Computer Games Development at SCQF 4, 5 and 6.

I attended the launch of Getting British Business Online (GBBO) on Tuesday evening, which was held at the Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh.

After the recent meeting at Central College, I said that I would convene a meeting of interested people to take forward the links between SQA units and Cisco's CCNA curriculum.

Cisco, SQA Unit

At the recent HN consultation meeting, I said that the next stage in the process would be to form a Qualification Design Team (QDT).

We are about to commence exemplar writing for many of the HN Units within the new HNC/​D Computer Games Development awards.

The launch event for the new HNC/​D Computer Games Development awards was held today in the Stirling Highland Hotel. Twenty five people attended, representing around 20 centres.

I attended a conference "for computing educators" at Heriot Watt University on Friday. The event was sponsored by Google and was designed for Computing teachers within Scottish schools.

Women

I attended the first meeting of the Qualification Development Team (QDT) for the proposed NC in Computer Games this morning. This is a centre-led development.

The consultation event for HNC/​D Computing and HNC/​D Networking took place on Friday at Jury's Inn in Glasgow. There was an excellent turn-out with over 50 people attending, representing 25 colleges.

I noticed that the blog counter reached 20,000 hits this afternoon. Given that the counter was only set up 17 months ago, that an average of 1,200 hits per month or 60 hits per (working) day.

e-mail

I received an enquiry this morning about the timescales for the updated PC Passport units and materials. My update letter of September 2009 stated that the revised units would be ready for January.

Many of you subscribe to an online mailing list called "sqacomputing", which is hosted by Yahoo. In its heyday it had over 600 members but the membership has been in steady decline.

I got an enquiry this morning about the location of the e-learning materials that can be used to support various IT-related HN units.

e-learning materials

Caroline and me visited Central College this morning to meet with Chris Deegan and Ian Lennie to discuss the links between the HNC/​D Networking awards and the Cisco curriculum.

Cisco

I received an enquiry today asking for an introductory unit that delivered basic ICT skills covering such things as computer skills, Internet skills and learning skills.