[Year 12 IT Apps] ITA exam - B2 - accessibility

[Mark]

Yes. I tried a 'disabilities' answer and could not make it fly.

Hopefully the stronger students managed to cope with the weird use of VCE
IT conventions.
I worry mainly about the others who expect examiners to behave nicely and
obey the conventions that the students were told were sacred.
It's really not fair to earnestly teach kids basic principles all year, and
have an exam overturn them - as if the question writer did not actually
teach ITA, and only read the study design.

On the same tack, I'm still not happy with A1, which I believe
misunderstood the VCE IT interpretation of 'storyboard', which the study
design clearly intends (e.g. p.65, "using a range of design tools including
a sitemap, layouts and storyboard, redesign your school’s website") to be a
website design tool, not an animation design tool.
 The only reason I'm not livid about that was because the other options
were all worse than the 'correct' one.

It worries me how questions like this get through to publication...

On 9 November 2014 13:36, Ben Hines <b.hines at ccg.vic.edu.au> wrote:

>   I was thinking this too mark. It sounds like many of my students used
> common sense and didn't answer it with a special needs interpretation.
> Because to them it didn't seem to fit here.
>
>  My thought was around the fact that maybe persons with disabilities may
> more easily communicate using video or audio ( by recording it and
> uploading it). Than by just typing.
>
>  But the question really doesn't seem to be leaning this way?
>
>
>
>
>  Sent from Samsung Mobile
>
>
>
> *Ben Hines *Mathematics and ICT Teacher
> Senior Campus
> (03)5241 1577
>
> [image: Christian College Geelong]
>
>  Please consider the environment before printing this email.
>
> -------- Original message --------
> From: Mark
> Date:09/11/2014 13:22 (GMT+10:00)
> To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
> Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] ITA exam - B2 - accessibility
>
>  Does anyone else have a sneaking fear that this second question in
> section B is misinterpreting the word "accessibility"?
>
>  We in VCE IT have (AFAIK) always understood 'accessibility' as referring
> to catering for special needs or disabilities.
>
>  This question smells to me as if it's referring to "ease of
> loading/finding". Try answering it with a "special needs" view of
> accessibility, and see how far you get.
>
>  Frustratingly, the current study design does not define accessibility,
> and it even muddies the water by including this in the glossary's
> definition of 'design elements'...
>
>  *"In this study the elements related to functionality are structure,
> usability and accessibility, including navigation and load time,
> appropriateness and relevance."*
>
>  This makes it sound like accessibility includes navigation and load time
> (curse their ambiguous punctuation) which is definitely not related to
> disabilities.
>
>  Yet the Nelson/Potts textbooks seems to agree that 'accessibility'
> relates to factors like colour blindness, reduced language skills etc.
>
>  The problem is that I can't find a VCE IT source for this
> 'accessibility' convention.
> Does anyone remember where this interpretation of accessibility came from
> years ago?
>
>  Or have I slipped several cogs and is question B2 quite appropriate and
> right? Has the exam question writer read the study design and made a quite
> valid (but wrong) interpretation of the word?
>
>  --
>
>  Mark Kelly
>
>
Mark Kelly
mark AT vceit DOT com
http://vceit.com

*I love the sound of people's voices after they stop talking.*

I, Mark Kelly, am entirely responsible for the offensive verbiage I spew
forth.
Have I offended anyone with this post?  I would not be surprised.
If offended, please whinge to me at the email address above.
Please leave poor Kevork alone.  It is not his fault.
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