[Year 12 SofDev] Pondering SD U3O2

[Kevork Krozian]

Hi Robert,

 Ever the gentleman and diplomat. Considering a UN post when all this is behind you ???

I hope my "thinking out loud" and "language baggage" ( sorry Gordon ! ) will not stifle robust debate, honesty or even disagreement. 
For what it is worth , the language of choice for me -  PHP  - was only something I picked up for the first time 4 months ago...  prior to that my baggage was java and C/C++
I understand the issue of ability in secondary schools and not just that of students.  I guess it would really empower all the teachers 
and students if we had some really exciting, working end result for their toil and they could see some working "product" in their hot hands as 
a motivator and reward for the unexciting task of designing and modelling. 

I submit IMHO and with all the humility I can muster ...:))

Best Wishes
Kevork 
 

>>> timmer at melbpc.org.au 02/14/07 05:45pm >>>
Hello Kevork

At the risk of being picky, the study design doesn't use the term 'model' in 
this context - that was Adrian providing one interpretation of how to 
approach the task. It doesn't preclude writing 'real' programs.

>I am not sure if I am a little naive here , but what is so special about 
>"modelling" a program to run on a mobile device ?
>What skill set is required to model this task apart from understanding that 
>the mobile device has a smaller screen area ?

Many of the students I taught found writing any kind of program difficult 
and gave little or no thought to screen design - especially if the program 
only required 3 textboxes and a few labels placed somewhere in the vast real 
estate of a standard monitor. The portable device constraint would at least 
force that issue.

Also, just because the program the students write may never run on an actual 
portable device, that doesn't make it any less real - it still has to do 
everything the 'real' program has to, so the students still have to write 
the same 'logical' code, although not necessarily the same 'physical' code.

It seems to me that part of the issue here is the large difference in 
ability and experience among students that the study design has to cater 
for: my more or less rank beginners through to your highly experienced 
student programmers. And, as it has been since VCE IT started, we have the 
tough job of catering for and giving achievable challenges to that range of 
students.

Regards
Robert T-A
Brighton SC 

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