Knowledge and Understanding

Recognise and explore digital systems (hardware and software components) for a purpose (ACTDIK001)  

Processes and Production Skills

Explore how people safely use common information systems to meet information, communication and recreation needs (ACTDIP005)  

According to the Technologies Learning Area, one of the aims of the curriculum is to help students "engage confidently with and responsibly select and manipulate appropriate technologies - materails, data, systems, components, tools and equipment - when designing and creating solutions" . 

The key concepts that underpin this aim and the content descriptors listed above include understanding the components of digital systems and the nature of interactions between people, digital systems, data and processes. It is also neccessary to understand that the impacts of these interactions can have positive and negative consequences (http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/digital-technologies/structure). Systems thinking is the key idea from the Technologies learning area which encompasses these concepts (http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/key-ideas). As students learn and apply knowledge relating to the safe use of information systems for various purposes, they need to consider how their behaviour impacts on others and the digital systems they interact with. 

This means that the types of learning activities students should be involved to align with the selected content descriptors are those in which they are encouraged to think about the nature of their interactions with digital systems (employ systems thinking) and evaluate the safety of the protocols/practices they use (apply the process and production skill of evaluating). A project-based pedagogy is recommended for technology education because it offers students opportunties to do exactly that. See the Digital Technologies Project for an example of how a suitable project could be planned.

The Australian Curriculum indicates that the Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) General Capability helps students to "become effective users of digital technologies"  and that the knowledge and skills that students require are developed through explicit teaching of these aspects in Digital Technologies. The aspects of the ICT General Capability that are listed below are those that are likely to be developed in teaching the curriculum content selected in this resource. See the Suggested Learning Sequence in the Digital Technologies Project for examples of how the ICT General Capability can be integrated.

When planning for teaching and learning in the Digital Technologies learning area, there is an expectation that content from the knowledge and understanding strand is put into practice using content descriptors from the processes and production skills strand. The process and production skill that students are applying is one of evaluating which links directly to metacognitive processes of critical thinking. The aspects of the Critical and Creative Thinking General Capability most relevant to the selected digital technologies content are listed below. See the Suggested Learning Sequence in the Digital Technologies Project for examples of how critical and creative thinking can be integrated.

The Literacy General Capability is an important part of learning in the Digital Technologies subject. In the Digital Technologies Project provided here, students compose texts when they create a multimodal text either as a blog post or a poster to communicate about the digital information systems used at home and the protocols that are used to ensure safety and security. Students need to learn the technical vocabulary that is used to identify various concepts, processes and products as they discuss the purposes for using various hardware and software components. They develop visual knowledge as they use icons to represent various safety procedures. The Suggested Learning Sequence in the Digital Technologies Project shows how the Literacy General Capability is integrated in the project.