[Year 12 IT Apps] Unit 3, Outcome 1 database and project management

[Michael Torsello (Mr)]

Paula
 
I take your point but annotations seem very weird to me.
You are telling me that we want students to create an electronic information product but we want them to print out tables, queries, forms so they can annotate them.
Talk about going backwards to the old CAT days where every CAT was a tome's worth of paper.
 
When students create their project plan, is the analysis stage meant to be part of it or do they only plan the actual making and testing of the database?
And which students will want to admit that things went wrong during their SAC? If everything goes well, they don't have to change their plan. If something goes wrong, then they have to change their plan as well as fix their mistakes. 

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With thanks 
Michael Torsello 
Director of Computing 
St Margaret's School, Berwick 
Ph: (03) 9703 8111 

"Unless mankind redesigns itself by changing our DNA through altering our genetic makeup, computer-generated robots will take over our world." Stephen Hawking

 

________________________________

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Christophersen, Paula P
Sent: Friday, 23 February 2007 12:15 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] Unit 3, Outcome 1 database and project management



Dear colleagues

 

I have a couple of comments to make about the queries raised in Michael Torsellos’s email regarding the tasks for this outcome.

 

*          The outcome requires students to apply project management strategies when producing a solution and information product. This means that giving students a separate project management (PM) task that does not require the application of PM skills to the development of a solution is not appropriate. So sorry folks, but Task 2 is intertwined with Task 1, even though they are reported separately. 

Also note on page 25, second para of Area of Study 1 − ‘The project plans must be developed in the designing stage of the problem-solving methodology.’  The amount of project management required in this outcome is not extensive, and the reaccreditation committee responsible for the development of the study design believed that it is a more meaningful task if applied to the development of a solution and product. 

Also, this para states that the PM plan should include information about: tasks, time and resources − budget is not a consideration. For resources, students just have to list the technology they are using, so the bulk of the plan focuses on tasks and time, and the monitoring of their progress. If all goes according to plan, then no adjustments need to be made.



*          I would consider 500 minutes for the SAC to be at the upper end of the time scale. I wonder if your task expectations are a little too much? Also note that students do not have to prepare a written report for Task 1 − while the key skill states that students must ‘evaluate how the efficiency of the solutions and the effectiveness of the products meet identified decision-making needs’, the task description says that this is achieved through annotations. This is a lot less formal and time consuming (see page 30 ‘Students annotate the solution and information product to indicate how the identified decision-making needs are met’) than a written report. 

 

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

 

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