Technology, Design, Curriculum...... How does it all fit together?

The technologies curriculum is broken into two strands:

• Design and Technologies
• Digital Technologies

These two areas combine to create a comprehensive technology program for students. Under the Design and Technologies strand we see a focus on helping students to consider sustainability, ethics and to develop a social responsibility for the future generations. Throughout the Digital Technologies content we see a shift towards computational thinking and using collaboration and communication to achieve a desired result.

But.... what is technology?

Technology has a been given a number of definitions over the years however, in today's educational context the definition described by Volti (2008) and written about by Jose Anazagasty (2014) is most appropriate. "A system produced by humans that employs knowledge and organisation to make objects and developed techniques for the specific achievement of goals."

So we can see that technology is no longer just artefacts or items we can put our hands on but rather the combination of these items and the planning and processes that go with them in a social context. The social element is becoming increasingly important.

So .... What pedagogy will be needed?

Students will need to carry out a number of tasks and employ a range of strategies to develop a concrete understanding of the Technology Curriculum. Some of these skills can be described here.

Design Thinking and Computational Thinking ... 

What are the differences?

Both types of thinking are centred on finding solutions to problems, but, the way students will go about finding these solutions will be very different when using these two approaches.

Under the design thinking model students will use an exploratory or heuristic approach to finding a solution. Students will be given the opportunity to design, create innovative ideas, apply and evaluate these designs. All the while taking into consideration the effects on society and environment. Students will be able to design and redesign until the end goals are reached.

Throughout the computational thinking process students will use strategies and techniques for problem solving that are basically algorithmic in nature. These processes basically involve collecting and organising data, breaking down issues and problems into components to be worked on by those with the specific skills to do so and looking for patterns and algorithms.

What else is important?

Higher order thinking has proven to be an effective tools in educating students and allowing them to develop a deeper understanding of their content. Robyn Collins outlines the importance of this in her article Skills for the 21st Century; teaching high-order thinking (http://www.curriculum.edu.au/leader/teaching_higher_order_thinking,37431.html?issueID=12910). Collins article goes further to explain three categories for higher order thinking:

• Transfer - students not only need to learn new information but they also need to be able to apply this information in a real world context.
• Critical Thinking - students need to be to take information they have gained and examine that information to decide if it is useful, truthful and relevant to the context they are working in.
• Problem Solving - enables students to come up with solutions to a problem that requires more than just memorising facts or figures.

Collins advises that there are many frameworks available to support the teaching of higher order thinking, however, Blooms is the most widespread. She also provides the following stages to help implement an effective program including higher order thinking:-

• Specifically teach the language and concepts of higher order thinking
• Planning classroom questioning and discussion time to tap into particular higher-order thinking skills
• Explicitly teaching subject concepts
• Providing scaffolding
• Consciously teach to encourage higher order thinking