Technologies
by Carmen Wilson
1. Student Diversity
1.1. Students with a disability
1.2. English as an additional language or dialect
1.3. Gifted and talented students
2. Achievement Standards
2.1. Across Foundation to Year 10, achievement standards indicate the quality of learning that students should typically demonstrate by a particular point in their schooling. The sequence of achievement standards in each Technologies subject describes progress in the learning area, demonstrating a broad sequence of expected learning. This sequence provides teachers with a framework of growth and development in each Technologies subject. An achievement standard describes the quality of learning (the depth of conceptual understanding and the sophistication of skills) that would indicate the student is well-placed to commence the learning required at the next level of achievement. The achievement standards for Technologies reflect the distinctive practices of each subject along with aspects of learning that are common to all Technologies subjects. Subjectspecific terminology and organisation reflect the essential characteristics of learning in each subject. The achievement standards also reflect differences in the nature and scope of the learning in each Technologies subject, as well as the relationship between the interrelated strands: Knowledge and understanding and Processes and production skills. Achievement standards will be accompanied by portfolios of annotated student work samples that illustrate the expected learning and help teachers to make judgments about whether students have achieved the standard.
3. Aims and Objectives
3.1. Investigate, design, plan, manage, create and evaluate solutions
3.2. are creative, innovative and enterprising when using traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies, and understand how technologies have developed over time
3.3. make informed and ethical decisions about the role, impact and use of technologies in the economy, environment and society for a sustainable future
3.4. engage confidently with and responsibly select and manipulate appropriate technologies − materials, data, systems, components, tools and equipment − when designing and creating solutions
3.5. critique, analyse and evaluate problems, needs or opportunities to identify and create solutions.
3.6. These aims are extended and complemented by specific aims for each Technologies subject.
4. Cross-curriculum Priorities
4.1. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures
4.2. Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
4.3. Sustainability
5. General Capabilites
5.1. Literacy
5.2. Numeracy
5.3. ICT
5.4. Critical and creative thinking
5.5. Personal and social capability
5.6. Ethical understanding
5.7. Intercultural understanding
6. Key Ideas
6.1. Systems thinking and the overarching idea: Creating preferred futures
6.2. Project management
7. Content Descriptions
7.1. The Australian Curriculum: Technologies includes content descriptions at each band level. These describe the knowledge, understanding and skills that teachers are expected to teach and students are expected to learn. Content descriptions do not prescribe approaches to teaching in the Technologies subjects. The content descriptions have been written to ensure that learning is ordered appropriately and that unnecessary repetition is avoided. However, a concept or skill introduced in one band level may be revisited, strengthened and extended in later band levels. Content descriptions are grouped to illustrate the clarity and sequence of development of concepts through and across the band levels. They support the ability to see the connections across strands and the sequential development of concepts from Foundation to Year 10.
8. Content Elaborations
8.1. Content elaborations are provided for Foundation to Year 10 as support material to illustrate and exemplify what is to be taught and to assist teachers in developing a shared understanding of the content descriptions. They are not intended to be comprehensive content points that all students need to be taught nor do they encompass every aspect of a content description.
9. Key Concepts
9.1. •Abstraction, which underpins all content, particularly the content descriptions relating to the concepts of data representation and specification, algorithms and implementation
9.2. Data collection (properties, sources and collection of data), data representation (symbolism and separation) and data interpretation (patterns and contexts)
9.3. Specification (descriptions and techniques), algorithms (following and describing) and implementation (translating and programming)
9.4. Digital systems (hardware, software, and networks and the internet)
9.5. Interactions (people and digital systems, data and processes) and impacts (sustainability and empowerment).
10. Rationale
10.1. Technologies enrich and impact on the lives of people and societies globally. Australia needs enterprising individuals who can make discerning decisions about the development and use of technologies and who can independently and collaboratively develop solutions to complex challenges and contribute to sustainable patterns of living. Technologies can play an important role in transforming, restoring and sustaining societies and natural, managed, and constructed environments. The Australian Curriculum: Technologies will ensure that all students benefit from learning about and working with traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies that shape the world in which we live. This learning area encourages students to apply their knowledge and practical skills and processes when using technologies and other resources to create innovative solutions, independently and collaboratively, that meet current and future needs. The practical nature of the Technologies learning area engages students in critical and creative thinking, including understanding interrelationships in systems when solving complex problems. A systematic approach to experimentation, problem-solving, prototyping and evaluation instils in students the value of planning and reviewing processes to realise ideas. All young Australians should develop capacity for action and a critical appreciation of the processes through which technologies are developed and how technologies can contribute to societies. Students need opportunities to consider the use and impact of technological solutions on equity, ethics, and personal and social values. In creating solutions, as well as responding to the designed world, students consider desirable sustainable patterns of living, and contribute to preferred futures for themselves and others. This rationale is extended and complemented by specific rationales for each Technologies subject.
11. Subjects
11.1. Digital Technologies
11.1.1. Knowledge and Understanding
11.1.1.1. Digital Systems
11.1.1.2. Representation of Data
11.1.2. Processes and Production skills
11.1.2.1. Collecting, managing and analysing data
11.1.2.1.1. Defining
11.1.2.1.2. Designing
11.1.2.1.3. Implementing
11.1.2.1.4. Evaluating
11.1.2.1.5. Collaborating and managing
11.2. Design and Technologies
11.2.1. Knowledge and Understanding
11.2.1.1. Technologies and Society
11.2.1.2. Technologies contexts
11.2.2. Processes and Production skills
11.2.2.1. Creating designed solutions
11.2.2.1.1. Investigating
11.2.2.1.2. Generating
11.2.2.1.3. Producing
11.2.2.1.4. Evaluating
11.2.2.1.5. Collaborating and managing