Technology @ Pt England
Technology is intervention by design. It uses intellectual and practical resources to create technological outcomes, which expand human possibilities by addressing needs and realising opportunities.
Design is characterised by innovation and adaptation and is at the heart of technological practice. It is informed by critical and creative thinking and specific design processes. Effective and ethical design respects the unique relationship that New Zealanders have with their physical environment and embraces the significance of Māori culture and world views in its practice and innovation.
Technology makes enterprising use of knowledge, skills and practices for exploration and communication, some specific to areas within technology and some from other disciplines. These include digitally-aided design, programming, software development, various forms of technological modelling, and visual literacy – the ability to make sense of images and the ability to make images that make sense.
Digital Technologies and Hangarau Matihiko is about teaching students the theory of how technology works, and how they can use that knowledge to solve problems.
Strands
Technological Practice
Technological Knowledge
Nature of Technology
These three strands are embedded within each of five technological areas:
computational thinking for digital technologies
designing and developing digital outcomes
designing and developing material outcomes
designing and developing processed outcomes
design and visual communication.
Technology at PES is taught as an Inquiry with English, Maori and Art integrated into the plan as appropriate. Over the 8 years children attend Pt England School a thorough and balanced coverage of the Technology Curriculum occurs. Authentic contexts are used, incorporating the local environment, community issues and student interests.
Many Pt England students have English as a second language so a strong emphasis is put on developing and using appropriate language and vocabulary along with the content knowledge. This is essential in order to promote understanding and prepare students for their future.
Years 7/8 attend Tamaki College for 2 hrs per week to access Technology. In 2019 both the year 7 and 8's are being exposed to Robotics, Hard Materials and Food Technology and the Year 7's also have Soft Materials. These options may vary slightly from year to year according to the Staff that Tamaki College have available to run this programme. The College plan, teach and assess the programme. They provide a written report at the end of each cycle for each student which is used when reporting to parents.
Jackson Vogt runs a Coding Club in the Creative Space which is giving more students and extra opportunity to Learn Create and Share
By the end of year 8 our students will:
Be confident connected actively involved lifelong learners
Achieve at Level 4 of the Curriculum
Describe and follow the Technological Process
They will also be working towards meeting the following Progress Outcomes from the Digital Technologies Strand:
In authentic contexts and taking account of end-users, students decompose problems into step-by-step instructions to create algorithms for computer programs. They use logical thinking to predict the behaviour of the programs, and they understand that there can be more than one algorithm for the same problem. They develop and debug simple programs that use inputs, outputs, sequence and iteration (repeating part of the algorithm with a loop). They understand that digital devices store data using just two states represented by binary digits (bits).
In authentic contexts, students follow a defined process to design, develop, store, test and evaluate digital content to address given contexts or issues, taking into account immediate social, ethical and end-user considerations. They identify the key features of selected software and choose the most appropriate software and file types to develop and combine digital content.
Students understand the role of operating systems in managing digital devices, security, and application software and are able to apply file management conventions using a range of storage devices. They understand that with storing data comes responsibility for ensuring security and privacy.