Several important meetings today.

This morning saw the Departmental Duties Meeting which is the annual event at which we divvie up the departmental teaching and admin duties. Nothing much changed for me as none of my colleagues were clamouring to teach what I teach or administrate what I administrate ;-)

I was about 15 minutes late for this meeting since the train I was travelling to work in broke down temporarily. As there's currently an emergency timetable in place due to the knock-on effect of the Potters Bar accident I have to change trains. I missed the first connection by 30 minutes and 10 seconds, the second connection by 10 seconds. So I was running an hour late. The only consolation is that I had time to buy the Millie's Classic Coffee special offer of a muffin (I chose blueberry) and a coffee for £1.30. Mmmm!

The 2nd meeting today was this afternoon at Glasgow University. As Undergarduae Admissions Selector for the Department I'll be going along. Here's the programme:

Computing across the interface:
Supporting student transition from school and college to university.

1.30 Arrival and coffee

 

1.45 Welcome.

Professor Ray Welland, Head of Department, University of Glasgow

2.00 Key issues at the interface. 

Phil Gray, Senior Lecturer, University of Glasgow

2.15 What is happening in schools.

David Bethune, Development Officer, SQA

2.45 Discussion: What universities are looking for?

Chair: Alison Mitchell, Student Recruitment Officer, University of Glasgow.

3.30 Break

 

3.45 Breakout Discussion Groups

• What is good preparation for further study in Computing?
• How can a student's pre-university experience best be developed at university?
• How can we effectively communicate across the interface
• (These are possible topics. We will agree on relevant topics at the meeting)

4.30 Plenary/ next steps

 

5.15 Cheese and wine

 

6.00 End of meeting

 

[Note: I wrote the following on the train and in the future tense assuming that I would have time to post it before the meeting. As you can see I didn't ;-)]:

This looks like it'll be an interesting meeting/discussion. Apparently, there has been an excellent response to the original call for participation with at least one representative from each Scottish university along with teachers from different parts of the country. There will be about 25 participants altogether.

I wonder if there'll be any students there? If not then I think that's a missed opportunity. If any of my students are reading this then feel free to contribute your opionions/experiences of your transition from school to university and what support you (would have liked to have) had.

I'll write a follow-up about the meeting later but here are some initial thoughts prompted by the above programme:

What universities are looking for?

What is good preparation for further study in Computing?

Of course, we expect our students to have the necessary study skills and the self motivation. We would like them to have an interest in the subject. 1 in 4 don't according to a survey we did some years ago. Have others surveyed their intake(s)?

[At this point the thrain pulled into the station. I'll add more thoughts to the follow-up.]