Digital technologies / Year 7 and 8 / Digital Technologies Processes and Production Skills

Curriculum content descriptions

Define and decompose real-world problems taking into account functional requirements and economic, environmental, social, technical and usability constraints (ACTDIP027)

Elaborations
  • determining the factors that influence proposed solution ideas, for example user age affects the language used for instructions, dexterity affects the size of buttons and links, hearing or vision loss influence captioned or audio-described multimedia as alternative ways that common information is presented on a website
  • investigating types of environmental constraints of solutions, for example reducing energy consumption and on-screen output of solutions
  • identifying that problems can be decomposed into sub elements, for example creating a decision tree to represent the breakdown and relationships of sub elements to the main problem or identifying the elements of game design such as characters, movements, collisions and scoring
  • starting from a simplified system, gradually increase complexity until a model of a real-world system is developed, and record the difficulties associated with each stage of implementation
General capabilities
  • Literacy Literacy
  • Critical and creative thinking Critical and creative thinking
  • ICT capability Information and Communication Technology (ICT) capability
  • Ethical understanding Ethical understanding
Cross-curriculum priorities
ScOT terms

Information and communication technologies,  Problem solving,  Functionality,  Usability

Online

Robotics and embedded systems

This is a unit for Year 8 from the Scope and sequence resources from the DT Hub. The topic of creating a digital solution is organised into four key elements. Use this flow of activities to plan and assess students against the relevant achievement standards. Students follow the problem solving process to design and create ...

Online

Computational thinking

Find out about Computational thinking. Use this topic from the Digital Technologies Hub to learn more, get ideas about how to teach about it, find out what other schools are doing and use the applications and games in the classroom.

Online

Design thinking

Find out about Design thinking. Use this topic from the Digital Technologies Hub to learn more, get ideas about how to teach about it, find out what other schools are doing and use the applications and games in the classroom.

Online

Create an app or game

This is a unit for Year 7 from the Scope and sequence resources from the DT Hub. The topic of creating a digital solution is organised into four key elements. Use this flow of activities to plan and assess students against the relevant achievement standards. Students follow the problem solving process to design and create ...

Interactive

Design thinking across the curriculum

This cross-curriculum resource is designed to introduce Stage 2, 3 and 4 students to the design thinking process through a series of videos and interactive activities. This resource is also downloadable as a SCORM file: the downloaded version will only work if you upload it to a webserver, such as Moodle or Canvas.

Video

Connecting Digital Technologies to food and fibre - Smart gardens 1

This video explores ways in which students can develop and apply their Digital Technologies knowledge, understanding and skills to create a digital solution through the Curriculum connection of food and fibre. The video is designed for educators who would like to learn how to use a BBC micro:bit to manage the water requirements ...

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Computational thinking cut out cards

This set of printable cards provides definitions of six aspects of computational thinking.

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Tutorial: Python

This tutorial provides detailed instructions to support the learning of Python, a general purpose programming language. The tutorial is designed for educators who are learning to use Python.

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Creating a digital start line and finish line with micro:bits: years 7-8

This PDF provides a sequence of activities in which students create algorithms to measure the time taken for a vehicle to travel from a starting line to a finish line. Students connect micro:bits and laser receiver sensors to measure time, then create programs to undertake the timing using visual and general-purpose programming.

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Classroom ideas: Micro:bit environmental measurement (visual and general-purpose programming): years 5-8

This tutorial shows ways in which environmental factors such as lighting and temperature can be measured and improved using micro:bits and sensor boards, and programmed using pseudocode, visual programming and general-purpose programming.

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Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies Years 7–10 achievement standards and aligned content descriptions on a page

This PDF presents content descriptions and achievement standards for the Digital Technologies subject in the Australian Curriculum

Video

Data knowledge and skills tutorial: part 1 - gathering data

This video demonstrates ways in which data can be manipulated in spreadsheets. It is the first in a series of four.

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Data knowledge and skills tutorial: part 3 - structuring data in a spreadsheet

This video demonstrates ways in which data can be structured in spreadsheets. It is the third in a series of four.

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Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies: years 7-8

This PDF provides a line of sight from content descriptions to achievement standards in the Digital Technologies subject in the Australian Curriculum.

Video

DTiF Classroom Exploring AI in the Classroom: Activity discussion

Digital Technologies in Focus curriculum officers discuss a lesson about Artificial Intelligence with Simon Collier and a student.

Video

DTiF in conversation with Kevin Bradley and Cassandra Arkinstall from Save the Bilby Fund – Using Digital Technologies to help save bilbies

Kevin Bradley, CEO of Save the Bilby Fund, and Cassandra Arkinstall, a researcher and volunteer at Save the Bilby Fund explain how important digital technologies are in the campaign to save the bilby from extinction. The video explains how digital systems are used to collect and visualise data and help eradicate threats ...

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Computational thinking poster

This infographic provides an overview overview of the concepts related to computational thinking.

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ACARA sample assessment task: years 7-8

This resource provides strategies for assessing students' understanding of the ways in which data can be sourced, organised and represented to maximise options for analysis, evaluation, decomposition and visualisation in order to create digital solutions. The context of the resource is the liveability of the places in which ...

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Micro:bit missions: Take a chance on me (Integrating Mathematics): years 6-8

This resource comprises two activities that allow students to explore the concept of chance in Mathematics. Students use computational thinking while using a micro:bit as a digital system to generate and collect data. Students implement programs involving branching and iteration in visual and general-purpose programming languages.

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Scratch 3.0 tutorial

This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions to support the learning of Scratch, a visual programming language. The tutorial is designed for educators who would like to learn how to use Scratch.