Level 6

Years

Learning Focus

Key experiences to draw on for relevant teaching and learning activities

Standards

9 & 10

As students work towards the achievement of Level 6 standards in Information and Communications Technology, they use complex ICT tools and techniques to visually represent, model, reframe and refine their thinking to assist in developing new understanding. For example, they can represent causal reasoning by using graphic organisers such as cause-and-effect diagrams, influence diagrams and explore and represent the interdependence between different components of a situation by using expert systems, spreadsheets and microworlds. By changing the values of some variable components, students can visualise the effect of these on the constant components to assist their understanding.

In addition to recording and evaluating the decisions and actions taken when developing new understanding and solving problems, students learn to assess their suitability for new situations and make adaptations where necessary.

Working in real and virtual teams, students collaboratively develop conventions for storing and presenting information (such as style guides, filenames, file structure, file access rights) to create information products and solve problems set in real-world contexts in all areas of the curriculum. They investigate threats to data security, such as accidental loss (failure to follow file management procedures), stealing (files from a network), and data corruption by viruses and hackers. This investigation could focus on the preventative actions taken by businesses within the local community to protect their data and information. They apply ICT techniques and privacy law principlesto protect individualand team files from unauthorised access and accidental damage.

Students, individually and in teams, use ICT to make detailed project plans that sequence tasks to be done, resources needed and timelines for completion. They annotate these plans to explain changes made during the execution of tasks. When selecting hardware and software for each task, students consider the capabilities and limitations of these tools and recognise that their choice is influenced by the characteristics of the data to be manipulated. Students consider new or emerging ICT used in workplaces, and how their new capabilities would change the way students processdata and information when developing information products.

Students consistentlyapply commonly accepted ICT presentation conventions and use efficient procedures and techniques to solve problems, and create quality information products that fulfil their purpose. For example, templates, macros and keyboard shortcuts reduce the time taken to process data and increase the accuracy of creating solutions and products. Also, using checklists helps confirm the completeness of products and proofreading assists in detecting typographical and readability errors.

Students accept and respect differences in others’ approaches to using ICT for solving problems and designing products, and respect cultural diversity among users of ICT; for example, using icons on a website to indicate functions such as print and mail, which are universally recognised, and using symbols that are not offensive to different cultures. Students use ICT techniques to make their information products accessible to a wide audience, taking into account special needs. For example, providing options to view a website in different font sizes assists visually impaired people, and transcripts of audio material assist the hearing impaired.

Thinking with ICT tools

Represent, model, reframe, refine thinking
Annotate and justify changes

ICT for visualising thinking

At Level 6, students use a range of ICT tools and data types to visualise their thinking strategies when solving problems and developing new understanding.

They use visualising thinking tools and apply ICT techniques to support causal reasoning and to model and describe the dynamic relationship between variable and constant data values to test hypotheses.

Students are efficient and effective in their use of appropriate ICT tools and editing techniques for assisting in visualising thinking.

When solving problems, students discriminate between such tools and strategies based on their suitability for problem solving in new situations.

ICT for creating

At Level 6, students appraise different strategies for organising and managingresources involved in problem solving and creating information products.

They use ICT to devise detailed plans that sequence tasks to be done, resources needed, and timelines for completion.

They annotate their plans to explain changes made during the project.

ICT for communicating

At Level 6, students exchange ideas and considered opinions with others through online forums and websites.

Students apply techniques to locate more precise information from websites, including searching general and specialised directories, and applying proximity operators.

They use accepted protocols to communicate regularly online with peers, experts, and others, expressing their messages in language appropriate to the selected form of communication, and demonstrating respect for cultural differences.

Information products

Collaborative (real and virtual team) projects
Detailed project plans
Conventions
Audience suitability
Efficiency
Ethical considerations
Privacy laws
Self-evaluation criteria