[Year 12 IT Apps] [Year 12 SofDev] Fwd: The draft study design is on the table!

Mon May 12 18:32:29 EST 2014

Mark,

As a relatively new teacher, thanks for pointing this out. I showed my year 12 class the study design. They said that if "informatics" was the class they were currently taking, they'd have dropped out.

I feel like this was turning IT into a statistics or business management class. That's a shame if this happens, as there's a lot of students who want to do IT, but might not have the ability for SD.

I understand databases are important, but it could kill the subject for many students.

Just my 2 cents.

Sean Hawkins
Senior IT Teacher
Staughton College

On 12 May 2014, at 17:54, "Mark" <mark at vceit.com<mailto:mark at vceit.com>> wrote:

Thanks, Stephen, but please elaborate.  Thanks for - what?

All we have had so far is evanescent tumbleweeds on this issue...  passing breezes of insubstantial comment that barely raise a millibar of atmospheric pressure in these turbulent times.

VCAA has proposed seismic changes to the philosophy and practice of VCE IT and these lists (which are probably the main non-VCAA fora of opinion) have so far largely sat mutely.
We sit like kittens stoically waving our paws in the air at tea time after we've been told that we will be fed only gherkins from now on.

They (from VCAA) say "Oooh, OK then. No comment from the teaching community. Fine. Fine. Dat's OK. We must be right, then. Let's publish the draft then..."
VCAA will rubber-stamp the draft since noone has complained or commented. They will publish it and you will have an OFFICIAL 2016-2020 IT STUDY DESIGN...

And then the tornado of the new study design hits and the teachers go "But... but..." when it's too late.

- And you know EXACTLY what the tornado is like. You can see it coming. You have been told by the friendly tornado that it is coming.
- It even tells you where and when it will land.
- You know that everything will be canon. Immutable. Unarguable. For years.

- But people will still sit in their deckchairs watching it approach, and say "Well, let's see what happens... hell, just because we're sitting comfortably in deckchairs in a quiet street in Pamploma on July 14, what can go wrong?"

This is the only metaphorical tornado that can be fought because it honestly tells you in draft form what it intends to do to you, your school, your classes, your career... This is the tornado that you can and need to tackle.

You have five days.

Well, four now. It took me quite a few hours and glasses of Cab Merlot to draft this. I'll charge VCAA separately.

Mark

On 12 May 2014 16:29, Stephen Rosicka <Stephen.Rosicka at galen.vic.edu.au<mailto:Stephen.Rosicka at galen.vic.edu.au>> wrote:
Mark,

Thanks…

Stephen

From: Mark <mark at vceit.com<mailto:mark at vceit.com>>
Reply-To: Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List <sofdev at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev at edulists.com.au>>
Date: Monday, May 12, 2014 at 4:20 PM
To: Year 11 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List <yr11it at edulists.com.au<mailto:yr11it at edulists.com.au>>, 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>>
Subject: [Year 12 SofDev] Fwd: The draft study design is on the table!

Psst. Hey, you. Yes, you. The IT teacher.
But mainly you - the ITA teacher.

Remember that feedback on the draft IT study design stops on 17 May. See below for quick links.
Five days to go.

If you teach ITA and you love the idea of teaching databases for most of the year in Informatics, you need do nothing.

But here's a hypothesis...

- If you do nothing you won't end up teaching databases for most of the year. Yay! What?
- This is because when students hear that 'Informatics' == 'Databases', none of them will enrol for it.
- You will be teaching Woodwork. Or two Year 9 Health classes instead.

Of course, that's just a hypothesis. But sharpen your chisels and unwrap your condoms - just in case.

We know that IT Applications enrolments have been trending down for the past 5 years.
And I'd suggest this largely because databases have been mandated for the past 5 years in ITA.
And the new Informatics course wants to compound the injury by increasing the database component.

Dammit, people. We've always had an understanding:
- Software Development has always been for the unashamed IT lover who would watch "The Big Bang Theory" and laugh at the quantum physics jokes.I know I do.
- ITA (formerly IPM - Information Processing and Management) was for - let's be honest - the students who liked using computers but couldn't get into Media Studies. It was a fun, easy subject with low skill expectations on arrival, and a useful skill set on graduation.  It was marked down as a VCE study, but everyone knew that and accepted that. It was understood.

The draft study design seems to want to make ITA an ultrageeknerd study, chockablock with pure database science...the sort of study that would not be "marked down" and would stand proudly against a "real science" like physics or chemistry.

But is that what Informatics is supposed to be? A rigorous, intellectually-demanding, highly academic investigation of esoteric theory that tertiary graduates require for a career in a narrow corner of the IT industry? If so, it destroys the attraction of a subject for general ICT skill development.

VCE Maths has all sorts of streams for students who (1) want to get through year 12  and (2) want to become a maths/science professional.
Why can't VCE IT do the same, as it has always done?

Let's retain a unit 3/4 IT subject for those who couldn't give a flying fuschia for fancy further specialist studies. How many students would choose VCE Biology units 3 and 4 if three of the four outcomes were on cellular slime mould, and the other one was on everything else?

These lists have been a whistling desert breeze, a lonely rolling tumbleweed of discussion on the crucial issue of this draft IT study design.

- Are people passionately in favour of increased database content in ITA and are silent in anticipation of its arrival? (Yay! More databases!)
- Are people writing passionate feedback in defence or defiance of the draft to the VCAA survey<http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CRDVJ25>, and are silent here?
- Are people just passively waiting to be fed whatever VCAA pushes into their cages, and quietly grumble "I don't like that much" for the next 5 years?

Your only chance is now.
And you have only five days.

If you have an opinion express it here on the Edulist forums as well as on the VCAA survey site<http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CRDVJ25>.
You might inspire others to think and respond.

But I don't have to worry.
- I have the beach, red wine, and a thousand fine (and bad) old movies to amuse me during periods 3 and 4 on a Tuesday.
- You will have year 12 Informatics with yet another database outcome coming up, and the kids still don't really understand how 2NF differs from 3NF even after your eleven prior attempts to explain it, even with your hand puppets.

So, if you teach VCE IT...

Read the draft - http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/infotech/ComputingSD-consultation-draft.pdf

Read the Summary of changes - http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/infotech/VCE_InfoTech_summary_changes.doc

But for Dog's sake, whether you agree with me or not, go here and say something -  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CRDVJ25

Otherwise, you know what the next 5 years will be like for you: Countersinks. Chlamydia...

--
Mark Kelly (amateur troublemaker)
mark AT vceit DOT com
http://vceit.com

Everything new draft study design is a chance to make the VCE world a better place. - Mark Kelly

--

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

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

Everything that used to be a sin is now a disease - Bill Maher

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