Launch events

We've now organised the launch events for Internet Safety. Two events will take place - both at Cardonald College - on Friday, 1 September and Monday, 4 September. The events will not only launch the new awards but also provide some hands-on training on some of the new technologies involved in the pilot (such as Moodle and CP3). The events are only open to registered pilot centres. Contact Derek for more information.

Steering Group meeting

The Steering Group met this afternoon at Jury's Inn in Glasgow. We're getting to an important stage in the project so we had lots to discuss - such as the teaching and learning materials, the online assessment, and the forthcoming launch events. It was a good, positive meeting. We plan on having another meeting next month to review progress with the pilot.

Unit is available to any centre

Following the recent publication of the unit on the SQA website, the unit has today been added to the "auto-approved" list of qualifications - which means that any SQA centre is automatically approved to offer it.

Microsoft/CEOP meeting

I went along to a meeting this morning in the Ofcom building in Glasgow, which was organised jointly by Microsoft and CEOP. There were representatives of various organisations involved in Internet safety including LT Scotland, Children First and East Ayrshire Council in addition to SQA, Microsoft, CEOP and Ofcom.

The purpose of the meeting was to bring everyone up-to-date with developments so that we each had an idea of what is going on. It was a good meeting. Attendees were very interested in the Internet Safety qualification. We agreed to meet again in November.

Internet Safety unit specification is now available

The definitive version of the unit specification (which includes the unit reference number) was uploaded to the SQA website today. It's available for download here [PDF].

Launch event

We're in the process of organising the launch event for the new Internet Safety qualification. There will be two events - held on Friday, 1 September and Monday, 4 September, both at Cardonald College.

The events will be a combined launch and training event - with attendees having the opportunity to get their hands on some of the technologies that will be involved in the pilot (such as Moodle).

The events are for pilot centres (only)... of which there are 41. Contact Derek for more information about these events.

"Children and the Net" article

Yesterday's Independent on Sunday carried a front page story on Internet safety - followed by a major investigation inside, covering four pages.

NetID

Today's Metro has an interesting article on an ID system designed to protect the identities of young people. It's called a NetIDme.