Digital technologies knowledge

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What does Digital Technology look like in the classroom?

So what does teaching Digital Technology look like in a primary school classroom?

Let’s examine the accompanying table showing a small cross section of content descriptions and elaboration examples. While the table below doesn’t include all the content descriptions and elaborations within Digital Technology, hopefully, it will help you to develop a practical image of the type of activities for primary students appropriate to each year levels from F-6.

Scope and Sequence

To further help you understand what teaching Digital Technology looks like at a primary school level, have a look at the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technology Scope and Sequence Chart (ACARA, 2014).

Alternatively do a wider exploration of the overview and curriculum (ACARA, 2014).

As you explore take note of:

  • the three band structure F-2, 3-4, 5-6
  • the content structure
  • digital solutions
  • how the concept of preferable futures is embedded within this learning area.

Years F-2

Digital technologies knowledge

Content Description
Recognise and explore patterns in data and represent data as pictures, symbols and diagrams.

Elaborations
sorting objects and events based on easily identified characteristics and using digital systems to represent patterns in data, for example sorting birthdates and presenting the patterns using seasonal symbols.

Digital Technologies Processes and Production Skills

Content Description
Work with others to create and organise ideas and information using information systems, and share these with known people in safe online environments.

Elaborations
using different types of data to create information for sharing online, for example creating a multimedia class profile that includes a photo of each student, a personal audio recording and a written message.

Years 3-4

Years 5-6

AC: Digital Technology (ACARA, 2014)

Learning about the impact of Digital Technology

Teaching students about Digital citizenship

For the last part of this week, we will focus on teaching safe digital practices.

Fostering an awareness of the responsible use of Digital Technology is an important part of teaching Digital Technology to young learners. This goes beyond guiding your students on how to use safe practices online, and involves you helping them to develop a deeper understanding of what is termed Digital citizenship.

The norms of appropriate, responsible behaviour with regard to the use of digital technologies. This involves using digital technologies effectively and not misusing them to disadvantage others.

Digital citizenship includes appropriate online etiquette, literacy in how digital technologies work and how to use them, an understanding of ethics and related law, knowing how to stay safe online, and advice on related health and safety issues. (ACARA, 2014).

Digital Safety

Developing a sense of digital safety is about helping your students to understand that their actions have wider consequences.

In particular two key considerations are that students should have are:

  • Awareness of passwords and how someone else may misuse them.
  • Awareness of how online material may affect others.

Explore the following website developed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (2014) cyber(smart:) which includes resources and support for cyber safety and digital citizenship.

This Northern Territory Department of Education (2011) webpage Acceptable computer & internet usage agreement for students will further help you get an overview of the safe digital practices.

So what are the key features of Digital Technology?

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How do you teach Digital Technology a primary school level?

As students progress through primary school, they incrementally develop their Digital Technology knowledge and skills across three year level bands: F-2, years 3-4, and years 5-6.

Teaching Digital Technology at a primary school level is mostly integrated with other subject areas so that the skills and knowledge in this subject are developed in conjunction with other learning areas.

However, it is important you understand the distinctive knowledge and skills that are important to Digital Technology, as this will enable you to draw out important learning concepts particular to the subject that will be progressively built on over the course of their school life.

Problem solving is a key skill highlighted within Digital Technologies in the Australian Curriculum (2014), with an emphasis on designing, implementing and evaluating digital solutions. Students are taught to create and share information using Digital Technology to support their learning investigations.

As a useful overview, watch this short introductory video on Digital Technologies in the Australian Curriculum (ACARA, 2014).

Consider some of the following questions as you watch:
  • Why do we need to ‘future proof’ the curriculum?
  • Why are some attitudinal dispositions seen as important in learning Digital Technology skills?
  • Why is it important to give student multiple opportunities to experience the subject?

Digital Technologies: An introduction (2014)
<http://bit.ly/1qXTHKD>

So what are the key features of Digital Technology?

According to ACARA (2014), in studying Digital Technologies students use computational thinking and information systems to design and implement digital solutions. To illustrate what this might look like at primary school level, one example activity is for year 2 students to create a multimedia class profile that includes a photo of each student, a personal audio recording and a written message. This activity develops an awareness of digital systems through the use of hardware such as a digital camera, as well as using basic computational thinking to plan, organise and systematically arrange various forms of data on each student.

The broad aim of Digital Technology is for students to:

  • Design and manage innovative digital solutions
  • Use computational thinking and data collection to create digital solutions
  • Confidently use digital systems to transform data into information
  • Use protocols safely and ethically
  • Develop their awareness of systems thinking and how information system impact on society (ACARA, 2014).

How is the curriculum organised?

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How is the curriculum organised?

Let’s have a basic look at some of the important organizing elements of the AC: Design and Technology subject. Like many other Australian curriculum subjects, Design and Technology comprises of two interrelated strands. These are: Design and Technologies Knowledge and Understanding and Design and Technology Process and Production Skills. The accompanying table should help to develop your understanding of how they are related within the curriculum.

Take some time to explore the curriculum page yourself. However, as we have stated before, at the time this unit was written the technology subjects in the Australian Curriculum were in the final stage of being officially endorsed.

Knowledge and Understanding Processes and Production Skills
Technologies and society

  • the use, development and impact of technologies in people’s lives

Technologies contexts

  • technologies and design across a range of technologies contexts.
 Creating designed solutions by:

  • investigating
  • generating
  • producing
  • evaluating
  • collaborating and managing.
Curriculum organisation (Australian Curriculum Design & Technologies n.d.)
<http://bit.ly/1vQlShP>

Learning in Design and Technologies

In studying Design and Technology younger learners develop an awareness of the systematic process involved in the creation of products:

“Students learn about technologies and society through different technologies contexts (knowledge and understanding) as they create designed solutions (processes and production skills)” (ACARA, 2014).

It is important that students have and opportunity to engage in the design process:

“In Design and Technologies students are actively engaged in the processes of creating designed solutions for personal, domestic, commercial and global settings for sustainable and preferred futures” (ACARA, 2014).

There are two important components to teaching Design and Technology. These are Project Management and Design Thinking.

Project management

Project management develops student understanding of how to manage projects through to completion, this involves learning how to plan, organize, and monitor activities. Project management also includes considering constraints, assessing risks, and developing an understanding of the wider impact of the design solutions.

Design Thinking

Explaining the design process

Let’s spend some time exploring design thinking. This is the systematic approach to design that sequentially works through a process to arrive at a solution to an existing problem. To help you teach Design and Technology it is a good idea to have a strong understanding of the design process. The key point we hope you have gained from the introductory video is that when we talk about design, we are talking about an active and sequential practice. Watch Jonathan Ive in the video Design – Apple Mac (Sambaza2, 2011), Apple’s head industrial Designer who created the iPod, iMac, and iPhone, describe the design process.

Design – Apple Mac (2011) 
<http://bit.ly/1wlora9>

Let’s try and summarise the design process and its different component parts. The accompanying model sums up the design process into three stages. While more complex models exist, this conception of the design process will help you to teach design thinking to younger learners. The conceptual process of designing is succinctly summed up in this 3-stage model:

Why is digital literacy so important to today’s young learners?

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Week 3: Technology curricula in Australia

Design and Technology and Digital Technology

Last week we looked at the essential nature of technology in everyday life. This week we will look the two different technological areas of Design and Technology and Digital Technology.

Living in a world of Design and Technology

Design and Technology are present behind every human made environment. If you live in a town or city, just walking down your street you will find yourself surrounded by spaces and buildings that were designed and built using multiple forms of technology. Design and Technology shapes what we wear; what we eat; the objects that we use to move us from place to place.

The technology that you see around you is the physical realisation of the concepts and ideas created in the design process. These are the solutions that have been made to meet our particular purposes and needs. It is this design process that we will be exploring more fully over this week.  In particular we will explore the relationship between Design and Technology, and how they need to be seen as inseparably interlinked ideas

Let’s begin this week by watching the video What is design? produced by the UK Design Council (Lightweight Media, 2010). As you watch, think about this question: Why is it important to describe design as a verb?

Design Council: What is design? (2010)
<http://vimeo.com/5820010>

What is Digital Literacy?

Watch this short video on the concept of Digital Literacy. Being literate essentially means being competent in the use of a particular set of knowledge and skills. As we will explore this week, being digitally literate has become an increasingly important part of participating in our society.

As you watch the video What is digital literacy? (ITFutures, 2014), consider these two questions:

  • Why is digital literacy so important to today’s young learners?
  • What has changed to make digital literacy so important?

What is digital literacy (2014)
<http://bit.ly/1piYCSo>

The early decades of the 21st century have witnessed an incredible surge in interconnection and information sharing across the world, facilitated by advances in Internet and mobile technology. More people have access to more information than ever before, a trend that is predicted to grow exponentially into the foreseeable future. This wave of technological change has impacted all aspects of human existence; generating new ways of doing old tasks – the online learning that you are currently partaking in is just one somewhat obvious example.

As our lives become more and more intertwined with Digital Technology, access to the internet and information sharing has begun to be considered a basic right, similar to the way we think about access to food and water (United Nations General Assembly, 2011).

The impact on society resulting from these rapid technological changes has made learning about Digital Technology essential knowledge and skills. However, in order to fully participate in the future, younger learners require not only technical knowledge, but key transferable skills that make them adaptive to the changing future. This also necessitates that students develop critical reflective skills that help their awareness of the consequences of Digital Technology, empowering them to make more responsible choices about its use.

Please note The Australian Curriculum: Technologies area is yet to be formally endorsed and is currently available for States/Territories to begin the process of implementation. We realise that each state will be at very different stages of this process. However, regardless of your State or Territories progress, our goal has been to use the curriculum documentation to provide you with an understanding of age appropriate learning examples.

Let’s look at the technologies curricula in detail

Note that there are two tabs to Investigate each of the AC Technologies curricula this week.

Why is it important to study Design and Technology?

Learning about the importance of Design and Technology empowers young learners to have a greater understanding of the material world that they exist within.

“…the made world is a very significant part of life for most children and adults. Through D&T, children can begin to understand the made world and have well-founded confidence in dealing with issues in it “ (Newton, 2005, p.5).

Students also develop an appreciation of how Design and Technology create solutions to problems, and is a powerful tool to reshape the environments and objects that they use everyday.