Search results

Online

Sphero: Catch me if you can

By years 5 and 6 many students may have had some experience with a visual programming language such as Scratch or Blockly that is the basis of the Hour of Code. Sphero will take the screen based control of an image to the next level by introducing a robotic device controlled by a visual programming language. This lesson ...

Text

Stomp Rocket Design Challenge

This resource provides a scaffold for students to complete a design challenge. The design challenge requires students to create a stomp rocket that can travel to a chosen planet in the solar system. The design challenge can also be used to investigate forces and energy. It can be delivered over a number of lessons, or it ...

Text

Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies Years F–2 Sample assessment task: Stepping out

This resource provides strategies for assessing aspects of the Digital Technologies subject in the Australian Curriculum that relate to data using contexts from other learning areas and General Capabilities, including Mathematics, Numeracy and Literacy. The resource includes an assessment planner and rubric, as well as ...

Text

Creating a digital start line and finish line with micro:bits: years 7-8

This PDF provides a sequence of activities in which students create algorithms to measure the time taken for a vehicle to travel from a starting line to a finish line. Students connect micro:bits and laser receiver sensors to measure time, then create programs to undertake the timing using visual and general-purpose programming.

Text

Classroom ideas F-10: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander connections to Digital Technologies

This resource provides examples of ways Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Histories and Cultures can be integrated into Digital Technologies. Examples include 'classification and sorting data' and 'designing solutions'.

Text

Digital systems cards

This PDF and accompanying cards provide suggestions for ways in which students can identify and explain digital systems in their environment. Students determine whether digital systems include inputs, outputs, or both, and whether they feature software, hardware or peripheral devices. The resource includes useful links ...

Text

Digital Technologies in the Australian Curriculum: overview and key links

This PDF gives an overview of the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies. It includes key points from the rationale and a step-by-step process for becoming familiar with the structure of the curriculum to assist planning. The document also provides links to key documents and sections of the Australian Curriculum as ...

Text

Scratch 3.0 tutorial

This tutorial provides step-by-step instructions to support the learning of Scratch, a visual programming language. The tutorial is designed for educators who would like to learn how to use Scratch.

Text

Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies: years 5-6

This PDF provides a line of sight from content descriptions to achievement standards.

Text

Curzon & Bell et al. review: Computational thinking

This article explores the concept of computational thinking within computer science learning and in relation to other learning areas. The authors assert that because of its focus on analysis, computational thinking is not only suitable for computation but also the development of systems-based on computation.

Text

Voskoglou & Buckley review: Problem solving and computational thinking

This article explores the relationship between computational and critical thinking as it applies to solving technological problems. Research evidence derived from classroom experiments strongly suggests that using computers to solve problems enhances students’ abilities in solving real-world problems involving mathematical ...

Text

Archived newsletters

This webpage features archived newsletters from the Digital Technologies in Focus project. The newsletters include information about schools' projects, assessment tasks, the Australian Curriculum and resources.

Text

Newsletter – July 2018

This newsletter from the Digital Technologies in Focus project includes information about schools' projects, the Australian Curriculum and useful resources.

Text

Bethany Christian School – Timeline

This document presents the milestones in Bethany Christian School's participation in the Digital Technologies in Focus project.

Text

Professional learning workshops

This webpage provides details of ten workshops that focus on understanding and implementing the Australian Curriculum: Digital Technologies. The workshops are provided for Digital Technologies in Focus project schools and, where possible, schools not involved in the project.

Text

Beyond Earth: Shelter from the Elements

This resource provides a scaffold for students to undertake a design challenge. The design challenge requires students to develop a shelter that protects humans from the hostile conditions on another planet. Students draw on their existing scientific understanding (for example, conductors and insulators), along with their ...

Text

Computational thinking cut out cards

This set of printable cards provides definitions of six aspects of computational thinking.

Text

Classroom ideas: QR codes, digital systems and data representation: yrs 5-6

This PDF provides ideas for using QR codes in classrooms to generate discussion about data representation and digital systems: how they work, who uses them and for what purposes. The resource also includes a simple tutorial on creating and using QR codes.

Text

General-purpose programming languages

This video takes viewers through the transition from visual programming (block-based environments) to general-purpose programming (text based environments). It guides teachers as they assist students to move from block-based programming used in primary schools to general-purpose programming languages used in secondary schools.

Text

Booth Sweeney review: Systems literacy

This article explores how children’s innate understanding of systems can be developed through deliberate educational programs that support systems thinking. This can happen by encouraging students to identify patterns, consequences and feedback (loops) associated with social, environmental and economic problems; and by ...