Posts Tagged: OCR

Digital Learning — 1 Comment
2
May 10

Curriculum 2010

Since January 31st OCR have been failing to meet their own deadlines. Friday, some three months late, OCR National were reaccredited on the NQF. Speficially the ICT qualification ’will be available from August 2010, and the revised units are available now.’

What has changed within the units? We have been promised ‘essentially the same content’ but with ‘extra clarity and explicitness’ in the assessment criteria.

How many units are required? Previously students complete 1.5 per GCSE. Now its 2.5. This is the result of unit glh being slashed by 30% and expectations being raised from 90glh to 100glh. Like many subject leaders this immediately changes the OCR landscape.

Which unit combinations are available? This is not fully answered but a rather complicated outline of Mandatory units, Option B, C, new Short Course equivalents and so on is. My guess, it will be the usual Unit 1 plus 1 unit from Section B and a half units from Section C. We have to wait until June 15th and the update Handbook for that.

As an aside, why is exam boards work in 40glh blocks when the school taught year is essentially 30 weeks long?

What does that mean for the rock face practitioners? 1 GCSE equivalent OCR Nationals (AWARD) now require significantly more work (66%), even if that work is still pitched at ‘OCR Nationals’ level. Respectfully, students can achieve a passing grade through a ‘do-as-I-do’ approach to teaching without ‘learning’ too much for themselves. For subject teachers, that means sifting through the revised specifications, noting and responding to the changes. I have reviewed Units 1, 4, 7 (our previoulsy 2 GCSE course) and would suggest that this process is manageable.

The review process now broadens out to include all GCSE qualifications and the best fit for your school. Do the NEW GCSE specifications offer your students more value now that the OCR Nationals have been scaled back significantly? Would you offer a NEW GCSE plus Functional Skills? Would you offer OCR Nationals plus Functional Skills? Can your students complete 5 OCR units within their KS4 provision? I know that our students were stretched too far when they attempted to complete 2 units per academic year, but did manage 1.5 units.

Without question, with students achieving 2 GCSEs (for appropriately 65% of students) and forecasting improving pass rates for the final two years of OCR Nationals, a reduced weighting for ICT pass rates from 2013 will not be welcomed news by the Senior Leadership Team. Time to think outside the box? Can 2.5 units be delivered in Yrs 9 and 10 with Digital Communications in Yr 11?

Popularity: 7% [?]

Digital Learning / e-Tools / ICT — No Comments
29
Mar 10

That’ll Toondoo Nicely

I am a big fan of Comic Life. I often use a simple 3 panel Garfield comic creator to get the students to explain basic concepts, but today the site was blocked?!?! So, I dipped into my Delicious links and revisited Toondoo. What a difference a year makes. Back in 2008, Toondoo was good tool. Now its a fantastic, simple and versatile educational tool. The students rarely enjoy Unit 1 as much as they did today and I recommend you try you students out with a similar task, it certainly does not have to be ICT based. Professionally and perhaps more interestingly to me the teacher, the task also clearly identified the ‘creative thinkers’ in the group from those that required hand holding.

Here’s how a typical infotoon sessions goes. I send the students an email outlining the key message(S) that need to be communicated as a safety net to avoid having to repeat instructions but typically verbally introduce the task. The only proscription is that students use a 3 panel design and the ‘communication / information.’ I find a 3 panel design works best with students posing / outlining the question, providing solutions and the advice on future work or conclusions. It is a model I have used a few times and it rarely falters.

You have been asked to create a series of info docs / comics  to ensure that staff at Downloadable Tunes fulfil office procedures. Rather than be a nagging boss all the time, you thought a fun way to encourage staff would be to use a 3 panel comic strip. Create three infotoons on the following three topics

  1. The importance of using the subject line in staff emails. (AO1.2)
  2. The importance of branding the company, using the correct text font, logo and colours in all business documents. (AO1.4)
  3. The importance of file management. (AO1.1)

Good luck.

I might show them an example, (in this case I didn’t have one) but then its over to them. Bam! Straight into students working I stand back and watch the students tinker and investigate the webware. The results were very good and with Toondoo being more versatile, with more characters, backgrounds, than Garfield, the students work was more distinctive. In a lesson you can expect 1 or 2 strips but its great supportive evidence to demonstrate students understanding.

SUBJECT LINE

Popularity: 8% [?]

ICT — 2 Comments
19
Feb 10

OCR 2011

I originally left this article in draft format, but now the published deadlines I was referred to have past, I am getting a little frustrated.

There is still no absolute confirmtation from OCR that the ICT OCR Nationals will be accredited and available for teaching the next cohort of students at Hamble College. Even our local ICT advisory service were unable to confirm or refute my query,although I was advised to proceed with caution. After investigating online, I was still none the wiser, although I did stumbleupon the OCR Nationals Forums and found some sterling exemplar resources from Mr Pearce. Sadly posts were speculative, contradictory and often terminology was interpreted differently by various contributors. So I contacted OCR and spoke with ICT team. I was therefore pleased to see an artlicle puiblished in their news section ‘OCR response to TES article on OCR Nationals,’ the following week.

Mid January and all that HODs have to go on is the information that posted on December 9th and a strong verbal conviction that these dates were accurate from the OCR ICT team.

Our expected Development Timetable for OCR Nationals is:
• Now – January – Development of specifications and liaison with Regulators.
• End January 2010 – Expected accreditation.
• April 2010 – Expected confirmation of funding.
• May – June 2010 – OCR Inset meetings.
• September 2010 – First teaching.

As a department, two years into teaching the qualification, we are only now well equipped to deliver this qualification to our students. Marking is standardised, internal verification / moderation takes one or two hours per unit, we have a positive relationship with our external moderator and we have integration between units. The thought of getting to know a new qualification completely from scratch is not one that inspires me, but if needs be, then we will do that.

Since my initial investigates I have shared my frustrations with other OCR colleagues. Most recently, I had a one hour private conversation with an out of area OCT moderator, who was very confident that OCRs would be available for Dept. Sadly, here we are in late Feb and still no official communication from OCR. Come on OCR talk to us! In desperation, I am listening to Russell Prue’s interview / radio show / podcast with Nigel Lofthouse for OCR.

GCSE, Diplomas, Functional Skills and finally in last place the ‘really successful qualification’ OCR Nationals. Skip to 9 mins 45sec. Accreditation at the end of January, (well thats past us by) to sit on the QCF, ready for teaching in September. Well, OCR we are still waiting…

Popularity: 15% [?]

Curriculum / Digital Learning — No Comments
25
Sep 09

Interesting Audio Webware – Myna

Here at Hamble College we have extended the ICT provision to include additional units from the OCR Nationals. In reviewing Unit 22 Sound we have introduced our students to podcasts. I was quite surprised the number of students that were not aware of the wonderful resources available to them. FREE resources in many cases too, for example the BBC podcast directory is full of great content.

Second, I stumbled upon Myna, a free online audio tool that you record, arrange and mix audio tracks. Myna’s  horizontal track-over-track layout should be familiar to users of audio tools such as FruityLoops, and its not too far from multi-track Audacity, but a little simpler.  Hit the Snap to Grid button, set your beats per minute, and arranging audio clips from your own files, from a microphone, or Mynas sample libraries.

Look a little deeper and you will find tools for volume adjustment, gain control, reverb and flanger effects, and a few other neat effects. It’s not quite a multi-track Audacity, but for something you open free in your browser, you’ll probably be seriously impressed at how much Myna has to offer your students.

Popularity: 7% [?]

Curriculum / Digital Learning / SLD — 2 Comments
21
Dec 08

#6 5 Minute Meals for ICT

‘Finding the right way to view your data is as much an art as a science.’

Topic or Tool: Many Eyes. A project and website set up to enable anyone to share data and data analysis. More importantly it allows anyone to create, edit, share data visualizations.

What does it cost? FREE.

How it could be used for teaching?

Anywhere you use data, Many Eyes can help. Sharing data, presenting data, investigating and evaluating data. This resource includes over 16 different visualisation tools so if its data you need to check out Many Eyes.

If you can not find a novel use for Many Eyes then I would be very surprised. We will be using Many Eyes to target and explore the large data sets now mandatory for the new curriculum. Combine this with the statistics available at the OECD (organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) and you have a powerful lesson in the making. Or perhaps you may decide to use a Google Form to collect data not solely from one group of students but a whole year, school, county, country? Is that large enough? As an example, we researched and sourced over 291  unique movie titles (any imperfect entries or duplicates were deleted, 611 total entries were recorded) from 4  groups working collaboratively and simultaneously in preparation for Unit 7, ‘Use and Design Databases.’ The data set was certainly more comprehensive and current than the measly 30 the board provided. If you want to add to the list, please do. We add some fun challenges, like the oldest film, long Directors name. If you want a copy of the list, you only have to ask.

Popularity: 9% [?]

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