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• Digital Technologies: Levels 7 and 8 achievement standards

  By the end of Level 8, students distinguish between different types of networks and their suitability in meeting defined purposes.

  Students explain how text, image and sound data can be represented and secured in digital systems and presented using digital systems. They analyse and evaluate data...

  Level description | Technologies | Digital Technologies | Levels 7 and 8

• Digital Technologies: Levels 7 and 8 description

  In Levels 7 and 8, students analyse the properties of networked systems and their suitability and use for the transmission of data types. They acquire, analyse, validate and evaluate various types of data, and appreciate the complexities of storing and transmitting that data in digital systems.

  Stude...

  Level description | Technologies | Digital Technologies

• VCDTCD040

  Define and decompose real-world problems taking into account functional requirements and sustainability (economic, environmental, social), technical and usability constraints

  Elaborations

  • determining the factors that influence proposed solution ideas, for example user age affects the language used for instructions, dexterity affects the size of buttons and links, hearing or vision loss influence captioned or audio-described multimedia as alternative ways that common information is presented on a website
  • investigating types of environmental constraints on solutions, for example reducing energy consumption and on-screen output of solutions
  • identifying that problems can be decomposed into sub elements, for example creating a decision tree to represent the breakdown and relationships of sub elements to the main problem or identifying the elements of game design such as characters, movements, collisions and scoring
  • starting from a simplified system, gradually increase complexity until a model of a real-world system is developed, and record the difficulties associated with each stage of development

  VCDTCD040 | Technologies | Digital Technologies | Levels 7 and 8 | Creating Digital Solutions

• VCDTCD043

  Develop and modify programs with user interfaces involving branching, iteration and functions using a general-purpose programming language

  Elaborations

  • developing and modifying digital solutions by implementing instructions contained in algorithms using a programming language
  • developing a digital game that manipulates models of real-world objects
  • programming a robot to recognise particular objects and to treat them differently, for example to choose objects based on colour
  • creating digital solutions that provide user navigation and prompts with controlled repetitions, for example an information kiosk that has layers of buttons and prompts the user three times before returning to the beginning

  VCDTCD043 | Technologies | Digital Technologies | Levels 7 and 8 | Creating Digital Solutions

• VCDTCD041

  Design the user experience of a digital system, generating, evaluating and communicating alternative designs

  Elaborations

  • designing the user interface of a solution using a range of design tools, for example using a storyboard to explain the stages of a game, and wire-frames and mock-ups to describe the appearance of a solution
  • identifying features that make an effective game, such as storyline, goal, reward, gameplay and environment
  • identifying similar digital systems and their user interfaces, assessing whether user interface elements can be re-used
  • devising criteria and comparing alternative design ideas that address a problem, for example evaluating two design outlines on the basis of attractiveness, ergonomics, ease of use, emotional satisfaction and accessibility
  • applying the principles and elements of design to a series of solutions to evaluate the success of each solution in holding the viewer’s attention, for example identifying which colour combinations or framing of visual elements keep different audiences engaged with on-screen activity

  VCDTCD041 | Technologies | Digital Technologies | Levels 7 and 8 | Creating Digital Solutions

• VCDTCD042

  Design algorithms represented diagrammatically and in English, and trace algorithms to predict output for a given input and to identify errors

  Elaborations

  • investigating and designing some common algorithms, such as to search, sequence, sort, merge and control data structures
  • checking the accuracy of an algorithm before it is implemented, for example desk checking it with test data to see if the instructions produce the expected results
  • using diagrams to describe key decisions, for example creating flowcharts using digital systems to describe a set of computational instructions
  • using structured English to express algorithmic instructions, for example using conventional statements such as ‘while’ and ‘endwhile’ in a ‘while loop’ when describing interactive instruction

  VCDTCD042 | Technologies | Digital Technologies | Levels 7 and 8 | Creating Digital Solutions

• VCDTCD044

  Evaluate how well student-developed solutions and existing information systems meet needs, are innovative and take account of future risks and sustainability

  Elaborations

  • comparing student-developed solutions with existing solutions that solve similar problems, for example identifying differences in the user interface of two adventure games and explaining how these differences affect the usability or appeal of the game
  • judging the quality of a student-developed solution based on specific criteria such as meeting an economic need or contributing to social sustainability
  • investigating what features of touch input rather than keyboard or mouse input contribute to their success in meeting a wide range of needs, for example mimicking a common movement such as expanding or contracting a hand to change the size of an object on screen, suits users with a range of dexterity
  • evaluating the success of information systems in meeting an economic, environmental or social objective, for example interviewing a local business owner to find out how effectively their information system supports a business objective such as increasing market share
  • considering the effects of e-waste on societies and environments, for example the impacts of toxic chemicals when hardware is disposed of, and the practice of dumping unwanted digital systems overseas, particularly in the Asia region
  • comparing cloud-based information systems to client-based information systems on the basis of security of transmitted and stored data and energy costs

  VCDTCD044 | Technologies | Digital Technologies | Levels 7 and 8 | Creating Digital Solutions

• VCDTDI037

  Acquire data from a range of sources and evaluate their authenticity, accuracy and timeliness

  Elaborations

  • designing a search engine query to find specific information on the web and checking its accuracy against information contained in other sources, for example entering instructions such as intitle: and inurl: prefixes to find information within a general directory, and comparing the results with information found in a wiki
  • acquiring data from a range of sources, for example people, websites, books, mobile phones, radiofrequency identification (RFID) and data repositories such as the Australian Bureau of Statistics datasets, and compiling these data into a digital format
  • checking authenticity of data, for example ensuring the source or author is a reliable individual or organisation
  • using techniques to locate data that are timely, for example using a filtering function to specify the timeframe, such as years, for the required data

  VCDTDI037 | Technologies | Digital Technologies | Levels 7 and 8 | Data and Information

• VCDTDI039

  Manage, create and communicate interactive ideas, information and projects collaboratively online, taking safety and social contexts into account

  Elaborations

  • discussing how different social contexts affect participation in global virtual spaces, for example considering the use of language, acronyms and humour, and providing opportunities for each team member to express their opinions on their own terms
  • organising the instructions and files in readiness for the development of a solution, for example applying a file name convention such as author initials, version and date to all data files that are going to be used to create solutions
  • creating a web-based project that involves modifying an existing website template or writing HTML and cascading style sheets (CSS), for example using web-authoring software and CSS to create a website that allows customers to interact with an enterprising solution, such as purchasing an item
  • devising and applying protocols to manage the collaborative creation of solutions, for example planning to use cloud computing to store common files and establishing virtual meetings that acknowledge time zone differences
  • organising the timeline, resources, file naming conventions, back-up measures and sequence of tasks required to collaboratively create solutions that meet specified needs

  VCDTDI039 | Technologies | Digital Technologies | Levels 7 and 8 | Data and Information

• VCDTDI038

  Analyse and visualise data using a range of software to create information, and use structured data to model objects or events

  Elaborations

  • using features and functions of software to summarise data to create information, for example calculating a simple budget of income and payments and creating a summary table for analysis
  • visualising data to create information, for example displaying geocoded data on a map
  • applying a set of conditions to a spreadsheet to organise and filter data, for example using conditional formatting to highlight the state of particular cells, and filtering and sorting categorical data using column filters
  • querying an existing database to extract data for analysis, for example devising multiple selection criteria or using simple structured query language (SQL) SELECT statements to select records and retrieve specified fields
  • describing the attributes of complex objects, for example defining the records, fields, formats and relationships of a simple dataset
  • modelling the attributes of real-world objects for a computer game

  VCDTDI038 | Technologies | Digital Technologies | Levels 7 and 8 | Data and Information

• VCDTDI036

  Investigate how digital systems represent text, image and sound data in binary

  Elaborations

  • explaining that characters in text correspond to numbers defined by the character set, for example ‘A’ corresponds to 65 in the ASCII and Unicode character sets
  • recognising that Unicode attempts to represent the written symbols of every language; and using Unicode charts to look up characters from Asian writing systems
  • investigating the different representation of bitmap and vector graphics and its consequences, for example pixelation in magnified bitmap and vector images
  • investigating how colours are represented in images and videos, for example manipulating red, green and blue (RGB) colours in an image editor
  • converting between decimal and 8-bit (1 byte) unsigned binary, covering whole numbers typically used for characters and RGB, for example 65 in decimal is 01000001 in 8-bit binary
  • explaining ways media elements are presented, for example the difference between embedded and linked media elements

  VCDTDI036 | Technologies | Digital Technologies | Levels 7 and 8 | Data and Information

• VCDTDS035

  Investigate how data is transmitted and secured in wired, wireless and mobile networks

  Elaborations

  • explaining that networks have components that control the movement of data, for example routers, hubs, switches and bridges manage data traffic and that the characteristics of these components impact on the operation (speed and security) of networks
  • explaining how cellular radio towers (transceivers) and mobile phones work together to create mobile networks
  • comparing the reliability and speed of transmitting data through wireless, wired and mobile networks
  • recognising that there are different communications protocols for transmitting data in networks, for example hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) is used for transferring web page files in a browser, file transfer protocol (FTP) is used for sending and receiving any files over a network and transmission control protocol/internet protocol (TCP/IP) is used for controlling file transfers over the internet

  VCDTDS035 | Technologies | Digital Technologies | Levels 7 and 8 | Digital Systems