Newsletters

December 2010

Newsletter December 2010

CITRENZ

"Promoting excellence in computing education"

As we approach the end of the academic year, activities associated with CITRENZ seem to be increasing.

Conference 2011

The call for papers for the 2011 Conference ( the 2nd CITRENZ Annual Conference - incorporating the 24th NACCQ Annual Conference) has been released.

I encourage you all to start planning for the event which is being held in Rotorua from the 5th to the 8th July. You should submit your proposals, full papers and workshop/panel submissions to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it by the 13th March 2011.

For further information visit the conference web site at http://citrenz2011.citrenz.ac.nz/

CITRENZ Update

The process of rebranding to CITRENZ has begun and work on migrating the website will be undertaken over the next couple of months. The address of the CITRENZ website is www.citrenz.ac.nz

The new executive met on the 20th October and one of the first activities was to revisit the role of the working groups (we used to have two; Curriculum and Quality and Research and Support). Rather than attempting to duplicate the previous working group model, the attendees decided to attempt to identify what the CITRENZ stakeholders might expect from the new organisation., as follows :

  • Develop and maintain CITRENZ certificates and diplomas.
  • Provide Quality Assurance.
  • Encourage focused research.
  • Provide a vehicle to apply research.
  • Provide opportunities to upskill and access continuing professional development.
  • Enable industry involvement.
  • Represent the IT tertiary sector in Government and other forums.
  • Work with industry on qualifications and graduate profiles.
  • Market graduates to Industry and the world.
  • Network.
  • Maintain sector overview of issues and trends.
  • Collaborate with each other and other bodies.
  • Support the development and teaching of degrees.
  • Keep abreast of trends – through Industry based projects.
  • Undertake accreditation.
  • Staircase with secondary schools.
  • Integrate with university sector.

Looking at the range of activities, it was agreed that there should be four "focus groups"

  1. Quality Assurance/Moderation Focus Group
     - develop policy and procedures for managing qualifications
    - manage moderation system
    - establish academic committee
  2. Research, Professional Development and PA Focus Group
     - support and encourage research
    - organise conferences, publications and seminars
    - support professional development activities for teaching staff and industry
  3. Stakeholder Engagement Focus Group
     - develop communication strategies
    - manage the web site
    - liaise with external bodies
    - seek opportunities for collaboration
    - encourage external linkages
  4. Support of Qualifications Focus Group
     - review the qualifications (urgent)
    - maintain curriculum documents
    - portfolio development
    - keep abreast of new developments

Executive members and deputy academic representatives will be expected to have an active role in one or more of the focus groups. Since the focus groups will be where most of the CITRENZ activity will occur, active membership representation of the committees is expected. If you are interested in becoming a member of one of the focus groups please contact Viv Wetere (Executive Officer) by email at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

The executive board members also considered budgets for 2011, the need for updating the rules and regulations, requirement to transfer the ownership of the Bluebook qualifications and the transfer of the existing NACCQ fellows to the new organisation.

Steve Corich was elected chair of the new organisation until the next AGM, which will be held at the Rotorua Conference.

We look forward to your active participation as a member of one of the focus groups.

Donald Joyce

Donald Joyce (ex chair and current fellow) has announced that he will be leaving UNITEC after 25 years of faithful service. He will start working as a consultant in the tertiary education sector, helping ITPs and PTEs with research, programme development, approval, accreditation and review. We thank Donald for his years of service to NACCQ and wish him well with his future endeavours. You can contact Donald by email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or phone (09) 817 7034.

EFTS Update

Garry Roberton has continued to provide his EFT and industry updates. In terms of EFTs there has been some encouraging growth for the sector (somewhere between a 15 to 20% increase on 2009 figures). Over the same period jobs advertised on the Seek IT web site have increased by 85%.

The CITRENZ website homepage has a link to Garry's regular report. It makes interesting reading and should be shared with your Industry Advisory Bodies.

Qualification Review

The major activity planned for the Support of Qualifications Focus Group is a revamp of the existing Bluebook qualifications. The aim of the qualification’s review will be to make the qualifications more attractive, so that ITPs can offer them alongside their existing degree offerings. If you want to be involved in the qualifications review please let Viv know.

New Computing Achievement Standards

Next year these new standards will be introduced to secondary schools for NCEA Level 1. Levels 2 and Levels 3 standards will be introduced in 2012 and 2013. We hope that the introduction of these Achievement Standards will see computing become a fully fledged academic subject in Year 13.

The introduction of the standards will be challenging to many of the existing secondary school ICT teachers and should provide a great opportunity for ITPs to work with teachers to help them up skill.

Activity from the Regions

Wintec

  • The School of IT at Wintec hosted a Programming Challenge for Girls (PC4G) on the 24th November. This was the first time Wintec hosted the event, which is focused on a problem solving exercise for year 10 girls, using the Alice programming language. Other ITPs will be hosting this year's event (MIT, Tairawhiti and Otago along with AUT, Victoria and Canterbury universities). Access PC4G at http://www.pc4g.org.nz/index.asp. A great idea for other regions to think about for the future.
  • On Thursday 25th November the Waikato ICT secondary school teachers, under the title of the Waikato ICT PLC (Professional Learning Community) will be holding their 3rd event for 2010.
    • These PD sessions are strongly supported by Wintec's School of IT and by the Marketing department, which sponsors a light meal for each event.
    • Twenty to 25 ICT teachers attend from all over the greater Waikato region including Tokoroa, Raglan, Paeroa and Matamata as well as from a number of Hamilton secondary schools.
    • PD activities are many and varied; e.g. at the previous event the Smoothboard II interactive whiteboard was demonstrated by Garry Roberton and Gareth Morton (School of IT technician), using a Wiimote and an IR pen manufactured by Gareth. The software and a video can be accessed at http://www.smoothboard.net/.
 

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