Outcomes
Cerise's website Ethan's website Matthew's website
Monica's website Paul's website Sven's website
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The unit was highly successful in a number of ways:
- students produced high quality ICT outcomes
- students gained in-depth ICT knowledge and skills, and now had a sound base for progression to Year 12;
- a good balance was achieved between undertaking and documenting technological practice and developing skills and outcomes;
- NCEA assessment was simplified;
- student engagement was created and maintained while catering for a range of abilities;
- student/teacher interaction was improved;
Students rose to the challenge of selecting a project in which they could "pretty much do anything" while not losing sight of the original goal. The outcomes were diverse, individual, and of high quality. Interestingly, while the outcomes were very different in content, they were similar in design. This may reflect, at least in part, the emphasis placed on Codes of Practice and current accepted standards by both the teacher and the visiting software expert.
While some students found programming easier than others, the programming work provided students with a good introduction to the level of programming required in the Year 12 and Year 13 courses. Overall, the unit's theme worked well in providing scope for a good range of skills and ICT domain knowledge to be developed. Students enjoyed the variety of skill development work.
Students enjoyed the increased level of technical control they could exercise over their web projects. One student noted: "This year we've learned about the areas behind the website as such; whereas before we were just using visual (wysiwyg) programs to make a website, now we can actually use the code."
Students commented that their Year 10 work had been good preparation for the Year 11 course. One student mentioned that the technological practice – brief development, planning for practice etc – he learnt in Year 10 had stood him in good steed during his Year 11 course. He also suggested the students who hadn't done Technology previously may have found it more difficult to allocate their time and complete tasks to deadline.
Another student, who hadn't previously done ICT, found the understanding she gained in Year 10 Food Technology helped with her Year 11 ICT work, reflecting the value of a good grounding in generic technological practice.
Students enjoyed the opportunity to be creative when documenting their practice. As part of their Beacon Practice work, Steve and Malcolm worked with Beacon Practice Professional Support Facilitator Hugh Derham to find ways of creating opportunities for creativity in Technological Practice. One of his suggestions was the use of visual diaries in which students could record ideas in an easy, informal way. This, he reasoned, would not only stimulate creativity but also serve as an alternative means of recording evidence of achievement for assessment.
Steve said the approach was successful but seemed to work better with girls than boys.
Having an outside expert visit the classroom was highly informative with the visitor covering all the material he had been asked to, and the students were attentive. However, Steve felt that students missed the opportunity to swamp the visitor with questions afterwards.
The unit encouraged students to be creative and to have fun. Presenting students with plenty of variety and opportunities for creativity resulted in increased student engagement, and was reflected in the increased number who elected to continue with the subject in Year 12.
Steve believes the alternative assessment schedules have been an "absolutely critical factor" in determining the quality of the outcomes achieved and has given the students a better understanding of what they are doing and why they are doing it. "Basically, using the schedules has given consistency for me and clarity for the students. I wouldn't want to go back to what we had."
