[Year 12 SofDev] The next study design

Mon Feb 11 08:38:07 EST 2013

Hi James,

I like your idea of a list of emerging technologies and perhaps an annually
maintained list so it doesn't need to be future proof for 4 years.

It would be really good to hear from people who argue that we should not
have not databases in SD by shifting the debate to the programming rather
than the storage. Check out the Horizon Report for what is expected in 1, 3
and 5 years.

With the programming, I have been trying to find a solution to the issue
that has not been resolved regarding databases vs files.

Wouldn't it be better to mandate programming skills rather than how to store
or retrieve data ?

For example, SAC31 will have the following programming structures and
skills:

1.       1D arrays and/or records 

2.       Integers, reals/floats/doubles, strings and Booleans

3.       Validation for existence, range and type

4.       Storage to persistent memory and retrieval

5.       Selection and iteration 

6.       And ...

SAC41 will have the following programming structures and skills:

1.       2D arrays and/or stacks and/or queues  and/or linked lists and/or
..

2.       Integers, reals/floats/doubles, strings and Booleans

3.       Calls to functions and/or procedures with or without parameter
passing

4.       Validation for existence, range and type

5.       Storage to persistent memory and retrieval

6.       Iteration, selection, 

7.       The use of a mobile device to demonstrate features of the solution

8.       And. .....

We need to focus on the programming rather than the storage . In that way
everyone will deliver the same skill set rather than continuing the
unwinnable argument about databases vs files.

Take Care

Kevork Krozian

Edulists Creator Administrator

www.edulists.com.au

tel: 0419 356 034

From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au]
On Behalf Of Vella, James
Sent: Thursday, 7 February 2013 4:48 PM
To: sofdev at edulists.com.au
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] The next study design & Thanks to Mark

.         Maybe for U1/2 we could look at an approved list of emerging
technologies (similar to that of approved languages) for U1O2 where they
currently talk of Social networking, robotics & artificial intelligence et
al. This list could then be dynamic for every year of the study design -
just to keep things nice and fresh

.         It would be awesome for the definition of scope to be clarified

.         Would I become an outcast if I said databases should make a return
to being utilized in SD? Is there really a difference between inputting data
from a text file which stores data and a formal database.please don't banish
me!

I'm sure more ideas will pop into my head soon enough

Also, a big thanks to Mark for his great site, his resources and his exam
post mortems that have kept us all relatively sane over the years. The site
and resources have definitely helped me keep my head above water over the
past couple of years teaching IT.

Mr James Vella

Head of Technology - ICT

Information Technology/Mathematics Teacher

MacKillop College

Russell Street 
Werribee, VIC 3030

+     email: jvella <mailto:s at mackillop.vic.edu.au> @mackillop.vic.edu.au

( phone: +61-3-87345200

+ Fax: +61-3-87345261

- mail: PO Box 522, Werribee VIC 3030

8      web:  <http://www.mackillop.vic.edu.au/> www.mackillop.vic.edu.au

-----Original Message-----

Message: 1

Date: Thu, 7 Feb 2013 13:02:19 +1100

From: Mark < <mailto:mark at vceit.com> mark at vceit.com>

Subject: [Year 12 SofDev] The Next Study Design

To: "Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List"

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We are now halfway through the 'new' study design and moves will be underway
before too long to start designing the next study design. You might want to
start sharpening your pencils and knives for that bunfight.

To start the buns flying, I would suggest:

- Study design in general -

- Can we (I?) please get guidance on how defining scope is different to
determining solution requirements?  As I see it, defining one's functional
and non-functional requirements necessarily also defines scope. If they
don't completely define scope, what is missing?

- A personal annoyance of mine in the mandated PSM is that determining
evaluation criteria is part of the design phase.  Surely it's part of
logical design, not physical design, and could and should happen during
analysis?

- The PSM leaves out training from the development phase.

- Implementation has been omitted from the PSM. I think it needs to return,
as a separate step or at the end of development.

- Let's make sure the detailed examples actually obey the mandated
requirements of outcomes: ITA U4O2, I'm looking at YOU.

- Make sure mandated requirements actually appear in mandated sections of
the study design, and not in the "Advice" or "Recommendations" sections -
ITA U4O2's "organisations" with a significant S, I'm still looking at YOU -
was just unfair.

- All significant changes to a study design should be clearly flagged, and
not subtly changed.

- There should be a single (online) point of truth for all mandated VCE IT
course and task requirements: sprinkling them across a study design,
assessment handbook, FAQs and VCAA bulletins (some up to 3 years old!) leads
to accidental non-compliance by teachers.

- Units 1 & 2 -

- I'm pretty happy with the balance overall, but some 'sexying up' would
help attract punters - e.g. programming web apps, image/audio editing.

- Perhaps an 'integrated project' to bring together several IT skills into
one information product.

- Definitely keep the groupwork.

- Definitely keep the client project.  I loved throwing them out into the
real world on unsupervised excursions for most of the term 4 double periods

:-)

- SD -

- Please let's sort out the strange attraction that the study design has for
the physical layer of the OSI model.  What is so magnetically attractive
about that layer compared to the others, especially the more interesting
higher layers?

- And what's with KK U3O1 KK04 - the OSI physical layer' connection to
TCP/IP?  AFAIK there is no connection. TCP/IP has its own parallel version
of the OSI layers. Kevork may be able to help me better understand this
baffling key knowledge.

- I'd like to see linked lists added to data structures.

- Let's remove laptops from the list of allowed "mobile devices". They are
certainly not retarded computers any more.  Mine is more powerful than my
desktop!

- Let's also remove "gaming consoles". If it's meant to refer to handheld
games, say so.  Otherwise it infers that Xboxes are "mobile computing
devices", which their cables certainly argue against!

- Completely new fields of IT -

- Most of my suggestions have been mere tinkering with what is already in
the study design. What important fields are unrepresented or
under-represented in the current study design?  Perhaps...

- 3D printing

- Data centres

- Social/psychological implications of omnipresent computing and
communication facilities on children, students, workers, and governments.

e.g. how many of the political revolutions in 2012 were incited and
coordinated by social media?

- Privacy in the digital age

- Changing attitudes to information ownership - open source software,
"acceptable piracy", Megaupload, Creative Commons, CopyLeft, GNU licences,
Facebook privacy settings, Anonymous, Wikileaks, jailbreaking/unlocking
(recently outlawed in USA) etc.

- Artificial intelligence, e.g. IBM's Watson, Amazon's suggested buys, Siri,
human/computer interfacing (e.g. Google glasses)

- Changes in computing paradigms - mainframes/dumb terminals > smart
standalones > cloud/dumb browsers.

Over to you guys. The beach is calling me...

--

Mark Kelly

 <mailto:mark at vceit.com> mark at vceit.com

 <http://vceit.com> http://vceit.com

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