Overview
Design and Digital Technologies introduces students to both the nature of learning in Design and Technology and Digital Technologies to enhance problem solving, innovation and creative thinking skills for 21st century learners. Students develop deep understanding of the thinking processes of planning, producing and evaluating which are essential processes in Design and Technology, and defining, organising and implementing which are essential processes in Digital Technology. They engage in design and digital challenges to build their own content and process knowledge in the learning area and reflect on the value of technological ways of thinking and learning for sustainability and innovation. Students explore a range of digital tools that support their engagement in the Design and Digital Technologies Curriculum content and pedagogy.
Details
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites
There are no requisites for this unit.
Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).
Offerings For Term 1 - 2017
Attendance Requirements
All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes – in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).
Recommended Student Time Commitment
Each 6-credit Undergraduate unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.
Class Timetable
Assessment Overview
Assessment Grading
This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%). Consult the University’s Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades.
All University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
You may wish to view these policies:
- Grades and Results Policy
- Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework)
- Review of Grade Procedure
- Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – Domestic Students
- Monitoring Academic Progress (MAP) Policy and Procedure – International Students
- Student Refund and Credit Balance Policy and Procedure
- Student Feedback – Compliments and Complaints Policy and Procedure
- Information and Communications Technology Acceptable Use Policy and Procedure
This list is not an exhaustive list of all University policies. The full list of University policies are available on the CQUniversity Policy site.
Feedback, Recommendations and Responses
Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.
Feedback from Moodle, email, tutors.
There is too much information in the course
The course should re-focus on the curriculum and remove unnecessary elements.
Unit learning outcomes were modified and content was reduced.
Feedback from Moodle, email, tutors.
The content, curriculum focus, and introduction to digital technologies was found to be enabling and valuable.
This element of the course should remain unchanged.
This element of the unit was strengthened for 2017.
Feedback from Moodle.
Some confusion was identified between the embedded weekly learning tasks and the actual assessment. This resulted in a perception that the assessment tasks were too big.
The alignment between what is demonstrated through participation in the course activities and the assessment task will be clarified in an introduction to engagement and assessment.
This confusion still exists. The tasks were reviewed and outlined in an Assessment Details section in Moodle, however fewer than half of the students accessed this, despite this being discussed in tutorials.
Feedback from Moodle, email, tutors.
Inconsistent engagement in weekly learning tasks led to confusion about the assessment.
The introduction to engagement and assessment will emphasise the importance of regular engagement in learning. In particular, Assessment 2 should be restructured to take a portfolio approach to weekly engagement.
The unit welcome and overview highlighted the importance of regular, weekly engagement. This was promoted in the tutorials. Nonetheless, not all students accessed these two elements in the Moodle unit, and a number failed to engage in the unit materials until just before the assessment due date.
Feedback from Moodle, email, tutors.
The hands-on, practical focus of the assessment tasks was found to be valuable.
The focus of the assessment tasks will remain the same.
This element was maintained.
- Participate in individual and collaborative learning processes to improve professional understanding of content knowledge and teaching and learning in the Design and Digital Technologies learning area.
- Use current research and examples to explain the value, nature and pedagogical practices appropriate to the Design and Digital Technologies learning area.
- Recommend Information and Communications Technologies on the basis of their purposeful application to learning and student engagement in the Design and Digital Technologies curriculum learning area.
- Produce digital content by making effective and purposeful use of Information and Communications Technology to model Design and Digital Technologies curriculum learning goals.
Successful completion of the unit Design and Digital technologies provides opportunities for students to demonstrate the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers focus areas of 1.2, 2.1, 2.6, 3.3, 3.4, 4.5, 5.2, 6.3 and 6.4.
Assessment tasks for this unit may be included in a portfolio and used as evidence of progress towards meeting the standards at Graduate career stage with evidence specifically related to teaching and learning in the Design and Digital Technologies area of the curriculum. Unit assessment also provides evidence of competence in meeting the ICT elaborations of these standards.
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
| Assessment Tasks | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Practical and Written Assessment - 50% | ||||
| 2 - Presentation - 50% | ||||
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
| Graduate Attributes | Learning Outcomes | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | |
| 1 - Communication | ||||
| 2 - Problem Solving | ||||
| 3 - Critical Thinking | ||||
| 4 - Information Literacy | ||||
| 5 - Team Work | ||||
| 6 - Information Technology Competence | ||||
| 7 - Cross Cultural Competence | ||||
| 8 - Ethical practice | ||||
| 9 - Social Innovation | ||||
| 10 - Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Cultures | ||||
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
| Assessment Tasks | Graduate Attributes | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | |
| 1 - Practical and Written Assessment - 50% | ||||||||||
| 2 - Presentation - 50% | ||||||||||
Textbooks
There are no required textbooks.
Additional Textbook Information
IT Resources
- CQUniversity Student Email
- Internet
- Unit Website (Moodle)
All submissions for this unit must use the referencing style: American Psychological Association 6th Edition (APA 6th edition)
For further information, see the Assessment Tasks.
w.fasso@cqu.edu.au
Module/Topic
Nature of the Technology learning area.
Chapter
Sites and resources on Moodle site.
Anazagasty, J. (2014) What is Technology? In Cruz-Cruz & W. Frey (Eds) Civis Project – UPRM.
ACARA – Technology Shaping Paper
Australian Curriculum: Technologies rationale, aims and organisation
Events and Submissions/Topic
Engage with the Moodle unit materials and tutorials. Complete all activities as outlined in these materials.
Module/Topic
The Technology Design Process
Chapter
Links and readings in Moodle, including:
Mawson, B. (2003). Beyond ‘The Design Process’. An alternative pedagogy for technology education. International Journal Of Technology & Design Education, 13(2), 117-128.
Education Queensland (2015). Curriculum activity risk management guidelines
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Design Thinking
Chapter
Links and readings in Moodle, including:
Jones, Buntting and de Vries (2013). The developing field of technology education: a review to look forward. International Journal of Technology Design Education 23, 191-212 – an important framing paper.
Lewis, T. (2009). Creativity in technology education: Providing children with glimpses of their inventive potential
Lewis, T. (2005). Creativity – A framework for the design/problem solving discourse in technology education.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Engage with the Moodle unit materials and tutorials. Complete all activities as outlined in these materials.
Module/Topic
Design and Sustainability
Chapter
Links and readings in Moodle, including:
MSA (2014). Sustainability in Practice: Product improvement and life cycle.
University of Woolongong Faculty of Arts (nd). Clean, green technology.
Ecodesigner (2013). Sustainability Resources
Acaroglu, L. (2014). The Good Design Guide (overview only).
Events and Submissions/Topic
Engage with the Moodle unit materials and tutorials. Complete all activities as outlined in these materials.
Module/Topic
The Digital Technologies Curriculum
Data 1
Chapter
Links and readings in Moodle, including:
The Australian curriculum: Technologies. Digital Technologies.
Bell, T.,Witton, I. & Fellows, M. (2010). Computer Science Unplugged. CS Unplugged.org.
CSTA (2012). Special Issue: Computer science K-8: Building a strong foundation.
Events and Submissions/Topic
Engage with the Moodle unit materials and tutorials. Complete all activities as outlined in these materials.
Journal and Research Inquiry Due: Week 5 Friday (7 Apr 2017) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Links and readings in Moodle, including:
Barr, V. & Stephenson, C. (2011). Computational thinking to K-12: What is involved and what is the role of the computer science education community. ACM Intoads, 2(1), 48-54.
Computational thinking: http://learn.code.org/s/1/level/22
Events and Submissions/Topic
Engage with the Moodle unit materials and tutorials. Complete all activities as outlined in these materials.
Module/Topic
Computational Thinking
Chapter
Links and readings in Moodle, including:
Scratched, Creative Computing; Computational Thinking connections
Events and Submissions/Topic
Engage with the Moodle unit materials and tutorials. Complete all activities as outlined in these materials.
Module/Topic
Coding and Programming
Chapter
Links and readings in Moodle, including:
The Australian Curriculum: Technologies
Computational Thinking connections of Scratched.
http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/guide/download.html Creative Computing https://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/Scratch-CACM-final.pdf Underpinning Design
http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/resources/all
http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/resources/scratch-programming-concepts
Events and Submissions/Topic
Engage with the Moodle unit materials and tutorials. Complete all activities as outlined in these materials.
Module/Topic
Chapter
Links and readings in Moodle, including:
The Australian Curriculum: Technologies
Computational Thinking connections of Scratched.
http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/guide/download.html Creative Computing https://web.media.mit.edu/~mres/papers/Scratch-CACM-final.pdf Underpinning Design
http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/resources/all
http://scratched.gse.harvard.edu/resources/scratch-programming-concepts
Events and Submissions/Topic
Engage with the Moodle unit materials and tutorials. Complete all activities as outlined in these materials.
Module/Topic
Digital Communication
Chapter
Links and readings in Moodle, including:
Smartcopying website
Hummell, L. (2015). Communication. Children's Technology and Engineering
Cantu, D. The importance of communication skills (2015). Children's Technology and Engineering
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Digital Communication
Chapter
Links and readings in Moodle, including:
Self-selected resources and sites
Events and Submissions/Topic
Engage with the Moodle unit materials and tutorials. Complete all activities as outlined in these materials.
Module/Topic
Chapter
Links and readings in Moodle, including:
Self-selected resources and sites
Events and Submissions/Topic
Engage with the Moodle unit materials and tutorials. Complete all activities as outlined in these materials.
Online presentation - Portfolio Due: Week 12 Thursday (1 June 2017) 11:45 pm AEST
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
Module/Topic
Chapter
Events and Submissions/Topic
1 Practical and Written Assessment
Details
Assessment 1 involves a design challenge that consists of two preparatory tasks that lead to the creation and submission of three assessable components. The preparatory tasks are compulsory aspects of the assessment and will be assessed as evidence and justification of the process you have undertaken to develop the three components.
Two preparatory tasks:
- preparatory learning: the exchange of feedback through an evaluation of this documentation and presentation in a dedicated forum: Design Challenge Evaluation forum
- preparatory learning: the documentation and presentation of a design challenge in your Weebly site
The submission of three components:
- a reflection on the process of design and peer feedback exchange as it relates to learning about the technology design process
- a referenced response to two critical questions about the pedagogy involved in teaching and learning in this curriculum subject
- a referenced response to one critical question about safe, ethical and sustainable practice with regard to curriculum expectations and your design challenge, contextualised to your classroom
The preparatory tasks are regarded as compulsory. Although not formally submitted, they will be accessed as evidence and justification of the process upon which the submissible components are based.
Details of the assessment task are available in the assessment block within Moodle. Further details are embedded in the weekly unit materials.
Week 5 Friday (7 Apr 2017) 11:45 pm AEST
This task must be uploaded using the Assessment 1 link in Moodle.
This assignment will be returned to students with sufficient time to allow for academic support and advice where necessary, prior to the submission of the next assessment task.
- Use participation and critical reflective processes to develop professional understanding of content knowledge, and teaching and learning in the Digital Technologies learning area.
- Ability to seek and respond to constructive feedback to identify professional learning needs.
- Development of questions to guide professional learning. Focused research into teaching strategies that support the development of conceptual knowledge and technological thinking processes.
- Participate in individual and collaborative learning processes to improve professional understanding of content knowledge and teaching and learning in the Design and Digital Technologies learning area.
- Use current research and examples to explain the value, nature and pedagogical practices appropriate to the Design and Digital Technologies learning area.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
2 Presentation
Task Description
This is a portfolio task. You will develop artefacts that evidence and demonstrate your learning about the Digital Technologies curriculum each week. These will be collected in a digital portfolio in your Weebly website.
The portfolio will include a collection of 5 artefacts. The portfolio will be assessed on your insight into the curriculum concepts and processes that are demonstrated by each artefact. Also assessed will be the suitability for purpose and execution of each artefact in order to communicate the type of data, knowledge and thinking that is addressed.
Artefacts
The following five artefacts will be included, in the form and modality of your choice, in your portfolio. Each artefact will include practical evidence of your own exploration of the relevant technologies, and a reflection on the way this activity will be configured to reflect the Australian Curriculum Technologies: Digital Technology, in your classroom.
- Portfolio Artefact 1: Initial Reflection
- Portfolio Artefact 2: Data representation
- Portfolio Artefact 3: Binary code and data as images
- Portfolio Artefact 4: Algorithmic and computational thinking
- Portfolio Artefact 5: Coding and Programming a robot or game
Digital Communication
The Australian Curriculum Technologies outlines expectations of digital communication in the primary school Technologies classroom. You will become familiar with some representative tools that support communication of data and knowledge throughout the course. You will make decisions about the purposeful use of these tools and modalities of communication that best suit the materials and data that you are presenting in your website. Your site will therefore evidence creative and purposeful use of digital communication to share your data, information and thinking with an audience.You will include a short paragraph outlining how you have met the curriculum communication expectations including a brief justification for your selection of a minimum of three methods of representation.
It is also expected that, as outlined in the Curriculum, you adhere to legal, safe and ethical principles in your website as outlined in the course materials.
Details of the assessment task are available in the assessment block within Moodle. Further details are embedded in the weekly unit materials.
Week 12 Thursday (1 June 2017) 11:45 pm AEST
This task must be uploaded using the Assessment 2 link in Moodle.
Feedback on this final assessment response will be provided following University Assesment policy.
- Demonstrated ability to seek and respond to constructive feedback to identify professional learning needs.
- Use participation and critical reflective processes to develop professional understanding of content knowledge and teaching and learning in the Technologies learning area.
- Focused research into teaching strategies that support the development of conceptual knowledge and technological thinking processes, leading to the development of a framework of questions to guide professional learning.
- Participate in individual and collaborative learning processes to improve professional understanding of content knowledge and teaching and learning in the Design and Digital Technologies learning area.
- Recommend Information and Communications Technologies on the basis of their purposeful application to learning and student engagement in the Design and Digital Technologies curriculum learning area.
- Produce digital content by making effective and purposeful use of Information and Communications Technology to model Design and Digital Technologies curriculum learning goals.
- Communication
- Problem Solving
- Critical Thinking
- Information Literacy
- Team Work
- Information Technology Competence
As a CQUniversity student you are expected to act honestly in all aspects of your academic work.
Any assessable work undertaken or submitted for review or assessment must be your own work. Assessable work is any type of work you do to meet the assessment requirements in the unit, including draft work submitted for review and feedback and final work to be assessed.
When you use the ideas, words or data of others in your assessment, you must thoroughly and clearly acknowledge the source of this information by using the correct referencing style for your unit. Using others’ work without proper acknowledgement may be considered a form of intellectual dishonesty.
Participating honestly, respectfully, responsibly, and fairly in your university study ensures the CQUniversity qualification you earn will be valued as a true indication of your individual academic achievement and will continue to receive the respect and recognition it deserves.
As a student, you are responsible for reading and following CQUniversity’s policies, including the Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure. This policy sets out CQUniversity’s expectations of you to act with integrity, examples of academic integrity breaches to avoid, the processes used to address alleged breaches of academic integrity, and potential penalties.
What is a breach of academic integrity?
A breach of academic integrity includes but is not limited to plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, cheating, contract cheating, and academic misconduct. The Student Academic Integrity Policy and Procedure defines what these terms mean and gives examples.
Why is academic integrity important?
A breach of academic integrity may result in one or more penalties, including suspension or even expulsion from the University. It can also have negative implications for student visas and future enrolment at CQUniversity or elsewhere. Students who engage in contract cheating also risk being blackmailed by contract cheating services.
Where can I get assistance?
For academic advice and guidance, the Academic Learning Centre (ALC) can support you in becoming confident in completing assessments with integrity and of high standard.
What can you do to act with integrity?
