The Australian Digital Technologies Curriculum: challenge and opportunity

Abstract

There is a call for change in the treatment of ICT curriculum in our schools driven by the relatively recent acknowledgement of the growing importance of ICT in industry and society, and the need to empower youth as producers, as well as consumers, of technology. ICT curriculum in previous incarnations tended to focus on ICT as a tool, with the development of digital literacy as the key requirement. Areas such as computer science (CS) or computational thinking were typically isolated into senior secondary programs, with a focus on programming and algorithm development, when they were considered at all. New curricula introduced in England, and currently under debate within Australia, have identified the need to educate for both digital literacy and CS, and the need to promote both learning areas from the commencement of schooling, Foundation (F) to year 12. In this paper, we discuss the main trends and learning objectives of these new curricula, identifying key areas requiring further research and development by the CS Education community. We undertake a review of current research in CS Education within the F-12 context, to identify research that can guide effective implementation and provide opportunities for further research.