[Year 12 IT Apps] Potts Ch 3 and Study Design

[Russell Edwards]

Hello list,

I just finished my last set of powerpoint slides for Ch 3 of Potts.

I have a few questions; please excuse the naive ones as I am new to 
teaching.

Firstly, I did not expect to be giving lecture-style presentations to 
secondary students, but in ITA there seems to be so much guff they're 
expected to memorise with no real practical activity possible to cement 
it, that lecturing and encouraging revision seems the only way to go. I 
have been doing 20 mins of theory at the start of each double and then 
have them go on with practical work (at present, Dreamweaver). Do others 
follow a similar format for ITA? (The 20 mins looks to be too little 
actually)

Secondly, a few things in the book seem outdated. I'm no network 
engineer, but it's my understanding that hubs and token ring networks 
are a thing of the ancient past. Yet, both receive a fair bit of 
coverage in the Potts book, especially hubs. Likewise, you'd be pretty 
hard pressed to find anyone still using 10BASE2 these days.

Thirdly and related, how can I tell *specifically* what things students 
will need to know for the exam? (Will hubs and token ring nets be in 
it?) The study design mentions switches and not hubs in the glossary 
under network architecture, and bus, star and hybrid, not ring, under 
network topologies. Does that mean they're guaranteed not to be on the 
exam? It seems fairly tricky for teachers and students with a brand new 
study design and no past exams to go by.

Fourthly, the approach taken to network communications standards and 
transmission media both in Potts and in the study design seems a bit of 
a dog's breakfast, i.e. there is no concept of layers. Readers won't 
know that IP runs on top of a data link layer protocol like the data 
layers of ethernet or 802.11, that TCP runs on top of IP and so does 
UDP, etc etc. I can't see how they're supposed to know what the random 
bits and pieces they are exposed to are for and how they fit together if 
they're not given the big picture.

Is that a fair comment? So, in my slides I am presenting the TCP/IP 
five-layer network model: physical, data, network, transport, 
application. I will then go on and cover all the bits mentioned in the 
book plus a few more examples for clarity, but all in the context of the 
layers. Students will be told that they only need to know what's in the 
book but that the five-layer model is a good way to learn it.

Thanks in advance for any input I can get

Russell Edwards
Whittlesea Secondary College

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