Technologies enhance and affect the lives of people and societies globally. Currently there is an accelerating ICT skills shortage, with declining numbers of higher education enrolments in computer science. This is also a concern in the school education system where computer science is taught primarily in upper secondary, and often as an optional subject.
The Australian Curriculum: Technologies describes two distinct but related subjects:
- Design and Technologies, in which students use design thinking and technologies to generate and produce designed solutions for authentic needs and opportunities.
- Digital Technologies, in which students use computational thinking and information systems to define, design and implement digital solutions. This is the focus of the MOOC outline below.
The Technologies curriculum is part of the review of the remaining Australian Curriculum learning areas. At this stage, it is envisaged the second iteration of AusVELS will, subject to approval by the Minister for Education, be released early in Term 3, 2014 for the purpose of school curriculum planning. It is expected schools will begin to report against the new achievement standards in these additional learning areas and general capabilities from 2015. More information VCAA Notice to Schools 9/2014
CSER Digital Technologies MOOC (F-6)
The CSER digital technologies MOOC (Massive Online Open Course) is hosted by the Computer Science Research Group, based at the School of Computer Science, University of Adelaide, and developed with the support of Google. This free and open course will explain the fundamentals of digital technology and computational thinking, specifically addressing the learning objectives of the Australian Digital Technologies curriculum (Foundation-6). MOOC Information
Start date: 22 March 2014, the course will run for 8 weeks, with the first four weeks as one block, a two week break and then another four week block. The expected time commitment is approximately 3 hours per week.
Module topics:
- Module 1: Welcome and Introduction
- Module 2: Data (Patterns and Play)
- Module 3: Data (Representation and Binary)
- Module 4: Digital Systems
- Module 5: Information Systems
- Module 6: Algorithms and Programming
- Module 7: Visual Programming and Visual Programming Environments
DEECD Support: This MOOC is a self-paced and self-directed opportunity which is available without charge to schools. Support will be provided by DEECD Digital Learning branch staff as they undertake this course alongside participants. No CRT support is available for schools.
How to Register:
- Go to the CSER website to register. To participate fully in the MOOC experience, you will need to set up a gmail account, because the creators of the course are using a Google course builder platform on which to construct it.
- Please send the names of registered teachers and school to Penny Rowe, Senior Program Officer Digital Learning, rowe.penelope.m@edumail.vic.gov.au
