Key Differences: ICT General Cability vs Digital Technologies "Field of Study"

1. AUSTRALIAN
CURRICULUM:
TECHNOLOGIES
Peter Carey- February , 2013

2. KEY DIFFERENCE:
THE “ ICT GENERAL CAPABILITY” AND AUSTRALIAN
CURRICULUM SUBJECT “DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES”
Because of the way the Australian Curriculum is
presented - using content descriptors, the ICT
General Capability is not about the use of ICT as a
pedagogical tool although that may contribute to a
student's capability … it is about the knowledge,
skills and attitudes about ICT itself in order to use
the technology both now (life & school tasks within
the curriculum been delivered) and in the future
(life &careers.

3. KEY DIFFERENCE:
THE “ ICT GENERAL CAPABILITY” AND AUSTRALIAN
CURRICULUM SUBJECT “DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES”
Although all areas of the curriculum will
contribute to a student's ICT capability. On its
own this would not be systematic or
comprehensive. Therefore the Digital
Technologies subject takes responsibility for
ensuring children develop a systematic and
comprehensive capability, making use of the
contributions of other areas, and going beyond
the minimum requirements of the ICT General
Capability. This is the same relationship as Maths

4. THE ICT GENERAL CAPABILITY
“isakey dimension of the Australian
Curriculum, and should be taught in the
content of the learning areas …
… it underpins and informs our learning
and teaching and should be explicit i.e.
clearly Identified within each learning
area subject program”…

5. THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
What are the General Capabilities?
The Australian Curriculum is underpinned by seven (7)
General Capabilities. These are:
• Literacy
• Numeracy
• Information &communication technology capability
• Critical and creative thinking
• Ethical behaviour
• Personal and social capability
• Intercultural understanding.

6. FROM A BROADER PERSPECTIVE
… THE NOTION OF GENERAL CAPABILITIES ARE NOT NEW! …
In Australia, there are a number of existing arrangements to address general
capabilities/non-technical skills:
 Employability Skills Frameworkused in the Vocational Education and Training
sector.
 Graduate Attributesdeveloped by universities.
 Australian Core Skills Framework, foundation skills for the workforce.
 The Australian Blueprint for Career Development, which addresses career
management competencies considered essential for life long learning.
 The Australian Qualifications Framework, which spans all education and training
sectors, also refers to four broad categories of Generic Skills.
 The Overarching Outcomes, WA Curriculum Framework, and now the
 General Capabilities that form part of the new Australian Curriculum for schools.
(EMPLOYABILITY SKILLS FRAMEWORK STAGE 1, FINAL REPORT , DEEWR, JANUARY 2012).

7. THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
ARE THOSE CAPABILITIES DEEMED ESSENTIAL TO ASSIST
STUDENTS „MANAGE THEIR LIFE, LEARNING AND WORK‟
THROUGHOUT THEIR LIFESPAN.
They are the knowledge, skills, behaviours and dispositions that
will assist students to live and work as successful independent
learners and as active, confident, creative and informed
individuals (Shape of the Australian Curriculum – ACARA,
December 2010).

8. THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
Where can I find more Information
about the General Capabilities?
 Overviews that describe the nature,
scope and significanceof each General
Capability are on the General Capabilities
section of the Australian Curriculum
website.

9. THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
The Capabilities are Identified by these symbols in the
Curriculum:

10. THE CAPABILITIES IN THE LEARNING AREAS
The General Capabilities are addressed through the
learning areas and are identified where they offer
opportunities to add depth and richness to student
learning in content elaborations.
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/English/Curriculum/F-10

11. RESOURCE SUPPORT – C.N.A. SCOOTLE
Go to http://ims.cathednet.wa.edu.au
ID: <surname.firstname> Password: <your CathEdNet email password>
Another Resource Foundation - 10 “ICT across four Domains”
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1dA5idOGlWJdOHSgNhhMnNjTJpVtqdLwSLoatFo0vOhk

12. • CATHOLIC NETWORK AUSTRALIA (C.N.A.)
Models of Contemporary Learning
Collaborative Spaces

13. THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
All of the Seven (7) General Capabilities
(including the ICT Capability) has three
sections:
 Introduction
 Organising elements
 A continuum across stages of schooling

14. THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
The ICT Capability
 Introduction
“…The capability involves students in
learning to make the most of the digital
technologies available to them, adapting to
new ways of doing things as technologies
evolve and limiting the risks to themselves
and others in a digital environment…

15. THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
 The Organising Elements
The ICT capability is organised into five (5) interrelated elements:
• Investigating with ICT
• Creating with ICT
• Communicating with ICT
• Managing and operating ICT
• Applying social and ethical protocols and practices

16. THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
 The ICT Continuum Across Stages of
Schooling

17. THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
Teaching and assessment of General
Capabilities
 Teachers are expected to teach and assess
General Capabilities to the extent that they
are incorporated and identified within
each learning area.

18. THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
How are the General Capabilities in
the Australian Curriculum Evident in
your Learning Area?
 Good teaching in each of the learning areas will
always contribute to a student‟s development of
General Capabilities.
How do you presently cover the capabilities?
Discuss this in your learning area!
 Source: Australian Curriculum Site: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Overview/General-
capabilities-in-the-learning-areas
 Source: ACARA: Shaping Papers: Phase 2 and 3 -http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/curriculum.html
e.g. Languages Shaping Paper Page 35

19. THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
How are the General Capabilities
Evident in the Australian Curriculum?
 The Australian Curriculum reinforces this expectation by incorporating these
seven (7) General Capabilities into learning area content descriptions in ways
appropriate to each learning area.
Which of the seven (7) General Capabilities will you incorporate in
appropriate ways into your learning area?
 Source: Australian Curriculum Site: http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/GeneralCapabilities/Overview/General-
capabilities-in-the-learning-areas
 Source: ACARA: Shaping Papers: Phase 2 and 3-http://www.acara.edu.au/curriculum/curriculum.html

20. CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT PHASES
Phase 1 Phase 2 Phase 3
Health and
English Geography Physical
Education
Design and
Mathematics Languages
Technology &
Digital
Technologies
Science The Arts
Economics,
Business, Civics
and Citizenship
History

21. DEVELOPMENT AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM
The Australian Curriculum developed by ACARA:
 is being written for F-10 and Years 11-12
 is described in Bands- F-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12
 has content descriptions not outcomes

22. THE TECHNOLOGIES LEARNING AREA
 Australian Curriculum: Technologies adopted to reflect the
range of technologies addressed in schools
 Australian Curriculum:
2 strands F-8 and 2 subjects Years 9-12
 Design and Technologies
 Digital Technologies

23. BACKGROUND
Design and Technologies – students learn to develop and apply
technologies knowledge, process and production skills
to design, produce and evaluate solutions using
traditional, contemporary and emerging technologies for
real-world needs, opportunities, end users, clients or
consumers in a range of technologies contexts.
Digital Technologies – students learn to develop and apply technical
knowledge, process and computational thinking skills,
including algorithmic logic and abstraction, to transform data
into information solutions for real-world needs, opportunities,
end users, clients or consumers in a range of technologies
contexts.

24. AIMS OF TECHNOLOGIES CURRICULUM
The Australian Curriculum: Technologies will aim to develop students who:
• are creative, innovative and enterprising when using traditional,
contemporary and emerging technologies
• effectively and responsibly select and use appropriate technologies,
materials, information, systems, tools and equipment when designing and
creating socially, economically and environmentally sustainable products,
services or environments
• critique, evaluate and apply thinking skills and technologies processes that
people use to shape their world, and to transfer that learning to other technology
situations
• individually and collaboratively plan, manage, create and produce
solutions to purposeful technology projects for personal, local, national and
global settings
• engage confidently with and make informed, ethical decisions about
technologies for personal wellbeing, recreation, everyday life, the world of work
and preferred futures.

25. STRUCTURE OF THE AUSTRALIAN
CURRICULUM: TECHNOLOGIES
 The Australian Curriculum: Technologies comprises two strands:
Design and technologies & Digital technologies.
 All students will study both Design and Technologies and Digital
Technologies from Foundation to the end of Year 8.
 Schools may choose to integrate the strands in teaching and
learning programs F-8.
 In Years 9–12, students will be able to choose from a range
of subjects developed by ACARA and states and territories. In
WA this will involve the existing elective subjects in the
Technologies Curriculum.

26. THE OVERARCHING IDEA
Engaging in Creating Preferred Futures
 A focus on preferred futures provides the methodology for identifying
and moving towards sustainable patterns of living.
 Students will engage in predicting outcomes and impacts of
technological decisions for current and future generations;
considering probable futures; and identifying the futures they would
prefer, taking into account economic, environmental and social
sustainability.
 Over time they will reconstruct and review their visions for preferred
futures through research, experience, dialogue, discussion and the
exchange of ideas.
 This overarching idea is common to Design and technologies and
Digital technologies, as both are concerned with technology, culture
and society; economic, environmental and social sustainability; and
creativity, innovation and enterprise.

27. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUB-STRANDS
Design and TechnologiesDigital Technologies
2 complementary sub-strands
 Knowledge and Understanding
 Processes and Production

28. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUB-STRANDS
Design and Technologies:
 Knowledge and Understanding:
focuses on materials, information, systems, tools and
equipment; and technologies and society. The content is
dependent on the technologies context.
 Processes and Production:
focuses on designing - identifying, exploring and critiquing a
need or opportunity; generating, researching and developing
ideas; and planning, producing and evaluating solutions that
utilise process and production skills, creativity, innovation and
enterprise to promote the development of sustainable
patterns of living.

29. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SUB-STRANDS
Digital technologies:
 Knowledge and understanding:
focuses on digital information, digital systems and
technologies, and digital technologies and society.
 Processes and Production:
focuses on formulating and investigating problems; analysing
and creating digital solutions; representing, constructing and
evaluating solutions; and utilising skills of creativity, innovation
and enterprise for sustainable patterns of living.

30. THE GENERAL CAPABILITIES
Information and
communication
Critical and creative Ethical behaviour technology (ICT)
thinking capability
Literacy
Intercultural Personal and social
Numeracy
understanding capability
Refer to pages 17 to 19 of the Shaping Paper for aspects of
each of the seven general capabilities to be embedded in the
content descriptions and/or elaborations where appropriate to
enrich and deepen student learning.

31. THE CROSS-CURRICULUM PRIORITIES
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and
cultures
Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia
Sustainability

32. THE CROSS-CURRICULUM PRIORITIES
e.g. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and
cultures have a:
 longstanding tradition of developing and utilising a
range of technologies that support sustainable
practices for local conditions.
 capacity for innovation include solutions for food
or medicinal preparation, building and architecture,
and the use of digital technologies to enhance
communication.
Refer to page 19 to 21 of the Shaping Paper
 Read pages 19 to 21 and dot down some way you
might include the Cross Curriculum Priorities in
your Technologies program.

33. ORGANISATION OF THE AUSTRALIAN
CURRICULUM: TECHNOLOGIES
The technologies curriculum is organised in the following
bands:
 Foundation to Year 2
 Years 3-4
 Years 5-6
 Years 7-8
 Years 9-10
 Senior secondary (Years 11 and 12)

34. TIME ALLOCATION
The time allocation for Design and technologies and Digital
technologies combined are:
• 60 hours across Years F–2
• 80 hours across Years 3–4
• 120 hours across Years 5–6
• 160 hours across Years 7–8
• 80 hours each across Years 9–10
• 200 to 240 hours of learning across Years 11–12 for each of
Design and technologies and Digital technologies.
 Allocation of time for teaching the Technologies learning
area will be a school authority or school-based decision.

35. DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES ACROSS THE
YEARS OF SCHOOLING
 Addresses each of the Stages.
 Specific examples of student outcomes
 Continuum of learning:
 Students will develop increasingly sophisticated
knowledge and understanding, drawn from both contemporary
and historical sources
 Students will develop increasingly sophisticated skills in
digital technologies processes and production through
applying computational thinking to create digital information
products, systems or software instructions to address digital
problems.

36. DESIGN AND TECHNOLOGIES ACROSS
THE YEARS OF SCHOOLING
 Addresses each of the Stages.
 Specific examples of content description
 Continuum of learning:
 exposure to increasingly complex range of tools, materials,
equipment, information and systems
 using increasingly sophisticated range of skills and
processes, recognising risks and adopting safe work practices
for increasingly complex problems
 Addresses specialised technologies contexts such as
agriculture, architecture, manufacturing, media design, digital
design, engineering, food technology, industrial design and
textiles in Years 9-10
Back

37. KEY QUESTIONS FOR EVALUATING
THE AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUM:
TECHNOLOGIES
What changes need to Are teachers able to
Does the scope and distinguish between the
be discussed/made in
sequence provide a ICT General Capability
your school to cater for
logical progression of and subject Digital
Technologies (Field of
learning from F-12? Technologies
Study)
Does the Draft Scope Do the two
and Sequence cater for Can the content be
covered within the strands/subjects
future options for provide an appropriate
structure and the time
students and provide balance of Technologies
frame?
specialisation? education?