Defining the ICT Curriculum

Greetings from the UNSW Canberra (at ADFA) where Lynette Johns-Boast from ANU is speaking on "A Definitional Framework for curriculum" at the "Conveticle on Computing Education". It is surprising that what a curriculum is could be so unclear. However, what a curriculum is depends on what the purpose of education is, what outcomes are expected and how prescriptive  the process to get there is. Lynette suggests a software engineering approach can be applied to curriculum design, working from the purpose of the course to the desired outcomes and from this set out the required content. This prevents courses growing in an uncontrolled way, with old content just accumulating. Lynette uses the analogy of university degrees built from building blocks, but I suggest my analogy of car "platforms" works better. Building blocks are of a fixed size, but car platforms are designed so they can be adjusted in size (within set limits) to build a small or large car. In the case of curriculum you could apply the platform to a short diploma, a degree or a masters.

Coming up is:

2:40 Potential for Secondary and Tertiary IT Pathways in the light of the Digital Technologies Curriculum, Bruce Fuda, Gunghalin College
3:20 Computing Ethics Education, Richard Lucas, UC
4:00 Close