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digital xtra fund now open

Digital Xtra Fund NOW OPEN

Digital Xtra Fund launches eighth funding round to drive digital skills for young people across Scotland

Digital Xtra Fund has launched this year’s Round VIII (2023/24) Grant Awards, with the aim to help drive digital skills among young people. To date, the Fund has secured almost £1 million to deliver coding and tech clubs and initiatives nationwide. Over the years, the Fund has awarded 137 high-quality, exciting extracurricular computing and digital technologies initiatives across Scotland, that has helped engage nearly 45,000 young people in tech. In 2022/23, Digital Xtra Fund has supported 35 initiatives covering 24 local authorities and are on target to engage over 7,400 young people by the end of June, of which approximately 50 per cent will be girls and young women. 

Supported activities must be delivered between 1 July 2023 and 30 June 2024 and delivered entirely in Scotland. Activities must also focus on engaging young people aged 16 and under. Applications are welcome from UK-registered companies, charities, chartered bodies, local authorities, schools, colleges, or universities actively involved in the provision of computing education or digital technology related activities, especially for audiences from excluded groups or backgrounds (such as pupils from areas of high deprivation and/or rural isolation, girls and young women and/or minority groups). Eligible organisations can apply for grants from a minimum of £500 to a maximum of £5,000. Similar to last year, applicants will be required to submit their applications via online form found on the Digital Xtra Fund website.

To help applicants with the grant application, Digital Xtra Fund will also be delivering two webinars and also while the funding is open. New this year, Digital Xtra Fund will also be delivering four in-person sessions in Aberdeen, Dundee, Glasgow, and Edinburgh giving prospective applicants an opportunity to ask questions to the Digital Xtra Fund team about the grant application. The team will also bring some popular educational devices (e.g., Sphero indis and BOLTs, micro:bits, Marty the Robot, and LEGO Education SPIKE sets) to these sessions for applicants to try before deciding if they would like to include them in their application.

The deadline for submissions of the grant application is Thursday 6 April 2023 at 15:00. To find out more about eligibility criteria, online application and details about the webinars, please visit: https://www.digitalxtrafund.scot/apply/.

12 December 16:00, **COMPETITION** Me, Myself and AI: How does artificial intelligence impact your life **COMPETITION**

The Scottish AI Alliance have recently launched their first-ever competition for schools and are looking for schools to take part!

The Scottish AI Alliance is a partnership between The Data Lab, Scotland’s innovation centre for data science & AI, and The Scottish Government. They are tasked with the delivery of Scotland’s AI Strategy.

Scotland’s future lies with children and young people and they believe it is fundamental to include their voices in creating a better awareness of what Artificial Intelligence (AI) is and shaping AI’s future in Scotland.

It is in this spirit that they have launched ‘Me, Myself & AI’ – a competition where children and young people are challenged to investigate how AI impacts their lives and share their findings for a chance to win prizes for their class. Any output from the investigation, as long as it can be displayed on a screen, will be considered by the panel of judges. The grand prize is a class visit from their competition partners, The National Robotarium!

With competition categories for P5-P7, S1-S4, and S4+, they would love to see submissions from across the year groups and across subjects. They are happy to talk to teachers to explore how we can best support their taking part but have also prepared a Teacher Pack with background information on what AI is, how it is used and how to investigate further.

 

You can register & find the Teacher Pack using this link: https://www.scottishai.com/schools-competition

Or get in contact with them via aialliance@thedatalab.com

The competition is open until Friday 24 February. We hope you have fun investigating, and can’t wait to see the creative responses to “How does AI impact your life?”

Scottish AI Alliance (@Scottish_AI) / Twitter

Additional Teaching Qualification in Computing Studies CPD Award (2023) at University of Highlands and Islands

The course is designed to allow you to teach computing within secondary schools as it has the required numbers of credits stated by the GTCS. The programme is designed to be a roll on roll off programme as each of the units are separate although designed to encompass what is involved in the computing curriculum by the end of the course.

The module, Web Design and Development will be delivered over 14 weeks and the semester will start week beginning 23rd January 2023 with an online induction and initial lecture.

The courses are open to any teachers with the relevant entry qualifications (degree and existing teaching qualification) who have an interest in computing or cyber security.

There is normally a weekly lecture and support session that lasts for approx. an hour, or more if required, with further e mail support available. The sessions are certainly beneficial as they allow you to ask questions there and then. However, the course is designed to be taught when is convenient for all the students and all lectures and tutorial session are recorded for viewing at your leisure.

There is only one module delivered each semester with no time off required during the school day. The lectures are recorded for students unable to attend in person. All activity is carried out online the majority of which happens asynchronously. The modules have a notional 200 hours per module over the semester. It would depend on your previous experience on whether you needed all that time. If you were able to set aside a day at the weekend or a couple of evenings for study, you would not be far off what is required for achieving the award.

To gain accreditation with the GTCS you need to teach a certain number of hours in computing, and you would need to discuss that with your local head teacher, as we only provide the academic requirement. This equates to 0.42 teaching or 100 teaching days.

The price is £215 per module, and this can be paid on a module-by-module basis. As the modules are 20 credits each if you were to do two in an academic year you may be eligible for SAAS funding. It is suggested contacting SAAS directly if you are planning to start next semester and confirm whether you would be eligible for funding.

 

You can apply through the university web site located using this link or searching for the Additional Teaching Qualification in Computing Studies CPD award at https://www.uhi.ac.uk/en/ under courses.

Please get in touch if you have any further questions with this email: Gordon.macpherson.ic@uhi.ac.uk

Your Voice Is Power: Enrich your computing curriculum by bringing together music, coding & entrepreneurship

“Your Voice is Power”? A collaboration between @Pharrell @GeorgiaTech @YELLOWORG @CompAtSch &@AmazonUK

BCS are teaming up with Amazon Future Engineer, Georgia Tech and YELLOW to bring you the Your Voice is Power UK competition: an opportunity for students aged 11-18 can make beats, learn code, and promote equity.

From the Your Voice is Power curriculum and a range online EarSketch training opportunities, teachers can provide all the skills required for their students to mix music using Python or JavaScript. Students can enter the competition with a remix of Pharrell Williams’ song, ‘Entrepreneur’. YVIP is a great way of promoting coding through creative and cross-curricular approaches.

The competition and resources enable students to develop their Python or JavaScript skills, including making use of sequence, selection, iteration, functions parameters and arguments.

With our forthcoming Hour of Code resource, students can code-along, developing the necessary skills and knowledge with engaging content and pause points with an introduction to EarSketch, and how to remix their first track.

The competition comes with a wonderful selection of prizes on offer:

  • Winner receives a £500 Amazon gift card
  • Four runners-up receive a £250 Amazon gift card
  • Grand prize-winning school receives a £2000 Amazon gift card

To get started, access training and find out more, teachers can access:

https://www.amazonfutureengineer.co.uk/your-voice-is-power

 

We would be delighted if you could share this unique opportunity with your networks by forwarding this email or by making use of our social media asset pack (attached or available to download https://tinyurl.com/yvipukassets)

scottish digital literacy week

Scottish Digital Literacy Week 2022 #SDLW22

Scottish Digital Literacy Week 22 is happening! #SDLW22

Put a hold in your planner for the week of the 3rd of October 2022 and join us for exciting interactive live digital literacy lessons. 

We’ll have more details of what to expect in these lessons nearer the time, resources you might require and skills you’ll need. There will be teacher training sessions throughout September to ensure you have the skills and knowledge to support learners in these live lessons.

These lessons and follow-up activities will be base don our refreshed digital literacy support for 22/23.

So, keep your eyes peeled for more updates and details as we release the (everything will be added here) and share on socials #SDLW22

The Ada Scotland Festival, Oct, 2022: Addressing Gender Imbalance in Computing Science

It’s well known that Computing Science has much to do in way of gender balance. According to a report published by the BCS (2020), just 12% of pupils taking National 5 Computing Science in Scotland in 2020 were female. This figure falls to 7% for female pupils taking Computing Science at Higher, and just 2% at Advanced Higher.

Of course, these figures are reflected in uptake of Computing Science at university and college, and in Scotland’s tech workforce. But we lose potential female talent long before choices are being made about university courses and career paths. From primary school – if not even earlier – girls are given the impression that computers are ‘not for them’.

For example, one of our current female Graduate Apprentices at the University of Glasgow was told that she should study administration, rather than computing. Why? Because she was a girl. Now, years later, she’s changed careers and is excelling on our Software Engineering programme.

Closer to home, when my own daughter was in Primary Two, she was told (by a male pupil) that she couldn’t choose Pokémon as her ‘show and tell’ topic. Why? Because computer games were for boys.

These examples hopefully illustrate what we’re up against, and why the Ada Scotland Festival exists: to challenge stereotypes and encourage more women and girls to get involved in Computing Science.

The Ada Scotland Festival brings together partners involved in addressing gender imbalance in Computing Science and tech across Scotland. Our partners include employers, universities, and schools, delivering a range of talks, competitions, and activities in October each year.

The Festival launched in October 2020, featuring 32 partners, 16 live events, and dozens of other activities. In 2021, we featured 19 live events and many new partners, and the 2022 Festival – due to kick off at the new Barclays campus in Glasgow on 12 October – is shaping up to be bigger still.

This year, we’re delighted to be able to offer some in-person events for the first time, in addition to online sessions. All of our events will be posted at https://ada.scot/2022.  If your school would like to get involved, please drop us a line at hello@ada.scot – we’d love to hear from you.

In the meantime, you can find details of many of last year’s events and activities on the ada.scot website. There are also video recordings of many of our previous events. And, if you’d like to stay in touch please register for our newsletter.

By working together, we can ensure the opportunities offered by Computing Science are available to all – join us!

 Dr Matthew Barr is Director of the Ada Scotland Festival – https://ada.scot/

CALL Scotland Professional Learning Offer

CALL Scotland help children and young people across Scotland to overcome disability and barriers to learning using Assistive Technology. Their small team of teachers, Speech and Language Therapists, Assistive Technologists and support staff are based at the University of Edinburgh.  We have Service Level Agreements with 18 out of 32 Local Authorities and travel all over Scotland carrying out individual pupil assessments and providing associated training.

Have a look at their website to see all the services they offer which includes a wide range of Professional Learning open to everyone.

  • Free online learning modules: The modules are at aimed at teachers, learning support staff, parents and/or anyone who would like to learn more about the potential of technology to support learners with ASN.  We have 4 new ones on offer:
      • Technology to support dyslexia
      • Using the iPad to support literacy
      • Technology to support visual impairment
      • Creating Accessible documents

 

  • Online 90 minute courses: These are delivered through Microsoft Teams on a wide range of topics all based round the use of Assistive Technology to support children and young people with Additional Support Needs.  Cost: £40 each course
  • 20 minute webinars: Free live webinars delivered every second Wednesday with the opportunity to ask your questions at the end.  Webinars can also be viewed at a later date from our Archives section.

We also have our 2 Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) free online modules on offer:

      • Introduction to AAC
      • AAC in Education (Supporting learners with Complex Communication Support Needs)
  • Technology to support dyslexia in education: This 5 week online course starting on October 25, 2022 will focus on and explore a range of technologies, resources, and strategies to support learners with literacy difficulties arising from dyslexia. This course is a technology-based course for educators and other professionals working within the Scottish Education sector who want to learn how assistive technology can support learners with dysleixia to overcome barriers to learning.   Cost:  £200

 

  • Technology for ASN in Education: This innovative and exciting 10-week online course is aimed at educators who would like to increase their knowledge on how technology can expand educational opportunities for learners with Additional Support Needs (ASN), i.e., arising from conditions such as dyslexia, sensory impairment, severe and complex learning needs, autism, and communication difficulties.  The focus of the course will highlight and explore a range of assistive technologies and resources for pupils who require additional support within an educational context to address barriers to learning. Cost: £450

Schools can book a trainer from CALL Scotland to come out to their school to deliver an in-person, hands on bespoke training session.  Please contact Shirley.lawson@ed.ac.uk to discuss your training requirements or ask any questions.  Our diary does fill up quickly especially on In-Service days so get in quickly with date requests!