information tech nology
MR ROB CLEGG
h ead of information tech nology
T
he Information Technology department runs classes in the Senior School for all year levels from Year 7 to Year 12. The department aims to give students skills and knowledge to design, develop and evaluate digital solutions and to engage with key digital technology concepts such as abstraction, digital systems, data representation, specification and algorithms. Students learn to make the most of the digital technologies available to them and gain knowledge, skills and confidence in using information technology at school. Digital technologies allow students to be creative and at the same time demand attention to detail. In Years 7 and 8, all students undertake a rotation of approximately 12 to 13 weeks in Digital Technology. The Year 7 students were introduced to basic concepts in encoding of characters and created their own animated sprites using Piskel (piskelapp.com). They then used their characters to create a game in Scratch (scratch.mit.edu). The course stressed independent learning and creativity and set the students up for further studies in coding and game design.
In Year 8, the students were taught key digital skills, including screen time management, cyber bullying management, digital footprints, privacy management and critical thinking. This was achieved through the website dqworld.net as well as through completion of workbooks and online quizzes. Students then worked in Scratch to create a Duck Hunt game. 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
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creating interesting variations and levels of difficulties. Our Year 9 and 10 students were offered elective subjects of Digital Technology – Coding and Digital Technology – Software Applications. In the coding strand, students learnt concepts in computational thinking and algorithm design and had opportunities to code in languages such as html, CSS, JavaScript, SQL and C#. Students in the software applications strand studied animation, graphic design and web design basics and current trends. Students created webpages in Wix and Dreamweaver, and developed skills in Adobe Animate, Illustrator and created motion graphics in Adobe After Effects. The senior subject offered to students by the department is Information Technology Systems (ITS). ITS is a practical discipline that prepares students to respond to emerging digital technologies and information technology trends. Students develop the knowledge of, and skills in, the systems supporting IT.
The Year 11 ITS students developed skills in graphic design for both electronic and print media, and learned to work with Adobe Fireworks and inDesign. In Semester Two, students worked on Flash animation and using Actionscript to develop their own interactive learning object.
Year 12 ITS covered website design in Semester One and game design in Semester Two. Students undertook advanced studies in HTML5 coding and CSS, developed an ePortfolio website and created 2D and 3D games using the Unity3D game engine. My thanks go to Mr Kesh Chinia for his enthusiasm and commitment to developing high quality resources and helping the academic curriculum keep up to date with changing technologies. Mr Chinia also ran the AV Club as an extra-curricular activity, giving students opportunities to engage with the emerging technologies of virtual reality, augmented reality and 3D printing.
