ACTIVITES

• Exploring the scope of Digital Technologies activities and project solutions for the junior secondary classroom.

• Exploring research principles and methods to examine educational policies that inform 21st Century educational contexts.

• Examining research and practice of international best practice relating to Digital Technologies education pedagogies, curricula, and assessment.

• Experiencing and deconstructing junior secondary Digital Technologies learning activities and projects.

• Examining the importance of developing thinking skills (Design, Computational and Systems) through Digital Technologies. Exploring planning processes that support student-directed learning and the integration of activities through project-based learning.

• Developing a scope and sequence of activities and associated lesson plans to address curriculum requirements.

• Exploring assessment approaches to support and measure learning of Digital Technologies, including notions of formative, summative and diagnostic assessment

OUTCOMES

1. Investigate, interpret, evaluate and synthesise ideas from a range of sources including research literature, professional associations, curriculum documents, teaching examples, and curriculum activity collections, to develop an understanding of international best practice for Digital Technologies education in the junior secondary years

2. Identify the concepts, substance and structure of the content most appropriate for the teaching of Digital Technologies in the junior secondary classroom

3. Organise content to support effective learning and teaching sequences or projects that challenge and motivate learners in the junior secondary Digital Technologies classroom

4. Set or negotiate learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students in the junior secondary Digital Technologies classroom of varying abilities and characteristics

5. Identify and explain teaching strategies and modes of verbal and non-verbal communication that are most effective in challenging and supporting inclusive student participation in Digital Technologies in the junior secondary years

6. Within planning processes create, select, negotiate and employ a range of resources, including ICT, that engage students in Digital Technologies learning

7. Within planning processes select, negotiate, create or employ relevant assessment strategies specific to Digital Technologies in the junior secondary years

Assignment 1

This task will have two components: REVIEW and RELATE. In the REVIEW section, students will focus on deepening their content knowledge and will complete a literature review of learning activities (500 words) and projects (500 words) identified as relevant to Digital Technologies in the junior secondary classroom, including how these assess student learning. In the RELATE section, students will compare the application of sequences of learning activities to the integration of activities to support projects (250 words) and evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of approaches to developing student knowledge and skills (including higher-order thinking skills of design, computational, and systems thinking) (500 words), and two sets of principles to support these approaches (250 words each).

• Investigation, interpretation, evaluation and synthesis of material from a range of sources to identify the content, concepts and structures relevant to digital technologies in the junior secondary classroom

• Investigation, interpretation, evaluation and synthesis of ideas from a range of sources including research literature, texts and curriculum documents to demonstrate an understanding of international best practice for the teaching of digital technologies in the junior secondary years.

• Identification of a set of best practice principles to support inclusive student engagement and learning in digital technologies in the junior secondary years.

Assignment 2

Based on the activities explored in the REVIEW section of Task One, and drawing on the advantages identified in the RELATE section for activity sequences:

Develop a profile (250 words) of a particular junior secondary Digital Technologies class including: key demographics, identification of relevant literacy levels (including ICT) evident in national benchmark data, and information on pupils’ previous experience in computing sourced from a school website.

Create a (250 word) unit overview for this class that also identifies the preceding and following unit content and focus.

Design an assessment instrument to assess learning in this unit and explain your rationale for your assessment approach. (500 words)

Develop and document two sequenced lesson plans for this class that provide details of, and a rationale for the strategies used (500 words each). Provide a list of accompanying resources to be used to support learning across the two lessons and explain your rationale for their inclusion (500 words).

• Selection of appropriate content and organisation of this content into effective learning and teaching sequences that challenge and motivate learners in the junior secondary Digital Technologies classroom.

• Articulation of learning goals that provide achievable challenges for students of varying abilities and characteristics in the junior secondary Digital Technologies classroom

• Application of teaching strategies that are effective in challenging and supporting inclusive student participation in the junior secondary Digital Technologies classroom

• Creation, selection and employment, within planning processes, of a range of relevant resources, including ICT, that engage students in Digital Technologies learning in the junior secondary years.

• Design and employment, within planning processes, of assessment strategies appropriate for Digital Technologies in the junior secondary years