1. Ways of thinking in Digital Technologies

2. Key messages about Digital Technologies
Digital Technologies is a new curriculum (F to 10)
Digital Technologies is as much about using different ways of thinking as it is using different digital systems
Digital Technologies is not the new name for eLearning/digital learning/ICT
Up to 50 per cent of the curriculum can be learned ‘unplugged’ (no digital device)

3. Creating digital solutions
using programming
languages and productivity
tools such as Microsoft suite
Ways of thinking
include computational, design
and systems thinking
Digital Technologies involves students creating digital solutions through the use of information systems and specific ways of thinking about problem solving
Information systems
comprise people, data,
processes and
digital systems 3

4. Digital Technologies Strands Creating Digital Solutions
Digital Systems
hardware
networks
Data and Information
representing data
projects
Creating Digital Solutions
analysing
designing
developing
evaluating
These are key content areas, not substrands

5. Students apply different ways of thinking when determining and using appropriate data, processes and digital systems to create innovative digital solutions.
Computational thinking
Design thinking
Systems thinking
Data and Information
Creating Digital Solutions
Digital Systems

6. Ways of thinking about problem solving
Computational thinking, for example
modelling aspects of solutions
sequencing steps and decisions (algorithms)
deconstructing problems into their component parts
Design thinking, for example
generating ideas for further development
evaluating ideas, based on criteria
conceiving opportunities for new solutions
Systems thinking, for example
seeing connections between solutions, systems and society
identifying components of systems
identifying intended and unintended outputs of a system

7. Computational thinking
A problem-solving methodology that involves various techniques and strategies in order to solve problems that can be implemented by digital systems.
It involves organising data logically, breaking down problems into components, and the design and use of algorithms, patterns and models.
Victorian Curriculum Glossary

8. Computational thinking – a hybrid!
constructive
logic
Modelling
(representations)
abstract

9. Computational thinking – a hybrid!
Decomposing problems
Identifying patterns
Precisely stating decisions
Generalising and applying rules

10. CT – abstraction (making models)
You are purchasing an evaporative airconditioning unit from Cool Connections Pty Ltd for your brick veneer home. The system will have a ceiling vent in each room you nominate. Currently you have ducted heating and three portable fans. Cool Connections needs to have a plan of your house to determine the positioning of the vents in each room.
Draw a plan of your house to fit this purpose.

11. CT – abstraction (making models)
You are purchasing an evaporative airconditioning unit from Cool Connections Pty Ltd for your brick veneer home. The system will have a ceiling vent in the rooms you nominate. Currently you have ducted heating and three portable fans. Cool Connections needs to have a plan of your house to determine the positioning of the vents in each room. What details are relevant to this problem? Draw a plan of your house to fit this purpose.
How could this scenario be adapted?
What did you include?
What did you exclude and why?
What was the most important information to include?
How could your model be used in different circumstances – what would you change?

12. Progression of content
Knowledge and skills are represented as a continuum. Here is an overview of the progression of a content description in the Creating digital solutions strand
F-2
3-4
5-6
7-8
9-10
Follow, describe and represent a sequence of steps and decisions
Define simple problems, and describe and follow …
Design, modify and follow simple algorithms represented diagrammatically
Design algorithms represented diagrammatically and in English
Design algorithms represented diagrammatically and in structured English

13. Design, modify and follow simple algorithms represented diagrammatically (levels 5 and 6)
Start/stop
Task or action
Condition
Link

14. Is the top digit smaller?
Flowcharts for two-digit subtraction
Start subtraction
Start/stop
Look at the ones
Is the top digit smaller? NO
Task or action
YES
Trade a ten for 10 ones
Condition
Add 10 to the top one
Subtract the ones
Subtract the tens
Link
Done!
Source: DLTV Journal 3.1, 2015, p 16

15. Flowcharts for present participles for verbs – ‘play’
Start/stop
Start/stop
Get a verb
Task or action
Condition
Add the suffix ‘ing’
Write new word
Link
Source: based on DLTV Journal 3.1, 2015, p 17

16. Flowcharts for present participles for verbs – ‘make’
Start
Get a verb
It ends in ‘e’
Remove the ‘e’
Add the suffix ‘ing’
Write new word NO
YES
Start/stop
Start/stop
Get a verb
Task or action
Condition
Add the suffix ‘ing’
Write new word
Link

17. Sequence of algorithms (designing) from levels 3 to10
STRUCTURED ENGLISH
IF hour <12
print (“Good morning”)
Levels 9 and 10
Design algorithms represented diagrammatically and in structured English
Levels 7 and 8
Design algorithms represented diagrammatically and in English and trace algorithms ….
Levels 5 and 6
Design … simple algorithms represented diagrammatically and in English
Levels 3 and 4
Describe and follow a sequence of steps and decisions …
Australian Curriculum Glossary

18. Design thinking
Purposeful use of strategies for understanding design problems and opportunities, visualising and generating creative and innovative ideas, and analysing and evaluating those ideas that best meet the criteria for success and planning.
Designing stems from the notion that current products, processes, systems or services are either unsuitable for our needs or can be improved.

19. Characteristics of design thinking
Find simplicity in complexity
Aesthetics and functionality
Quality of user experience
Elegant solutions
Meet needs of people

20. Imagine Create Innovate
Design thinking is a process that is purposeful
Imagine
Create
Innovate

21. Preferred idea
Idea 1
Idea 2
Idea 3
Divergence
Convergence

22. Progressions in ideation
Play-it-safe
(modification)
Analogies
(converging / rearranging)
Provocation
(force moves / unpredictable)
Progressions in ideation

23. Categories of idea generation techniques
Research
Represent
Refine
Inspire
Role playing 
Brainstorm
Forced analogy
Incubate
Prototyping
Further ideas can be found at Idea Generation Techniques among Creative Professionals, Herring, Jones and Bailey

24. Rearrange Game that calculates Robot that talks Associate Associate
PROBLEM
noun
verb
Associate
Rearrange
Associate

25. Non-creative behaviour is learned
Land & Jarman research findings
98% highly creative
30% highly creative
12% highly creative

26. Project Zero, Harvard University I see
(list, itemise, deconstruct)
I think
What’s the purpose?
How does it work?
What are the parts?
Who would use/like it?
I wonder
What if …?
What would happen if ..?
What would change if?

27. Tips for teachers Collect/record experiences
Make student thinking visible
Break habitual teaching habits
Find analogies for solving problems
Articulate hidden assumptions

28. Build on others’ ideas without making critical judgments
Avoid impulsivity (iteration and play)
Encourage ‘detours’
Allow hands-on experimentation
Use a range of teaching /learning styles

29. Systems thinking
A holistic approach to the identification and solving of problems where parts and components of a system, their interactions and interrelationships are analysed individually to see how they influence the functioning of the whole system. This approach enables students to understand systems and work with complexity, uncertainty and risk.
Victorian Curriculum Glossary
It also involves understanding the interdependence between information systems and how a change or output from one system can affect another, and how this affects larger systems such as the economy and society.
VCE Computing study design

30. Reality is made up of circles, but we see straight lines
Reality is made up of circles, but we see straight lines. Herein lies the beginnings of our limitations as systems thinkers
Peter Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of the Learning Organization

31. Loops (interdependencies between elements)
Processes
Intended
Inputs
Outputs
Unintended
Cause and effect?
Loops (interdependencies between elements)

32. Systems thinking activity
What resources are needed to make a tablet?
What processes are used to convert the materials into a tablet?
What are the social, economic and environmental implications of the tablet?

33. What’s the difference in the interface? Why?

34. Systems thinkers: Consider events Look for patterns of behaviour
Think about interconnections
Make mental models

35. Coding human knowledge in a way that can be carried out by a digital device

36. For further information please contact: Paula Christophersen
Curriculum Manager, Digital Technologies