[Year 12 IPM] ITA ("IPM 2007") summary

Mon Mar 6 09:30:26 EST 2006

Hear hear Andrew!  thanks for putting the point of view of "non experts" . 

Speaking for myself, I am an old "typing and shorthand teacher" who got sucked into IPM when no one else wanted to take it.  I have no computer training, other than what I did at teacher's college (which was over 25 years ago).  When I came back to teaching in '93 (after 6 years family leave) my typewriters had been replaced with computers.  I didn't even know how the right way to put a floppy disk into the drive.  Just about all my computer knowledge has been self taught since then, as I am in the government system and you know how much training they provide!

Computers are not my passion, however I feel that I have done a pretty good job over the past ten years.  Every year I have had at least 1 student get a 40+ and last year there were 4.  I often tell my students that they may know more about computers, but I know more about the course.  

My point is, any new course needs to cater for a diverse range of students, teachers and resources.   We shouldn't be writing courses that are only going to appeal to the "geeks" because we will lose half our students. And unless the Department is going to provide some decent training, at little or no cost to schools, I don't believe its fair on teachers to start prescribing new/cutting edge software.   Multimedia is probably "sexier" but databases and spreadsheets, (although they may be "boring" to some), are still used extensively in business.  Finally, the prescribed software shouldn't require vast amounts of money (which most schools don't have) to pay for site licences.   At our school we only have Photoshop on the 10 Art pod computers due to the high costs involved.    I guess thats one of the joys of teaching in the state system.

I think the writers of the new course have done a pretty good job in trying to balance all of the above factors.  However, I will have to go and learn how to use Visual Basic before next year!  (which in my opinion, should have stayed in the Systems course)

Janet Bane
Patterson River SC.

________________________________

From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au on behalf of Andrew Shortell
Sent: Fri 03-Mar-06 2:23 PM
To: Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management Teachers'MailingList
Subject: RE: [Year 12 IPM] ITA ("IPM 2007") summary

Hi
Having been one of the people involved in writing the previous study
design (the one brought in for 2000) I believe that the task is
incredibly large. There are so many conflicting "wants" and so much care
is needed to make it rigorous, do-able and respected by Uni and industry
representatives.
The final product is meant to please as many as w e can while still
making the subject reasonable for teachers without the need for
significant upskilling. Remember that there are many teachers of IT who
are not perhaps as skilled as say Mark or Keith or Kevork; who have
never been network administrators; never run a CISCO course; not
lectured at uni to 3rd or 4th year programming; not worked in the
business world (or even done the TRIP from yrs ago in the state system);
or lots of other things. For example I have never done a CISCO course. I
came into teaching later in life and so have some appreciation of
working in the business environment, working in a collaborative
environment (and also in a non-team workplace) etc.

Specific criticisms of the study design and suggestions of how to
address these 'problems' and how to cope as teachers are always very
helpful. The study design is now published. If you feel that badly about
it then perhaps you could prewrite parts of the next one and send it to
Paula and the rest of the panel. Perhaps put it up on the edulist site.
Become a text book author and add your ideas to the book to excite the
students and so demonstrate the value of what you want.

And if none of these work - then take a tree / sea change and relax a
little.  After all, what we are teaching in IT will be utterly old in
five to ten years. This subject is not like maths - when I teach maths I
teach much the same stuff that I learnt when I was at school. (When I
got a calculator I was not allowed to use it at school because the
teachers did not understand how it worked - computers - make me laugh- I
met mainframes at uni)

Seriously :  Be constructive  HELP your fellow teachers to cope. This
list is really great at helping teachers, let us keep it that way.

Andrew Shortell
Braemar College

-----Original Message-----
From: ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au [mailto:ipm-bounces at edulists.com.au]
On Behalf Of Adrian Janson
Sent: Friday, 3 March 2006 1:36 PM
To: 'Year 12 Information Technology Processing and Management
Teachers'Mailing List'
Subject: RE: [Year 12 IPM] ITA ("IPM 2007") summary

Hi all,

As one of the "eggheads" I feel that I need to respond to this thread.
I do
not live in the "dark ages".  Personally, I take offense at some of the
terms that have been used.  We all have the right to express our
opinions as
professionals, however I feel that those making derogatory remarks need
to
temper them into constructive criticisms rather than "sledges" or
referring
to the study design as "crud".  It would certainly be possible for
someone
to take the study design and create tasks for the students to complete
that
would be "crud".  It is a STUDY DESIGN - and it is now our brief to
create
tasks and material for our students to inspire and excite them, which we
should all be aiming to do.  

Firstly, the process of writing the new study design was a long and
exhaustive one.  I, for one, felt privileged to have been selected to be
on
the advisory panel.  Those of us on the panel debated long about how to
make
the study design appealing and relevant - and I for one, feel that we
have
succeeded in that aim.  Databases are a CORE element of IT and their use
in
industry is widespread.  I don't think any one of us could dispute that.

When writing a course from the ground up - and this IS what we did, it
is
important to consider those elements that are core elements of our
discipline.  We have included these - and more.  The VET courses provide
a
very different experience for students, and we did not want to replicate
that.  The study design affords a wide range of applications and tasks
to be
completed - and it is up to us to write coursework to fit into our
schools
and tailored for our particular students.  I for one, will gladly post
my
tasks to the list and as I often do, I would encourage others to do the
same. 

During the writing process, a large number of industry experts,
organisations and focus groups were consulted - and their feedback was
addressed to a point.

........  Think I might stop now and take a walk outside. 

Any more personal sledges - perhaps respond to my email off the list.

Adrian Janson
Melbourne High School

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IPM Mailing List kindly supported by
http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and
http://www.vitta.org.au  - VITTA Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association Inc

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