NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

© State of NSW, Department of Education and Communities, 2012, NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre NSW, Department of Education and Communities, 2012, NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

TechTalk NSW Curriculum eNews Technologies 7-12

Inside this issue

Upcoming Exhibition

Australian Curriculum —

Technologies

Folio Parameters in DT and IT

HSC Online

Competitions

Spacewise

Welcome to the Technologies on-line e-Newsletter – FIRST ISSUE We would like to welcome you to the first edition of TECHTalk - the

e-newsletter for teachers of all Technology subjects 7—12.

Our intention is to send this publication once a term. If you do not

wish to receive this, please unsubscribe here. If you have been for-

warded TECHTalk by others, email us your details.

Upcoming Exhibition Nick Mount: Glass 8 September – 3 November 2012 A new series of work by one of Aus-tralia’s leading glass artists, Nick Mount. Part of Object’s Living Treasures: Masters of Australian Craft series. OBJECT GALLERY & COLLECT

Term 2 2012 Volume 1

Issue 1

NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

© State of NSW, Department of Education and Communities, 2012, NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre NSW, Department of Education and Communities, 2012, NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

“NSW needs a strong voice in the development of the Australian Curriculum: Tech-nologies to main-tain the strength, depth and diver-sity of Technolo-gy education in our State.”

Australian Curriculum: Technologies

The Draft Shape Paper for Technol-ogies was released mid-March for public consultation and feedback. This was the first opportunity for teachers, to see the direction posed by ACARA for the develop-ment of the Australian Curriculum in Technologies. The paper proposes that Technolo-gies comprises two strands for Foundation-Year 8 and two sub-jects Years 9-12: Design and tech-nologies and Digital technologies, with the option for specialised technologies subjects offered from Years 9-12 to be developed by the states and territories. The DEC consultation process in-volved an on line survey, briefings across DEC directorates, a series of focus groups to help inform our response and several videoconfer-ences which were repeated due to

teacher demand. In general, the response to the Draft Shape Paper has been divided. Many teachers expressed concern about the time allocated to the various stages for Technologies and disagreed with the proposed structure to divide Technologies into the two strands/subjects. The response to the sur-vey was staggering with more than 180 respondents and in excess of 150 teachers joining in the vide-oconferences. The feedback gathered will become part of the NSW response to ACARA. The draft Australian Curric-ulum: Technologies is due for com-pletion January 2013. There will then be a consultation period be-fore the final curriculum which will be published by the end of 2013.

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Expression of Interest ACARA is currently calling for teachers with extensive knowledge, understanding and expertise in one or more technology specialisa-tions to register an Expression of Interest for inclusion on a register of curriculum writers. NSW needs a strong voice in the develop-ment of the Australian Curriculum: Technologies to maintain the strength, depth and diversity of Technology education in our State. Information about how to register can be found at http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/technologies.html

NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

© State of NSW, Department of Education and Communities, 2012, NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre NSW, Department of Education and Communities, 2012, NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

HSC Online

Encourage your students to use NSW HSC online. http://www.hsc.csu. edu.au/ This is a joint venture between Charles Sturt University and the Department of Education & Communities.

REMINDER: FOLIO PARAMETERS IN DT AND IT

The 2011 HSC cohort were the first

to experience the changes from the

Board of Studies restricting the num-

ber of pages students could submit

for documentation of their design

process in DT and IT.

While any change is always viewed

with some caution, this should be

considered carefully particularly in

DT, where folios were becoming in-

creasingly longer. Some students

believed that they needed to pro-

duce more volume than the previ-

ous cohort in order to achieve better

marks. The result was frequently

padding, and irrelevant or unneces-

sary research and testing that did

not contribute to meaningful design

modification or development. The

changes were generally well re-

ceived and the new rules adhered to

by the majority of students. It

should be noted that projects not

following the new parameters were

subject to a marking penalty and

were not considered for exhibition

as they were in breach of the Board of

Studies rules.

So what advice can we give students –

stick to the parameters, be selective in

what you include to show process and

real design development and foster the

use of 3D communication wherever

possible in the design/testing/

development of projects. Material

based 3D modelling or proto-typing

must be stressed as an essential com-

munication media. To view the parame-

ters go to the Reporting and Assessing

Document on the DT and IT BOS site

under HSC Syllabuses.

For more information, click here.

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NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

© State of NSW, Department of Education and Communities, 2012, NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre NSW, Department of Education and Communities, 2012, NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

Competitions

AUSTRALIAN RECYCLED CARDBOARD ARC NATIONAL

SCHOOL COMPETITION

http://www.arc.org.au/?page_id=3 Entries close 14 September 2012

UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG YEAR 11 AND YEAR 12

ENGINEERING STUDIES COMPETITION

http://www.uow.edu.au/eng/highschoolcompetition/index.html

Entries close 14 September 2012

UNIVERSITY OF WOLLONGONG YEAR 11 AND YEAR 12

DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGY

COMPETITION

www.uow.edu.au/eng/highschoolcompetition Entries close 14 September 2012

The non- DEC products and events listed in this eNews are to be used at the reader’s discretion. The inclusion of product and event information is not an endorsement by the DEC.

NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

© State of NSW, Department of Education and Communities, 2012, NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre NSW, Department of Education and Communities, 2012, NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

Australian Curriculum –

Which one will we use?

In NSW the Education Act of 1990

states that, “Any syllabus devel-

oped or endorsed by the Board for

a particular course of study is to

indicate the aims,

objectives and desired outcomes

in terms of knowledge and skills

that should be acquired by chil-

dren at various levels of achieve-

ment by the end of specified stag-

es in the course, and any practical

experience that children should

acquire by the end of any such

stage.”

Board of Studies syllabus

As the Australian curriculum does

not state aims, objectives and

outcomes, the NSW Board of

Studies will produce syllabus doc-

uments for use in NSW even

when there is an Australian Na-

tional Curriculum.

The Board of Studies is continuing

the development of the K –10 syl-

labus for Science (incorporating

Science and Technology K-6). Ref-

erence is made throughout the

draft syllabus to the Australian

National Curriculum.

NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

© State of NSW, Department of Education and Communities, 2012, NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre NSW, Department of Education and Communities, 2012, NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre

Better public places and spaces

Learning Resource

Spacewise is an online learning resource to support Built

Environment Education in stage 4. The materials are tailored

to support teaching that meets the requirements of the NSW

Years 7 - 8 Technology (Mandatory) syllabus.

It is accompanied by a comprehensive teacher resource

package

For more information click here

A stage 3 resource will be available in Term 3

Sandra McKee Senior Curriculum Support Officer, Technologies K-12 NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre 3a Smalls Road Ryde, 2112 T: (02) 98867652 F: (02) 98867163 www.clic.det.nsw.edu.au

Tanya Coli Senior Curriculum Support Officer, Technologies K– 12 NSW Curriculum and Learning Innovation Centre 3a Smalls Road Ryde, 2112 T: (02) 9886 7652 F: (02) 98867154 www.clic.det.nsw.edu.au

Spacewise