Not so long ago, the whole area of IT used to be referred to as new technology. However, in just a few short years, much of what we originally thought of as being new now seems very old hat. The same applies to ICT in education. In September of 2005 a revolutionary new ICT qualification became available to schools and has the potential to make more conventional ICT qualifications look as outmoded as the quill pen. DiDA – the Diploma in Digital Applications – is a two-year vocational qualification from Edexcel which will replace the current GNVQ in ICT, due to be phased out in 2006. Currently being trialled by 14-16 year olds in 50 schools around the country, DiDA is a practical qualification, worth the equivalent of up to four GCSEs, which promises to train young people in the most up-to-date multimedia applications now in demand in industry.
These include applications such as Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver and Adobe Photoshop – exciting industry based software which is all too often beyond the reach of children and schools. Becoming conversant in these applications allows young people to fully explore their creativity, as well as providing them with the skills that many employers need and want.
Support In London.
In London, the London Grid for Learning (LGfL) is supporting DiDA by working with the North West Learning Grid to provide free DiDA resources to every state-maintained secondary school. Worth around £3,000 per school, this represents savings of £1.2 million each year for the London school community and reflects how highly this qualification is being regarded. LGfL will also provide an e-portfolio for all students taking DiDA. City Learning Centres were set up to provide opportunity in disadvantaged areas, and part of their remit is to provide flexible, state-of-the-art ICT-based learning opportunities for students at surrounding schools and the wider community.
In that respect, the DiDA qualification looks almost tailor-made for CLCs and several London centres, including South Camden and Ealing, have been piloting the qualification since the start of the new school year. Alim Shaikh is assistant manager at Ealing CLC in west London and has been heavily involved in the planning stage of the programme there: He says: “CLCs are an ideal venue for delivering DiDA. The course is industry-oriented, flexible and supports other subjects cross-curriculum. We CLCs have the resources, the staff and the expertise to support it.” Ealing CLC will be piloting DiDA in partnership with up to six local secondary schools with students from Year 9. DiDA will be offered either during the school day or as an after-school extra learning opportunity. At Ealing, after-school classes are already popular, with 50-60 students attending regularly, representing an overall average of 57 per cent capacity use after school.
Providing Skills.
Anne Casey is manager at South Camden CLC, where they are offering the qualification to Year 10 students during the school day and on Saturdays. She says: “Like all CLCs we focus on providing skills which allow people to tap into local industries. Camden is a media-rich area and there are many companies locally which use the skills offered by DiDA.” Both Anne and Alim acknowledge that there will be initial teething troubles. “Schools may struggle with this as they would with any new course on offer to start with,” says Anne. “Teachers will find difficulties with these qualifications; in order to make it interesting for the students they will need to learn Macromedia software. But ultimately it will be as exciting for the teachers as it is for the students. CLCs are absolutely the right place to trial this qualification as we have the resources and expertise to refine it for schools.”