Pre-planning
A major part of the year's planning was the development of a streamed teaching programme for Years 11-13 at Wellington High, with incremental skill learning (.pdf 24K) within the technological practice framework as outlined in the Components of Practice. These plans finally cemented a transition in ICT teaching in the senior school from teaching of Unit Standards-based courses to the use of the Technology Achievement Standards for assessment purposes, supplemented by Unit Standards when required.
Skills included in Information Science courses at Wellington High are selected in line with the following publications, which include a diverse range of skills that can be taught to students with a wide range of abilities and personal goals.- A Model Curriculum for K-12 Computer Science - Final Report of the ACM K-12 Task Force Curriculum Committee October 2003, Association for Computing Machinery, Inc, United States.
- University of Cambridge International Examinations:(CIE) Computer Studies 7010 GCE O Level and Computing 9691 GCE A/AS Level England
- International Computer Driving Licence Syllabus Version 4.0
- A proposal for an International Olympiad in Informatics Syllabus, Tom Verhoeff, Gyula Horv'ath, Krzysztof Diks and Gordon Cormack.
- NZIST Draft Curriculum Build 004, October 2001.
- Waikato University Computer Science Scholarship Examination Syllabus.
Vince created a streamed table showing the alignment of these curricula with the progression within the Technology Curriculum, from Years 9-13 - see Curriculum document "The International Olympiad in Informatics Syllabus contains challenges for the most talented students," says Vince. "The lower levels of K-12 and some International Computer Driving Licence Syllabus modules contain skills that most people need to function in today's society. Most of the concepts contained in these documents can be mapped onto the Technological Knowledge, Nature of Technology and Technological Practice strands of the Draft Technology Curriculum."
In planning the year-long, Technology Achievement Standards-based Year 13 programme, it was critical there was a strong focus on client interaction. While the Year 13 class of 2005 had been very successful, with many of the students going on to do ICT or Science at Massey and Victoria University, Vince felt that the class was not client-focused enough.
Although students had gained a basic understanding of database concepts and function and Java programming from their Years 11 and 12 work, in Year 13 much of the skill set they would learn would be new and included different types of mark-up and query languages, such as SQL and PHP. To contextualise this skill learning in terms of project and client needs, Vince planned to introduce the major end-of-year project at the beginning of the year. Skill development therefore resulted directly from the needs of the individual project.
This project was to provide an external client within the school with an interactive software-based solution to an identified need - either:- A school achievement and/or attendance reporting system;
- An interactive Technology exam for Year 10 end-of-year formative exams, using the school's Technology faculty as client.
- Vince found and set up three potential clients within the school for his students:
Technology teacher Terry Hawkings wanted an online examination, involving database design and dynamic web design, to test Year 9 and 10 students for technology subjects. - Biology teacher Matt Easterbrook wanted a solution to improve Year 12 and 13 students' understanding of biology using interactive multimedia - either a website or a program.
- Fellow Teacher Calum McGonigle wanted a solution to keep parents up-to-date with student and class progress, showing absences and milestones that the student has met, as well as test results.
As in past years, Vincent planned to use Futureintech Ambassador Scott Abernethy, Software Engineer for Harris Stratex. He also negotiated with Liz Richardson of Victoria University of Wellington for the use of student mentors through the implementation phase of project development.
