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

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

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.

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Lockwood & Mooney review: Computational thinking

This article provides a literature review of how computational thinking fits into a school curriculum. The aim of the report is to provide educators with an overview of the current research in this field and the work that is being done in teaching computational thinking.

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Expert webinar video: Nathan Alison, Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria (DLTV): Focus on systems thinking. How do we teach it well?

Nathan Alison from Digital Learning and Teaching Victoria (DLTV) explains what systems thinking is and how it is used in the context of Digital Technologies. Nathan explains what we need to consider when teaching digital systems, covering topics such as networks, hardware and software protocols, people and processes.

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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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Activities that promote Digital Technologies concepts and incorporate Numeracy: part 1: Introduction and overview: accessing the Australian Curriculum National Numeracy Learning progression

This video provides an introduction to the ways in which Digital Technologies can be used to develop students' learning in the Numeracy Learning Progression.

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Faith Lutheran College – Timeline

This document presents the milestones in Faith Lutheran College's participation in the Digital Technologies in Focus project.

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Computational thinking poster

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

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Expert webinar video: Professor Tim Bell – Computational thinking

In this video, Professor Tim Bell discusses helpful ways of understanding and teaching computational thinking, a key idea of the Australian Curriculum: Technologies.

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Faith Lutheran College – – Final report

This report provides details of Faith Lutheran College's participation in the Digital Technologies in Focus project, including a Research question, criteria for success, data collection, resources, challenges, milestones and next steps.

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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.

Audio

Faith Lutheran College – Podcast

This podcast includes information about the aims, challenges, insights and accomplishments of Faith Lutheran College's participation in the Digital Technologies in Focus project.

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Voskoglou & Buckley review: Problem solving and computational thinking

This article explores the relationship between computational and critical thinking as it applies to solving technological problems. Research evidence derived from classroom experiments strongly suggests that using computers to solve problems enhances students’ abilities in solving real-world problems involving mathematical ...

Video

Expert Webinar video: Professor Stephen Heppel: The impact of environmental factors on learning

In this video Professor Stephen Heppell, discusses the aggregation of marginal gains in learning environments. He provides examples from the Learnometer project, designed to help students monitor their classroom environment for factors that may hinder learning.

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Expert webinar video: In conversation with Paul Mead from She Maps: A wide-ranging discussion from women in Technology and unconscious bias to digital systems and the ethical and safety considerations of using drone technologies

Paul Mead, from STEM education provider She Maps, discusses unconscious bias in young students and how She Maps is spreading the word about women who work with technologies in the field. He discusses digital systems and explains how geospatial systems and geographical information systems are used to collect, analyse and ...

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Faith Lutheran College – PL ecosystem

This document illustrates the network of people and resources that make up Faith Lutheran College's Professional Learning ecosystem.

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DTiF Classroom Exploring AI in the Classroom: Teacher debrief

Digital Technologies in Focus curriculum officers discuss a lesson about Artificial Intelligence and curriculum links for teachers

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Miller & Boix-Mansilla review: Thinking across perspectives and disciplines

This article explores the challenges associated with using knowledge from different domains (and people) to work on a common problem, issue or puzzle. It acknowledges that the differences in how disciplines structure their knowledge raise challenges when working across disciplinary boundaries. The article identifies these ...

Video

Expert webinar video: Dr Rebecca Vivian - The CSER Digital Technologies Education Program

Dr Rebecca Vivian provides an overview of the CSER Digital Technologies Education Project from The University of Adelaide. The project includes free professional learning, a digital equipment lending library and a range of resources designed to support teachers in the implementation of the Australian Curriculum: Digital ...

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Literature reviews: what, why and how

This PowerPoint explains the benefits and techniques of literature reviews.