[Year 12 SofDev] A research question...

[Kent Beveridge]

My thoughts are simple, with the rise and rise of the iPad and similar technologies, the perceived 'need' for mainstream IT subjects has been undermined and watered down to non importance. Many staff, new young graduates included, give my observations that they feel they 'know it all' and hence don't see the importance of a standalone subject.
Attitudes like this have even turned off a recent former student who had aspirations of IT teaching to now not wanting to go there...
Makes me wonder.

Kent Beveridge
Teacher

On 27 May 2015, at 11:15 pm, Tracey Hubert <traceyhubert at gmail.com<mailto:traceyhubert at gmail.com>> wrote:

Hello,

I am a pre-service IT teacher and long-time lurker. I am working on an assessment investigating issues and debates around the implementation of the (proposed) Digital Technologies curriculum and the implications for schools and teachers. In the Donnely and Whiltsire review, they propose that IT remain a general capability and the standalone subject be scrapped or made optional. One of the arguments is there are not enough suitably qualified teachers and that it can be taught across the disciplines. They obviously miss the point that ITC != computational thinking.

I am curious to hear what practicing IT teachers think about this assertion. I went to a school tour on Friday and was surprised to learn they didn't offer IT as a subject at all, not even in VCE. No electives in Year 9. Nothing. I had a look at the overall statistics for VCE IT apps and VCE Software Development and saw enrolments are significantly down from their 2000–2001 peak. During the online PD for the new VCE subjects, Paula Christophersen mentioned they have increased this year by 10%, but it still seems quite low given the ubiquity of tech and the push for STEM subjects in general.

I was wondering if anyone has any insight as to why they think the numbers have dropped in they way they have. It can't only be explained by the scaling down, can it?

TIA
Tracey



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