February 2010

Unit Standards

Hello there

First letter from the President for the year – and what an exciting year it promises to be.

Unit Standards

Thank you Max for organising the successful ‘Month of Unit Standards’ initiative. I trust it has been of value to all who contributed and all who accessed the material. This resource is still available, and Max will keep you updated on future initiatives.

Achievement Standards

Great progress has been made in this area. Meetings were held in Wellington during first week of the December holidays, and again at the end of January, after an interim consultation and feedback with selected groups. At the end of the three intensive days last week, we have a good ‘pool’ of Achievement Standards for level 1 in the Technology Learning Area. These are roughly divided into Generic Technology with 9 achievement Standards worth approximately 40 credits; Graphics and Design with 9 achievement Standards worth approximately 30 credits; Digital Technologies with 12 achievement Standards worth approximately 35 credits; Processing/Manufacturing/Construction with 8 achievement Standards worth approximately 30 credits. No Achievement Standard is compulsory and there is a good mix of external and internal assessments. In the Digital Technologies area, there are at least two AS in each of the five areas of Programming & Computer Science, Digital Media, Digital Information, Digital Infrastructure and Electronics. Final numbers and names of AS and ‘Technology subjects’ will still be confirmed, but with the MOE recommending courses of approximately 14 to 20 credits, there is a big enough pool of assessments to give teachers amazing choice in designing courses for their students.
A news article in January indicated that employers are looking for students with multi-discipline skills. So think in terms of designing courses that have content from a combination of DT strands. For example, at our school we are considering offering two courses in year 11 in 2011: one with a focus on Digital Information, Digital Media and perhaps some programming; and one with a focus on Programming & Computer Science, Digital Infrastructure and some Digital Information. Still looking where we offer electronics option. Bear in mind that not everything you teach needs to be assessed. So, we may teach the fundamentals of tech practice in project development with planning, testing, evaluating etc., as part of say, developing a media product, but may not necessarily assess this.
Another school may look at offering a course with a focus on Digital Infrastructure, Electronics  and tech practice. So whether your school offers one or more courses at year 11 – you have a choice in what you could teach and assess.
I suggest you look at the Achievement Objectives as set out in the TCKS, as the AS are based on these, to get you thinking about possible courses you may wish to offer next year, and how this may progress up into the higher levels. Focus on content, not AS. I don’t have all the answers, and it will be a learning curve for all of us, but we have so much more than we ever had before, and together I’m sure we will achieve much for and with our students.
The timeframe is very tight, but these draft AS will come out in late March for the wider consultation. Comments and suggestions will be considered in May, and then these level 1 AS will be on the same time frame as all other subjects AS by being published in July and registered by November ready for next year. Rest assured that the MOE are working hard behind the scenes to make this all possible.
In the April holidays we will start writing for the level 2 AS (still a year behind the other subjects – but getting there!)

Teaching and Learning Guides

A major task this year is the writing of the Teaching and Learning Guides. This process is already under way, and further meetings will be held in March. This is an important document as it will give guidelines on content, and possible contexts for teaching each of the Achievement Objectives. Again there is a recognised process; however the MOE representative works closely with subject associations and preliminary talks I have had have been very positive and constructive.

Exemplars of Assessment tasks and Student work

This task has been contracted by the MOE to Learning Media for all subjects. It was acknowledged by MOE at the Jan/Feb meeting that it would disadvantage current students to trial these tasks this year as it would take time away from their current course and there would be no credits for them as the AS are not yet registered. Also, we have not had the opportunity to do the variety of DT teaching in level 1. So please be aware that tasks and student work are a ‘best effort’ in the current constraints. They will be helpful as a guide, and as we get more people writing assessments next year, and students work, these resources will improve, and hopefully be posted on the NZACDITT website.

DTG

This initiative fulfils a very important ‘third tier’ of resources for teachers. Firstly, there are two paid days of Professional Development for contributing schools in the first two terms. This will help considerably in helping teachers wanting to take a step in a new area, upskilling themselves, or getting a taster of what is possible, and giving them confidence in getting new courses going next year.
The DTG participation is also important in that contributing schools are requested to contribute a unit of work on a topic. This will be of help to those teachers who may be teaching a new topic for the first time next year. When the DTG contract is closed, NZACDITT will continue this resource development.
Schools that are not officially part of the DTG are still able to attend meetings; however they will have to pay for release/transport on training days.
Be prepared for a training day in March.

NZACDITT committee

The committee are having their first meeting next Friday by audio conference. Each member has a portfolio to look after.
The groups and leaders are:

Please contact the committee member directly if there is any comment, suggestion or query you wish to make in any of these areas. If there is anything currently, it would be helpful to let the committee member know by Thursday 18 Feb so it can be discussed at committee meeting.

Membership

Membership fees for 2010 are now due. Please get these in to the treasurer as soon as possible. Please refer to the website for details.

 General

Please note the Confluence symposium being organised in September by the Electronics group. There is also a Moodle conference in Christchurch in April. And the date of our symposium at the end of the year will be given to you as soon as possible. Keep an eye on the events section of our website, and make a point of visiting the site at least once a week or fortnight (or more often!) to keep up to date.

Remember, ‘baby steps’ with planning your courses for next year. Look at your current Year 10s, and think what you would like to teach. Don’t try and change it all. Little incremental changes are good. There is so much change going on with new NZ curriculum, alignment of standards and day-to-day teaching – look after yourselves – you are the most important resource our students have.
Best wishes for the year,
Vilna