Unfortunately it seems that Mark Kelly is giving up on Informatics...
Read the 21st of February entry at his website: http://vceit.com/wp/newsblog/
He is so right though. It is dry. Computing
in general is dry. Algorithmics is the only breath of fresh air going around, and only 12 schools statewide offer it. I recently completed a Bachelor's degree in IT and the course content taught is somewhat distanced from what is actually taught at university level now. I really hope for the sake of Computing's future that the entire SD & Informatics courses are completely rewritten and dragged back into line with what university and industry expects. It feels old, it is old. This is the VCAA's fault - so schools can't really be blamed for VCE content.
You really have to ask yourself why enrolment numbers are low..... some reasons:
* Dry content
* Penalised for taking the subject (via scaling and moderation)
* IT/Computing is perceived as 'difficult', much like the perception of maths to the regular student.
* Lack of emphasis on computing/coding/even STEM in the junior/middle years (7-10). It really puzzles me why some form of IT is not compulsory at year 7 & 8, just like english & maths are. Giving students an iPad and saying they've addressed IT (instead of actually running classes) in those years is just not right.