David Hiddleston’s Blog

If you would like to be part of one of Scotland’s largest, most highly regarded and well equipped Design, Media and Computing departments with record progression rates into Higher Education  Degree courses and into employment  - email david.hiddleston@ed-coll.ac.uk  for further information.

Design, Media and Computing - Portfolio of Courses:

• HNC Radio
• NC Creative Media
• NC Digital Media Computing
• NC Photography and Digital Imaging
• NC Graphic and Digital Design
• HND Computing - Technical Support
• HND Conputing: Software Development
• HND Interactive Media
• HND Visual Communication: Graphic Design
• HND Visual Communication: Nerw Media
• HND Photography
• HND Creative Industries: Television

I had the pleasure to be invited to the Braidburn School Leavers Assembly. (Braidburn School attend Edinburgh’s Telford College to learn Computing and experience life at a Further Education College)

We said goodbye to their leavers at emotional yet fun filled assembly. The hall was packed and the young people took part telling everyone present why coming to Braidburn made them feel special.

www.braidburn.co.uk

I am delighted to inform you that HND Photography - Edinburgh’s Telford College are to exhibit the Social Justice photogrphy during the Edinburgh International Festival as part of the World Press Photo Exhibition

Upgrade to Office 2007

Office 2007 is the latest release of Microsoft Office, it provides significant improvements in usability and interoperability

The College Email System (Microsoft Exchange) is being upgraded to Exchange 2007 and it would be preferable to use outlook 2007.

We are currently receiving external documents in MS office 2007 format. Although we have the ability to convert the documents into office 2003 in order to access them, it would be more effective to use office 2007.

It has been agreed that Information Services will upgrade the office version to  2007.

The upgrade will be taking place at the same time as our PC refresh this July. All New PCs will have Office 2007 installed before deployment.

Some people may already be using Office 2007 on their home computers and are familiar with it. However there are various training methods made available:

- Video clips on the VLE, they last only 15 minutes and are very useful. They are available now.

- Face to face training in Staff Development week in August, dates are as per the schedule published by Tom Nicholson.

- If you wish to start using office 2007 in advance of the PC deployment, Please e-mail ICT Helpdesk and we will arrange for your Office to be upgraded .

I will be attending the 2nd Annual Computing Conference on the 25 June 2009.

Speaking at the conference will be Iain Lowson of HMIe on Ungood
Practice: 10 Things We Shouldn’t Be Doing!, Bobby Elliot of the SQA on
the latest awards, James Stanger on the CIW qualification, Jenny
Kilgore of the OU on retention and attainment in Computing, Mark
Brownrigg of the LTS on the Curriculum for Excellence, Colin Maxwell
of Adobe on a range of support materials available and Tony Gurney of
Scotland’s Colleges on the programme for next year. In addition there
is an exhibition area with your chance to chat to the speakers and
explore what’s available from several other vendors.

This is also a chance to network, share practice, and start to address
issues that concern everyone involved with delivering Computing and IT in Scotland’s colleges.

Well done to all students involved with the following Final shows -

HND Creative Industries: Television

HND Photography

HND Visual Communication: Graphic Design

Over the last 4 weeks we have received Scottish Qualification Authority (SQA) External Verification(EV)visits from 4 different verifiers looking at different areas of Design, Media and Computing.

Course Units verified: 

• HND Creative Industries: Television
• HND Visual Communication: Graphic design
• HND Visual Communication: New Media
• HND Computing: Software Development
• HND Computing: Technical Support

All EV visits proved to be successful for the team - Well done to all.

Her Majesty Inspectorate of Education (HMIe) concluded the two day Aspect report visit on the 19 May 2009.

Here’s some comments from the report -

Highly productive partnership working with employers and representatives of higher education help staff to design programmes which prepare learners well for different progression routes

There is a strong focus throughout the department on promoting awareness of industry working practices

The Industry Mentoring Scheme represents an innovative and effective way of harnessing the views and expertise of local practitioners for the benefit of learners. It includes the setting and evaluating of briefs by practitioners, one-to-one mentoring from practitioners to learners, portfolio advice and an industry night, during which learners showcase and discuss their work.

The department represents a creative community, with both staff and learners focused on success

etc-art-and-design-aspect-task-summary-of-findings.doc