[Year 12 SofDev] Fwd: The draft study design is on the table!

Tue May 13 18:32:37 EST 2014

Hello Mark and others

Amongst all the hysteria there are a couple of 'facts' that need correcting.

First, the decline in IPM/ITA has been occuring since about 2000, when it reached numbers totalling about 30% of the English cohort that year. (This is also the time SD peaked). The reason for the steady drop in enrollments since then is complex, not just because DB is part of the mix.

It could be argued that the numbers in 2000 were 'unnaturally' high: in the early to mid-90s parents were keen on their student gaining some expertise in the use of this new-ish technology; at the same time school still tended to have better equipment and software than was available at home and the internet was still in its infancy for many people, which together meant that students were not saturated with computers; VCAA had a rule that said students must do a science/tech subject and all those students not particularly interested in a 'hard' science chose either Psychology or IPM.  It was also the case that some tertiary courses would give credit for VCE IT.

Hence a 'boom', which, once computers and the internet became common place, and once it became accepted wisdom that 21st century children were 'digital natives' and didn't need to learn about computers (and that has largely been accepted by parents, students and the educational establishment), it was ineveitable that numbers would decline. Then, take away the rule that a technology is a 'must' and take away any support from the tertiary level and you remove any real reason for doing IT for a lot of students.

With all the social pressures, rules and incentives removed, IT enrollment has fallen to a more 'natural' level for a 'technology' subject. That's not to say it cannot go up, but I would suggest it's a fantasy to suggest we could ever get back to the 2000 numbers.

Second, as Maggie has pointed out DBs have not taken over the study. If the SAT is interpreted as 'DB only' then some serious expanding of thought and imagination has to occur. Judy is spot on with the idea of it being an opportunity to build on the data visualisation idea. And I don't want to trivialise the transition to a SAT model: we will have to learn a lot, including how to manage a class wherein many different types of software could be going at once.

Third, the characterisation of Informatics as 'an ultrageeknerd study, chockablock with pure database science'  and 'A rigorous, intellectually-demanding, highly academic investigation of esoteric theory that tertiary graduates require for a career in a narrow corner of the IT industry' and 'fancy further specialist studies' is a mis-representation that I think misses the point. As already noted DB does not dominate, but, more importantly, data manipulation does, and that is what IT should be about.

Anecdotally, students who can manipulate data via the use of IT are much better able to deal with those demands at a tertiary level, whether it be Bus Man or a Science - yes, it does help teritary students, but not just the geeky computer nerdy types. 

And I would suggest that, like Maths, VCE Informatics can be seen (and marketted) as an 'enabling' discipline because of its emphasis on data manipulation. So, even those who go straight into the work force have something to sell (at least to the right kind of job - and that kind of job is increasing). The proposed SAT should take students though a complete cycle from go (data collection and validation) to whoa (information product), and that product will be real and the result of a substantial amount of work. This has got to be a worthwhile and saleable experience. Far from making the subject even more 'specialist' the SAT frees it up in comparison to the current study design.

Regards
Robert T-A

----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mark 
  To: Year 11 Information Technology Teachers' Mailing List ; Year 12 Software Development Teachers' Mailing List ; Year 12 IT Applications Teachers' Mailing List 
  Sent: Monday, May 12, 2014 4:20 PM
  Subject: [Year 12 SofDev] Fwd: The draft study design is on the table!

  Psst. Hey, you. Yes, you. The IT teacher. 
  But mainly you - the ITA teacher.

  Remember that feedback on the draft IT study design stops on 17 May. See below for quick links.

  Five days to go. 

  If you teach ITA and you love the idea of teaching databases for most of the year in Informatics, you need do nothing.

  But here's a hypothesis...

  - If you do nothing you won't end up teaching databases for most of the year. Yay! What?

  - This is because when students hear that 'Informatics' == 'Databases', none of them will enrol for it.
  - You will be teaching Woodwork. Or two Year 9 Health classes instead.

  Of course, that's just a hypothesis. But sharpen your chisels and unwrap your condoms - just in case.

  We know that IT Applications enrolments have been trending down for the past 5 years. 
  And I'd suggest this largely because databases have been mandated for the past 5 years in ITA.
  And the new Informatics course wants to compound the injury by increasing the database component. 

  Dammit, people. We've always had an understanding:
  - Software Development has always been for the unashamed IT lover who would watch "The Big Bang Theory" and laugh at the quantum physics jokes.I know I do.
  - ITA (formerly IPM - Information Processing and Management) was for - let's be honest - the students who liked using computers but couldn't get into Media Studies. It was a fun, easy subject with low skill expectations on arrival, and a useful skill set on graduation.  It was marked down as a VCE study, but everyone knew that and accepted that. It was understood.

  The draft study design seems to want to make ITA an ultrageeknerd study, chockablock with pure database science...the sort of study that would not be "marked down" and would stand proudly against a "real science" like physics or chemistry.

  But is that what Informatics is supposed to be? A rigorous, intellectually-demanding, highly academic investigation of esoteric theory that tertiary graduates require for a career in a narrow corner of the IT industry? If so, it destroys the attraction of a subject for general ICT skill development. 

  VCE Maths has all sorts of streams for students who (1) want to get through year 12  and (2) want to become a maths/science professional.
  Why can't VCE IT do the same, as it has always done? 

  Let's retain a unit 3/4 IT subject for those who couldn't give a flying fuschia for fancy further specialist studies. How many students would choose VCE Biology units 3 and 4 if three of the four outcomes were on cellular slime mould, and the other one was on everything else?

  These lists have been a whistling desert breeze, a lonely rolling tumbleweed of discussion on the crucial issue of this draft IT study design.

  - Are people passionately in favour of increased database content in ITA and are silent in anticipation of its arrival? (Yay! More databases!)
  - Are people writing passionate feedback in defence or defiance of the draft to the VCAA survey, and are silent here?
  - Are people just passively waiting to be fed whatever VCAA pushes into their cages, and quietly grumble "I don't like that much" for the next 5 years?

  Your only chance is now. 
  And you have only five days.

  If you have an opinion express it here on the Edulist forums as well as on the VCAA survey site. 
  You might inspire others to think and respond.

  But I don't have to worry. 
  - I have the beach, red wine, and a thousand fine (and bad) old movies to amuse me during periods 3 and 4 on a Tuesday. 
  - You will have year 12 Informatics with yet another database outcome coming up, and the kids still don't really understand how 2NF differs from 3NF even after your eleven prior attempts to explain it, even with your hand puppets.

  So, if you teach VCE IT...

  Read the draft - http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/infotech/ComputingSD-consultation-draft.pdf

  Read the Summary of changes - http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/Documents/vce/infotech/VCE_InfoTech_summary_changes.doc

  But for Dog's sake, whether you agree with me or not, go here and say something -  http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/CRDVJ25

  Otherwise, you know what the next 5 years will be like for you: Countersinks. Chlamydia...

  -- 

  Mark Kelly (amateur troublemaker)

  mark AT vceit DOT com
  http://vceit.com

  Everything new draft study design is a chance to make the VCE world a better place. - Mark Kelly

  -- 

  Mark Kelly
  mark AT vceit DOT com
  http://vceit.com

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  _______________________________________________
  http://www.edulists.com.au - FAQ, Subscribe, Unsubscribe
  IT Software Development Mailing List kindly supported by
  http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au - Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority and
  http://www.vcaa.vic.edu.au/vce/studies/infotech/softwaredevel3-4.html 
  http://www.vitta.org.au  - VITTA Victorian Information Technology Teachers Association Inc
  http://www.swinburne.edu.au/ict/schools - Swinburne University
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.edulists.com.au/pipermail/sofdev/attachments/20140513/8bf4580a/attachment.html 