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Aaron

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VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« on: April 01, 2016, 05:37:59 pm »
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VCE Computing: Informatics
Questions and Discussion Thread

Welcome to VCE Computing: Informatics (formerly known as IT Applications). Use this thread to discuss the subject or ask questions/respond to them.

In the past, VCE IT in general has been extremely quiet on AN, so I don't expect a lot of replies on here. If you happen to view this and are completing this subject, feel free to introduce yourself or simply discuss your initial thoughts of the subject so far.
« Last Edit: January 04, 2017, 04:42:04 pm by Aaron »
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Alkawasmi

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #1 on: May 04, 2016, 08:26:15 pm »
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I am a year 12 student studying 3/4 Informatics, so far i am very pleased with the subject. The new study design is quite different, however, i have found it to be very interesting. Currently doing the SAT which i am also enjoying.

Good luck to everyone with their studies! :)

Aaron

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #2 on: May 04, 2016, 08:32:20 pm »
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I am a year 12 student studying 3/4 Informatics, so far i am very pleased with the subject. The new study design is quite different, however, i have found it to be very interesting. Currently doing the SAT which i am also enjoying.

Good luck to everyone with their studies! :)

Great to hear that a student is really enjoying Informatics. The study design is quite a change - I really like how you have to use surveys in your SAT now, which makes the boring content a bit more meaningful and practical. Do you do this subject just as an interest or something you see yourself pursuing later on at university?
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Alkawasmi

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #3 on: May 04, 2016, 11:27:49 pm »
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I have always had an immense interest in the field of information technology. This year I was faced with the decision to choose either Informatics or Software development and I decided to go with informatics purely due to the fact that it is a brand new, fresh revamped subject that even the teachers are fairly new to. That is primarily why I chose it :)

MJRomeo81

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #4 on: May 05, 2016, 06:36:30 pm »
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There's a whole module on RDBMS concepts yet VCAA refuse to mention anything about ACID transactions...
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ek12355

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #5 on: June 12, 2016, 08:43:14 pm »
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Will the new study design have any effect on the scaling compared to previous years, or will study scores still scale down by around 5 or more for this subject?
ty mens

Aaron

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #6 on: June 12, 2016, 09:19:46 pm »
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Will the new study design have any effect on the scaling compared to previous years, or will study scores still scale down by around 5 or more for this subject?
ty mens

I don't think it will. It depends on how the Informatics cohort handles the change (e.g. inclusion of the SAT). Scaling occurs in response to cohort performance + "difficulty" of a subject according to the VCAA. Given that Informatics is perceived as an 'easy' subject (in comparison to something like Specialist Mathematics, for example), I don't see it changing significantly (if any).

« Last Edit: June 12, 2016, 09:22:27 pm by Aaron »
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Skumzy

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #7 on: October 24, 2016, 07:18:09 pm »
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I did Software Development last year and Informatics this year so I was lucky enough to experience both study designs. I'm not sure whether this was just in my school or not, but in Software last year we were given only a couple of periods to analyse, design, develop and evaluate a solution based on a case study for two of our SACs I believe. Everyone in my class struggled as we were expected to complete the development phase in around 100 minutes, leading many of us to submit websites with many faults and in some cases not even full functionality. I can't confirm this for sure, but I heard other schools were given several days to complete their solutions, including permission to work on them at home (which would be extremely unfair if it was true). I believe the new study design with the SATs helps to rectify issues like this, but as some of the previous posts said, most of the students just end up doing nothing until the last week or so. I think it may be a better idea to have some system that's in between the previous one and the current one, so that students have enough time to complete their work, but not so much that they end up leaving it till the last minute. Furthermore, the only 2 IT teachers at my school (1 for each unit 3/4) are both average at best, and don't seem to fully understand either of their respective subjects. Also, the content that we are required to learn is sometimes fairly outdated. As a result of this, sadly I think IT has become a bit of a bludge subject for some students, and I'm not sure how effective it is in preparing us for IT at university (I'll have to find out next year).
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Aaron

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #8 on: October 24, 2016, 08:14:02 pm »
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I did Software Development last year and Informatics this year so I was lucky enough to experience both study designs. I'm not sure whether this was just in my school or not, but in Software last year we were given only a couple of periods to analyse, design, develop and evaluate a solution based on a case study for two of our SACs I believe. Everyone in my class struggled as we were expected to complete the development phase in around 100 minutes, leading many of us to submit websites with many faults and in some cases not even full functionality. I can't confirm this for sure, but I heard other schools were given several days to complete their solutions, including permission to work on them at home (which would be extremely unfair if it was true). I believe the new study design with the SATs helps to rectify issues like this, but as some of the previous posts said, most of the students just end up doing nothing until the last week or so. I think it may be a better idea to have some system that's in between the previous one and the current one, so that students have enough time to complete their work, but not so much that they end up leaving it till the last minute. Furthermore, the only 2 IT teachers at my school (1 for each unit 3/4) are both average at best, and don't seem to fully understand either of their respective subjects. Also, the content that we are required to learn is sometimes fairly outdated. As a result of this, sadly I think IT has become a bit of a bludge subject for some students, and I'm not sure how effective it is in preparing us for IT at university (I'll have to find out next year).

It isn't much better. University is an academic journey, so most of the content that you will learn is theoretical. You will get opportunities still for some practical stuff like programming, but most of it is theory. If you think it's hacking, building PCs and so on... you are totally mistaken and have the wrong idea in your mind. Hence why a good illustration should be made between TAFEs and unis, where TAFE often provides practical hands on skills in various disciplines (hence why you have very specific diplomas - e.g. network security, systems administration).

In regards to being only given 100 minutes for a development phase, that is outrageous! I'd definitely be giving feedback on that.
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Skumzy

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #9 on: October 26, 2016, 06:25:35 pm »
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It isn't much better. University is an academic journey, so most of the content that you will learn is theoretical. You will get opportunities still for some practical stuff like programming, but most of it is theory. If you think it's hacking, building PCs and so on... you are totally mistaken and have the wrong idea in your mind. Hence why a good illustration should be made between TAFEs and unis, where TAFE often provides practical hands on skills in various disciplines (hence why you have very specific diplomas - e.g. network security, systems administration).

In regards to being only given 100 minutes for a development phase, that is outrageous! I'd definitely be giving feedback on that.

Yea, I'm hoping to use that theoretical knowledge and possibly apply it in my spare time. I'm glad to see that someone understands my pain haha, I spent a good part of a month complaining about it to my friends, but none of them do IT so they don't really understand. I was hoping it would be accounted for through moderation of some sort (and maybe it was), but no one in my class got 40 or above so it was quite disappointing.
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Aaron

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #10 on: October 26, 2016, 06:30:12 pm »
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Yea, I'm hoping to use that theoretical knowledge and possibly apply it in my spare time. I'm glad to see that someone understands my pain haha, I spent a good part of a month complaining about it to my friends, but none of them do IT so they don't really understand. I was hoping it would be accounted for through moderation of some sort (and maybe it was), but no one in my class got 40 or above so it was quite disappointing.

Students don't get rewarded for doing IT. The fact that the content is easy means that scaling hurts. Like i've said previously - Algorithmics is a step in the right direction, given that content is relevant to university but the other two are garbage and should be changed.

I do understand your pain - given I did IT Apps back in 2012 (Informatics now) and probably going to start teaching VCE Comp in under a year from now. I get your frustrations and believe me - the numbers (enrolments) don't lie. I got 40 on the dot for ITA back in 2012 and even that got scaled down a good 3-5 (can't exactly remember, but it was significant enough).
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Skumzy

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #11 on: October 26, 2016, 06:37:25 pm »
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Students don't get rewarded for doing IT. The fact that the content is easy means that scaling hurts. Like i've said previously - Algorithmics is a step in the right direction, given that content is relevant to university but the other two are garbage and should be changed.

I do understand your pain - given I did IT Apps back in 2012 (Informatics now) and probably going to start teaching VCE Comp in under a year from now. I get your frustrations and believe me - the numbers (enrolments) don't lie. I got 40 on the dot for ITA back in 2012 and even that got scaled down a good 3-5 (can't exactly remember, but it was significant enough).

Yea I definitely agree. I was considering doing Algorithmics but only 1 other person in my cohort was interested in the subject so it wouldn't have run regardless (not surprising considering the lack of IT students at my school). Glad to hear that you're going to be teaching VCE Computing, it'll definitely help the students by having more younger, passionate teachers rather than some of the older teachers who lost interest in the subject years ago.
2015: Computing: Software Development (38)
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Feel free to message me for anything related to VCE IT!

Aaron

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #12 on: October 27, 2016, 03:10:34 pm »
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Yea I definitely agree. I was considering doing Algorithmics but only 1 other person in my cohort was interested in the subject so it wouldn't have run regardless (not surprising considering the lack of IT students at my school). Glad to hear that you're going to be teaching VCE Computing, it'll definitely help the students by having more younger, passionate teachers rather than some of the older teachers who lost interest in the subject years ago.

The problem is that teachers are bound by the VCAA study design - they HAVE to create assessment and teach what is prescribed. The freedom that is offered in Years 7-10 is not the same at VCE level. It's common that IT classes are small - although i've heard of some VET Interactive Digital Media classes that are really popular (maybe this is more relevant and hands on, hence the interest?). The numbers just aren't there due to lack of engagement.. I wouldn't blame anyone for not choosing IT due to boring content AND getting punished for doing this boring work via scaling too.

Like I said, Algorithmics is a step in the right direction but there definitely needs to be an overhaul of the other two as well. You could've done Alg via distance - only requires Methods 1+2 as a prereq :P

P.S - Split and merged with Discussion thread.. given this is going way off the topic of the Info SAT... :P
« Last Edit: October 27, 2016, 03:14:12 pm by Aaron »
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JO101

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #13 on: October 29, 2016, 04:21:29 pm »
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Its one of my favourite subjects this year. My teacher was awesome at explaining and made it interesting by linking our school course work with current IT events and news. The SAT part was also fun because we could choose what we wanted to do, which got me to do some creative work. Overall really enjoyed it.

Aaron

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Re: VCE Informatics Questions and Discussion
« Reply #14 on: October 30, 2016, 05:06:12 pm »
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Its one of my favourite subjects this year. My teacher was awesome at explaining and made it interesting by linking our school course work with current IT events and news. The SAT part was also fun because we could choose what we wanted to do, which got me to do some creative work. Overall really enjoyed it.

That is great to hear JO101! Please come back and let us know what you think of the exam when you do it. Cheers!
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