[Year 12 IPM] OT: Unit 2 IT study design -- LAB [Long and Boring]response

[Robert Timmer-Arends]

I'm afraid that my first reaction to TRITW-type arguements re a secondary
student's education is always one of suspicion. Not that I don't think The
Real World is irrelevant to them but that, as Kieth writes, TRITW can appear
incoherent to outsiders and is often self-contradictory. One of the ways of
trying to educate students about TRITW, therefore, is to simplify it. Two
means of simplification available to us educators are to 'classify' and
'decompose'; hence we create classifications of devices such as input,
output, storage ..., even if TRITW doesn't really bother with them; we
decompose the process of solving a problem into ADDTDIE, again, even if TRW
doesn't work like that.

For me the real question is not whether these things have any direct
application in TRITW, but, how useful are they in helping a secondary
student come to grips with that world? And where I think the usefulness
comes to an end is when we start trying to be precise with these definitions
as though they are 100% accurate representations of how the TRITW thinks or
operates. I agree with Keith: these constructions should be used to help
make sense of TRITW and not be an end in themselves - unfortunately, we also
have exams to think about, and they (sadly) do tend to get fussy about the
preciseness of definitions.

Regards
Robert T-A
Brighton SC



----- Original Message -----
From: "Mark Kelly" <kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au>
To: "Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management Teachers'
Mailing List" <ipm at edulists.com.au>
Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 8:17 PM
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IPM] OT: Unit 2 IT study design -- LAB [Long and
Boring]response


> Robert Timmer-Arends wrote:
>
> > Hello Mike
> >
> > '...people free scanners /  e-tag readers ...' are otherwise known as
'data
> > capture devices', combining the operation of 'acquisition' and 'input'
by
> > 'capturing' the data at its source. In terms of the Info Proc steps, the
> > step might be called 'data capture', and I suspect that the original
post re
> > direct screen entry might be put under this heading (???)
>
>  > Regards
>  > Robert T-A
>  >
>
> I would agree that data acquisition may occur immediately before input
> (though it may appear to be simultaneous), especially with such things
> as web forms where the unwashed masses type data into web forms, and the
> data is then input into some server-side database.   The point is that
> acquisition occurs a millisecond *before* input, but is still a
> different logical process to input.
>
> Alas, there is no such heading as "data capture" in VCAA's gospel of
> info processing cycling.
>
> Is this a problem with the real world, or VCAA?  Heaven forfend!  Surely
> the VCE IT theory *must* concur with the real world of IT...
>
> Why else would we teach it?
>
> [Increasingly Off-Topic hereafter]
>
> Why else would we teach, for example, the theoretical steps of the
> problem solving steps (SDLC), if it were not the canon of real-world IT
> business people?   To teach irrelevant or outdated theory would waste
> our students' time and to elevate ourselves to ridicule from those in
> The Real IT World (TRITW).
>
> TRITW *must* believe in ADDTDIE (analyse, design, develop, test,
> implement, evaluate) because we would not be teaching this otherwise...
>
> Unfortunately, for every VCAA model, there are many different models in
> The Real World (e.g. those that include "Document" as a step in the SDLC.)
>
> I would be entirely delighted to hear more from those in TRITW about
> what theory and skills our IT kids need.  I suspect the panel pondering
> the new study design would be equally delighted.  I know they consult
> TRITW people already.
>
> Frankly, I don't care what the details of the dictated theory is.  I
> just trust that it is industry-relevant, and of practical use to the
> kids we indoctrinate and send off with a packed lunch into the arms of
> TRITW.
>
> I just dread my Previous Year's Top Kid being laughed at on his/her
> first day for  believing in his/her IPM received wisdom.
>
> Phew.  I feel better now!
>
> Mark
>
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Mike Brookes" <mikeb at labyrinth.net.au>
> > To: "Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management Teachers'
> > Mailing List" <ipm at edulists.com.au>
> > Sent: Friday, June 17, 2005 5:02 PM
> > Subject: Re: [Year 12 IPM] OT: Unit 2 IT study design
> >
> >
> >
> >>Addendum
> >>
> >>After a few more seconds reflection I think that people free scanners /
> >>e-tag readers might be considered as both aquisition and input devices.
> >>reading and converting to binary the etag/barcode data would be
> >>aquisition and sending the binary data to the computer would be input.
> >>
> >>Mike Brookes
> >>
>
> --
> Mark Kelly
> Manager - Information Systems
> McKinnon Secondary College
> McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria Australia
> Phone +613 95780844  Fax +613 95789253
> http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au
> IPM Lecture notes: http://vceit.com
> IPM Mailing List Evil Moderator
>
> I'm not Catholic, but I gave up picking my belly button for Lint.
>
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