drew.burrett

Went to the Beeb at Pacific Quay last night to take part in TeachMeet SLF09, a truly inspiring gathering of colleagues across the education sector.

Thanks and congratulations to Ollie Bray and everyone else involved in making it all happen.

There were many excellent examples of great ideas being shared, from Stuart Meldrum’s cut-price visualiser, to Nick Hood’s critical thinking activity. It was enlightening too, to be involved in a discussion about assessment and examinations and what the future might hold.

I especially enjoyed the presentation from Neil Winton which I have embedded below. It speaks for itself to a large extent, but the genuine enthusiasm, conviction and humour with which Neil delivered it, brought another unique dimension.

Found myself at an IOP meeting the other night – another great bit of CPD.

On the way home on the train I got to thinking about all of these events that I’ve been to over the last wee while and how I really ought to make a record of what I go to, if nothing else because I’m *supposed* to.

It occurred to me that there must be a way to do so in Glow, probably best to put something into ‘My Glow’. So that is what I did.

Using the ‘Form’ web part, it was easy enough (though not possibly as easy as it *could* be) to add a CPD log to my ‘My Glow’.

Candidates must keep a daily account  of all work undertaken as part of their investigation. This is the evidence of their having completed the specified unit of the Advanced Higher Physics course.

This ‘daybook’ is entirely separate from the “write up” which is a formal document that constitutes a proportion of the candidates overall grade for the final examination.

Traditionally candidates have produced daybooks of varying quality, including varying quantities of material, which (and I may be alone here) are only really looked at if a centre is moderated by the SQA.

The only requirement, that I can see, from the SQA is that the daybook is available in a paper format.

This got me thinking – why could candidates not use a blog to record their day to day progress?

I’ve asked the Scottish Physics teaching community – SPUTNIK – and while there is interest, nobody can confirm that a blog would be an acceptable format in which a candidate might complete this piece of work.

I’m reluctant to encourage any of my candidates to embark on this course of action without first knowing that this format will be admissible. This being the case I’ve contacted the Qualifications Manager for Physics at the SQA, Andrew Shield.

Watch this space – and maybe a few others.