Year 11

Focus of Course

VCE Information Technology focuses on the processing of data and the management of information and information systems.

The rapid pace of development in information and communications technology (ICT) is having a major influence on many aspects of society. Not only does ICT provide the capacity to change how tasks and

activities are undertaken, but it also creates new opportunities in work, education, entertainment and society.

While it is important that students extend their use of ICT as a learning and personal tool, the study of VCE Information Technology encompasses information systems and how people interact with information technology to create structured information and to connect with others to exchange information. It encompasses the theoretical foundations of computation and techniques for writing programs and developing solutions. It also focuses on how the needs of individuals, organisations, communities and society are met through the combination of ICT and meaningful information.

VCE Information Technology equips students with appropriate knowledge and skills to use ICT responsibly and to make informed personal and workplace choices about developments in this exciting field. Students are encouraged to orient themselves towards the future, with an awareness of the technical and societal implications of ICT.

VCE Information Technology provides pathways to further studies in IT and to careers in ICT-based areas. It also prepares students for programs that require an IT-related subject or for a range of careers that require efficient and effective use of ICT.

Aims

This study enables students to:

• apply, as an individual and as a team member, skills, techniques and strategies to creatively and methodically solve information problems

• understand how data can be represented in a computer, and how it can be structured and manipulated into meaningful information

• evaluate how the information needs of individuals, organisations, communities and society are and can be met by the use of ICT, taking into account legal, ethical, social and environmental tensions

• understand the principal hardware and software components and the architecture of information systems and networks

• understand how technologies, procedures, legislation and personal attitudes can serve to protect the integrity and security of data and information.

Students will undertake both practical and theoretical studies.

You will –

• use computers extensively

• study from textbooks,

• examine real-life situations,

• create their own solutions to problems,

• Discuss, with reference to personal experience, uses of information technology

• prepare yourselves to make organisations better places in which to work

• be assessed through a broad variety of activities including short tests, written reports

• create a HTML presentation and the software solutions using computers

• Unit 1 End-of-semester examination

• Unit 2 End-of-year examination.

Unit 1: IT in action

This unit focuses on how individuals and organisations use, and can be affected by, information and communications

technology (ICT) in their daily lives.