[Yr7-10it] VELS and IT

Thu Jun 8 14:22:04 EST 2006

Thanks to the posts from Stuart and Fiona.  Both good points.

As an old psychology lecturer of my once said "if it's not working, look at what you're doing and change it".  I'm of a view that we've been teaching IT concepts (or skills) in a particular way for one heck of a long time, and by and large, it doesn't work - one only has to look at the number of times someone complains on a list like this something along the lines of "Many of the year 7's can type up a document and edit but they dont have more refined skills, especially those regarding page layout and the more complex options".

I'm prepared to be sufficiently radical to say that we need to change something.  My thinking is that we need to be more "conceptual" in our approach.  See the wiki: http://pdchandler.wikispaces.com  It's far from complete - but it's a forum where we could start to re-think what we are doing.

-----Original Message-----
From: yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of fiona at balmoralhs.vic.edu.au
Sent: Thursday, June 08, 2006 12:54 PM
To: yr7-10it at edulists.com.au
Subject: RE: [Yr7-10it] VELS and IT

Rachelle 

You would be amazed.  Many of the year 7's can type up a document and edit but they dont have more refined skills, especially those regarding page layout and the more complex options.

"Mclean, Rachelle L" <Mclean.Rachelle.L at edumail.vic.gov.au> on Thu, 8 Jun 2006 12:42:28 +1000 wrote:
> Although Fiona, I can't understand why the vast majority of students 
> wouldn't already know how to use Word at year 7 when I am teaching it 
> to my grade preps and 1s.
> 
> Rachelle McLean
> Pakenham Hills Primary School
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au 
> [mailto:yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au] On Behalf Of 
> fiona at balmoralhs.vic.edu.au
> Sent: Thursday, 8 June 2006 12:13 PM
> To: yr7-10it at edulists.com.au
> Subject: RE: [Yr7-10it] VELS and IT
> 
> I think this is what much of the discussion has been about Debra, 
> namely that IT is not being seen as a discrete subject but to be 
> taught as part of another subject.  If I was your elearning co-ord I 
> would go back and tell them to go away (or words to that effect) and 
> then offer pd in what skills they would like to see utilised (as 
> opposed to taught) during a particular semester e.g semester 1, 
> English, year 7 - focus on microsoft word and basic editing and 
> formatting and this would coincide with the year 7 being taught the correct skills in an IT class.
> 
> If you dont discriminate between the subjects then the English class 
> will be spent teaching IT skills and, you then have to ask the all 
> important question - what are the English teacher's IT skills like - 
> does he/she know what tabs are? can she change the rulers using the 
> side margins on the screen? Can he/she explain how the school server 
> works and how to save corrently. Now I am going to make a statement 
> regarding English teachers that will probably get me hung, and to all 
> those computer literate English teachers out there I humbly apologise 
> but, in my experience, the English teachers have been the ones who 
> have had the most difficulty coming to terms with new technology!
> 
> Fiona Bain
> LT Co-ordinator
> 
> 
> "McDonald, Debra A1" <mcdonald.debra.a1 at edumail.vic.gov.au> on Thu, 8 
> Jun 2006 11:43:51 +1000 wrote:
> > Hi all,
> >  
> > I may be on the outer her as it has been a while since I have read 
> > the
> emails regarding VEL's as I wanted to do so at my leisure instead of 
> between classes, but at out school the eLearning coordinator is 
> apparently going to hold compulsory PD's that will instruct staff 
> (separate PD's for each subject area) what skills they need to be 
> teaching each semester and how to do this. now I have no idea on how 
> she is planning to do this and I think that in time she will let us 
> know as I will be having to assist her in instructing the school in 
> part of this because she is not totally proficient in all area's of IT 
> (mainly the basics).
> >  
> > what are you guys doing in the PD scheme of things for next year?? 
> > and
> how are you running it?
> >  
> > would love to here what is going on out there.
> >  
> > Cheers
> >  
> >  
> > Debra McDonald
> > Network Manager
> > Lyndhurst Secondary College
> > Cranbourne
> > (03) 5996 0144
> >  
> > 
> >
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> fiona at balmoralhs.vic.edu.au
> http://www.balmoralhs.vic.edu.au/
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---
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http://www.balmoralhs.vic.edu.au/
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