[Year 12 SofDev] A research question...

Thu May 28 10:27:04 AEST 2015

Hi All,

Obviously no simple answers to this question!

I wonder how much impact faculty/domain divisions within a local school curriculum have on this issue.

My experience as an IT teacher has always been that IT has been placed somewhere between the domains of ART (multimedia, animation, digital graphic design etc) and TECHNOLOGY(design thinking, electronics etc). The goal of teaching computational thinking (my personal passion and where I feel the most valuable learning is achieved) doesn’t really align with either of these domains. I’m not sure where the best fit is, but I suspect that increased clarity of purpose as a curriculum will drive student engagement and therefore enrolments.

In terms of staff qualifications, I am usually a lone voice amongst my colleagues :( I have never worked with another teacher who has IT as their method area. Each year when PSTs are allocated to mentors, only occasionally does one have IT as their method. I feel the lack of a team to collaborate with also devalues IT within the wider curriculum perspective of an individual school. Damn our overcrowded curriculum!

Personally I have had most success with a focus on game development as it incorporates creativity, computational thinking, a design process and TEAMWORK! It is distinct from opportunities available to students in other subject areas. And its fun to teach :D

Regards,

[cid:9E5109AF-9726-4BE7-B3EE-B1896EDA6F52]

Katherine Young
11C Mentor
Mathematics & Information Technology Teacher

Castlemaine Secondary College
Etty Street Campus
Etty Street
Castlemaine VIC 3450
T: (03) 5479 4222   |  F: (03) 5479 4230

On May 28, 2015, at 9:55 AM, sofdev-request at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev-request at edulists.com.au> wrote:

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Today's Topics:

  1. Re: A research question... (Michael Ha)

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Message: 1
Date: Wed, 27 May 2015 23:49:26 +0000
From: Michael Ha <Michael.Ha at pegs.vic.edu.au>
Subject: Re: [Year 12 SofDev] A research question...
To: "Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List"
<sofdev at edulists.com.au>
Message-ID: <5F85012A-5189-4A11-941E-AC3E5AA79F57 at pegs.vic.edu.au>
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Hi all,

I agree with David, it all comes down to relevance and engagement.

We have over 60% of our Year 9 boys co-hort taking up an ICT elective, but the girls numbers are trailing behind.

We do 'Web Development' and another subject called 'Think ICT' in Year 9, and 'Game Making' in Year 10.

Regards,

Michael Ha
ICT Coordinator
House Competition Coordinator
Physical Education
Penleigh and Essendon Grammar School

On 28 May 2015, at 9:36 am, Howard, David <dhoward at stmichaels.vic.edu.au<mailto: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
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From: <Wraight>, Timothy J <wraight.timothy.j at edumail.vic.gov.au<mailto:wraight.timothy.j at edumail.vic.gov.au>>
Reply-To: Year List <sofdev at edulists.com.au<mailto:sofdev at edulists.com.au>>
Date: Thursday, 28 May 2015 9:24 am
To: Year List <sofdev at edulists.com.au<mailto: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<mailto:wraight.timothy.j at edumail.vic.gov.au>

On 28 May 2015, at 8:33 am, Kent Beveridge <kbeveridge at stbc.vic.edu.au<mailto: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<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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