Apologies

FUNCTIONAL SKILLS

The meeting of the UK Regulators' Recognition and Accreditation Group on 26 January 2010 approved our functional skills recognition application.

This means that we can put forward functional skills qualifications for accreditation in the National Qualifications Framework from September 2010. We will be starting with ICT Level 2. If you would like us to provide Entry Level or Level 1 please get in touch as we will prioritise further development on demand.

Certification of learners with special needs (P Scale)

Those who can not access Entry level qualifications need even gentler routes in to having their achievements recognised. Although there is no official certification framework for these learners, we think there should be simply on the grounds of inclusion and equality. QCDA have "P-scale" criteria that are used to track progress and the new markbook includes these. We will award certificates based on assessor judgements against these criteria to recognise the learing of those with special educational needs and we will apply for a new EU project to develop this further with partners in countries across Europe. Our P-scale certificates are available in both mainstream and special schools. Please contact Matt Hallifax if you would like to know more.

Ian Lynch, CEO of The Learning Machine (TLM), with Professor Dato' Dr. Aminah Ayob, Vice Chancellor of the Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Perak, Malaysia.

TLM and UPSI have agreed to work together to take the innovative methods of  the International Grades - Open Technologies qualifications to schools in Malaysia.  Professor Ayob is a champion of assessment for learning and firmly believes placing the emphasis on "learning how to learn" is the way forward in a rapidly changing world. UPSI is the largest teacher training university in Malaysia and the Malaysian government is committed to migrating all its public services to Open Source software. 

The migration of all user accounts to the new markbook has taken place.

We have also taken this opportunity to update the Drupal community site system for the whole website.  We are committed to continue with improvements based on your feedback and the requirements of the Regulators. We want to further our philosophy of reducing administration for teachers and maximising rewards for learners so please let us know if there is anything that you think can be made to work more efficiently or more effectively.

We now have agreement with Ofqual for the new version of the INGOTs based on e-skills new National Vocational Qualification for IT Users.

We have spent most of 2009 designing this to meet the new National Curriculum requirements, revisions to the national qualifications frameworks and to answer OFSTED's criticisms of vocational qualifications in "The Importance of ICT" (2009). Transition from the existing INGOTs and achieving the National IT qualification alongside the statutory curriculum requirements is straightforward. There is further information about the ITQ INGOT here, but please get in touch if you have any questions.

Open Office celebrates 100 million downloads.

We are working with the OpenOffice.org project to devise an INGOT style certification based on the ITQ units for word processing, spreadsheets, database, drawing and presentation. We will make an EU grant application under transfer of Innovation to provide OpenOffice.org certification across Europe. 

Leonardo Da Vinci Transfer of Innovation Project is now under way.

Euroface Consulting, our partner in the Czech Republic, has already produced some new puzzles to support the Bronze INGOT. You can try one out if you like. These are not yet finished but when they are, they will be made freely available as open source applications. Older learners will be able to see the source code of these puzzles and learn how they work so they and anyone else can produce more puzzles simply and easily and get credit for doing so in their Gold INGOT projects.

Red Cross launches Haiti Earthquake Appeal

Red Cross volunteers in Haiti are currently assisting the injured and supporting hospitals. The British Red Cross has launched the Haiti Earthquake Appeal to support the relief effort.

The earthquake, which hit the capital Port-au-Prince and other areas of the country, is reported to be the worst quake to strike the country in 200 years. The most affected area is Haiti's West Province with a population of 2.2 million. To make a DONATION please click HERE