[Year 12 SofDev] A research question...

Thu May 28 10:07:10 AEST 2015

There was a really interesting report prepared by the Royal Society about
similar issues in the UK. It corroborates the views most have expressed
here; that is it an issue of definition (ICT vs comp thinking); an issue of
promotion (understanding the wider value of being a creator and not just a
user); and an issue around how the subject is taught and the lack of
qualified teachers.

https://royalsociety.org/education/policy/computing-in-schools/report/

There seem to be so many misconceptions around the importance of learning
these skills—the idea that students are digital natives and know better
than us digital immigrants and that learning how to code is only useful if
you want to be a software developer. Does that mean I should only learn
maths if I plan on becoming a mathematician? On placement I was very
frustrated by the lack of girls taking IT as a subject. Often, the girls
that were there had been 'dumped' into these classes due to scheduling
issues. I am sure this is not always the case, but I took the opportunity
to ask them why they didn't/wouldn't choose to pursue IT. Most of them said
they couldn't see how it would be useful in their lives outside of school.
I found that quite surprising.

Anyway, thank you to everyone for taking the time to reply. It is often
difficult to hear the voices of teachers in academic literature.

Cheers
Tracey

On 28 May 2015 at 09:36, Howard, David <dhoward at stmichaels.vic.edu.au>
wrote:

>   Morning,
>
>  It is all down to making the courses relevant and exciting for students.
> They don’t want to be doing excel and access. They want to be creating
> solutions that they see as relevant to them. If you can pitch a subject
> where they can see it being beneficial for their future you will get
> numbers.
>
>  Our numbers are strong and continue to be strong. I have around 30-40%
> of the Year 9 co-hort who go through the elective subjects. I think that is
> massive.
>
>  We do Game Dev in Year 9
>
>  Future Tech & Mobile App Dev (semester 1) and Web Dev (semester two) -
> HTMl, JS, CSS, mySQL etc  in Year 10.
>
>    *David Howard*
> Head of Learning Systems  <http://twitter.com/StMichaelsGS>
> <https://services.stmichaels.vic.edu.au/fb.cfm>
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>   From: <Wraight>, Timothy J <wraight.timothy.j at edumail.vic.gov.au>
> Reply-To: Year List <sofdev at edulists.com.au>
> Date: Thursday, 28 May 2015 9:24 am
> To: Year List <sofdev at edulists.com.au>
> Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] A research question...
>
>   I have some strong thoughts on this as well. I think there has been a
> serious misunderstanding of the difference between ‘using’ ITC and
> ‘learning’ ITC.  ITC is now been used very effectively in many areas of
> education as a learning tool and I think many people think that this means
> students are ‘learning’ ITC.  But it needs to be remembered that it is just
> a tool in these situations, used to help impart knowledge and skills of
> what ever the subject matter is, but you are not learning about it.
>
>  ITC is now been used in the same way in the classroom that you would use
> pens, paper, whiteboards etc. While using these things in an everyday
> setting a student isn't learning about how the book is made, where the
> paper came from, and the processes involve in producing it.  Yet in our
> curriculum we have areas in which students learn about these things, they
> learn about natural resources in science and humanities, they learn how to
> work with materials such as paper and produce things in art and technology
> subjects.  I believe it is exactly the same with ITC, there is nothing
> wrong with it being increasingly used as a tool throughout the curriculum
> but it still needs to be studied seperately, so that students can gain
> understanding of how it works, what makes it up and where it comes from.
> Not only that, studying ITC seperately means that they will be able to use
> it more effectively when they use it in other subjects.  One of the biggest
> problems I see these days is students (and teachers!) know how to use ITC
> really well as long as it works as intended.  As soon as something goes
> wrong they are lost, because they have no deeper understanding of it to be
> able to troubleshoot!
>
>  We need to remember that using ITC is not the same as learning ITC!
>
>   *Tim Wraight*
> *VCE Information Technology and Mathematics Teacher*
> Williamstown High School
> Pasco Campus
> 9397 1899
> wraight.timothy.j at edumail.vic.gov.au
>
>
>
>  On 28 May 2015, at 8:33 am, Kent Beveridge <kbeveridge at stbc.vic.edu.au>
> wrote:
>
>  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> 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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