Paul Newhouse Associate Professor, School of Education

1. ICT in the Australian CurriculumEmbedded in all Curriculum AreasICT General Capability ContinuumTechnologies Curriculum Area Paul Newhouse Associate Professor, School of Education Director, Centre for Schooling and Learning Technologies The Australian Curriculum is aiming to be suitable for the needs of our 21st Century society and as such has explicitly defined a number of key roles to digital technologies.  This should provide opportunities for schools and teachers to build on past reforms in the near future.  As a writer and advisor to ACARA for the Technologies shaping paper, ICT competence capability, and the use of ICT across the Phase One curriculum areas I will share my understanding of the place of digital technologies in the Australian Curriculum and the connection between these different roles.

2. Why students use ICT in schools • To develop ICT capability for life and work in Australian society. • To support improved learning across the curriculum. ICT and the Curriculum Digital technologies have complex, varied and yet complementary roles within the curriculum. (i) They provide Pedagogical Tools in all areas of the curriculum, including the Technologies area (e.g. accessing information, simulations, supporting communication and collaboration). (ii) They are related to particular Content within many areas of the curriculum (e.g. calculators in Maths computation and modelling, GPS in Geography, technological change in History, digital art, digital video analysis for coaching in HPE, device control in Science) (iii) They provide Technical Tools to support the design process in the Technologies area. (iv) They provide the content/subject for study in the ICT subject in the Technologies area. That is the production of a digital solution is an end in itself.

3. What is ICT capability • ICT capability is a special case of technological capability. • Not just skills and knowledge of specific hardware and software. • Using ICT to facilitate the completion of tasks, and the solution of problems. Knowledge/understandings about ICT systems, components, operations, capabilities, limitations, and use in society. Skills in using ICT systems to perform relevant tasks and solve problems. Informed attitudes toward ICT use personally and in society. • Capability is relative to the person, the community and the technology available. Information and communications technology (ICT) capability refers to the capacity to use ICT appropriately and ethically to investigate, create and communicate ideas and information in order for individuals to function effectively at home, at school, at work and in their communities. • Development of transferable and useful perceptions and conceptions - progression over time. What is learned in earlier years supports learning in later years.

4. ICT General Capability

5. Scope of a Continuum • Scope areas based on NETS for Students, ACER’s National Assessment Program, UK’s ICT Curriculum and the frameworks developed by a number of Australian states. • Social and Ethical Practices: Intellectual property,Information security,Personal security,ICT and society.

6. e.g Generating Products • Part of … Creating with ICT • Using ICT to generate products as routine or original solutions to challenges or problems – capability means being able to DO, not just KNOW! • Products may include one or more of the following digital types. Publishing & Presentation Word Processing Graphics & Animation Audio/Music Video Data Processing Control/ Programming Computation and modelling

7. Sequence of Continuum • Profiles for phases of schooling. e.g. Years 2, 6 and 10 Students select and use ICT tools to share and exchange information and to support collaboration with other individuals. (Sharing, Exchanging and Collaborating – Year 6) • Develop ICT capability systematically but in context. • Conceptual development rather than one-off activities (e.g. an understanding of the structure of ICT systems and functions of components).

8. Embedding in Australian Curriculum • The over-riding consideration is using ICT to support the requirements of the learning area - solving educational problems • Match the expected capabilities of students with the requirements for the applications being used. • Use of ICT will not always contribute significantly to ICT capability e.g. Use of Crocodile Clips science modelling software with senior secondary students will not, while Millie’s MathsHouse with ECE may. The Australian curriculum has the ICT ‘hooks’ School systems and teachers need to use those hooks to contribute to a systematic and comprehensive technology education

9. e.g. English Curriculum with ICT filter

10. Providing comprehensive ICT Capability • Embedding in the Australian curriculum should contribute to student ICT capability but will necessarily be patchy and inconsistent • Question of whether an ICT curriculum is needed. • Similar to English & literacy OR Maths & numeracy • Beginning to develop the Technologies Curriculum Area (includes IT)

11. Technologies Curriculum Area • Two strands/subjects • Design & Technology • Digital Technologies • Two sub-strands (defined differently for each subject) • Knowledge & understanding • Processes and production • Described for F-12 in phases of schooling • Focus of sub-strands changes from F-12 • Separate description does not mean that separation of teaching is intended … integrated implementation wherever possible • Variety of contexts recognised Current development of shaping paper … only the beginning!

12. Sub-strands (based on a design approach) Digital Technologies Design & Technology Knowledge & understanding Materials, information, systems, tools and equipment Technologies and society Processes and production (Design, produce & evaluate) Identifying, exploring and critiquing a need/opportunity Generating, researching and developing ideas Planning, producing and evaluating solutions Utilising skills, creativity, innovation and enterprise to promote sustainable living • Knowledge & understanding • Digital information • Digital systems and technologies • Digital technologies and society • Processes and production (includes ‘Computational Thinking’) • Formulating & investigating problems • Analysing & creating digital solutions • Representing, constructing and evaluating solutions • Utilising skills of creativity, innovation and enterprise for sustainable living

13. Computational Thinking • Formulate problems, logically organise and analyse data, and represent it in abstract forms such as data tables, digital graphs, spreadsheets, models and animations. • Automate solutions through algorithmic and declarative logic, and determine the best combinations of data, procedures, and human and physical resources to generate efficient and effective information solutions.

14. Interpreting the Paper • It is not the curriculum • Nothing is mandated – state authorities & schools will determine implementation • Structure very similar to T&E • Not assumed that the two strands will always be taught separately • A range of existing & new contexts accommodated

15. ‘Moving forward’ • Politics … positives & negatives • Roles for T&E + primary teachers • Systematic development of understandings & skills • Integrated contexts • Consultation phases 2012