digital technologies: the 3 ways of thinking

Agenda

Introducing the Digital Technologies Curriculum

The three Ways Of Thinking

Computational Thinking

Design Thinking

Systems Thinking

Summary and questions

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What is Digital Technologies?

● Not just ICT.

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What is Digital Technologies?

● A learning area for F-10.

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Digital Technologies vs ICT

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bit.ly/VCAAposter

Posters from the

Victorian Curriculum and

Assessment Authority (VCAA)digitaltechnologieshub.edu.au/teachers/australian-curriculum

Posters and videos at

Digital Technologies Hub

Access from the VCAA website.

Digital Technologies vs ICT

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aca.edu.au/resources/dt-vs-ict-cards

Card activity from

Australian Computing Academy

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victoriancurriculum.vcaa.vic.edu.au

/technologies/digital-technologiesaustraliancurriculum.edu.au

/f-10-curriculum/technologies

/digital-technologies

Let's dip our toes in...

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bit.ly/VCAAcurr

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POLL and DISCUSSION

Which Way of Thinking do you know the most about?

or Which is most used at your school?

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Computational Thinking

The steps for making an algorithmic solution to a

problem.

"Coming up with a solution that a computer could carry

out."

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Computational Thinking 1

● Decomposition

○ Breaking down a complex problem or system into smaller, more manageable parts

○ Related Vocabulary: deconstruct, reimagine, divide,

reorganise

■ Analogy of completing a puzzle

■ We create a list of smaller jobs to do as we are

working on a puzzle. We work in different sections,

then connecting the smaller areas.11

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Computational Thinking 2

● Pattern Recognition

○ When you look for recurring themes, similarities which

lead to predictions or short cuts

○ Related Vocabulary: group, identify, name, sort

■ Look for pieces of the style that will fit that puzzle

piece

■ Look for similar colours

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Computational Thinking 3

● Abstraction

○ Focusing on the important information only, ignoring irrelevant detail

○ Related Vocabulary: Represent, refocus, generalise

decomplexify

■ Completing the puzzle at the beginning we start on

the border. We only look for flat edge pieces.

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Computational Thinking 4

● Algorithm Design

○ Developing a step-by-step solution to the problem, or the rules to follow to solve the problem

○ Related Vocabulary: sequence, code, flowchart

■ What is the process you take to complete a puzzle?

What actions/ steps are repeated?

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Primary Years exampleC

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Secondary Years exampleN

Number guessing game

● Make notes - break down the problem

● Do a flowchart or pseudocode - plan out the

algorithm, look for patterns and do abstraction

● Code - use a General Purpose Language

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● User thinks of a number between 1 and 100.

● Computer takes a guess.

● User types 'lower' or 'higher'.

● Computer keeps guessing until it gets the right number.

What does the computer need to keep in memory?

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Display “Think of a number...”● User thinks of a number

between 1 and 100.

● Computer takes a guess.

● User types 'lower' or 'higher'.

● Computer keeps guessing until it gets the right number.

What does the computer need to keep in memory?

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Display “Think of a number...”bottom ← 0top ← 100

● User thinks of a number between 1 and 100.

● Computer takes a guess.

● User types 'lower' or 'higher'.

● Computer keeps guessing until it gets the right number.

What does the computer need to keep in memory?

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Display “Think of a number...”bottom ← 0top ← 100REPEAT forever

guess ← average of bottom and topDisplay “Is it “, guess, “?”

END REPEAT

● User thinks of a number between 1 and 100.

● Computer takes a guess.

● User types 'lower' or 'higher'.

● Computer keeps guessing until it gets the right number.

What does the computer need to keep in memory?

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Display “Think of a number...”bottom ← 0top ← 100REPEAT forever

guess ← average of bottom and topDisplay “Is it “, guess, “?”response ← user inputIf response = 'lower'

top← guessELSE

bottom ← guessEND IF

END REPEAT

● User thinks of a number between 1 and 100.

● Computer takes a guess.

● User types 'lower' or 'higher'.

● Computer keeps guessing until it gets the right number.

What does the computer need to keep in memory?

The final program might look like:

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repl.it/@NathanAlison/NumberGuessingGame

It's also about data!

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pudding.cool/2017/08/screen-direction

More resourcesN

● Bebras Computational Thinking challenges

● Coding

○ Tangible: eg. Beebot, Osmo

○ Visual: eg. Scratch, code.org, Grok Learning

○ General Purpose: eg. Python, JavaScript

○ Electronics and robotics: eg. micro:bit, Lego, Vex

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bit.ly/3wayslinks

WORD CLOUD

What is your key takeaway for Computational Thinking?

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Design Thinking

Employing a creative process to

understand a problem or opportunity,

then imagine and design a solution.

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Stanford d.school Design Thinking Process

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CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University

Stanford d.school Design Thinking Process

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CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University

EMPAT

HIZE

Develop an

understanding

of the

challenge

Who is my target

audience?

Stanford d.school Design Thinking Process

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CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University

EMPAT

HIZE

DEFINE

Develop an

understanding

of the

challenge

Clearly

articulate the

problem you

want to solve

Who is my target

audience?

What problem am

I solving?

Stanford d.school Design Thinking Process

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CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University

EMPAT

HIZE

DEFINE

IDEATE

Develop an

understanding

of the

challenge

Clearly

articulate the

problem you

want to solve

Who is my target

audience?

What problem am

I solving?

Brainstorm

potential

solutions;

select and

develop your

solution.

How many solutions

can I come up with?

Stanford d.school Design Thinking Process

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C

CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University

EMPAT

HIZE

DEFINE

IDEATE

PROTO

TYPEDevelop an

understanding

of the

challenge

Clearly

articulate the

problem you

want to solve

Who is my target

audience?

What problem am

I solving?

Brainstorm

potential

solutions;

select and

develop your

solution.

How many solutions

can I come up with?

Design a

prototype (or

series of

prototypes)

to test all or

part of your

solution

What materials can I

Use to create a

prototype?

Stanford d.school Design Thinking Process

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C

CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University

EMPAT

HIZE

DEFINE

IDEATE

PROTO

TYPE

TEST

Develop an

understanding

of the

challenge

Clearly

articulate the

problem you

want to solve

Brainstorm

potential

solutions;

select and

develop your

solution.

Engage in a

continuous

short-cycle

innovation

process to

continually

improive your

design

Design a

prototype (or

series of

prototypes)

to test all or

part of your

solution

Who is my target

audience?

What problem am

I solving?

How many solutions

can I come up with?

What materials can I

Use to create a

prototype?

What improvements

can be made?

Primary Years ExampleC

● Design an app to keep you healthy.

● Incorporated into a Health Unit.

● Year 5 and 6 Curriculum Focus.

● Students had already investigated

different ways to stay healthy.

● Students chose one of the ways then

designed to help their needs.

● Examples: mental health app, sprinting

app, buddy app etc.

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Problem Solving Methodology

● Analyse

● Design

● Develop

● Evaluate

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Problem Solving Methodology

● Analyse○ What is the problem or need? For whom? In what environment?

○ What are the goals and scope of the solution?

● Design

● Develop

● Evaluate

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Problem Solving Methodology

● Analyse○ What is the problem or need? For whom? In what environment?

○ What are the goals and scope of the solution?

● Design○ What is the solution? How will it work? How will it be used?

○ How will I know that the solution solved the problem or need?

● Develop

● Evaluate

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Problem Solving Methodology

● Analyse○ What is the problem or need? For whom? In what environment?

○ What are the goals and scope of the solution?

● Design○ What is the solution? How will it work? How will it be used?

○ How will I know that the solution solved the problem or need?

● Develop○ Making, coding, testing.

● Evaluate

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Problem Solving Methodology

● Analyse○ What is the problem or need? For whom? In what environment?

○ What are the goals and scope of the solution?

● Design○ What is the solution? How will it work? How will it be used?

○ How will I know that the solution solved the problem or need?

● Develop○ Making, coding, testing.

● Evaluate○ How well did the solution solve the problem or need?

○ What are the impacts?

Planning /

project

management

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Another dip into the curriculum...

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bit.ly/VCAAcurr

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Secondary Years exampleN

● Physical tech project with the BBC micro:bit.

Physical Tech from Go to WHOA! (Alison and Dedic, 2019)

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sites.google.com/dltv.vic.edu.au/physicaltech

OPEN QUESTION

● Come up with a How Might We? Question.

POINTS OF VIEW:

Jim is tired of tidying away Lego that his daughter

Patti constantly leaves on the floor.

Patti is frustrated that her dad keeps dumping all her

Lego bricks in one big box.

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CC

-BY

-NC

-SA

4.0

Ha

sso

Pla

ttn

er

Inst

itu

te o

f D

esi

gn

at

Sta

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niv

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ity

More resourcesN

● Other design methodologies to consider:

○ British Design Council's "Double Diamond"

○ IDEO's Human Centred Design approach

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bit.ly/3wayslinks

List the functions of your

smartphone (ie. the things it

can do).

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Now list the hardware and

software components in the

smartphone.

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Systems Thinking

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"Big picture" thinking: connections and dependencies.

image CC-BY-SA Luca Fornasari (Wikimedia Commons)

NExamples of Systems Thinking problems

● Bringing in a new online system at a school:

○ How to get student accounts to integrate?

○ Will it work on the hardware?

○ What about security?

● Ecology and biology - food webs, the human body

○ What happens if an organism is removed from the system?

○ What happens if a foreign organism is added?

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● Climate change science

○ The atmosphere is part of a very complex system!

○ Positive / negative feedback loops

● COVID-19

○ Job losses can make for more job losses

○ Economy and epidemiology aren't so separate...

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NExamples of Systems Thinking problems

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"You think, because you understand 'one',

that you must therefore understand 'two'

because one and one make two.

But you forget that you must also understand 'and'."

- Sufi teaching

More resourcesN

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bit.ly/3wayslinks

from Systems Thinking Design Pack, CC-BY-NC-SA Institute of Play

Thank you!

Questions?

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