[Year 12 IT Apps] [Year 12 SofDev] Web authoring software

Mon Dec 2 15:17:47 EST 2013

Hi Paula

Please do not take this as a personal criticism, but sometimes you have to be blunt.  I have been a teacher for 30 years.  I have taught all years of IT from 7-12.  And I have a few questions/suggestions/comments.

"We have surveyed a group of students in the past four weeks through the auspices of review panel members"  - Did you survey students who were thinking of choosing IT in VCE or just Year 12 students?  We need to get their attention before they make their subject choices for VCE otherwise it is too late. (ie Years 9 and 10).  To this end, many schools (ours included) have gone out of our way to make the "middle school offerings" more attractive - eg. game making, app inventor, web design, multi-media, film making, etc. Fun things.  Then they look at VCE and see boring things.

"Software Development experienced a 28% increase in enrolments this year, and as a percentage of the total VCE cohort, all VCE IT units experienced a slight increase".   The same is true at our school.  I think part of the reason is that students can see a pathway through Software Development  into tertiary IT, whether it be game development (which is very appealing to the average 17 year old boy) or something else IT related. ITA is a very general course, which is not such a bad thing, but maybe the "end destination" needs to be clearer.  You need to give students a reason to choose I.T. Apps over other subjects.  Part of that incentive is a course that is relevant and  up to date .  (sorry, starting to sound like an IT teacher here).

"I am also a member of the Victorian ICT Skills Steering Committee, comprising industry and educational representatives, who provide advice to the national body on strategies for attracting more students into further study and the IT profession, particularly females."  Can you tell us what strategies you have suggested?   Have these been acted on?  Has the rate of female enrolments in IT at VCE been improved?

", we are always mindful of the extent of change in any curriculum and the potential impact that has on teachers developing and implementing teaching and learning programs. It's about finding that right balance between stability and innovativeness".   I agree, and its easier to "stick with what you know", however if we don't make some positive changes at some stage (and we have the opportunity to do so in the next couple of years), enrolments will remain low.   If you give teachers enough time and PD to get to know the new course, there shouldn't be too much of a problem.  In previous incarnations, the study design was put out quite late, when teachers had little time to prepare.  Also there was little support material available - for some reason there are usually samples given in the study design, but no solutions.   (A real Pet hate of mine - I have never understood why).   I think its fair to say that over the past few years the balance between stability and innovativeness has been tipped in favour of stability.  Now its time for a bit more innovation!

Regards,

Janet

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Christophersen, Paula P
Sent: Monday, 2 December 2013 2:11 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] [Year 12 SofDev] Web authoring software

Hi Janet and colleagues

We are very mindful of the gender situation in our study, as well as the decline in enrolments in some units. Interestingly, however, Software Development experienced a 28% increase in enrolments this year, and as a percentage of the total VCE cohort, all VCE IT units experienced a slight increase.

We have done an extensive review of a large body of data and research information. We have analysed enrolment and performance VCE data, not only for IT, but for other studies, as points of comparison. A benchmarking report has been completed reviewing 10 national and international IT curriculum, and we have reviewed publications such as the Horizon Report,  (Royal Society, UK) and
The Department of Business and Innovation's ICT Skills Snapshot report. I am also a member of the Victorian ICT Skills Steering Committee, comprising industry and educational representatives, who provide advice to the national body on strategies for attracting more students into further study and the IT profession, particularly females.

We would welcome any feedback - to date we have used a SWOT proforma to organise responses and we are collating a set of clear messages that are emerging from a range of sources. Of course, we also need to take into account the Australian Curriculum Digital Technologies, and as a consequence of this I expect that there will be some big changes in some of the VCE units. Having said this, we are always mindful of the extent of change in any curriculum and the potential impact that has on teachers developing and implementing teaching and learning programs. It's about finding that right balance between stability and innovativeness. All up it's a challenge, but an interesting one!

All ideas greatly appreciated.

Regards
Paula

Paula Christophersen
Curriculum Manager, Digital Technologies
Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
2 Lonsdale Street
MELBOURNE 3000
(03) 9032 1724
0407 043 110

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Bane, Janet A
Sent: Monday, 2 December 2013 1:06 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] [Year 12 SofDev] Web authoring software

Like everyone else, I have noticed a steady decline in the number of students choosing IT, especially girls.  It concerns me that girls don't see IT as a possible career or something that they would enjoy or be good at (even though they have a female IT teacher and a female IT technician working on the network).  I am not teaching year 12 this year, but my Year 11 class only had 1 girl last year, and 21 boys.  Now we have "stepped up" to 2014, we have about 36 Year 11 IT students, but only two girls. Year 10 classes have shown the same trend.

I think its time that IT had a "makeover", in terms of finding out what things would appeal to girls.  From my experience they tend to enjoy projects where they can explore their creativity, rather than being overly technical. I think its time to acknowledge that some aspects of the current course are turning students off (male and female) as VCE numbers are in decline. Our digital natives are using ICT every day in many different ways and they aren't making spreadsheets and databases!

We need to have a serious think about how we can attract students back to IT, in particular girls who make up 50% of the VCE cohort otherwise we will all eventually be out of a job.   One good way to find out what kids want to study in IT is to ASK them.  Maybe we could set up a SURVEY on google docs and ask teachers to do it with their Year 10 or 11 students so we get a wide cross section of opinions.  We shouldn't be starting the process of writing the new study design until we get some GOOD data.  Isn't that what IT is all about?

What do others think????

Janet Bane
Patterson River SC

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Christophersen, Paula P
Sent: Monday, 2 December 2013 12:13 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] [Year 12 SofDev] Web authoring software

Hi George

At the moment no - we have had several meetings and we now have a set of Aims and a lot of other material that has resulted from our analysis. We are having an all day meeting next week at which we aim to have a broad overview (or skeleton plan) of all units so we should be heading in the right direction. We've been doing quite a bit analysis of assessment results and looking at alternative assessment modes for units 3 and 4. All interesting! Do you have any suggestions as to our direction?

Regards
Paula

Paula Christophersen
Curriculum Manager, Digital Technologies
Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority
2 Lonsdale Street
MELBOURNE 3000
(03) 9032 1724
0407 043 110

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Ciotti, George W
Sent: Monday, 2 December 2013 11:53 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] [Year 12 SofDev] Web authoring software

Hi Paula,

Has VCAA got a skeleton plan of what is being considered at this early stage?

Cheers

George

UHS Website Manager
IT/Arts/Design/Tech Domain
University High School
77 Story St
Parkville 3052
mobile: 0412 934 782
phone: 9347 2022

From: "Christophersen, Paula P" <christophersen.paula.p at edumail.vic.gov.au<mailto:christophersen.paula.p at edumail.vic.gov.au>>
Reply-To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List <itapps at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps at edulists.com.au>>
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 2013 02:52:56 +0000
To: Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List <sofdev at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev at edulists.com.au>>, Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List <itapps at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps at edulists.com.au>>, Year 11 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List <yr11it at edulists.com.au<mailto:yr11it at edulists.com.au>>
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] [Year 12 SofDev] Web authoring software

All comments about the strengths and weaknesses of the current study, and opportunities for inclusion would be appreciated.

Regards

Paula

________________________________
From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au> [sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au>] on behalf of Mark [mark at vceit.com<mailto:mark at vceit.com>]
Sent: Friday, 29 November 2013 1:13 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List; Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List; Year 11 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] [Year 12 IT Apps] Web authoring software
(Apologies for crossposts, but this may affect everyone.)

An old study design did include Agile, but it disappeared. (This is more of an SD issue rather than ITA, but it's still relevant.)
The old design had different flavours of the SDLC for SD/IS, ITA/IPM, Units 1/2... an awful mess. But at least it recognised that different models existed, and had merit.

I'm glad the current study design listened to reason and devised a single, coherent PSM, but to ignore Agile and other models is - as you say - odd since Agile is a major player in The Real World.

I guess VCAA has to balance realism against practicality : it would be impossible to include *everything* involved in real-life IT in a course consisting of around 130 hours of class time per year.  The question is - what is so important that it can't be left out? And if new content is added, what should be removed to make room for it?

Since Paula recently announced that the new study design is in preparation, this is the time to pull out our blue pencils, judge the current contents and give our feedback.

Regards
Mark

On Fri, Nov 29, 2013 at 12:43 PM, Savage, John L <savage.john.l at edumail.vic.gov.au<mailto:savage.john.l at edumail.vic.gov.au>> wrote:
Roland,

The mismatch was never so clear as on a recent industry visit we made. Increasingly software is being developed for early and rapid release/update cycles. The software houses we visited all used the AGILE model, one in particular used a very formal Agile approach with an Agile Coach and regular morning sessions that sounded like they were based on AA meetings (hello, I'm Larry and I'm a Ruby developer, and yesterday I wrote 500 lines of code, today I will write another 500). Our mandated PSM is looking long in the tooth, great for shrink-wrapped software with infrequent updates, not so useful for rapidly evolving web-based solutions.

Laurie Savage

From:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au>] On Behalf Of Roland Gesthuizen
Sent: Thursday, 28 November 2013 3:25 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Web authoring software

We need to be clear and align with the skills that are being asked. Increasingly my friends in ye' olde big world build and publish using content management systems (Drupal, Joomla, wikis etc.) My school continues to use Dream Weaver.

Google Sites may be an interesting way forward, especially if we consider how to best manage and assess the work of a team who are working online together. I'd agree with Jarrod that it is very easy to open and close access to a site and authenticate usage.

Timely discussion. There is a trend and interest with device such as Chromebooks. Whilst they may not suit everybodies ICT taste or VCEIT needs, I also notice that we seem to have a doubling of what can be done online every two years. Four years ago we were just editing basic word docs, then came spreadsheets .. then more. I can see cracks starting to happen with our VCE IT subject that is firmly anchored in desktop solutions and like others on this list. We can expect more of this to happen over the next decade, just check out the horizon report: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2013-horizon-report-k12.pdf

Regards Roland

Roland GESTHUIZEN
http://about.me/rgesthuizen

"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

On 27 Nov 2013, at 2:09 pm, Savage, John L <savage.john.l at edumail.vic.gov.au<mailto:savage.john.l at edumail.vic.gov.au>> wrote:

I'm not too comfortable with the fit between sites.google.com<http://sites.google.com/> and CSS from a skills perspective. While an author can select attributes:values for tags, I'm not convinced that that demonstrates the skills to edit the html or a style sheet, or maybe I'm making it too difficult. As far as the key skills for AOS1 go "Sites" looks OK. But if I remember, this was discussed last year and online web-creation software was ruled out. Maybe Paula could clarify this.

Laurie Savage
Pascoe Vale Girls College

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Van Der Westhuizen, Eugene Y
Sent: Tuesday, 26 November 2013 9:22 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] Web authoring software

Hi,

I am looking at the options for web authoring software to use in unit 1 and unit 3 next year and would like any feedback about using Google Sites. I've used Expression Web and DreamWeaver over the last couple of years but a number of students this year asked whether they could have used Google Sites. As far as I can see from the VCAA site the software needs to incorporate the following items:
Web authoring software

  *   cascading style sheet
  *   edit and format content
  *   links (relative and absolute links, internal and external links)
  *   navigation
  *   buttons
  *   screen layout
  *   tagging (metadata tags, alt tags)
  *   forms
  *   incorporate images/sound
As far as I can see from this list Google Sites would meet the requirements and want to offer this an another alternative. Has anyone gone down this path before? I'd appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
Eugene Van der Westhuizen
Gleneagles Secondary College
Reema Boulevard
Endeavour Hills, 3802
phone: 9708 1319
fax: 9708 1324

--
Mark Kelly
mark AT vceit DOT com
http://vceit.com

Day 19, I have successfully conditioned my master to smile and write in his book every time I drool.- Pavlov's Dog

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