[Year 12 IPM] IT in VELS

[Charmaine Taylor]

Our year 7 course teaches just what you're recommending Michael plus a 
few more things including 2D and 3D animation, effective Powerpoint 
slide shows, email and Internet search strategies.  At our school, we've 
had no move from others to delete IT from the 7-10 curriculum. In fact, 
staff have requested that we teach them the year 7 course!
A problem occurs when students graduate year 7 then don't have any 
further IT classes until year 11 or 12 or maybe not at all. The non-IT 
teachers know little, or nothing, about file management (which I regard 
as a most important skill), conventions that make products readable and 
effective, or advances in the technology that transform learning (eg 
blogs, forums, interactive online tutes, games, visual thinking tools, 
etc). This results in students forgetting most of what they learned in 
year 7 and with their teachers not reinforcing it, the kids' work 
becomes dreadful in presentation and lacking imagination in application 
of software tools.
Fortunately, our staff are aware of their lack of knowledge and are keen 
to build their skills. I am producing a twice term newsletter which 
contains tips (the current one focused on how to collect students work 
electronically (not rocket science to us but a revelation to some), and 
creating effective slide shows. This is not enough I know and next term 
I am organising PD on Teaching with ICT - not focusing on how to make 
headers and footers but these will be incorporated in good teaching 
practice eg students should write their name and form on each page of an 
essay and here's how to do it.

Now, why haven't we had a raid on our IT patch? Perhaps its because we 
in the IT faculty here have a high profile and we show what we are 
doing. Our documents are so well formatted,  our kids work is on 
display. The difference in the quality of our work compared to non-IT 
teachers is considerable. We also take every opportunity to mention how 
up-to-date organisations and we ourselves are using IT.  So I guess I am 
supporting Michael in his call for us to keep fighting.

It's time to get on the front foot and stake our claims as the 
knowledgeable and skilled practitioners we are.

Now, re the loss of programming and how computers work, etc.  The VELS 
is about essential learnings only. At our school Programming is taught 
in year 10 and InfoTech & multimedia in years 9, 10 (some years we offer 
robotics too depending on interest) and these will continue because the 
courses are pedagogically sound and the students enjoy them. Student 
demand is our best weapon in any claim on our territory from others.

And before someone comments about us having to give up our time to teach 
other staff, if I wasn't running the meeting I'd have to sit in the back 
row listening to someone else rabbit on.

Charmaine Taylor
Sunbury Downs College



Michael Warden wrote:

>Here is my 2 cents worth....
>
>IT teachers should teach a Year 7 introductory course specialising in:
>
>1). Effective File management procedures.
>2). Word Processing of reports, letters and resumes suitable for "High
>School" level using suitable templates etc.
>3). Effective Web Page authoring so students can (create) and/or edit their
>own web sites with suitably-formatted text, images and hyperlinks.
>4). Spreadsheets to show students how to enter and select data to create
>effective graphs.
>
>No offense to any Eng/SOSE/Math/Sci teachers, but they may not have the
>necessary expertise and knowledge of correct layout/formats to effectively
>instruct the students.
>
>Any comments.....
>
>
>
>
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