Course Outlines - Year 9 & 10 Digital Technologies

Year 9 & 10
Digital Technologies

Back to Year 9 & 10

The digital curriculum is about teaching students how to design their own digital solutions and become creators, not just users of, digital technologies.

KAUPAPA:

Digital Technologies are an integral part of our lives, society, the way we communicate, interact, work and even play. It is agnostic to and utilised by the diverse cultures of Aotearoa New Zealand. It is a vital means for people, communities, businesses, education and so much more, to express, explore, ideate, create, modify and distribute products and ideas through a range of systems, tools and platforms.
The Year 9/10 Digital Technology course at JMC has a main focus on development of understanding and the development of skills in the use of a range of digital systems / applications. You will be introduced to a number of tools, technologies, platforms and concepts, and will be encouraged to try new things as you begin to find your interests and strengths within the subject area. You will also learn and apply creative and technical skills to begin creating digital outcomes and demonstrating your understanding of the ideas underpinning computer science (computers and the functions and operations)..
Through your work, you will also develop your understanding of programming languages and the environments /tools used to develop different digital outcomes. This will enable you to become a well-rounded digital technologist that is able to design, create, communicate understanding and contribute productively to the wider community.

course content

In the Year 9 Digital Technology course, students will explore a range of Digital Technology tools and Computer science concepts. This includes simple image creation and manipulation, and an understanding of
- binary numbers
- image representation
- text compression
- design thinking
- algorithms

and simple computer programming.

In the Image Manipulation topic students learn about graphics and how to edit, combine and change images to create something new. Using GIMP / Photoshop students develop skills in creativity and use these to create and showcase themselves in a visual medium.
In the Computer Science topic students explore and learn about binary numbers and how computers represent information, how computers represent and record images, the ways in which compression can be used to store text efficiently, how to break down problems (decomposition) through the use of design thinking, and the nature of algorithms.
In the Programming topic students learn about the basic concepts of programming (expanding on the year 7 & 8 course if they have already been at the school for those years). They learn about variables, loops, conditional statements, input/output and debugging. The system used for this is Scratch (a block based programming language). Students demonstrate their overall understanding by creating a guessing game.
Throughout the course, students will develop their digital literacy and learn to recognise different digital systems and tools and utilise them to develop digital outcomes or explain their understanding of concepts.

course content

The Year 10 Digital Technology course builds upon the skills taught at Y7-9. Encouraging students to apply their understanding and skills to more complex and varied digital technology and computer science concepts. This includes more complex image creation, more deeper computer science concepts, programming in Python and more complex game design / development.
Students that opt to take digital technology will do so for a half-year rotation, either in the first or second half of the year. They will study / explore a range of skills and concepts.
Students will develop knowledge and skills in computer science concepts such as binary and hexadecimal numbering systems and conversion between them, encoding systems for characters such as ASCII, error detection systems and simple searching and sorting algorithms.
Students will develop skills and understanding of the Python programming language, learning about the structures and syntax of the language to write simple programs.
Students will further develop their skills in the creation and manipulation of images using GIMP/Photoshop and Inkscape to combine, edit, create and alter images.
Students will explore more complex computer game design and create / develop a game using a custom tool (GDevelop) to create a game of their own design.
This course leads into and prepares students for NCEA digital technology.

Students intending to study digital technology to a senior level are strongly encouraged to take this course if they wish to continue with digital technology in year 11 and beyond.

COSTS:

None.

Note: iPads are not suitable for running some of the graphics and coding IDE software used in the digital technologies course. This is due to their limited functionality. It is strongly encouraged that students have their own MacBook/mid-range Windows laptop.

FUTURE STUDIES / CAREER OPTIONS:

Studying digital technologies opens up pathways for a wide range (increasingly so) of careers in industry, including but not limited to:

Game Development(i.e. creating the graphics, music, animations, code and more for games on digital platforms)
Cyber Security (i.e. creating, testing and implementing security systems for computers, networks etc.)
Artificial Intelligence (e.g. creating, training, coding and testing artificial intelligence systems, etc.)
Web Development (e.g. creating, modifying and managing websites and related systems, etc.)
Software Engineering (e.g. designing, creating, developing and testing software applications to solve problems etc.)
and much more!

The skills you develop as a digital technologist / computer scientist are also highly transferable. Regardless of your chosen field, employers are looking for:

Creative skills: creativity, logical thinking, finding novel solutions to problems
Technical skills: using specialist software to create and distribute digital content / outcomes
Time Management and Discipline

There are a number of tertiary institutions that offer a wide range of courses of study in digital technologies / computer sciences and related areas including: