Unpack the Curriculum

Explore how people safely use common information systems to meet information, communication and recreation needs (ACTDIP005)

Explain how student solutions and existing information systems meet common personal, school or community needs (ACTDIP012)

Explain how student solutions and existing information systems are sustainable and meet current and future local community needs (ACTDIP021)

Evaluate how student solutions and existing information systems meet needs, are innovative, and take account of future risks and sustainability (ACTDIP031)

Evaluate critically how student solutions and existing information systems and policies, take account of future risks and sustainability and provide opportunities for innovation and enterprise (ACTDIP042)

Information systems

Information systems describe the solutions developed by people that make use of data and systems.

Information systems: A combination of digital systems, data, processes, and people that interact to create, control, and communicate information.; Students describe how familiar information systems support needs at home and school (e.g. some things are possible with paint software that are not possible without it, like experimenting with colours on a photo before painting the surface).

Student solutions: The answers and products students develop themselves as solutions to problems.; Students can reflect upon the effectiveness of their own digital assets to address a problem they have identified, or how it helps them live their life.
Information systems: A combination of digital systems, data, processes, and people that interact to create, control, and communicate information.; Students can describe familiar information systems that people in their community engage with to perform typical tasks.

Student solutions: The answers and products students develop themselves as solutions to problems.; Students can evaluate the effectiveness of their own solutions to address the identified problem, or how the solution improves an aspect of their lives.
Information systems: A combination of digital systems, data, processes, and people that interact to create, control, and communicate information.; Students can investigate a wider range of systems that help society operate through undertaking their own research.

Student solutions: The answers and products students develop themselves as solutions to problems.; Students can develop their own solutions using more flexible approaches and variation, drawing on previous problem-solving experiences and experimenting with new techniques.
Information systems: A combination of digital systems, data, processes, and people that interact to create, control, and communicate information.; Students can draw upon a range of different systems that are both complementary and oppositional that challenge their understanding of how systems are designed and operated. This is a good opportunity to demonstrate alternative solutions to very similar problems, and to analyse how these differences impact other considerations such as cost, aesthetics, user experience and technical decisions.

Student solutions: The answers and products students develop themselves as solutions to problems.; Students can produce their own solutions to problems, but regularly reflect upon and re-evaluate the effectiveness of their solution. Constantly revisiting how well it addresses the problem requirements informs the iterative development process.
Information systems: A combination of digital systems, data, processes, and people that interact to create, control, and communicate information.; Students can critique existing solutions and use this process to identify the common mistakes, shortcomings and/or strengths inherent in systems generally to inform decisions about their own solutions. It also encourages them to think more deeply about their own solutions and how they can improve upon existing ones.
Policies: Guiding principles or actions that influence the processes or approaches adopted when addressing problems.; Students can appreciate how policies around the use and application of systems are necessary for the safe and effective use of systems as their complexity increases. Students should be thinking about appropriate guidelines for the use of their solution to ensure the efficacy of the solution and to minimise any potential harmful impacts.

Users

Users are the people who benefit from or control information systems.

People: Individual people (the students and their family members and friends).; Students describe how familiar information systems meet the needs of individuals (e.g. how different family members use a tablet for different needs – play videos, read the news, or follow a recipe).

People: Individual people (the students and their family members and friends).; Students can apply their knowledge and understanding of information systems to hypothesise about the impact of systems on other individuals.
School: A lot of the things that happen in a school are facilitated by digital systems.; Students can reflect on how the systems at school help it run. This includes things like storing information about their family (so the school can contact parents) and which class they are in (so they can be found at different times in the day).
Community: Digital systems play a pivotal role in many of the problems our communities face.; Students can reflect on the many systems that are used in the wider community to address a range of problems, from timetables to manage transport and other services, through to details like storing license information so that police can enforce driving laws

Current users: People and groups that are using the system now to meet a present need.; Students can explain how the design of a solution takes into account the characteristics of the people who will be most likely to use it.
Future users: People and groups that are likely to want to use the system in the future, possibly to address an as yet undetermined need, or a change in current needs.; Students can predict the expected long-term requirements of a solution by extrapolating who the potential users will be in the future, and how this informs the flexibility and adaptability of the design to account for any likely changes.

The content descriptions do not explicitly address Users in band 7-8.

The content descriptions do not explicitly address Users in band 9-10.

Evaluation considerations

Evaluation considerations is concerned with how we factor the intended and unintended impacts of our solutions into our designs and implementation strategies.

Needs: The impact digital systems have had on our ability to solve a range of problems that enrich and enhance our lives.; Students understand that we use systems to store and access information all the time, and how using that information helps us learn about our environment, interactions and leisure activities.

Needs: The impact digital systems have had on our ability to solve a range of problems that enrich and enhance our lives.; Students can discuss the many different needs information systems address. The purposes of these systems are ultimately what determine their usefulness and viability, so students need to be cognisant of this to fully understand their larger impact.

Needs: The impact digital systems have had on our ability to solve a range of problems that enrich and enhance our lives.; Students can explain how existing systems meet the immediate needs of users, and how this influences their design and implementation. This is best achieved through study of existing systems, and explicit teaching when developing their own solutions. Introducing the idea that systems need to be designed for any foreseeable change helps students identify who potential future users are, but also how they might need to introduce flexibility or breadth of scope into their designs.
Sustainability: A broad interpretation of sustainability looks at many aspects of digital systems that make them viable over the long term, including their environmental impacts, economics and profitability, technical developments and changes, and social perceptions.; Students can understand how a broad interpretation of sustainability must be considered when evaluating the effectiveness of a solution. Scaffolding and prompting them to help understand a range of issues is likely to be necessary in this band. Asking very specific questions is a good strategy to help them understand that long term viability of systems hinges on a range of factors.

Needs: The impact digital systems have had on our ability to solve a range of problems that enrich and enhance our lives.; Students can draw on their understanding of how existing systems meet the immediate needs of users to better understand how their own solutions could address these or other immediate needs. Understanding that timeliness is an important factor in the uptake of systems, and making this part of their thinking process, is a critical precursor to enterprising thinking. Solutions are only successfully adopted at large scale when they can evolve to not only meet the needs of their target audience now but also well into the future. An understanding of what potential future needs may exist (or how current needs will evolve) informs flexible design that extends the life of the systems usefulness.
Innovation and enterprise: The application of digital technologies to either new problems, or existing problems in alternative or new ways. The concept of innovation should be interpreted with respect to what students know and understand - innovation for a student could be development of a solution similar to an existing one if the application of the concepts is new for them.; Students can identify opportunities for creativity and innovation in the development of solutions, and explain how alternative implementations of solutions to these problems address needs more effectively..
Sustainability: A broad interpretation of sustainability looks at many aspects of digital systems that make them viable over the long term, including their environmental impacts, economics and profitability, technical developments and changes, and social perceptions.; Students can analyse the question of sustainability of both their own and larger, existing systems from multiple angles. Questioning their existing ideas or implementation and asking them to think about the implications of these decisions in the medium- to long-term on things such as cost and technological development is just as important as environmental issues. Drawing on case studies (such as the NBN) is also encouraged.
Risk: There are always unintended consequences of developing or introducing new technologies and/or systems, and being able to identify potential problems is key to understanding the impact they are likely to have on individuals, the environment and broader society.; Students can explain the risks involved in implementing systems through the realisation of unintended consequences. Making sure students understand the concept of risk - in terms of things such as adoption, cost blowouts, resourcing, maintenance and other factors - ensures they understand how important it is that you look at both the problem and solution from a high-level perspective as well as the detail.