[Year 12 IT Apps] IT APPS timeline & Unit 1-2 timeline

Wed Feb 14 10:44:16 EST 2007

Hi all,
Has anyone got a timeline for ITA they would be willing to share as my students have had an interrupted start and I am a little unsure about when to do the outcomes with them. I am considering roughly about week 7-8 for OC1 term 1 and similar for OC2 in term 2. We are using the Nelson book and I have similar thoughts to other listers about the material missing from the site that we were expecting to be on there at the commencement of the year(missing links,sample exams etc.)
Anyone willing to share a Unit 1-2 timeline similarly would be welcomed.
We dont have a programming stream here(yet!) but can access gamemaker6 and VB(not the beer).
Am considering streaming some kids towards the programming to engage them in an area of their interest.

Have just come back to IT teaching after 3 years in my other disguise as a Maths teacher(not Yr12) so I'm a bit rusty.

Also tried the VITTA site but dont have a current membership and thus cant download some of the terrific stuff available there presently. Will check with the boss about school membership.

Any thoughts welcome folks...

Kent Beveridge (IT years 8-12)
St.Brigids Catholic SC, Horsham

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________________________________

From: itapps-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Charmaine Taylor
Sent: Tue 13/02/2007 12:11 AM
To: Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List
Subject: Re: [Year 12 IT Apps] Potts Ch 3 and Study Design

I mix it up but mostly fit the theory in with the practice eg my recent classes
Databases - purposes, structure, design tools
- given a design, create a flat file database (this is intro task. Will move on to relational next week)
-  discuss fields: field names (conventions), field sizes (limit storage space), data types (standard & MS Access)
- create a report: sorted by, selected fields
- report conventions re format and layout
.......
This approach suits my students who panic if given lots of notes in one go.
Cheers,
Charmaine Taylor
Sunbury Downs College

Keith Richardson wrote:

	The approach I use (in covering the plethora of stuff to be memorized)
	is I DO NOT TEACH IT.
	How do I justify that? There is simply too much and lecturing almost all
	of the time switches the kids off (IMHO).
	Solution - my kids have to make summaries of the chapters (one per
	fortnight) plus some scenarios and sample questions. Reward - they are
	allowed to take their own summaries into each sac.
	So what do I do with class time? Plenty of practical - let them keep
	their hands on computers much of the time. Plenty of short sharp
	discussions to whet the appetite/enthusiasm, answer some questions they
	might have about what they are reading for homework (emphasizing that
	the teacher is only one of many resources available to aid learning).
	I have a number of videos such as the study of the info system used in
	Big W - this provides a wonderful opportunity for them to identify some
	of the stuff they are learning as they summarize.
	I am not saying mine is the best approach, just that it seems to work OK
	for me.
	Cheers, Keith

	On Mon, 12 Feb 2007 14:35:35 +1100, "Mark Kelly"
	<kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au> <mailto:kel at mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au>  said:

		Russell Edwards wrote:

			Hello list,

		Hello Russell.

			I just finished my last set of powerpoint slides for Ch 3 of Potts.

			I have a few questions; please excuse the naive ones as I am new to 
			teaching.

			Firstly, I did not expect to be giving lecture-style presentations to 
			secondary students, but in ITA there seems to be so much guff they're 
			expected to memorise with no real practical activity possible to cement 
			it, that lecturing and encouraging revision seems the only way to go. I 
			have been doing 20 mins of theory at the start of each double and then 
			have them go on with practical work (at present, Dreamweaver). Do others 
			follow a similar format for ITA? (The 20 mins looks to be too little 
			actually)

		That's why my site is called "IT Lecture Notes" - exploratory learning 
		can be great but it chews up classtime.  The 'Lecture Tolerance Limit' 
		of your kids can vary from year to year, but I mix lectures with 
		practice whenever I can.

			Secondly, a few things in the book seem outdated. I'm no network 
			engineer, but it's my understanding that hubs and token ring networks 
			are a thing of the ancient past. Yet, both receive a fair bit of 
			coverage in the Potts book, especially hubs. Likewise, you'd be pretty 
			hard pressed to find anyone still using 10BASE2 these days.

		It's funny how conservative IT folk can be.  Yes - hubs and coaxial are 
		history; so, effectively, are bridges and repeaters.  Token Ring is a 
		rare oddity.

		To save time, I just teach CAT6, switches and Ethernet and basically 
		ignore coax, hubs and Token Ring.  Be wary with ITA - the depth of 
		networking knowledge is way less than it was in IPM: no topologies or 
		protocols are needed now.  The most technical stuff remaining is cables 
		and wireless.

			Thirdly and related, how can I tell *specifically* what things students 
			will need to know for the exam? (Will hubs and token ring nets be in 
			it?) The study design mentions switches and not hubs in the glossary 
			under network architecture, and bus, star and hybrid, not ring, under 
			network topologies. Does that mean they're guaranteed not to be on the 
			exam? It seems fairly tricky for teachers and students with a brand new 
			study design and no past exams to go by.

		If a key knowledge dotpoint or the glossary says "including X,Y and Z" 
		it means that X,Y and Z are examinable.
		If it says "for example", it is just an example to clarify what is 
		intended by a point.

		No topologies are listed in U3O2 key knowledge so could not be justified 
		as examinable.  Topologies and protocols belong in Software Development
		now.

			Fourthly, the approach taken to network communications standards and 
			transmission media both in Potts and in the study design seems a bit of 
			a dog's breakfast, i.e. there is no concept of layers. Readers won't 
			know that IP runs on top of a data link layer protocol like the data 
			layers of ethernet or 802.11, that TCP runs on top of IP and so does 
			UDP, etc etc. I can't see how they're supposed to know what the random 
			bits and pieces they are exposed to are for and how they fit together if 
			they're not given the big picture.

		Fear not.  Such complexities are irrelevant for ITA.

			Is that a fair comment? So, in my slides I am presenting the TCP/IP 
			five-layer network model: physical, data, network, transport, 
			application. I will then go on and cover all the bits mentioned in the 
			book plus a few more examples for clarity, but all in the context of the 
			layers. Students will be told that they only need to know what's in the 
			book but that the five-layer model is a good way to learn it.

		None of that is needed for IPM.  Just stick to the study design.  Don't 
		overcomplicate things: IPM students are FAR from technical geniuses  :-)

			Thanks in advance for any input I can get

			Russell Edwards
			Whittlesea Secondary College

		-- 
		Mark Kelly
		Manager - Information Systems
		McKinnon Secondary College
		McKinnon Rd McKinnon 3204, Victoria, Australia
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	Elsternwick
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