[Year 12 IT Apps] Teaching ITA

[Mark KELLY]

I was asked by a teacher new to ITA what I did week by week, and what
homework/classwork I gave for ITA.  I thought it might be useful to others
so here's what I replied.

Ignore it as you see fit  :-)

------

I don't work by weekly plans any more (after a while it becomes habit, but I
realise the usefulness of planners when you're starting out.)

A rough timeline:

Term 1 - week 6 - start U3O2. The time before is practice with web editing,
graphics editor and sprinklings of relevant theory.  (The new study design
2011+ has got the hint and put the database task as the second outcome.)

Term 2 - week 4 - start U3O1. Preceded by theory and Filemaker practice
(Bowden's tutorials)

Term 3 - week 5 - start U4O1. Preceded by Excel practice (Bowden tutorials +
Lynda screen movie tutes) and a fair bit of exam practice jammed in + U4O1
theory.

Term 3 - week 9 - U4O2 (test).  Preceded by intensive theory revision, exam
practice (including how to approach multiple choice & short answer, and how
to handle bad questions).  I go through about 10 exams altogether - past
VCAA exams 2007-2009 (and even parts of older IPM exams from 2001-2006 where
relevant).  Since U4O1 theory slides in really nicely to revision theory,
they get done at the same time.

As for what I do for class exercises and homework, I may not be a good
example.  I must admit I don't shine with e5 goodness or deal holistically
with individual learning styles very often. I tend to lecture... it's about
the only way to cram so much theory into less than 112 class hours.

I tend to use my theory slideshows as a starting point (mainly so I don't
forget to cover points, which is what I tend to do if I do a freestyle
lecture following the key knowledge dotpoints).  I give them some hands-on
software practice to break the routine, but it's not more than about 20% of
class time... that's mainly what their homework consists of.

Homework also includes specific practice tasks, e.g. go home and mock up a
picture of a wiki being used by a virtual team working on a (random) topic.


I booklist the Potts text, but hardly ever use it in class. It's for their
reference at home: to get a second opinion, further details etc. I don't
assign questions 1 to 5 on page 85 for classwork or homework.  Maybe I
should... I don't know.  Go with your gut.  Some kids might benefit from
it.  I push weaker kids or those who didn't do units 1+2 to use the text
more heavily.

With the year 11s I use quite a few videos (ostensibly for the U1O3 ICT
issues outcome, but more accurately to keep them interested). About once a
week I show doccos on the effects of  gaming  (ABC 'Good Game' is
excellent), social implications ('Hungry Beast' has been really good), media
(ABC 'Media Watch' and occasionally 4 Corners - especially their 'Fear in
the fast lane' ep from 2009), technology (Catalyst), project management (ABC
'Grand designs') and a bunch of segments from 'How It's Made'.

For year 12 I don't have the time or excuse for more than a couple of
videos, usually for proj man and U4O2 ('Fear in the fast lane', etc)

Bell's gone so I won't ramble more.  I've got year 11 and will be showing
them a segment from this week's 'Good Game' on the effects of gaming on
sleep patterns (since a couple of my dears were falling asleep at the end of
yesterday's afternoon double period).

Good luck

-- 
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 9578 9253
kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au

Webmaster - http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
IT Lecture notes: http://vceit.com
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The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the
trap.
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