Technological Knowledge and Skills documents

Today the Ministry of Education and DTEP released a joint statement committing to the future direction of ICT education in schools.

This announcement marks the most significant change to ICT education in schools in 15 years.

From the techlink site: officially

Future Subjects of Technology

The Ministry of Education has been exploring the place of technological knowledge and skills within the learning area of Technology. This project seeks to identify what might become the 'future subjects' of technology to support coherent learning programmes for students; and, in this context, develop technological knowledge and skills to support programmes in senior secondary technology through the provision of:

Context specific knowledge and skill achievement standards for technology; and

Technology Teaching and Learning Guides.

Future Subjects of Technology (PDF download, 271Kb)

Digital Technologies Expert Panel

The Ministry of Education and the Digital Technologies Expert Panel (DTEP) are pleased to jointly announce the high-level outcomes of the work of the DTEP.

Outcomes from Digital Technologies Expert Panel / Ministry of Education Process (PDF download, 159Kb)

Press Release: Future Direction Of ICT Education In Secondary SchoolsPDF download, 5Kb)

Now for the other stuff,

anyone else look at this as being one of the biggest croc of s**t around.

Lets look at the recommendations from the DTEp about removing ICT from Technology, oh look its now back in Technology, you can tell that that is a Ministry thing, heaven forbid they don't want to admit that they f**ked up. Instead we are going to have to live with this for the rest of our lives.

Professional Development, this is going to be a big one. The majority of ICT teachers in New Zealand are not trained ICT teachers. Yeap, they are teachers that have had an interest in computing, know how to use a few software applications, have been forced to teach ICT because they have a gap in their timetable. There are but a minority that have ICT degrees in the subject. Training for these teachers is going to be interesting. I am waiting for the part from the Ministry that is like the G3 debate from years ago, we are going to have to sit a qualification to say that we are capable of teaching the subject. Who is going to create this test, some busy body at the Ministry of Education who isn't an ICT teacher themselves and doesn't have any qualifications in ICT, hmm I feel like this is deja vu, wasn't this how we got Technology Achievement Standards in the first place, they we by a Physicial Education Teacher.

Let the rant stop, and being the last day of the term, have a break for two weeks. Yeah right (I am a fan of the tui ads)

Scratch challenges

One of the things I have to do is to develop some more resources for scratch, I plan on using this with my junior classes

The way I have introduced scratch this year to students (years 10 and 11 in my case, but it might work with younger students as well) has been to:

• first ask them to complete the scratch cards provided at the Scratch MIT site
• then to complete the following challenges

SCRATCH CHALLENGES

1) Make 2 different balls move around on the stage
a) the first ball moves in straight lines but bounces randomly whenever it hits the edge
b) the second moves randomly, changing direction all the time

2a) One sprite chases another sprite around the stage. The first sprite moves in straight line but bounces off the edge randomly. The chasing sprite chases the first sprite but is moving slower.
b) Extension – if the chasing sprite catches the other sprite then it says something sensible and makes a suitable sound

3) Use the Letter shapes to write your first name on the page. Then introduce some special effects such as making the letters wobble and change their appearance.

4) Point, click and move
Make an object both point and glide towards the mouse position when you click on the stage
Hint: Motion > point towards
Hint: Sensing > mouse down?

5) Make two animals have a forwards and backwards conversation
Hint: Use broadcast

6a) Play all the different drum sounds automatically
Hint: create a variable for the drum number
b) Extension – keep recycling through all the drum sounds automatically

7) Make Dan or Anjuli or Cassy dance to a beat, using all of their dance shapes

8) Make a sprite gradually grow in size and then shrink
Hint: make a size variable

9) Count down on a timer. A rocket takes off when you reach zero
Hint: Use the number icons in the letters folder

10) Add, multiply or subtract two variable numbers
Hint: Just to do addition only you will need 4 variables: firstNum, secondNum, answer (computer calculated) and myAnswer (human calculated)


In thinking about how to optimise, improve and extend this whole process I re-read some of my earlier posts about Scratch. This one is important in thinking about what the teacher ought to be doing beyond building skills:

playing with the kindergarten metaphor

imagine -> create -> play -> share -> reflect and then iterate again ...

Learning to share is harder than learning to ride a bicycle or write a computer program - but more important ...

Minsky quote: Logo has a great grammar but not much literature

It's important to explicitly promote reflection

I also expect that I will be using the excellent project ideas developed by a Mr. Michaud at Nebo Elementary School as a next step in a progression.

Rose review: ICT could replace Science in primary curricu

The Rose review recommends ICT replaces it from September 2011

Science should be dropped as one of the tested core primary subjects to be replaced by ICT, according to a government-sponsored report recommending changes to the curriculum from 2011.

Sir Jim Rose, who carried out the independent review for the Government, has suggested “literacy, numeracy and ICT should form the new core” and should be assessed.

Science has been a core subject of the national curriculum since 1989, while ICT did not even become an official curriculum subject until 1995. The key stage tests in the core subjects of English, maths and science were introduced in the mid-1990s. Science is the subject in which 11-year- olds have done best: 88 per cent reached level 4 last year compared to 81 per cent in English and 79 per cent in maths.

But with no national targets, it has never been as politically sensitive as the English and maths tests.

The key stage 2 science Sats may still be retained as the Government was expected to leave that decision in the hands of the “expert group” examining assessments, which includes Sir Jim.

The National Association of Head Teachers is due to vote this weekend over whether it will join the NUT in balloting for a boycott of the tests next year.

Under Sir Jim’s proposals, science will continue to be key to the curriculum. It will be included in “scientific and technical understanding”, one of six broad areas of learning (see panel, below) designed to encourage more cross-curricular teaching and smooth the transition between early years and secondary. But Sir Jim stressed that this would not mean scrapping traditional subjects. “Subjects remain as recognisable, powerful organisers of worthwhile curriculum content in the areas of learning,” his report said.

Sir Jim has not budged from his recommendation in the interim report that all children begin reception in the September after they turn four, which is the case in most authorities, but is not supported by the Government’s early years advisers. The final report nods towards widespread concern saying that parents’ views should be taken into account and part-time attendance allowed.

Sir Jim was also asked to review two of the 69 early learning goals for five-year-olds: that children begin to write simple sentences and use their phonic knowledge to attempt complex words.

The emphasis on ICT has been welcomed by Becta, the government agency for technology in learning. Stephen Crowne, its chief executive, said: “Without an appropriate emphasis on technology from an early age there is the risk of a digital underclass developing.”

The Government will now decide which recommendations to take forward, then the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority will carry out a formal 12- week consultation. The new curriculum would then be sent to schools at the end of this year, giving teachers and heads about five terms to prepare for its implementation in 2011.

Before any major changes are adopted, a general election must take place and the Conservatives have made it clear they will abandon the Rose review if they win.

Sir Jim’s six areas of learning

Understanding English, communication and languages
Mathematical understanding
Scientific and technological understanding
Historical, geographical and social understanding*
Understanding physical development, health and wellbeing*
Understanding the arts*
* Changed since the interim report.

http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=6012613

ICT teaching model near to public release

ICT teaching model near to public release
Detail to be released after minister is briefed
By Stephen Bell Auckland | Friday, 1 May, 2009

Collaboration between the teaching profession, the Ministry of Education and the NZ Computer Society has produced a “model and framework” for putting computer-related education in schools on a more relevant footing.
By agreement between the parties the detail of the new structure is not being released “until they have been formalised and the minister briefed”, says NZCS CEO Paul Matthews.

However, he believes they “finally lead to resolution of many of the problems outlined in the NZCS Report and since”.

The report he refers to, published last year, identified substantial shortcomings in the ICT-related material being offered in schools and particularly a lack of relevant and workable NCEA achievement standards in the subject (Computerworld, June 2, 2008).

It was written by Gordon Grimsey from the Auckland University of Technology and teacher Margot Phillipps, and edited and reviewed by a team of 13 senior academics and ICT professionals from around New Zealand.

“We’re happy also to report that a new Computing Subject Association has been established,” Matthews says.

“NZCS, along with PPTA, pushed for the formation of this group and ICT teacher Vilna Gough-Jones, from Burnside High School in Christchurch, and others carried this through and formed the association.”

A Subject Association is formed by a group of teachers of a specific subject, to look after the professional development of teachers and curriculum development.

“It’s excellent to see one finally in place for computing teachers,” Matthews says.

“NZCS already has a strong relationship with this group and are looking at how we can continue to support their work further.”

http://computerworld.co.nz/news.nsf/care/35F15B7628A17764CC2575A8007226D3

Useful Web links for Computer Science/IT/Computing/ICT/Programming teachers

I have found a number of these websites useful for developing some programmes that have been useful in teaching students programming and included in these are some fun innovative projects.
If anyone has any other useful websites they use for encouraging students to get into IT I would love to hear about them!

K-12 Faculty Community Site http://www.microsoft.com/education/FacultyConnection/precollegiate
A source for curriculum resources, teacher forums, and program announcements

Programming Languages for Beginners

• Alice – http://www.alice.org/ – A 3-dimensional, drag and drop programming language from Carnegie Mellon University
• Kodu - http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/projects/kodu/ A graphical programming tool for younger students. (Not available for public release yet!)
• Scratch – http://scratch.mit.edu/ – a light weight 2-dimensional, drag and drop programming language from MIT, for learning resources visit http://learnscratch.org/
• Small Basic - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950524.aspx Small Basic is a project that's aimed at bringing "fun" back to programming. By providing a small and easy to learn programming language in a friendly and inviting development environment, Small Basic makes programming a breeze. Ideal for kids and adults alike, Small Basic helps beginners take the first step into the wonderful world of programming.
• Microsoft Popfly - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/devlabs/cc950523.aspx Popfly includes a simple way to create and share games with your friends. Choose from a variety of built-in templates or start from scratch to create a side scrolling game, a 2D shoot-em-up, or a host of others. And best of all, you can get started without writing a line of code. You can also build mashups. Mashups are a kind of application that take information from many places and mix it together.

MSDN Academic Alliance http://www.msdnaa.net/
A Microsoft program for schools to get Microsoft Development software for labs, teachers, and students - costs attached

DreamSpark for High schools https://www.dreamspark.com/HighSchool/Default.aspx
DreamSpark High School provides professional-level development and design tools to students enrolled in an accredited, secondary educational institution at no charge.

XNA Game Studio Express http://msdn.microsoft.com/xna
Software for developing games for Windows, the Zune and the XBOX 360. Also links to the XNA community with sample code, tutorials and support forums.

Visual Studio Express Editions http://msdn.microsoft.com/Express
Free development tools (IDEs) for Visual Basic, Visual C++, Visual C# and Visual Web Developer

Beginner Developer Learning Center http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/beginner/bb308754.aspx
A web site for people of all ages who want to learn programming and web development. Tutorials, videos, projects and web casts

Microsoft Robotics Studio http://msdn.microsoft.com/robotics
Visual Programming Language for robots, runtime libraries for higher level programming, a 3-dimensional robot simulator with sample simulations, tutorials, and videos

Coding 4 Fun http://blogs.msdn.com/Coding4Fun
A web site for hobbyists and computer tinkerers - sample projects and information for doing fun and interesting thing with programming; often combined with interesting or unusual hardware

CSUnplugged http://www.csunplugged.com/
Computer Science Unplugged is a series of learning activities that reveals a little-known secret: computer science isn't really about computers at all!

Privacy
Also I know that we are back at school now, but 28 Janurary was Data Privacy Day 2009

January 28th, 2009 is the second annual Data Privacy Day. Intel has a great information page about this day and includes this explanation:

Designed to raise awareness and generate discussion about data privacy practices and rights, Data Privacy Day activities in the United States have included privacy professionals, corporations, government officials, and representatives, academics, and students across the country.

One of the primary goals of Data Privacy Day is to promote privacy awareness and education among teens across the United States. Data Privacy Day also serves the important purpose of furthering international collaboration and cooperation around privacy issues.

At the Intel Data Privacy Day page you will find educational resources that you may find useful in class. Items include:

• Teen privacy online (ZIP 2.69MB)
• Teen privacy online script (PDF 159KB)
• Teen privacy online sources and resources (PDF 32KB)
• Teen privacy online highlights (PDF 124KB)
• Privacy Today slide presentation (ZIP 39.3MB) and manual (PDF 522KB)
• Secure your computer to protect your privacy presentation (ZIP 594KB) and speaker notes (PDF 319KB)

Fun Stuff

Ok, now some fun stuff, got a webcam, now you can have your own Microsoft Surface,

One of the hottest new technologies in computer interfaces is Microsoft Surface which uses multi-touch to allow several items (like hands for example) to control things happening in software. The hardware for this is a bit expensive. OK it's a lot expensive. Microsoft recently released some software as an open source project that makes this technology a lot easier and less expensive to try out. It requires a webcam to use and the following Touchless SDK video shows what it is about.

http://www.codeplex.com/touchless/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=17986

And something for you Mythbusters fans out there, what is the difference between a CPU and a GPU?

Well there is cost for one thing. And prep time for another. Oh wait, you don't know what I'm talking about. Let me back up. Apparently at some sort of event the NVidia people wanted to show the difference between how a CPU works and a GPU (graphic processor) works. They also had an interest in entertaining people so obviously they hired the people from the TV show Mythbusters to create the demo. You can see the demo here. Now if you know the show at all you probably know that they are big fans of robots and of shooting things – all sorts of things with all sorts of shooting apparatus. Yep, there is some of that here.

Cybersafety, curriculum matrix released

Netsafe have released a matrix of what they would like to develop as an education curriculum to help educate students on the the safety of the internet.

It does however appear that netsafe website is unavailable at 11:20pm
however through google and the use of the View as HTML I can copy and write

Attached is a draft release of the NetSafe Cyber Citizenship Education Matrix. The purpose of this document will be to provide teachers and schools with a framework for developing good cybercitizens. It is intended that the document will be referred to when planning for the integration of cybersafety into school curriculum delivery.

A good cybercitizen is a person who uses ICT confidently, safely and responsibly to participate and collaborate online.

As NetSafe publishes our own cybersafety learning material, or becomes aware of other cybersafety material available, we plan to provide advice as to how such resources could be used to promote the competencies outlined in the Cyber citizenship Matrix.

The Matrix is a fairly high level document and at first glance may not seem to provide too much specific advice on the skills required by modern cybercitizens. This is intentional as the document is intended to allow cybersafety education to be integrated throughout the official New Zealand Curriculum, while also allowing educators scope to focus on particular areas of interest or relevance. It is also necessary to future proof the framework as much as practicable and not therefore become bogged down with specific technologies. As the technologies and the issues that cybercitizens face come and go, schools and educators will be able to flesh out the matrix with more specific and relevant learning objectives.

The layout of the document will be recognisable to anyone who is familiar with New Zealand curriculum statements. Down the left are the three ‘Attributes’ (or strands) as referred to in the definition of a good cybercitizen. Across the top are a sequence of year levels beginning with early childhood education, and moving through to year 13.

Unlike the New Zealand Curriculum which is arranged in levels and recognises that students in the same class may be performing at different levels, the cyber citizenship matrix is divided into distinct year bands. This is because the matrix is intended as much to provide a framework for linking in cybersafety learning materials from around the country and around the globe, as it is to provide a suggested learning progression.

Once complete, the document will be published on the NetSafe website.

NetSafe would like your feedback on any aspect of the NetSafe Cyber citizenship Education Matrix (including the title). Some suggested areas you might like to comment on may include:
• The attributes
• The breakdown of the bands
• The progression within each attribute in terms of developmental appropriateness
• How the language could or should help link through to the key competencies as outlined in the New Zealand Curriculum
• The overall complexity or simplicity of the document
• The practicality of providing such a framework
• The perceived usefulness for educators…

Ideally I would like to gather all feedback by 31 October

I thank you in advance for any time at all you may be able to spend providing feedback. Your feedback is valuable. Please email it to: richardb@netsafe.org.nz

There are three sections
Confident - Understand the impacts and potential of use for individuals and society.
Safe - Apply sound cybersafety strategies which promote personal safety
Responsible - Understand, follow and promote cybersafety guidelines which support community safety and wellbeing

There are two sections for secondary schools, Year 9-10 and 11-13, these will have some comment on tomorrow after I get some sleep and my laptop's battery gets charged.

Right to carry on,

Year 9-10
Confident - Investigate and compare how cyber-technologies are used by individuals, groups or organisation to achieve various objectives both positive and negative.
Safe - Display appropriate methods of dealing with specific cybersafety incidents, and explain how the risk of such incidents occurring could be minimised.
Responsible - Contribute to the formation, review or promotion of cybersafety guidelines for a community.

Year 11-13
Confident - In the context of cybersafety, analyse and critically evaluate the impact of cyber technologies on themselves and society both in the present day and historically.
Safe - Is able to proactively identify and appropriately respond to a range of potentially risky incidents when using cyber-technologies.
Responsible - Demonstrate a commitment to interacting within the online environment in an ethical and socially responsible manner.

These have a great amount of interest to me, as we are using more and more web technologies in the classroom, however, it is how they are being used outside the classroom. The way they are being used at home by various students to inflict pain and hummilation on some students, and the other adage of one you put it up it will never disappear. Students and parents have never had to deal with these forms of electronic bullying and problems before. A photo you could tear up, paper could be burnt. But once you put something online, it will be there forever.

my response
having a look at the draft matrix I like the idea of it. Though there are some things I would like to comment on.

The attributes, I agree with safe and responsible, though I feel confident isn't the right word when it comes to understand the impacts and potential of ict use for individuals and society.

The breakdown of the bands, these are clearly defined at the lower levels, however I feel there does need to be a change at the senior end 9-10 and 11-13, I would probably look more at 9-11 and 12-13. the reason for this is 9-11 are still grasping with the ICT and internet use. 12-13 would be able to have the life skills and the reasoning to be able to pro actively identify and appropriately respond to a range of potential risky incidents when they are using cyber-technoloiges, as well as being able to demonstrate a commitment to interacting within the online environment in an ethical and responsible manner, I know at our school we make more use of the LMS and other web 2.0 technologies at years 12-13 and this would be a way to be able to monitor them against the attributes.

I would like to see more details or achievement objectives before I comment on the key competencies, or at least wait till after the new curriculum has been announced and have some time to digest it.

It is a overally simple document that will help with early childhood and primary education, though I think it needs some more complexity when it comes to the secondary schools. more details may help with this.

I look forward to providing this framework to my year 9 and 10 students. As well as looking at the challenges I could pose to my year 12-13 students. I don't think I have the space to be able to fit it into my year 11 scheme though. The Health subject in the school may be able to focus on this, health will be able to catch those students that miss the ICT modules throughout years 9-10 and help the students to meet the bands. Although some development may need to be associated with this for those non-ICT teachers. I also am interested in educating the students through the netsafe network use agreement that we are busily trying to get together for the start of next year as we make more use of web 2.0 technologies and mobile devices as well as research in the classroom.

This will be able to help all teachers met the set of guidelines to help our students with internet access and to be able to educate parents and caregivers on the use of ICT and the internet through schools. This has already started through the use of hectors world in the primary schools and has been missing in the secondary schools where teachers are making more and more use of ICT without knowing what students are accessing. I remember a couple of years ago when students asked if they could access bebo in class time, and now dealing with the issues that bebo has throughout the school. Students are great adapters of ICT and teachers need to be able deal with those issues in a more confident and collaborative manner. this document may be able to help get some Professional Development to educate teachers about how to use the internet in a collaborative and safe manner.

I look forward to seeing the next stage of this matrix and I believe it has been a long time coming, I remember going to a netsafe meeting a couple of years ago where this question was asked. Since then I have been wondering how it was going to be incorporated into a already fill curriculum.

response back
Thank you for your honest and detailed feedback regarding the cybercitizenship matrix. Your comments will be most helpful as we develop his document further. I appreciate the pressure on your time, especially at this stage of the year.

To briefly respond to a couple of your comments:

The term 'confident' comes from the government's digital strategy. Within the strategy, the NetSafe programme is designated a major contributor to the confidence strand. At NetSafe we think of cybersafety as a learning enabler - giving individuals confidence to realise the benefits ICT can bring. I have tried to incorporate this into the 'attributes'. Perhaps it is more about awareness than understanding of the impacts of the use of ICT?

We could provide more detail in the upper year levels. In fact in the original document there were two further 'stands. I am also hoping that the detail will actually come as the matrix is populated by example lessons and resources either from NetSafe, overseas, or teachers themselves. We are still developing this process.

Thanks again for your input.

Problems with the network

We have been having issues with our school network, and today the problems surfaced so they were right in the face.

We use a managed network solution and it runs pretty much excellent however we have been having issues since the 18th September. that is when I emailed through one of the problems.
Not being able to access learning resources, this comes with a 507 null exception error.

We had a number of updates carried out throughout the holidays, IE7 and Adobe acrobat 8 and DST update. Now some students have managed to login without any problems, other have had a box that appears saying setting up personalized settings, and after setting up IE7 setting it just hangs. Now we have been waiting for the IT department to solve this issue and a number of classes have had to do very little until this issue is solved. At 2pm I got sick of this and worked through a solution that gets teh account working, not to sure how much it stuffs up the system however, but hey, they are able to get in and work.

When it hangs... User press CTRL + ALT + DEL

User selects Logoff. This will then cause a error in the personalized settings dialog box and make it crash.

Then the user logs in and the personalized setting are applied again, this time working.

Now this works and has been emailed through... I really do hate showing up the IT department but it has to done sometimes.

Now one of the issues that the IT came back with is that the programs are now not appearing in the Start Menu, hello, we stated this back on the 18th September. Someone has managed to break the management console and it probably needs a damn good health check to fix it. Am awaiting this to see if it works, I asked for this back on the 18th September...

His solution is a windows profile fix, however we are on a managed network!!! This is what I am getting annoyed with, the management console will do most of the repairs, send him on some training for the managed network.

Contents of email.
Bug Report Program sets are not loading up on computers Microsoft Office has not been appearing for a while now, Now I have the Programming set not appearing

Also we have a Tui Ad competition at the moment. He has it running, yeah right. This realates to some CD Software we have within the school. The department has been waiting for months for this software to be installed and running, every time we see the IT technician, he says, yes I have it running. But we have to prove to him that it doesn't run. I got in contact with eth makers of the program and they say that they will send out the network capable version of teh program. So how can he get teh single machine copy running. You can't.
So to the IT Technication, get this man a Tui!

Computing Acheivement Standards - the rationale continues

I have been looking at what other schools are doing for Programming Assessments and have gathered a variety of information, most of them however are doing Unit Standards, this is one thing that we are trying to move away from at the school I am at, we are looking at Achievement Standards. However we find that they are difficult as the Technology Process is different from the commonly used System Development Life Cycle.

Here is the information that I have managed to find: located here

The Process of Creating a Computer program

The Technology Curriculum from the Ministry of Education uses a Technology process to develop programs which was designed for 'hard' technologies such as Wood, Metal, Food, and Clothing.

This process was never intended for, nor is it optimised for, creating Computer Programs. This means that NCEA assessments (Unit Standards) based on the Technology Curriculum, require students to use a different, non-standard design process to design programs.

According to Dr. Peter Andreae from the Computer Science Department at Victoria University, the design and planning process encouraged by the NZ Technology Curriculum has been shown by international research to be inefficient and inappropriate for creating computer programs. Certainly in my experience the NZQA Unit Standards do not encourage a process that easily leads to robust, well-designed programs.

It is obviously necessary to use the Ministry's process to gain Programming credits in NCEA, but for other purposes we will be using a more industry-standard method - one which is commonly used by programmers world-wide.

You can compare the two different processes here:

Technology Curriculum Programming Process
Industry-Standard Programming Process

Discussion on ICT in the school

Summary of discussion questions

What do you think about how our students learn? Has it changed over the past years?
More use of IT, availability of information. Students don’t all learn the same/ variety of ways. Multitasking, applying knowledge. More opportunities to learn in different ways, more interactive learning, increase in ICT, student technology savvy ‘digital natives’, moving away from more traditional teaching methods, practical involvement, activities, group work, research on internet, interest, more student focused rather than teacher directed, teacher facilitator, multi tasking, more demanding, more options, use of graphic calculators, declining levels of student commitment to learning now we fear this will continue.

What changes will be needed over the next 5 years?
Use of Internet, games, reliable systems computers, advance workshops, scaffolding to solve problems, thinking processes, more computers, training for staff, accepting of new changes, more connection with students, more critical about sources, 24/7, better reliability, class room blinds, subject amalgamation, more access to technology. Some subjects more than others, some subjects not practical to use interactive material, both technological and traditional factors needed to be balanced, mindful of assessment style used. Has potential, exciting challenges ahead. What are teachers going to teach? Students still need to understand underlying principals, methods, basics, must be able to interpret/apply answers they have.

What changes have you already made to your teaching over the last 3 – 5years?
Availability of technology for everyone, more integration, acceptance to change, paradigm change, data projector, internet resources, becoming more open minded to new ways of learning/methods of learning, less paper work/ worksheets, more electronic, more group work, thinking about how we can incorporate into learning, Power point, data projector, ASTTLE, more group work, discussion, integrated curriculum.

What obstacles will be in the way of you making changes needed?
Money, time, space (room), access, choice, class size, availability of technology in the class room, confusion surrounding ICT, willingness to change, too much assessment, trust, old buildings, knowledge/training. Danger of using technology to teach in the same old way, time to change.

The handout information
Over that past few session we have talked about how our students are changing along with changes to the curriculum and assessment. This has meant changes to our teaching practice with the increasing use of ICT resources, (educational technologies).

We all have different ideas and interpretations of these issues and it would be good to discuss these.
What we would like is for you to mix up in groups of different departments and discuss the questions. Could you please appoint a scribe and record responses on the A3 paper.

Don't bluff a IT professional

Heya, here is the latest, I proved this morning that there was a fault with the proxies and that we were not using external wireless, and that there was a problem with speed, I love www.woosh.com/speedtest

Year 9 Proxy Server (wserver2.*) 400 students (xxx.yyy.zzz.bbb which is a .adsl.xtra.co.nz account)
Download Speed 3435 kbps(429.4KB/sec transfer speed)
Upload Speed 605 kbps (75.6KB/sec transfer speed)

Year 10,11,12,13 Proxy Server (wserver1.*) 1400 students (xxx.yyy.zzz.aaa wish is a .adsl.xtra.co.nz)
Download Speed 594 kbps(74.3KB/sec transfer speed)
Upload Speed 316 kbps (39.5KB/sec transfer speed)

As you can see this is without students accessing those servers, 7:33am this morning.
As I kept getting told there was no trouble, I had to prove it, now I get the following email from him. I have a migraine.
--------------------------------------------
From: Insert Name Here
Sent: Wednesday, 15 August 2007 10:42 a.m.
To: oneteachersview
Subject: student internet speed

oneteachersview:

Before I rang watchdog, I used a new router instead of the one from watchdog, and tested it. The speed was up to 2000kbps/500mbps (download/upload) even while many students were online at the same time.

Watchdog has confirmed that they were having speed problems last week. We didn’t use that account so I didn’t know that. They say it will be sorted by next week.

So now we are not using watchdog filtering. If there is a problem, we will move your classes to another account.

We encourage all staff to report any problem directly to us and then we will try to find out the reasons.

Thanks for your help

Regards

Insert Name here.

two seperate paths

I have been thinking about my year 13 programming course and the fact that it was open entry. I have been doing visual c# with them for the past term and around 7 of the 23 or so students can actually get something working. This is a kinda to do list for me over the next couple of days
1. Print of the students attainment for last year,
2. compare results, did they take the course last year
3. credits, have they got level 2, will they get level 3 this year

Talk to the HOD and make the course work for me, these students need level 2/3 credits. Quick run through 2780/2781 and they will get 12 credits, then get them into level 3 credits, research into contemporary IT systems currently in use in New Zealand. with what they have been doing so far in the course this might work, they research, and create a presentation, 18746? 3 credits, presentation 3 credits and the robots 5 credits and then finish the year with a task???? they will have there 14 level 3 credits. Presentation could be in a website? heaven forbid as a guide for students in the following year. 5 credits, 16 credits, I got this idea from a teacher I went to a workshop to in wellington, and how he had programming kids and other students.

Links
18746 http://nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/units/pdf/18746.pdf Demonstrate knowledge of contemporary information technologies 3 credits

5940 http://nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/units/pdf/5940.pdf Presentation 3 credits

18737 http://nzqa.govt.nz/nqfdocs/units/pdf/18737.pdf Create a website for organistation use. 5 credits

This means they will have to work, or I look at other standards to do with skills in publisher/word/excel

I still have to work out something for my web design students. Credits and the like. mind you they are doing two years of level 3 credits in the subject. Why would they complain. because 12 credits is nothing, mind you they are achievement standard credits, I could look at them doing a comparison of technologies.

why does blogspot not have the formatting tools available when using safari on the mac?

ICT Achievement Standards

Should there be specific achievement standards for ICT in the NCEA qualifications, yes.

The current Unit Standards are more focussed towards the skills of using an application, whether it be word processing, spreadsheet, presentation or desktop publishing. Where are the computer science ones?
There are 2780, 2781, basic computer fundamentals. 18740 is a basic level 2 programming one that gets you to design the most basic of basic programs, you don't even have to use a recognized programming language. you could use gamemaker with its GUI interface.

There is no ITO (Industry Training Organization) in charge of Computing in schools, there is no real organizations looking after computing unit standards, there is the NACAQ, which looks at the tertiary side of things. It needs someone else to come along and get the government to recognize that the Technology Achievement Standards just don't cut the mustard when it comes to computer science.

You can get the Technology Achievement Standards by planning and putting on a cultural performance, or putting on a play. We need specific ones to look at programming, computer ethics, computer fundamentals.

If we want more IT graduates in New Zealand then we have to start really looking at what is happening within secondary schools. Can everyone use a word processor? But can everyone describe why when importing another text document in that all these hieroglyphics come up instead of what should be coming up?

Technology Achievement Standards have a defined technology process you have to go through, where ICT programming has a clearly defined SDC (System Development Cycle). These two conflict with each other.

Looking at the this, the following list came out of the meeting
Rationale for Achievement Standards in ICT (Computer Science)

1. If Technology Achievement standards are used in other areas of content, we don't have enough Achievement Standards available for students to complete a wholly Achievement Standard assessed course.
2. There are specific knowledge, skills and processes that are not covered by the current Technology Achievement Standards as they differ in their assessed processes.
3. The unit standards do not cater for meritorious or excellence approaches to the assessments and as a rider to this will not encourage provide scholarship or Scholarship respectively.
4. Student motivation is limited by Unit Standards as they do not encourage students to push for "greater heights."
5. There are problems with the allocation of credits if the Technology Acheivement Standards are used elsewhere (no double dipping)
6. We would like standards that are better suited to pathways in ICT that leads to I.T. graduates and other more academic post secondary learning. These standards are less industry orientated and more computer science based.
7. To provide Achievement Standards that could complement the proposed ICT Curriculum Framework.
8. ICT is not treated as a tool for the purposes of assessments with these Achievement Standards, but as an area of discipline in its own right. (The tools are created by those working in the computer science line to contrast this with the users of ICT)
9. There are concepts, processes and practices in Computing that have existed for many years and will continue to do so. These concepts, processes and practices lend themselves to assessment with these proposed Computer Science Achievement Standards.
10. As there is no ITO in the ICT area, the Unit Standards are not being developed to cater for the type of learning that encourages higher thinking structures. the style of unit standards is also an obstacle in this regard.
11. The Technology Process in the Achievement Standards does not really cover the needs of the Systems Development Process which is more commonly recognized in IT education and industry.

Looking at this and what has been developed, I think I would have the change the title of the course that I run at school, away from the programming and more look at Computer Science, i can just see the leaders of learning face when I say that I want to change the name, "Oh, not again"

12CSI <- I like this, I can't use 12SCI that relates to Science.
12 Computer Science :)