The Technological Practice Strand Explanatory Papers Updated May 2010
Planning for Practice
Senior Secondary (Years 11-13)
Learning experiences
The following learning experiences have been provided to support teachers as they develop their understanding of the Planning for Practice component of the Technological Practice strand. There is no expectation that these would form the basis of any specific unit of work in technology. The learning experiences have been summarised from classrooms across New Zealand and provide examples of student achievement across a range of levels. This stance reflects the majority of classrooms, within which it is expected that students will demonstrate a range of levels of achievement.
A group of year 11 students was provided with an opportunity to develop software to meet a specific learning need. The students were asked to identify a user with a specific learning need and investigate that need over the coming weeks. The users identified by the students had a range of needs.
One student had a ten-year-old sister who was just starting to do algebra; he wanted to make the subject fun, because when he had done it he had found it intimidating. Another wanted to create a learning programme that would teach his sister about healthy eating. Several students worked with ESOL students in the school and one worked with the school learning support unit. During the unit the students needed to learn about programming principles, interface design, coding animations and interactivity. For details of this unit please see the ICT Programming case study.
Students achieving at level 4 could:
- develop possible sketches and storylines for their programme, and use these to develop a list of resources required to support their development;
- plan future activities that would provide opportunity to develop the knowledge and skill they required to develop their programme ideas; time with their target user was planned to occur at many stages to trial design ideas and check the suitability of the programme being developed;
- develop a storyboard to communicate key ideas to others for feedback; and
- revise storyboard to serve as guide for the development of the programme.
Students achieving at level 5 could:
- reflect on previous planning decisions they had made, identifying things they did well and not so well in the past, in terms of organising their time and resources;
- evaluate possible planning tools for use in this project and select a visual diary format, a planning framework, and a storyboarding template to support their practice;
- establish and record their initial plans in a format that demonstrated they were making informed decisions about what was required of them, in terms of accessing information from their target user, guidance from their teacher and/or mentor, and their personal development of skills and knowledge in the area of programming;
- draw sketches of possible ideas for games and suggest potential storylines, using these to gain feedback from the target user before reviewing ideas for the programme;
- capture their progress to date in a visual diary, and explore the implications for what steps they needed to take next and the resources required to support this;
- develop diagramming techniques to communicate current thinking for feedback and to provide guidance for the construction of the programme; and
- evaluate progress to date, by reflecting on plans, drawing and structuring diagrams, and recording reasons for decisions made in their visual diary.
Students achieving at level 6 could:
- critically analyse their own and others' planning practices to establish personal organisational abilities, and explain how these could be enhanced through the use of well selected planning tools;
- research and evaluate a range of planning tools, to select tools justified as suitable to the context of the project and their personal organisational ability;
- draw detailed sketches of feasible ideas for games and develop potential storylines, using these to gain feedback from the target user before reviewing ideas for the programme; and
- employ the use of selected planning tools (a visual diary, updateable planning framework, and a range of diagramming templates) at different times, to best support their forward planning, and time and resource management; provide justifications for decision making in terms of the physical and social environment in which they were working and the specific requirements of the target user.
Students achieving at level 7 could:
- critically analyse their own and others' experiences of self and team management, to identify a range of planning tools that could be successful in enhancing management practices;
- identify personal strengths and weaknesses in relationship to the planning and management requirements of the brief, and develop planning tools that would specifically address these in the context of the project; and
- employ specifically developed planning tools (a visual diary, updateable planning framework, and a range of diagramming techniques) in an effective manner, to manage, document and justify decisions in terms of the physical and social environment in which they are working and the specific requirements of the target user.
Students achieving at level 8 could:
- critically analyse their own and others' project management experiences in the field of ICT, to identify key factors essential to efficient project management;
- identify personal strengths and weaknesses in relationship to project management in technology, and plan learning opportunities to develop and enhance these;
- critically analyse a broad range of planning tools and select those that would best support their project management practices;
- develop an initial plan that allowed for extensive exploration of what efficient planning and resource management would require in this environment; and
- employ the use of specifically selected planning tools to support the project management of their work in an efficient and critically reflective manner, ensuring decisions about information presented, means of presentation, resources used and the management of time and resources were informed and critically evaluated in an ongoing manner, in keeping with contemporary understandings and project management best practice in the field of ICT.
