[Year 12 IT Apps] itapps Digest, Vol 111, Issue 13
Elliott, Matthew M
elliott.matthew.m at edumail.vic.gov.au
Tue May 13 10:25:15 EST 2014
Hi all,
Some good feedback from Maggie and Andrew that has opened my eyes to the possibilities of the study somewhat.
I still feel that more direction and clarity would be beneficial for the students that have been picking this subject at my school but I can see what you are getting at. Everyone has different cohorts, I do have a couple of students that could handle the type of tasks you describe (the technology is not always the issue, the organisation is) but others would be swimming in it.
I love testing this sort of stuff out in Unit 1 and 2 but I am concerned that the stresses of Unit 3 and 4 (where the students have other subjects to be concerned about) make the front-loaded timed tasks more achievable. The good thing about projects is that students can explore and go as far as they want to with ideas. That could become a problem without very clear parameters in a time poor Year 12 environment. Even the website task can be frustrating as students fuss about with banners and tricks rather than focusing on the design brief. Still it's our job to get them past that I guess!
Just my thoughts, as always.
Matt Elliott
e-Learning Development Coordinator
Red Cliffs Secondary College
0402 677 426
elearnatreddy.edublogs.org
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Today's Topics:
1. comment about Informatics (Margaret Iaquinto)
2. Re: itapps Digest, Vol 111, Issue 10 (Mark)
3. Re: comment about Informatics (Mark)
4. Re: comment about Informatics (Andrew Shortell)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Tue, 13 May 2014 07:31:51 +1000
From: Margaret Iaquinto <iaquinto at ozemail.com.au>
Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] comment about Informatics
To: IT Apps <itapps at edulists.com.au>
Message-ID: <53713DC7.4070907 at ozemail.com.au>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
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
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Message: 2
Date: Tue, 13 May 2014 09:04:07 +1000
From: Mark <mark at vceit.com>
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] itapps Digest, Vol 111, Issue 10
To: "Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List"
<itapps at edulists.com.au>
Message-ID:
<CACu=8Z3kVk4sx9oZLqT7PzHggzAMZf39HOzLfmWaC14LMUeQyQ at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
On 12 May 2014 18:25, Elliott, Matthew M < elliott.matthew.m at edumail.vic.gov.au> wrote:
>
> I am confused by the chisel and condoms line but I'll let it through
> to the keeper this time.
>
>
Sorry to confuse you, Matthew. It was a throwback to the line about
"- You will be teaching *Woodwork*. Or two *Year 9 Health* classes instead."
:-)
--
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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Message: 3
Date: Tue, 13 May 2014 09:23:05 +1000
From: Mark <mark at vceit.com>
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] comment about Informatics
To: "Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List"
<itapps at edulists.com.au>
Message-ID:
<CACu=8Z2jpY+jmkRvogG=td6JejdRH421WDsr-063MMmmQvzEiQ at mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
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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Message: 4
Date: Tue, 13 May 2014 10:05:15 +1000
From: Andrew Shortell <shortell at get2me.net>
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] comment about Informatics
To: "Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List"
<itapps at edulists.com.au>
Message-ID: <EA6C6866-30EC-4C7C-B76E-2050FACDBD70 at get2me.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Hi Mark
It would also be good if you reminded people who are responding to put in their response that they should be agitating for a subject that just teaches ordinary office skills for ordinary office jobs.
The sort of subject that you and I might call Business computing or business office skills ( a bit like the old shorthand courses and typing courses of yesteryear) and would be run as VET subject because it is only about developing some competency in doing things like word processing and spreadsheets and low end web pages. No intellectual challenges and no interest in encouraging further study in computing, just something to give them some basic skills as per your other post.
For the next few years we will still need some people who can do this before we finish outsourcing all those low end monotonous tedious mind numbingly repetitive tautological doubling up jobs to the people who are willing to work hard and challenge them selves in some of the third world developing countries.
As the career teachers keep telling our students, they will have a number of careers in their lives and the most important thing that they can do to help themselves is to learn how to learn new skills. Our job surely is to help them to develop intellectually so that they can improve themselves.
Off my soap box and back to the exciting NAPLAN
and then off to teach seniors how to think about computing. Luckily I don't have to teach office skills.
Andrew
Andrew Shortell
Educator
CRC Melton
shortell at get2me.net (This List)
@acsbear8 (twitter)
On 13/05/2014, at 9:23 AM, Mark <mark at vceit.com> wrote:
> 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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