The following resources have been developed to support teachers to implement the F–10 Digital Technologies curriculum.
The following on-demand videos have been developed to support teachers of F–6 with curriculum planning for Digital Technologies.
The following on-demand videos have been developed to support teachers of 7–10 with curriculum planning for Digital Technologies.
This poster provides a visual representation of the four components of computational thinking in the Digital Technologies and Mathematics curriculums: Decomposition, Pattern Recognition, Abstraction and Algorithms.
Computational thinking in the Victorian Curriculum – A0 size
Computational thinking in the Victorian Curriculum – A3 size
The A3-sized version of the poster can be downloaded, printed and added to student workbooks or similar.
Teachers and schools are also encouraged to download, print and display the A0-sized poster.
The A0-sized poster can be printed on an A3 printer by 'tiling' 3 × 3 A3 pages. To do this, select the appropriate tiling options within the print preferences in Adobe Acrobat or another PDF reader app.
Cross-curriculum resources
This resource will help teachers and schools identify strong links between Digital Technologies and the capabilities. It will also help teachers design learning activities.
The resource assumes familiarity with the Digital Technologies curriculum. It links aspects of this curriculum with Ethical Capability, Critical and Creative Thinking, and Personal and Social Capability.
Note: It is a school decision as to which capabilities are linked to which learning area(s). To help support these decisions, this resource provides general advice on teaching and assessment, as well as specific illustrative advice related to Digital Technologies.
Why link learning in Digital Technologies to a capability?
The knowledge and skills learnt through the capabilities are highly transferable across learning areas and are applicable throughout schooling and in later life.
The capabilities support Digital Technologies in developing student knowledge and skills to design, create, manage and evaluate sustainable and innovative digital solutions to meet and redefine current and future needs.
Identifying a strong link between a capability and Digital Technologies supports learning in both curriculum areas. There is strong justification to link a learning area and a capability in instances where:
- knowledge and skills taught in a capability would deepen students’ understanding of particular knowledge and skills in the learning area
- the learning area would provide context, background knowledge and other skills for the development of the capability.
How do we find strong links between Digital Technologies and the capabilities?
Looking over each capabilities curriculum, we begin to see broad links between the strands in different capabilities and in aspects of various strands in the Digital Technologies curriculum.
Linking the Critical and Creative Thinking strands to Digital Technologies
Critical and Creative Thinking consists of three interrelated strands. The table below provides an overview of each strand and how it links to Digital Technologies.
Questions and Possibilities
Explore the nature of questioning and a range of processes and techniques to develop ideas
Digital Technologies and Critical and Creative Thinking mutually support students to …
pose effective questions and generate creative and innovative ideas
Reasoning
Explore how to compose, analyse and evaluate arguments and reasoning
Digital Technologies and Critical and Creative Thinking mutually support students to …
undertake computational thinking, for example, organise data logically and avoid reasoning errors; and argue for the most suitable digital solutions
Meta-Cognition
Explore the use of strategies to understand, manage and reflect on thinking, problem-solving and learning processes
Digital Technologies and Critical and Creative Thinking mutually support students to …
manage their learning, thinking and problem-solving to make informed, evidence-based decisions in response to a need
Linking the Ethical Capability strands to Digital Technologies
Ethical Capability consists of two interrelated strands. The table below provides an overview of each strand and how it links to Digital Technologies.
Understanding Concepts
Understanding and applying key concepts and ideas concerned with ethical issues, outcomes, principles and values
Digital Technologies and Ethical Capability mutually support students to …
identify ethical considerations related to managing, planning, creating, evaluating and communicating ideas and information
Decision Making and Actions
Understanding ways to respond to ethical problems and factors and challenges that influence ethical decision-making and action, and applying this understanding to different contexts
Digital Technologies and Ethical Capability mutually support students to …
respond to ethical considerations when managing, planning, creating, evaluating and communicating ideas and information
Linking the Personal and Social Capability strands to Digital Technologies
Personal and Social Capability consists of two interrelated strands. The table below provides an overview of each strand and its broad links to Digital Technologies.
Self-Awareness and Management
Develop the knowledge and skills to regulate, manage and monitor their emotions and interpret and assess their personal characteristics in the context of development of resilience
Digital Technologies and Personal and Social Capability mutually support students to …
develop knowledge and skills to work independently and show initiative
Social Awareness and Management
Learn to participate in positive, safe and respectful relationships; critique societal constructs and discrimination; and negotiate with others and work collaboratively
Digital Technologies and Personal and Social Capability mutually support students to …
develop skills for collaborative problem-solving and respectful communications
Asking the following questions can be a first step in identifying strong links:
- Which of the learning area content descriptions reflect concepts or other knowledge and skills in a capability?
- Would explicit teaching and learning related to the identified link support progress towards the achievement standards for the learning area and/or capability?
The example in the table below identifies a link between a Levels 5 and 6 Digital Technologies content description and two Levels 5 and 6 Personal and Social Capability content descriptions. The identified link is between planning and creating online collaborative projects (Digital Technologies) and the characteristics of effective teams and respectful relationships (Personal and Social Capability).
Once a strong link is identified, a learning activity can be designed that enables progression towards the appropriate Digital Technologies achievement standard as well as the appropriate capability achievement standard (again, see the example below). This may involve incorporating other relevant content descriptions to create a sequence of learning.
Example: Linking a Levels 5 and 6 Digital Technologies content description and two Levels 5 and 6 Personal and Social Capability content descriptions
This table includes selected content descriptions and an achievement standard extract for both Digital Technologies, Levels 5 and 6, and Personal and Social Capability, Levels 5 and 6, plus linking notes and an activity idea.
| | Digital Technologies, Levels 5 and 6 | Linking notes and activity idea | Personal and Social Capability, Levels 5 and 6 |
|---|
Content descriptions | Plan, create and communicate ideas, information and online collaborative projects, applying agreed ethical, social and technical protocols (VCDTDI029) | Can both Personal and Social Capability and Digital Technologies help students collaborate and communicate using agreed protocols? Yes. Personal and Social Capability can help students understand the characteristics of respectful relationships, which will inform agreed protocols, and that collaboration involves undertaking particular roles. Digital Technologies provides a context for collaboration, and the construction and application of specific roles and protocols. Students are introduced to the characteristics of respectful relationships and apply their understanding to develop and protocols for a collaboration project online. They develop descriptions of team roles suited to this project and evaluate their contributions using the agreed protocols as part of the evaluation. | Describe the characteristics of respectful relationships and suggest ways that respectful relationships can be achieved (VCPSCSO031) Identify the characteristics of an effective team and develop descriptions for particular roles including leadership, and describe both their own and their team’s performance when undertaking various roles (VCPSCSO032) |
Achievement
standard extract | By the end of Level 6, students … manage the creation and communication of ideas, information and digital projects collaboratively using validated data and agreed protocols. | By the end of Level 6, students … identify characteristics of respectful relationships. They contribute to groups and teams suggesting improvements for methods used in group projects and investigations. |
How do we assess the capabilities?
Student understanding of a capability’s knowledge and skills is assessed against the achievement standards of the capability. The key to formative and summative assessment is explicit teaching of the discrete knowledge and skills underpinning the capability’s content descriptions in such a way that students are supported to progress towards the targeted achievement standard. Explicit teaching builds shared understanding of knowledge and skills, which provides a foundation for setting transparent expectations of what should be shown in student work and for feedback.
For general advice on teaching and assessment and transfer of learning, see General resources for the capabilities.
Examples of learning activities that link Digital Technologies and the capabilities
All examples are illustrative only and assume familiarity with the Digital Technologies curriculum.
Learning activity idea: As part of a series of lessons involving creating a digital solution, students follow, describe and represent a sequence of steps and decisions needed to solve simple problems, including considering the meaning of words associated with sequencing steps and decisions and developing ways of representing these words.
This activity would strengthen learning in both Digital Technologies and Critical and Creative Thinking through developing understanding that in sequencing steps and decisions the meaning of the words involved should be carefully considered and as precise as possible (see Critical and Creative Thinking content description VCCCTM007).
Learning activity idea: As part of a sequence of lessons on developing simple solutions as visual programs, students are introduced to strategies for resolving errors. They reflect on how it is common to encounter problems when creating a visual program, and that these strategies can assist them in persevering with developing their visual program or when developing programs similar to theirs.
This activity would strengthen learning in both Digital Technologies and Personal and Social Capability through fostering a positive attitude to persistence and introducing strategies to support persistence in the context of developing a visual program (see Personal and Social Capability content description VCPSCSE018).
Learning activity idea: As part of a sequence of lessons on creating a digital solution, students explain how well their proposed solution meets current and future individual, community and sustainability needs. To support the development of their explanations, they are guided to explain which ethical principles their solution is consistent with, for example linking sustainability criteria to an ethical principle such as ‘do no harm’ to enable a deeper explanation of how the solution meets needs.
This activity would strengthen learning in both Digital Technologies and Ethical Capability through introducing general underpinning knowledge and skills related to evaluating digital solutions against community and sustainability needs, and providing an opportunity for students to apply this knowledge and skill to develop an explanation (see Ethical Capability content description VCECU010).
Learning activity idea: As part of a sequence of lessons on creating a digital solution, students design the user experience of a digital system, generating, evaluating and communicating alternative designs, including considering how criteria are selected and then used in this process. They are guided to develop an understanding of how criteria are used for the purpose of developing a range of solutions that are all suitable, and how the criteria can then be used to argue for and against each of the developed solutions to reach a conclusion on which is the most suitable.
This activity would strengthen learning in both Digital Technologies and Critical and Creative Thinking through introducing underpinning knowledge and skills related to evaluation of alternative designs for digital systems in general, and through providing an opportunity to apply this to develop an argument for the most suitable design (see Critical and Creative Thinking content descriptions VCCCTR039 and VCCCTM042).
Learning activity idea: As part of a sequence of lessons on managing and collaboratively creating interactive solutions for sharing ideas and information online, students discuss how to take into account social contexts and legal responsibilities, including the distinction between what is ethical and what is legal (for example, if it is not illegal, does this make it acceptable to do?).
This activity would strengthen learning in both Digital Technologies and Ethical Capability through strengthening understanding of the relationship between social contexts and legal responsibilities, and through providing an opportunity for students to apply their knowledge and skills (see Ethical Capability content description VCECU021).
For more resources to support the teaching of all four capabilities, see the individual capability resources webpages and General resources for the capabilities
External resources
The following external links are for teacher reference purposes. They do not constitute VCAA endorsement of the views or materials contained on these sites.
Coding across the curriculum
This extensive report, conducted by the Computer Science Education Research Group, University of Adelaide, reviews the availability of current resources to support the implementation of the Digital Technologies curriculum. Each resource is reviewed on the basis of required entry, whether technology is required, the relevant topic, the audience (teacher or student) and the band.
Computational Thinking Course for Educators
This free resource, developed by Google, is aimed at secondary teachers. It focuses on the essential elements of computational thinking and includes a video on computational thinking.
CS Unplugged secondary
CS Unplugged is an online, free collection of learning activities that teach the fundamental principles of Computer Science. While this extensive resource has not been written specifically for the Digital Technologies curriculum, the majority of activities are relevant to the different levels of Digital Technologies.
Computational thinking: A guide for teachers
This resource is suitable for both primary and secondary teachers. It provides an insight into computational thinking, which is the cornerstone of the Digital Technologies curriculum. It is written to support the Computing curriculum in the UK, but the concepts are equally applicable to the Victorian Curriculum.
Computational Thinking: computer science for fun
This UK resource explains in very practical terms the essence of computational thinking. Much of the content relates directly to the Digital Technologies curriculum and is suitable for both primary and secondary teachers.
Computer Science for Fun
This UK resource is designed for teaching computational thinking. It is an extensive resource including presentation slides, learning activities and notes.
Computer Science Field Guide
This New Zealand resource, designed for secondary students, provides a range of activities that align with the Digital Technologies curriculum. Tim Bell, one of the authors of CS Unplugged is an author of this resource. A teacher version is also available.
Australian Curriculum lessons
This resource includes some lesson plans and resources to support coding in the Digital Technologies curriculum. The content descriptions in both the Australian Curriculum and Victorian Curriculum version are the same for these levels. There is also a lesson that incorporates content from both English and Digital Technologies.
Growing up Digital
This extensive resource published by DET focuses on a range of social and technical protocols associated with the use of digital technologies. It includes links to downloadable classroom activities, videos, interactive learning modules and advice sheets.