BCS Berkshire Branch newsletter – February 2012
Welcome
After the new year’s resolutions comes the hard slog of delivering on our promises …
For more, check out the BCS Berkshire Branch website
News
Working with Schools – Real and Virtual Collaboration
We have made a start to getting our volunteers into local schools to talk to school children and enthuse them about computer science and a career in computing. One of our volunteers is a pioneer of the internet, another had a series of senior roles in the computing industry and builds PCs for a hobby! That makes for a great hands on demonstration in class. If you have an interesting story to tell then do tell us and we will arrange for you to share it with local schools.
With a somewhat heavier organisational load comes a pilot project to teach computer science as a CPD subject to local school teachers. If all goes according to plan, the pilot will be run by Reading University, with a little sponsorship from enlightened companies. If you work at an enlightened company, perhaps you would like to get involved in our projects?
These are both real projects, aiming to make a real difference to the teaching of computer science, but we also have a virtual project about to kick off. We are going to run virtual field trips, on the BCS island in Second Life, to teach modern languages and computer science. Later on we might add other subjects, such as history and art. We could cover pretty much the whole school syllabus, though physical education might be a bit of a let down in a virtual world. Still, if you want a kick about visit the football field on the island.
Forthcoming events
Valentine’s Night with the Geeks! – Tuesday 14th February
Come along to the Copa bar on valentine’s night and engage with Social Tech and the Young Professionals Group, then hang out with the Reading Geeks.
PRINCE 2: Structured Common Sense Becomes Common Practice – Tuesday 21st February
This is a joint event with the Thames Valley Branch of the Association of Project Management. On-line booking is
essential so do check out the website.
PRINCE2 is often described as, ‘just structured common sense’ – but how do we take it out of the text book, and embed it as common practice in our organisations and our projects…?
The 2009 edition of PRINCE2 is broadly recognised as a significant improvement over earlier iterations of the methodology. The concept of the ‘Principles of a PRINCE2 Project,’ coupled with an emphasis on Tailoring the application of PRINCE2 to suit the project context, strengthen the assertion that the methodology can be used, ‘in any organisation, on any project of any size.’
This talk will review some of the fundamental concepts of why and how PRINCE2 is recommended for use, and consider the PRINCE2 Principles in the context of ‘Real World Projects’ – what do the principles mean, how might they manifest themselves in projects, and can Tailoring help to overcome issues with embedding PRINCE2 in the workplace?
More…
Check out the imminent events on our Home page
Check out the later events on our Events page