[vet-mm] 2006 exam

Mon Nov 13 13:28:31 EST 2006

Yes. A scripting heavy exam considering time allocated etc..
- Compare with recent years

Since 2000 VET then VET-VCE  Multimedia emphasis has slightly shifted. Greater emphasis seems to be given to IT.
    Note: ITech is great, I do not wish to downplay its importance. This is just an observation, after having taught IT (As a Vis Comm - Computer Arts) teacher for 8 years until recently and visual arts subjects for 20yrs.

Students who are skilled in the visual design areas, i.e. those who mostly select the subject because of its connection to Visual Commucation & Design express discontent when they have to deal with too many IT related tasks.
In my experience, programming/scripting and creative visual design are delegated to specialists working in the Multimedia Visual Arts industry. Both specialists liase during a project. There are very few design companies that handball important projects over to one person.

It is interesting to see IT taught by Graphic Designers and Multimedia design, digital video and digital music concepts taught by IT teachers. 
I am sure there are multi-talented teachers that can cover all areas of Multimedia but in general this must be a challenge for many MM subject teachers of units 1-4.
In short - The scripting level in the exam means dedicating too much time to one small area of - one - VCE subject at the expense of time that needs to be spread to cover a range of subjects. 

The debate will no doubt continue. In the meantime I will keep preparing for the next new VET-VCE subject and updates. Roll on Summer break.

Cheers and exam results may be a pleasant surprise.
Chris

-----Original Message-----
From: "Susan Bell" <Susan.Bell at wesleycollege.net>
To: <vet-mm at edulists.com.au>
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 2006 12:06:23 +1100
Subject: RE: [vet-mm] 2006 exam

Paul,
whilst there are help files available - students still need to
understand the question in order to answer it and I don't believe that
this level of scripting in year 12 is fair. Under exam conditions
students are trying to answer the questions relatively quickly and
having difficult scripting questions can throw then off. Also I don't
think there are many teachers who would feel 100% comfortable with
teaching scripting to the standard expected on these exams. 

The exams are heavily biased towards scripting. You might have noticed
there were virtually no visual design questions. If the exam is going to
be fair then at least all competencies should be given equal weight (yes
I know that some modules require more hours to complete than hours)
however there is still a heavy bias towards scripting, which might have
been fine for you, but I'm sure was a struggle for many others.
Regards, Sue

>>> sijp at knox.vic.edu.au 11/13/06 11:53am >>>
This was my first VET exam, I agree that particularly questions 4 and
5
in Section B were difficult.   Nevertheless, we do have to remember
that
the ActionScript editor has 'auto complete' built in and students have
access to the Macromedia Flash help files through the editor.

>From speaking to my students, none of them thought it was overly
difficult, but we spent a large chunk of the course studying
scripting.

I think the issue lies with the background of the teacher, I've worked
in IT, not in the design industry so I'm much more comfortable with
scripting than I am with visual design.  I'm interested to know how my
students went  on *those* questions!

Paul Sijpkes

The Knox School  

-----Original Message-----
From: vet-mm-bounces at edulists.com.au 
[mailto:vet-mm-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Mark Ridgeway
Sent: Wednesday, November 08, 2006 10:17 AM
To: VET Multimedia Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: RE: [vet-mm] 2006 exam

I was also disappointed that the exam seemed overly long on scripting
and too short on visual design. 

(And this is from someone who enjoys teaching Flash scripting in a
games
programming unit!)

The theory section was tougher than last year's - although this is
probably a good thing as the 2005 was really too easy. But we should
be
able to make the exam tougher without skewing it towards scripting.

Good luck to everyone with your results!

Regards, Mark

Mark Ridgeway
Head of ICT & Timetabler
Braemar College
Mt Macedon Rd, Woodend, 3442
Tel: (03) 5427 2500
Fax: (03) 5427 1017  

-----Original Message-----
From: vet-mm-bounces at edulists.com.au 
[mailto:vet-mm-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of Susan Bell
Sent: Saturday, 4 November 2006 11:55 AM
To: vet-mm at edulists.com.au 
Subject: [vet-mm] 2006 exam

I don't know what others thought of the exam this year but the general
consensus of the Pixeled committee was that the exam was better than
2004 (that wouldn't be hard) but worse than 2005. 

The problem once again were the scripting questions. They are simply
too
hard! We don't have the time to go in depth with scripting so kids
only
get a superficial knowledge of conditionals, functions etc... I mean
I've been teaching this subject for 3 years now and I couldn't answer
some of those questions under exam conditions.

VCAA seem to forget that these students are 17 years old with 4 to 5
other subjects to contend with in year 12. As if they have the time to
become fully fledged programmers in half a term. It is really
ridiculous
and puts too much pressure on teachers - I mean we're not programmers
either. I would have thought the exam panel would have learnt by now
that complex scripting questions should be left to IT exams, not
multimedia ones. And where were the visual design questions? It
appears
a whole competency was missed so that the exam panel could shove in
more
scripting questions.

It really is a shame that this subject has been hijacked by people who
think that year 12 students need to know scripting. Surely this stuff
can be left to TAFE or University. I'm not against some scripting, its
fine to get the kids to make interactive pieces but these can be done
with some simple button commands. I think the exam panel are doing the
subject and the students a disservice when they come up with all these
ridiculous scripting questions. Last year they got it right, how did
they manage to get it so wrong again?

Sue

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developing the whole person through timeless principles of learning:
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