[Year 12 IT Apps] comment about Informatics

[Mark]

Hi Maggie.

I don't want to mislead people.

No, the SAT does not mandate databases, but the real choice is going to
have to be them or spreadsheets.
I didn't think spreadsheets would have the depth to accomplish the sort of
data manipulation required for the SAT, but if teachers get into meatier
spreadsheet tools beyond VLOOKUP (e.g. pivot tables and array functions)
then I agree that databases would not be necessary.

I am heartened that your students would be cheered by the new course. I can
only comment from the experiences I had with my ITA cohorts - and they
likely would have been troubled by the complexity of the SAT. I think the
SAT will require quite a different lead-up than we are used to.

Apologies if I have misled people.



On 13 May 2014 07:31, Margaret Iaquinto <iaquinto at ozemail.com.au> wrote:

>  OK, Mark, here's another opinion. I'm not sure why you think the new
> Informatics subject will require us to teach database for most of the year.
> And you say that students loathe database. My students see the value of
> database and the power of queries with respect to issues such as data
> mining and privacy rights. Energising.
>
> You have written that 3 of the 4 Outcomes will be on database. Well, the
> first Outcome is required to use database. But not the other. The next part
> is a SAT which is much, much different from Outcomes.
>
> It's exciting because students can do research and find a hypothesis and
> then work out, with the data collected,  whether it is wrong or right. To
> present all the findings, a wide range of software tools can be used. I
> would certainly be teaching spreadsheets to crunch numbers. My students
> would be learning how to deal with quantitative data AND qualitative data.
> Some students will be using software I do not know how to use but they have
> learned from their other subjects. This is much different from anything we
> have had in the past.
>
> And I know what you tend to do when folks present an opinion which is
> different from yours: you slam it vigorously in this public forum. There
> are times when I enjoy reading your bombast because it cloaks the truth
> especially when it comes to dissecting final examinations. But to be hung
> out and dried is no fun. Debate, however, is beneficial. Perhaps this is
> why folks are mute.  And so I expect you to comment on this post and reduce
> it to worthlessness with low-level analogies such as  unwrapping condoms.
> And you will poke further fun because I have chosen the wrong verb or
> misused a semicolon.
>
> Back to the SAT. Not only will I be teaching spreadsheets but perhaps also
> Photoshop when my students gather primary evidence to support or deny their
> hypotheses. Most likely I will also be teaching HTML5 and CSS3 to write
> forms and to present findings. Some teachers may choose many data
> visualisation tools to examine the data and to present the information.
>
> *No long lists of restricted tools and functions. At last!!! Now that is
> exciting. *
>
> Maggie Iaquinto
> Teacher, Yeshivah College
>
> --

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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