[Year 12 IT Apps] REVIEW OF VCE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY, SUMMARY OF PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE STUDY DESIGN

[Donna Benjamin]

On Wed, 2009-08-19 at 12:24 +1000, margaret.lawson at konstantkaos.net
wrote:
> The number of times I have heard kids say "I'm not doing IT
> because it doesn't count towards anything" ... it saddens me.

Not to mention the smart kids will have figured out that unless they're
destined to get 50 in the course, their enter score will suffer as a
result of choosing this subject.

> IT will never have the enrolments to match English or some of the
> other trendy subjects (like psychology). But it would be great if it
> could stand on it's own two feet as a discipline rather than a subject
> that panders to the needs of an ICT committee. I think that more of an
> emphasis on databases might do this.

Yes - databases are a fundamental concept in Information and
Communications Technology.

My concern with VCE IT is it seems focussed on 'using' IT, rather than
'creating' it. Software Development is a bit different - and I'd be
interested to read a similar discussion in relation to the revised SD
course.

I am often confronted by computer users of all sorts who lack basic
understanding of fundamental concepts about how technology stuff works.
How it's put together, what are reasonable expectations of what it can
and can not do.

Please tell me otherwise - but I'm getting the impression that some here
to seem think that learning to 'use' word processors, presentation
applications, photo editing, drawing and multimedia tools is 'learning
IT' It's not. Sure, they are IT tools, but surely they are tools for
expressing concepts in every discipline. Where is the Discipline of IT
itself? [mmm dejavu]

Programming - Comparative languages?
Go Beyond VB.Net and point and click IDEs, look at web APIs, create an
iphone app, desktop widgets, google gadgets...

Comparative applications (rather than learn how to do dot points and a
create templates in MS Word, why not learn how to do it in 3 different
word processors, look at file formats and interoperability issues, what
are the gotchas when moving files between different operating systems.

Networking - build a wireless network - protect it. What's the advantage
to using wires these days?

What about a unit on malware and spyware?

What about putting together a computer from parts?

What about a focus on the 'communication' technologies... take instant
messaging - so many different applications there, how can a single
application like pidgin connect to all of them? protocols - networks -
mobile devices.

What about 'cloud computing'? Web based applications, google docs,
moodle... how about creating websites using 'frameworks' rather than
dream weaver... create a template for a content management system.

What about convergence of phones / netbooks - the vodaphone/dell offer
that of a netbook with a built in 3G modem...

Margaret and I have been having this dialogue for over 10 years

cheers
Donna
-- 
Donna Benjamin - Executive Director
Creative Contingencies - http://cc.com.au
ph +61 3 9326 9985 - mob +61 418 310 414
open source - facilitation - web services