[Year 12 SofDev] [Year 12 IT Apps] Web authoring software

Fri Nov 29 13:54:52 EST 2013

When I taught Physics we taught Newton's Laws, early 20th C. atomic physics and their applications + 1 or 2 contemporary electives. Not much changed. <g>Alas </g> ICT is a rapidly changing area where practice rapidly outstrips our curriculum. No study design will stay 100% relevant during its life-time. I agree the PSM was an excellent compromise at the time - and is probably a great model for writing study designs.

LS

From: sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:sofdev-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Mark
Sent: Friday, 29 November 2013 1:13 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List; Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List; Year 11 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] [Year 12 IT Apps] Web authoring software

(Apologies for crossposts, but this may affect everyone.)

An old study design did include Agile, but it disappeared. (This is more of an SD issue rather than ITA, but it's still relevant.)
The old design had different flavours of the SDLC for SD/IS, ITA/IPM, Units 1/2... an awful mess. But at least it recognised that different models existed, and had merit.

I'm glad the current study design listened to reason and devised a single, coherent PSM, but to ignore Agile and other models is - as you say - odd since Agile is a major player in The Real World.

I guess VCAA has to balance realism against practicality : it would be impossible to include *everything* involved in real-life IT in a course consisting of around 130 hours of class time per year.  The question is - what is so important that it can't be left out? And if new content is added, what should be removed to make room for it?

Since Paula recently announced that the new study design is in preparation, this is the time to pull out our blue pencils, judge the current contents and give our feedback.

Regards
Mark

On Fri, Nov 29, 2013 at 12:43 PM, Savage, John L <savage.john.l at edumail.vic.gov.au<mailto:savage.john.l at edumail.vic.gov.au>> wrote:
Roland,

The mismatch was never so clear as on a recent industry visit we made. Increasingly software is being developed for early and rapid release/update cycles. The software houses we visited all used the AGILE model, one in particular used a very formal Agile approach with an Agile Coach and regular morning sessions that sounded like they were based on AA meetings (hello, I'm Larry and I'm a Ruby developer, and yesterday I wrote 500 lines of code, today I will write another 500). Our mandated PSM is looking long in the tooth, great for shrink-wrapped software with infrequent updates, not so useful for rapidly evolving web-based solutions.

Laurie Savage

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au>] On Behalf Of Roland Gesthuizen
Sent: Thursday, 28 November 2013 3:25 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Web authoring software

We need to be clear and align with the skills that are being asked. Increasingly my friends in ye' olde big world build and publish using content management systems (Drupal, Joomla, wikis etc.) My school continues to use Dream Weaver.

Google Sites may be an interesting way forward, especially if we consider how to best manage and assess the work of a team who are working online together. I'd agree with Jarrod that it is very easy to open and close access to a site and authenticate usage.

Timely discussion. There is a trend and interest with device such as Chromebooks. Whilst they may not suit everybodies ICT taste or VCEIT needs, I also notice that we seem to have a doubling of what can be done online every two years. Four years ago we were just editing basic word docs, then came spreadsheets .. then more. I can see cracks starting to happen with our VCE IT subject that is firmly anchored in desktop solutions and like others on this list. We can expect more of this to happen over the next decade, just check out the horizon report: http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2013-horizon-report-k12.pdf

Regards Roland

Roland GESTHUIZEN
http://about.me/rgesthuizen

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed it is the only thing that ever has." --Margaret Mead

On 27 Nov 2013, at 2:09 pm, Savage, John L <savage.john.l at edumail.vic.gov.au<mailto:savage.john.l at edumail.vic.gov.au>> wrote:

I'm not too comfortable with the fit between sites.google.com<http://sites.google.com/> and CSS from a skills perspective. While an author can select attributes:values for tags, I'm not convinced that that demonstrates the skills to edit the html or a style sheet, or maybe I'm making it too difficult. As far as the key skills for AOS1 go "Sites" looks OK. But if I remember, this was discussed last year and online web-creation software was ruled out. Maybe Paula could clarify this.

Laurie Savage
Pascoe Vale Girls College

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au<mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au> [mailto:itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Van Der Westhuizen, Eugene Y
Sent: Tuesday, 26 November 2013 9:22 PM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: [Year 12 IT Apps] Web authoring software

Hi,

I am looking at the options for web authoring software to use in unit 1 and unit 3 next year and would like any feedback about using Google Sites. I've used Expression Web and DreamWeaver over the last couple of years but a number of students this year asked whether they could have used Google Sites. As far as I can see from the VCAA site the software needs to incorporate the following items:
Web authoring software

  *   cascading style sheet
  *   edit and format content
  *   links (relative and absolute links, internal and external links)
  *   navigation
  *   buttons
  *   screen layout
  *   tagging (metadata tags, alt tags)
  *   forms
  *   incorporate images/sound
As far as I can see from this list Google Sites would meet the requirements and want to offer this an another alternative. Has anyone gone down this path before? I'd appreciate any feedback.

Thanks,
Eugene Van der Westhuizen
Gleneagles Secondary College
Reema Boulevard
Endeavour Hills, 3802
phone: 9708 1319
fax: 9708 1324

--
Mark Kelly
mark AT vceit DOT com
http://vceit.com

Day 19, I have successfully conditioned my master to smile and write in his book every time I drool.- Pavlov's Dog

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