Teachers should establish if students have developed robust level seven understandings and are ready to begin working towards level eight achievement objectives for the nature of technology and plan learning experiences to progress these as guided by the level eight Indicators below.

Characteristics of Technology

Characteristics of Technological Outcomes

Achievement Objective

Students will:

• Understand the implications of technology as intervention by design and how interventions have consequences, known and unknown, intended and unintended.

Achievement Objective

Students will:

• Understand how Technological Outcomes can be interpreted and justified as fit for purpose in their historical, cultural, social, and geographical locations.

Teacher Guidance

To support students to develop understanding of characteristics of technology at level 8, teachers could:

• support students to critically analyse examples of technological developments and their consequences, known and unknown and intended and unintended, to gain insight into the social responsibility technologists have due to the interventionist nature of technology. Examples should allow students to gain insight into how technology has real and long term impacts for the made, natural and social world. Students should be supported to discuss the implications this has for Technological collective responsibility
• support students to understand that technology can challenge people's views of what it is to be 'human'. Contexts for exploration could include contemporary developments in the area of communication technologies, artificial intelligence, human-robotic interfaces, second-life gaming, genetic engineering, nanotechnology etc.
• support students to explore and critique the role of technology in the creation of sustainable environments. This would include discussion of such things as the ethics of designing for limited Technological Outcome lifespan, designing to comply with minimal engineering ideals, utilizing and developing sustainable materials, reducing energy consumption and waste, developing and managing socio-technological environments, etc.

Teacher Guidance

To support students to develop understanding of characteristics of Technological Outcomes at level 8, teachers could:

• provide students with opportunity to extend their understanding of fitness for purpose. This extended notion is called 'fitness for purpose in its broadest sense' and refers to the 'fitness' of the outcome itself as well as the practices used to develop the outcome (e.g. such things as the sustainability of resources used, ethical nature of testing practices, cultural appropriateness of trialling procedures, determination of lifecycle and ultimate disposal);
• support students to explore the implications of a commitment to developing Technological Outcomes that are fit for purpose in the broadest sense on the design, development and manufacturing of Technological Outcomes;
• support students to critically analyse a range of Technological Outcomes to evaluate their fitness for purpose, in its broadest sense. The evaluation will be based on the physical and functional nature of the outcome, the historical, cultural, social, and geographical location of the final outcome as well as its development, and any information available regarding its performance over time;
• support students to explore possible benefits and disadvantages of employing the notion of fitness for purpose in its broadest sense in different contexts related to the design and development, manufacture, evaluation and analysis of Technological Outcomes.

Indicators

Students can:

• discuss technology as intervention by design and explain the impacts and implications of this
• discuss why technology can challenge people's views of what it is to be 'human'
• critique the role of technology in the development of sustainable environments
• discuss future scenarios where technology plays out different roles and justify projected impacts.

Indicators

Students can:

• discuss the implications of viewing fitness for purpose in its broadest sense on the design and development of Technological Outcomes;
• discuss the implications of viewing fitness for purpose in its broadest sense on the manufacture of Technological Outcomes;
• justify the fitness for purpose, in its broadest sense, of Technological Outcomes;
• debate the value of employing the notion of 'fitness for purpose in its broadest sense' as related to: the design and development, manufacture, evaluation and analysis of Technological Outcomes.