Digital Technologies – Cross-curriculum Priorities
Cross-curriculum Priorities support the Australian Curriculum to be a relevant, contemporary and engaging curriculum that reflects national, regional and global contexts. Cross-curriculum Priorities are incorporated through learning area content; they are not separate learning areas or subjects. They provide opportunities to enrich the content of the learning areas, where most appropriate and authentic, allowing students to engage with and better understand their world.
Opportunities to apply Cross-curriculum Priorities to learning area content vary. All three Cross-curriculum Priorities have relevance and meaning to the Technologies curriculum. The Cross-curriculum Priority of Sustainability is embedded in content descriptions where it is core to the delivery of the content in Design and Technologies and Digital Technologies. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories and cultures and Asia and Australia’s engagement with Asia Cross-curriculum Priorities are identified in content elaborations where they offer opportunities to add depth and richness to student learning.
In Technologies, students can explore some of the designs, technologies and digital systems of the oldest continuous living cultures in the world. Through varied and engaging contexts, students can learn how proven designed solutions from long ago endure today and can at times inspire contemporary solutions.
Students can investigate how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ knowledges of natural materials have developed over millennia and have culminated in deep knowledge of their properties and performance. Likewise, students have the opportunity to explore successful systems that First Nations Australians have developed to join materials for the design and production of a diverse range of essential technologies.
Students can gain insights into how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are often at the forefront of adopting digital systems, and learn how they often endure the inequities of digital system performance and capabilities, especially when living on Country. Students can explore how many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are embracing digital tools to maintain, control, protect and further develop culture through the digitisation of cultural expressions. They have opportunities to examine the complexities of data and the need for ethical protocols when using systems to acquire, manage and analyse data.
Technologies provides authentic contexts to explore the significant contribution that the people and countries of Asia make to global technological advancement and the impact that Australia’s technological advances have on the countries of Asia. Collaboration and engagement with the peoples of Asia encourages development of advanced manufacturing processes linked to automotive, electronic and robotic technologies, food and fibre, medical advances and gaming and eSports to support effective regional and global citizenship. Students have the opportunity to understand traditional technologies and local craftmanship that supports diverse communities to create sustainable modes of existence across Asia.
In Technologies, students identify and analyse problems and create solutions with a focus on sustainability, balancing economic, environmental and social impacts. They develop the knowledge and skills to creatively design for sustainability issues like resource depletion and climate change. Students explore diverse viewpoints and understand systems, while navigating complexity and risk to propose innovative and sustainable solutions. They reflect on past and present practices and evaluate new and emerging technologies to shape preferred futures locally and globally.