Sponsorship Contract: Addressing the Challenge of the Digital Technologies Curriculum (Years 7 & 8)

CSER have paired up with Digital Careers and Google in a sponsorship agreement to fund the development of a MOOC designed to support teachers of years 7 & 8 in implementing the new Digital Technologies Curriculum, building on our previous work in developing the CSER MOOC for Foundation-6.

Digital Careers is a government funded initiative designed to raise awareness and interest in ICT careers, and grow Australian capacity within the ICT industry. They run and assist a wide range of engagement programs for primary and secondary school students, including Bebras, and Young ICT Explorers.

Addressing the Challenge of the Digital Technologies Curriculum (Years 7 & 8). K. Falkner, R. Vivian, N. Falkner and C. Szabo, Digital Careers Sponsorship Agreement ($119,588) (2014-2015).

The project proposes the development of a MOOC designed to assist secondary school teachers in developing the skills and experience in teaching computation thinking and, correspondingly, the new Digital Technologies Curriculum. Following the structure of the curriculum, we propose this MOOC course, building on our existing work in establishing a MOOC to address the Digital Technologies Curriculum (F-6).

In this course, we address the transition from visual programming to the introduction of standard programming languages, the introduction of more complex computational thinking concepts, and the development of more sophisticated problem solving and computational design skills. We incorporate resources and example activities to support the development of computation thinking and design, error identification and tracing skills, solution evaluation, and the understanding of data transmission and data sources. The MOOC will be available openly to participants, and all resources developed for the MOOC will be published under Creative Commons licensing, enabling resources to be freely shared and used by teacher communities. The MOOC will be enhanced through additional modules that detail connections to other existing free resources for extension purposes, as well as connections to existing activities, competitions and events that students may participate in, and professional development opportunities for teachers.