[Year 12 IT Apps] a formatting "comment"..Kent

Sun Aug 9 13:40:44 EST 2009

If I may, an observation...
Personally, I am a "majority Microsoft" product user, not by desire but just essentially as that is what my employers (the various schools of my teaching time..) have had available to use for my I.T. classroom ramblings.
Surely the VCAA can be flexible enough to allow the examiners to mark as 'correct' the essentials of formulae presented to them by students. What I mean is, what if the students have NEVER used Microsoft or APPLE products? Surely they shouldnt be penalised when in fact their solution would work on their "flavor" of application software (eg open source spreadsheet or other market available alternative).
If we are to produce flexible and thinking students for employers then we must allow them to provide solutions appropriate to their working environments.
Case in point: Applications developers in the commercial workforce may use a program that is nothing like Microsoft and yet will do the same job most efficiently on the mainframe in the workplace. I ask you VCAA...how many schools out there have a mainframe costing millions of bucks that runs the exact same formats and conventions of Microsoft on all their applications? Lets get real here with our exam expectations on the students and allow them some flexibility with their answers!

Kent.

Kent Beveridge,
St. Brigids CSC, Horsham.
Ph (03) 5382 3545
http://www.stbc.vic.edu.au/
kbeveridge at stbc.vic.edu.au
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________________________________

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Roland Gesthuizen
Sent: Sat 8/8/2009 2:02 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Examination reports

Yes, it isnt so much as they came up with something different or that
they have invented a new standard. There is an open standards group
that is trying to improve the exchange of recalculated formulas in
spreadsheets and I suspect that is what they have used. Google Docs
uses this format too. Let me check. Yep .. works with double quotes.

Curious I did not directly spot this before as I jump across between
XLS, ODC and GoogleDocs. Shows how plastic our minds are to these
subtle changes. I guess when it flags an error, I just thump my
forehead to shake a neuron loose and amend the formula with either
single or double quotes. REM hmmm

Regards Roland

2009/8/7 Robert <robert at yinnar.com>:
> And I have just checked Open Office. Different again.
>
> Requires semicolons rather than commas as separators between items, eg
>
> =IF(C2>40;"yes";"no")
>
> ?
>
>
> Robert Hind (Semi-retired)
> Ashwood and Traralgon
> robert at yinnar.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert" <robert at yinnar.com>
> To: <itapps at edulists.com.au>
> Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 3:50 PM
> Subject: Fw: [Year 12 IT Apps] Examination reports
>
>
>> Whoops! I missed out one (double straight) quote :-)
>>
>> Should have read:
>>
>> And can I add to Mark's message by noting that Excel does not like "smart
>> quotes", or curly quotes but only straight quotes, ie
>>
>> =IF(C2>40,"YES"," ")
>>
>> Robert Hind (Semi-retired)
>> Ashwood and Traralgon
>> robert at yinnar.com
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Robert" <robert at yinnar.com>
>> To: "Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List"
>> <itapps at edulists.com.au>
>> Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 3:33 PM
>> Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Examination reports
>>
>>
>>> And can I add to Mark's message by noting that Excel does not like "smart
>>> quotes", or curly quotes but only straight quotes, ie
>>>
>>> =IF(C2>40,"YES," ")
>>>
>>> Pedantic? Yes! But Excel, and other apps, will only accept exactly what
>>> they have been programmed to expect.
>>>
>>> Robert Hind (Semi-retired)
>>> Ashwood and Traralgon
>>> robert at yinnar.com
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mark Kelly"
>>> <kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au>
>>> To: "Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List"
>>> <itapps at edulists.com.au>
>>> Sent: Friday, August 07, 2009 1:26 PM
>>> Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Examination reports
>>>
>>>
>>>> Examiners' report, ITA Q12b:
>>>>
>>>> Quote
>>>>
>>>> Few students could correctly write the formula for the IF statement
>>>> =IF(C2>40, 'YES',' ').
>>>>
>>>> End Quote
>>>>
>>>> And fewer examiners could either, apparently:  double quotes rather than
>>>> single quotes are needed (at least in Excel, which is the undeclared
>>>> standard for all spreadsheet questions in the exam).
>>>>
>>>> It does bug me when a commentary on what is correct and what is not gets
>>>> it wrong.
>>>>
>>>> Christophersen, Paula P wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> Dear colleagues
>>>>>
>>>>>  In case you are not aware, the examination reports for the 2008 exams
>>>>> in
>>>>> IT apps and Software development are available at the following
>>>>> addresses.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/infotech/it-applications/exams.ht
>>>>> ml#H2N10037
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/infotech/softwaredevel/exams.html
>>>>> #H2N10037
>>>>>
>>>>>  Regards
>>>>>
>>>>> Paula
>>>>>
>>>>>  Paula Christophersen
>>>>>
>>>>> ICT Curriculum Manager
>>>>>
>>>>> VCAA
>>>>>
>>>>> 41 St Andrews Place
>>>>>
>>>>> EAST MELBOURNE 3002
>>>>>
>>>>> (03) 9651 4378
>>>>>
>>>>>  Important - This email and any attachments may be confidential. If
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>>>>> loss, damage or consequence, whether caused by the negligence of the sender
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>>>>> our liability is limited to resupplying any affected attachments. Any
>>>>> representations or opinions expressed are those of the individual sender,
>>>>> and not necessarily those of the Department of Education and Early Childhood
>>>>> Development.
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>> --
>>>> Mark Kelly
>>>> Manager - Information Systems
>>>> McKinnon Secondary College
>>>> kel AT mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
>>>> McKinnon Rd, McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
>>>> Direct line / Voicemail: 8520 9085 Fax +613 9578 9253
>>>>
>>>> Webmaster - http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au <http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au/> 
>>>> IT Lecture notes: http://vceit.com <http://vceit.com/> 
>>>> Moderator: IT Applications Mailing List
>>>>
>>>> Why do people mis-spell 'grammar' and mispronounce 'pronuniciation'?
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>
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>>
>>
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>> IT Applications Mailing List kindly supported by
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>> Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and
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>> Association Inc
>>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> http://www.edulists.com.au <http://www.edulists.com.au/>  - FAQ, resources, subscribe, unsubscribe
> IT Applications Mailing List kindly supported by
> http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/infotech/itapplications3-4.html -
> Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and
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> Association Inc
>

--
Roland Gesthuizen - ICT Coordinator - Westall Secondary College
http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au <http://www.westallsc.vic.edu.au/> 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can
change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has."
--Margaret Mead

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