[Year 12 IPM] ICT and IT? Justification

[J & A Siarabalos]

>One of the other things that worries me a little, is that whenever we come
up with a Year 7/8 course for example (and I admit to being very guilty
here) we fall back on those hoary old chestnuts - Word, Excel, Powerpoint
and (for heavens sake) Access. It is little wonder that other KLAs cry out
that they can do that as well as anyone else - a lot of it is monkey see
monkey do.

Hello  Peter, Rod, Michael and anyone else who is interested,
Without sounding too harsh I also do not agree with any of the above
sentiments.
All of the applications mentioned can produce high powered solutions if
students are trained in the proper problem solving methodology and software
skills (programming). Some adults find the concept of relational database
development and structure difficult to understand, let alone students. Only
an "expert" is capable to making students begin to understand how a database
works. (Notice how I say "begin" here.). Without underestimating the
abilities of the teachers to learn IT skills, databases is one of those
skills that most KLA teachers would find difficulty grasping. (Even if they
had the time to try to understand the concepts! Of course the issue of time
is another big problem which needs to be addressed.)
Secondly, it is ridiculous to suggest that IT cannot justify its own
existence given that ICT permeates every aspect of our society  today.
Teaching IT gives students an idea of the concepts they will learn in higher
education, if they choose to pursue this path when they leave school. Isn't
that what secondary education is all about? Secondary schools are supposed
to give students (amongst other skills), the ability to decide what career
path they wish to take!
Thirdly, IT covers many areas from;
1. Web design, photo manipulation etc
2. System design / networking
3. software design/development/ programming
4. hardware design / electronics
5. games development
6. database design/ development
The list could go on here!
My problem as an IT teacher is "What do I teach?" .  There are just so many
areas one can cover!
At our school ( 7-12), IT is compulsory at Year 7 only and an elective after
that. I'm not sure if this is the correct formula. I probably would like to
see IT compulsory at Year 8 as well.
To sum up I believe IT needs to have its own place in the curriculum.
However, the interdisciplinary VELS approach using ICT is also important in
developing skills for the society students will enter when they leave
school.
Regards,
Antoniette Siarabalos
Educational Technology Coordinator
Nazareth College






 -----Original Message-----
From: 	ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au]  On
Behalf Of Robert Timmer-Arends
Sent:	Wednesday, 16 November 2005 6:10 PM
To:	Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management Teachers'
Mailing List
Subject:	Re: [Year 12 IPM] ICT and IT? Justification

Hello Rod, Peter, Michael...

>One of the other things that worries me a little, is that whenever we come
up with a Year 7/8 course for example (and I admit to being very guilty
here) we fall back on those hoary old chestnuts - Word, Excel, Powerpoint
and (for heavens sake) Access. It is little wonder that other KLAs cry out
that they can do that as well as anyone else - a lot of it is monkey see
monkey do.

I agree with Peter that we do need to come up with more 'compelling
arguments to justify the position of IT in the curriculum' - he is right
that there are plenty of other areas that don't start till VCE and I don't
think there is anything inherently difficult in IT that requires 4+ years of
pre-VCE IT education.

Part of the diffuclty is that IT as a discipline is quite young and many
people I suspect don't even recognise it as a discipline (because, afterall,
'everybody' uses a computer these days'). Moreover, at the pre-VCE level I
suspect that we tend not to teach it as a discipline but, as Rod suggests,
we tend to teach it more as a skills set.

And therein lies the only argument I can come up with to justify the place
of IT, at least at Year 7; that is, making sure that students learn how to
make best use of the software (especially generic software) they will be
using in their education. Some would argue that therefore students should
learn these skills in non-IT classes, but as has already been discussed
elsewhen on this list, that just doesn't appear to happen - and why should
it? Does an English teacher, for example, really care if a student centres
text by sitting on the space bar, as long as the essay is produced? Does a
SOSE teacher know enough about Flash to give student's the skills they need
to create an anotated volcano animation? Even if they do care/know, should
English teaching time be given over to teaching good word processing or
PowerPoint skills when these are generic skills for use in all subjects.

The argument that VELS sees ICT as interdisciplinary and therefore not
needed as a subject I think is fallacious. If we are really on about
students getting the most from ICT to further their learning, then their
competency in its use needs to be maximised - and I believe this can only be
properly done by a specialist teacher with time in the timetable to do it.
Once students are given these skills, it is then up to the school to make
use of them in all learning areas, and that's a separate discussion. What
the school has to do first, however, is identify those skills it wants its
students to have for use across all/most/many subjects.

As for video etc, it's great, exciting stuff and students seem to enjoy it.
>From the point of view of 'why should IT appear on the timetable', however,
as I argue above, if it's teaching students a skills-set that they can carry
to other subjects, great. But, when it becomes Film or Media then other
subject are right - why does IT need space on the timetable; those kids are
learning an Arts subject!

Regards
Robert T-A



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