[Year 12 Its] Improving the status of VCE IT subjects

[margaret.lawson at konstantkaos.net]

Hey Jack

You make some relevant points, and having just finished the
re-acceditation process for IS and IPM for 2007, it might be wise to file
this away until the next process begins for future reference.

It might be just me, but I make my IS kids work for their marks. I would
not consider the curriculum I deliver a bludge, but it might just be the
way that I interprete the current study design ....

But before I start to respond to your yearning for a more mathematically
challenging IS Syllabus ... what school are you from?
It isn't listed in your LavaLife bio? (However, I was impressed with the
quality of the sexy singles)

:)

Margaret
(From St. Michael's)

PS.  I might add a note of caution, there has been Gin present this
evening ...

> Hi everyone
>
> I am a relatively new teacher and am rather disappointed in the current
> VCE
> IT subjects, in particular the content taught in Information System.
>
> In my opinion there need to be a new subject titled something like
> ‘Computing fundamentals”.
>
> I have found that there are many students that want to learn the technical
> aspects of computers,  including Programming, Binary computation,
> circuits,
> SQL, Network communication (packets), Hexadecimal, octal,
> encryption/sorting
> algorithms, general problem solving etc.
>
> Not only would these be good offering for students and future university
> courses; It would also be relatively easy to examine.
>
> In my opinion, IT studies in general are dumbed down which is the reason
> students don’t even need IT at year 12 to enter a IT course at university.
>
> It is generally considered by teachers and students alike to be an easy
> bludge subject.  And yes, it is!!  Having worked as a programmer in
> industry, this really annoys me, as I know I have worked tiresly on a
> programming problem for days.
>
> A simple example exam question might be: Displaying the hex output of a
> packet sniffer and an ASCII chart, then get the students to interpret the
> protocol used, information sent etc.  A more mathematical approach needs
> to
> be taken.  “Correct / Incorrect”, none of this interpretive stuff that
> seems
> to be continuously presenting itself in IT Systems exams.
>
> I know personally that I have many students that are capable of completing
> such a course.  I would love to see an IT course that is comparable in
> difficulty to Physics, in other words ‘challenging’!
>
> What do others think?
>
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