[Yr7-10it] VELS and IT

[Dr Paul Chandler]

In an earlier post, I suggested that what we need, first of all, some vigorous discussion, some postulates, of what are some conceptual understandings which 'really matter' - those that 'the better' computer users have that 'the strugglers' don't yet have.

In this context, Tony Forster observed:

> Imagine that its 1986, you are learning Wordstar on DOS or CPM. With the
> wisdom of hindsight, what are the generalised, higher order skills which
> will  still be useful in 2006? More importantly, how would you have
> recognised them back in 1986? If you can answer that, then you are on the
> way to knowing what is important to teach now.

Thanks, Tony.  Interesting stuff to think about ... my thoughts for the moment ...

Not everyone on the list will be able to date themselves back to Wordstar in 1986 (I can only just do so).  The things that were true then which seem to be true now are:
- the document and program you are working in, exists within an 'external context' (hardware, operating system and filing system).  So that, if you turn off your computer before saving your work, it's gone; if you type long enough, you'll make a document too big for the computer to handle, and you'll probably lose it; if you don't have your printer turned on and plugged in, printing will be either lost or be in jibberish; etc etc
- if you select chunks of text they can be manipulated in various ways; these 'various ways' include its location in the document and format

Anymore contributions, anyone?

Now, I'm not sure that we need to back-track into history all the time to identify 'key concepts', but sometimes it might sharpen our thinking.  For instance, in the early days of the Macintosh, the word processor MacWrite had a concept of 'inserting a ruler' and certain formatting applied from that ruler until the next ruler encountered.  MS Word (and possibly wordperfect before it) gave us the idea of a paragraph as a 'grouping' of certain formatting options.  The fact that the MacWrite idea has largely gone by the board does not change the fact that 'the ruler' was a vital concept for those who were using it at that the time.  I don't think the 'important concepts' have to have extreme longevity, but they need to be applicable to how we are working now.


-----Original Message-----
From: yr7-10it-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Tony Forster
Sent: Sat 6/10/2006 11:09 PM
To: Year 7 - 10 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Yr7-10it] VELS and IT
 
> I'm teaching "about IT", I find it _really_ hard to move beyond knowledge.
> To do things such as summarize, describe, interpret, apply, demonstrate,
> calculate, analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify, combine,
> integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, assess, decide, rank, grade, 
> test,
> measure, or recommend ... All the "higher order" skills is just so hard.
> I'd suggest that this is because we are too bothered with ensuring that 
> the
> students have "the skills" rather than "the concepts".  If we were
> orientated towards "concepts", then then higher order stuff would come
> easier.

Imagine that its 1986, you are learning Wordstar on DOS or CPM. With the 
wisdom of hindsight, what are the generalised, higher order skills which 
will  still be useful in 2006? More importantly, how would you have 
recognised them back in 1986? If you can answer that, then you are on the 
way to knowing what is important to teach now. 

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