[Year 12 IT Apps] RE: IT APPS timeline & Unit 1-2 timeline

Wed Feb 14 10:48:52 EST 2007

Hi Kent 

On the VCAA CD Implementing VCE IT there is a suggested course of study
for units 3 and 4, together with some more detailed learning activities
for several topics. The CD was sent to schools in December last year and
was addressed to the VCE IT Coordinator. 

Regards

Paula

Paula Christophersen

ICT Curriculum Manager

Victorian Curriculum and Assessment

Authority

41 St Andrews Place

EAST MELBOURNE 3002

Phone: 03 9651 4378

Fax: 03 9651 4324

-----Original Message-----
From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au
[mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Kent Beveridge
Sent: Wednesday, 14 February 2007 10:44 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: IT APPS timeline & Unit 1-2 timeline

Hi all,

Has anyone got a timeline for ITA they would be willing to share as my
students have had an interrupted start and I am a little unsure about
when to do the outcomes with them. I am considering roughly about week
7-8 for OC1 term 1 and similar for OC2 in term 2. We are using the
Nelson book and I have similar thoughts to other listers about the
material missing from the site that we were expecting to be on there at
the commencement of the year(missing links,sample exams etc.)

Anyone willing to share a Unit 1-2 timeline similarly would be welcomed.

We dont have a programming stream here(yet!) but can access gamemaker6
and VB(not the beer).

Am considering streaming some kids towards the programming to engage
them in an area of their interest.

Have just come back to IT teaching after 3 years in my other disguise as
a Maths teacher(not Yr12) so I'm a bit rusty.

Also tried the VITTA site but dont have a current membership and thus
cant download some of the terrific stuff available there presently. Will
check with the boss about school membership.

Any thoughts welcome folks...

Kent Beveridge (IT years 8-12)

St.Brigids Catholic SC, Horsham

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________________________________

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Charmaine Taylor
Sent: Tue 13/02/2007 12:11 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Potts Ch 3 and Study Design

I mix it up but mostly fit the theory in with the practice eg my recent
classes
Databases - purposes, structure, design tools
- given a design, create a flat file database (this is intro task. Will
move on to relational next week)
-  discuss fields: field names (conventions), field sizes (limit storage
space), data types (standard & MS Access)
- create a report: sorted by, selected fields
- report conventions re format and layout
.......
This approach suits my students who panic if given lots of notes in one
go.
Cheers,
Charmaine Taylor
Sunbury Downs College

Keith Richardson wrote:

The approach I use (in covering the plethora of stuff to be memorized)
is I DO NOT TEACH IT.
How do I justify that? There is simply too much and lecturing almost all
of the time switches the kids off (IMHO).
Solution - my kids have to make summaries of the chapters (one per
fortnight) plus some scenarios and sample questions. Reward - they are
allowed to take their own summaries into each sac.
So what do I do with class time? Plenty of practical - let them keep
their hands on computers much of the time. Plenty of short sharp
discussions to whet the appetite/enthusiasm, answer some questions they
might have about what they are reading for homework (emphasizing that
the teacher is only one of many resources available to aid learning).
I have a number of videos such as the study of the info system used in
Big W - this provides a wonderful opportunity for them to identify some
of the stuff they are learning as they summarize.
I am not saying mine is the best approach, just that it seems to work OK
for me.
Cheers, Keith

On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:35:35 +1100, "Mark Kelly"
<kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au> <mailto:kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au>  said:

	Russell Edwards wrote:

		Hello list,

	Hello Russell.

		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)

	That's why my site is called "IT Lecture Notes" - exploratory
learning 
	can be great but it chews up classtime.  The 'Lecture Tolerance
Limit' 
	of your kids can vary from year to year, but I mix lectures with

	practice whenever I can.

		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.

	It's funny how conservative IT folk can be.  Yes - hubs and
coaxial are 
	history; so, effectively, are bridges and repeaters.  Token Ring
is a 
	rare oddity.

	To save time, I just teach CAT6, switches and Ethernet and
basically 
	ignore coax, hubs and Token Ring.  Be wary with ITA - the depth
of 
	networking knowledge is way less than it was in IPM: no
topologies or 
	protocols are needed now.  The most technical stuff remaining is
cables 
	and wireless.

		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.

	If a key knowledge dotpoint or the glossary says "including X,Y
and Z" 
	it means that X,Y and Z are examinable.
	If it says "for example", it is just an example to clarify what
is 
	intended by a point.

	No topologies are listed in U3O2 key knowledge so could not be
justified 
	as examinable.  Topologies and protocols belong in Software
Development
	now.

		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.

	Fear not.  Such complexities are irrelevant for ITA.

		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.

	None of that is needed for IPM.  Just stick to the study design.
Don't 
	overcomplicate things: IPM students are FAR from technical
geniuses  :-)

		Thanks in advance for any input I can get

		Russell Edwards
		Whittlesea Secondary College

	-- 
	Mark Kelly
	Manager - Information Systems
	McKinnon Secondary College
	McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
	Direct line / Voicemail: 8520 9085
	School Phone +613 8520 9000
	School Fax +613 95789253

	Webmaster - http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
<http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au/> 
	IT Lecture notes: http://vceit.com <http://vceit.com/> 
	Moderator: IPM Mailing List

	There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who understand
binary
	and those who don't.

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Keith Richardson
ITA List Moderator
Head of ICT, Leibler Yavneh College
Elsternwick
Ph: 03.9528.4911
k.richardson at yavneh.vic.edu.au

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