Background
Katikati College in the Bay of Plenty is a decile 6 co-educational Year 7-13 school with a role of about 950 students. In Years 7-9, students follow through a broad technology programme covering ICT, Materials Technology and Food Technology. ICT becomes a full-year option in Year 10 together with Materials Technology (metal, wood and fabric), Food Technology and Graphics.
Teacher Steve Graham qualified and worked as an economist in New Zealand and overseas before returning to New Zealand in the late 1980's to buy an orchard in Katikati and convert it into an organic-certified operation. During these years Steve also attended his local Polytech to continue upskilling in computing, a process that began while he was working overseas. In 1997 he qualified as a teacher and began teaching ICT and Economics at Katikati College. The Technology Faculty at the college is headed by Malcolm Howard.
Steve and Malcolm have participated in a Beacon Practice project for two years, which involves getting together with technology teachers from Hillcrest High School, Hamilton, to share ideas about advancing their teaching practices. As part of this project, Steve and Malcolm worked with Beacon Practice Professional Support Facilitators Hugh Derham and Cliff Harwood. Hugh's role was mainly to advise on the appropriate ICT content for courses as well as providing guidance on ways of creating opportunities for students to be creative in their tech practice and finding better ways of collecting evidence of student's tech practice. Cliff's role was to ensure teaching and learning at the school reflected current best practice in technology education.
Steve and Malcolm wanted to incorporate these strategies into the 2006 Year 10 ICT course.
