INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: LEARNING PROGRAMME GUIDELINES
What is the purpose of Information Technology?
Information Technology is learning about and working with ICT? The subject is designed to:
Information Technology concentrates on the development of solutions using both programming and application packages. Learners who wish to study application packages and their uses in a variety of situations are encouraged to study Computer Applications Technology.The learner most likely to succeed in this subject will show evidence of:
Information Technology is learning about and working with ICT? The subject is designed to:
- Higher-order thinking skills – the ability to understand the complex relationships and interdependencies between concepts, structures and processes;
- Technology skills – the ability to access, retrieve, store, organize, manipulate, evaluate, maintain analyze, interpret, present and communicate information and to use ICTs to process information;
- Problem-solving skills – the application of an authentic methodology to solve problems in a irregular range of cases by using digital technology;
- Creative skills – the ability to design, develop and produce creative and elegant solutions;
- Collaborative skills – the ability to develop multifaceted and multileveled systems through collaborative teamwork; and
- Lifelong learning skills – ability to achieve and maintain the knowledge, skills, values and attitudes required in a dynamic knowledge domain
- A deep understanding of the concepts and principles of the hardware and software of ICT;
- To use digital technology to solve problems; and
- Programming as the process of designing, developing and implementing software systems to solve particular problems
Information Technology concentrates on the development of solutions using both programming and application packages. Learners who wish to study application packages and their uses in a variety of situations are encouraged to study Computer Applications Technology.The learner most likely to succeed in this subject will show evidence of:
- sound communication skills in the language of teaching and learning (LoLT),
- better than average abilities in Mathematics,
- logical thinking skills,
- problem-solving skills,
- proficiency with and interest in technology, and
- an aptitude for computers that goes beyond the use of applications and game playing.
- Analyse factors affecting the overall performance of a computer-based system;
- Produce reports on common problems in computer configurations which identify
- standard troubleshooting procedures;
- Recommend a hardware solution for a given problem;
- Recommend an operating system for a specific hardware configuration;
- State and discuss the implications of the latest computer technologies;
- Critically assess Internet security and its implications;
- Propose and justify strategies to protect the value of information produced and
- communicated by an organisation;
- State and discuss how the latest technologies facilitate human interaction;
- Analyse the effects of the use of computers across a range of applications;
- Research and report on the ethical issues relating to the use of computers;
- Comment on the use of computers to provide solutions to issues of national and
- international importance
- Comment critically on the social, political, economic and other consequences of search
- engines and group communities;
- Explain the responsible use, purpose and significance of any new computer
- developments;
- Manipulate real-world data using advanced techniques such as what-if scenarios using
- spreadsheets;
- Explain the principles of good navigation between different screens of a user-written
- application, starting from a multi-function menu;
- Design, for a real-world application, a system of several interlinked screens which can
- successfully be navigated by end-users and members of the public;
- Apply the principles of object-orientated data structuring for classes and collections;
- Implement solutions to simple problems requiring collections of data in a programming
- environment;
- Explain the danger of software which has bugs in it;
- Use a debugger to efficiently find programming errors;
- Understand the necessity of using automatically-generated or fetched test data for
- interactive and database systems;
- Interpret and analyse the output of a computerised system;
- Know the principles of normalisation for data in databases and apply them to avoid
- repetition of data;
- Query a database via an application package and a programming language;
- Demonstrate the integration of data between various application packages;
- Implement an effective online help system for an existing or new software application;
- and
- Produce well-written and well-presented documentation for an existing or new software
- application.
