Information Technology

ROB CLEGG

Head of Information Technology

The Information Technology Department runs classes in the Senior School for all year levels from Year 7 to Year 12.

In Years 7 and 8, all students undertake a rotation of approximately 12 to 13 weeks in Information and Communications Technology. The Year 7 students were introduced to Flash Creative Cloud to create their own digital graphics and animations, and they then went on to create animations and games in Scratch. The course stressed independent learning and creativity and set the students up for further studies in graphic design and game design. In Year 8 ICT, the main component taught was Flash animation. The students reviewed the use of the drawing tools and the Flash workspace, as well as some basic action scripting and simple buttons. The students were then challenged to make their own animation as well as an ‘Escape the room’ game in Flash. They had to carefully work their way through a detailed tutorial to produce their game. Many students then went beyond the scope of the tutorial, creating interesting room variations and interactivity. The elective subject of Digital Design was offered to the Year 9 students. This full-year course covered the units of Graphic Design, Capturing and Manipulating Digital Still Images, Enhancing the User Experience with Adobe Flash, Digital Narratives using Adobe Flash and Digital Video: Foundations of Video Design and Production. This course built on the graphic design and animation skills learnt in Year 8 as well as introducing the students to digital-image editing and video production. The students in the Digital Design course relied heavily on the extensive course materials and lessons on the school’s Moodle site. Students, to a certain extent, could work their way through the course materials at their own pace. Work was submitted and graded electronically – a paperless course.

Students in Year 10 were able to choose two IT subjects – Information and Communications Technology and Information Technology Systems/ Robotics.

The ICT course was designed to be a more general IT course to develop skills used across a range of career choices. The course covered graphic design, Flash animation and webpages. In Flash, students were able to learn some more advanced techniques and were given the opportunity to create their own Flash game. In the webpage unit, students were given ideas on how to critique webpages and then went on to design and build their own websites.

The Robotics students developed their skills in design, developing and evaluating the context of writing Robot C programs to control their Lego Mindstorms NXT robots. They learnt the theory of problem-solving techniques and programming structures. The students were then able to create and program robots to perform a wide variety of tasks. In Years 11 and 12, the students were able to study the Information Technology Systems. Information Technology Systems (ITS) is a practical discipline that prepares students to respond to emerging digital technologies and information technology trends. The Year 11 students developed skills in graphic design for both electronic and print media, and learnt to work with Adobe Fireworks and in Design. In Semester Two, students worked on Flash animation and using Actionscript to develop their own Flash learning object. Year 12 ITS covered website design in Semester One and game design in Semester Two. Students learnt html code and CSS, developed an ePortfolio and created games in both Unity and Gamemaker.

My thanks to the teachers in the department, Mr Bryce Goldburg and Mr Mark Lockett, particularly in how they continue to develop resources for their classes and to keep up to date with changing technologies. My thanks also to Mr Lockett for his assistance in the robotics components of the Senior courses.

LISA MILLER

Head of Languages

SOPHIE BOISSERY

Coordinator of French DOREEN NG-YAP

Prep Teacher of Chinese

2014 TSS PREP CHINA STUDY TOUR REPORT

Doreen Ng-Yap, Prep School Chinese Teacher On the last day of Term Three, 19 September 2014, 15 boys from Years 5 and 6, nine parents and six staff members from the Prep School left TSS for China.

We departed early in the morning and arrived in Shanghai late at night. The next morning we explored the exotic cosmopolitan city of Shanghai, walking along the Bund, with its famous European architecture. We visited the classical Yu Garden and the Shanghai World Financial Centre to have breathtaking views of the city from the 100th floor. We browsed through the Shanghai Museum of Art and History. In the evening, we enjoyed an acrobatic show.

The next day we toured Zhujiajiao, a water village more than 1700 years old, with ancient bridges and small rivers, on a boat. We visited the Science and Technology Museum and joined a river cruise to view the lights on both sides of the riverbank at night. The experience of travelling in the Maglev train from Longyang Station to the airport to board the plane to Xian was very exciting. It took us seven minutes to the airport as the train was travelling at a speed of more than 400kmh. We arrived at the ancient city of Xi’an in the afternoon. The next day we visited the Big Wild Goose Pagoda and the Mosque, then were treated to a sumptuous Dumpling Banquet.

On our second day in Xi’an we visited the Terracotta Warriors and Horses, sculpted in 200BC to guard the Tomb of Emperor Qin upon his death. That afternoon we had a great time cycling on the Xi’an City Wall.

It took us five hours to go from Xian to Beijing by high-speed train. Arriving in Beijing, the capital city, we explored Tiananmen Square first. Then we went to the Temple of Heaven, built originally in the 15th century. The most important building is the Hall of Prayers for Good Harvest, which was constructed entirely of wood without any nails being used, truly an architectural marvel. We enjoyed Peking Duck for dinner that night. The highlight of the tour was climbing the ancient Great Wall of China. Standing on this 2000-year-old wall, 6350ms long, gave us a sense of wonder. That evening, we watched a kung fu show.