Hi there, I am delivering the AiDA course for the first time and having a few problems with somethings.  Firstly what is the difference between level 1 and 2, or is it simply the fact that level 1 receive more help and direction than level 2?  Secondly, where can I find the fees associated with entering the candidates?  Lastly can I use the past SPB's as help material for the students before delivering the real SPB for this year? 

 Many thanks 

 Bohdan Pantella

 Hi there, you have pretty much answered most of my questions.  I am delivering the AiDA to Year 9's at the minute.  I am showing the students the programs first then will tackle the SPB for 2007 or maybe the 2008 when it is released.  The idea about the ELC is very good as I have a student who doesn't understand English very well so that may be perfect for him.  The partnership would be great.  Do you have an email address that I can contact you on?

Many thanks

Bohdan

L2 need to work independently with very minimal guidance (read the assessment guidance documents on the dida website).

Fees - pass - get your exams officer to find out, after all its part of their job.

As for using past SPBs as help and practice material there's nothing to stop you. I use a L1 time plan to teach both L1 & L2 students how to build, fill in and use a time plan. We do group work to estimate time (and we do it in terms of lessons per task - 1/2, 1, 2 lessons, etc), and also by going back to estimates after doing other practice tasks for real eg such as building a L2 practice database (which we again go through as a class) then work out how much time we actually took. This all helps build up a mock time plan which they can go back to for reference if they need to when they start on the live SPB.

Personally I teach up front up to  about Mid November as it gives me time to work through the new SPBs and feed back to Edexcel before the students get started. It also means the walkthrough info is available not too long afterwards.

Can I also plug another forum for support - http://groups.msn.com/EdexcelDIDAResources/welcome.msnw - sign up if you haven't already done so.

 Done.  Just waiting to be accepted onto the board now.  I don't know why but I feel that there is lots to do with DiDa and finding it hard to find a starting point.  As I said before, I am planning to show the students the programs first of all then start the SPB.

All the information here is great... We are in our third year with DiDA having just gained our first year's results (11 Dist, 22 Merit, 56 Credit, 35 Pass)...quite pleased but room for improvement... Our groups now start DiDA training as a taught KS3 project in Year 9. We've just about managed to tie our internal DiDA assessment to the NC Levels, so we can assess for both at the same time. At the start of Y10, our students (in only three 50 minute periods every two weeks) complete the L2 DiDA Project independently, with us "monitoring" and "coaching". I say "start of Year 10" - this would be possible if EdExcel twigged that schools start at the BEGINNING of September, rather than publishing the SPB at the end ! Why, oh why, oh why?

We have translated the walkthrough into a marking spreadsheet. This gives us pretty robust, consistent marking throughout the centre and allow us to give students feedback on their E-portfolios automatically. As far as students working independently is concerned, the key is not to guide the students too much. On training, one of the instructors stated that "your role is a bit like being a Tourist Information Centre - you can give them feedback and tell them what they could do, but you can't take them through the tasks, step by step. That's like being a Tourist Guide. That's not allowed."

This year we hope about half of our Y11s will complete D202 or D203, and we're training our Y9s and Y10s with GameMaker to hope we can attempt the new D205 next year if the pilot is successful.

 Hi there, I am reading lots from people saying that they are starting the DiDa in Y10.  I work in an international school and I am starting to deliver the AiDa in year 9.  I am looking at showing the students the programs they need to use in the beginning of the year with a view to start working on the SPB mid November.  In Y10 they will start the IGCSE in ICT and complete it in Yr11.  I am just worried that I am starting this too soon, but at the same time, the student are taught through the KS3 strategy how to use the majority of the programs.  I suppose I can try and do it, if it fails then at least it has been a preparation for Yr10.

Bod