Te Au Matihiko |

Digital Technology

The teaching of digital technology involves educating students on the use and understanding of computer systems, software applications, and digital tools. It aims to develop students' technical skills, problem-solving abilities, and digital literacy for effective participation in a technology-driven world.

Digital Technology Class 8

Digital Technology class 8

In Class 8 students quickly become confident users of a wide range of digital technologies. They explore and value central themes in the impact of digital technologies and engage with digital technologies through historical, societal and biographical exploration e.g. by studying Alan Turing’s life, the invention of the transistor and the impact of social networking.

From their primary years’ experience they now hold a strong foundation to understand the evolution of machine “intelligence” and learn an array of digital technologies. A continual deepening practice of the Arts (in particular the “six Steiner Arts”: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Music, Creative Speech and Eurythmy) provides a balance to the digital emphasis of modern life.

Students explore and value the central themes in the workings of digital technologies. They engage with digital technologies mathematically by working with processes including Boolean logic and binary/hexadecimal number systems. Students engage with digital technologies scientifically through studies in electromagnetism and materials science.

They develop further understanding of healthy and safe work practices using digital technologies by analysing contrasts such as identity - anonymity, privacy - exposure, freedom - manipulation, original creative work - copy/paste paradigm.

Students apply digital technologies in a fully integrated, creative and ethical way including computer networks and operations, word-processing, spread sheets and databases, multimedia and graphics and with the Internet and digital communications.

Digital Technology Class 9

Students in class 9 continue to work ethically and confidently with a wide range of digital

technologies. They understand the development of digital technologies through historical, societal and biographical exploration, e.g. the Turing Test, artificial intelligence and the trans-human dilemma. Students strive to be ethical, independent, creative and active participants in the digital world through exploration and valuing of cutting edge themes in the workings of digital technologies.

Students engage with digital technology mathematically by examining ideas and processes such as: bits and qubits, fuzzy logic and chaos theory. Students engage with digital technology scientifically, by building a binary adding machine from electrical relays. Students employ digital technologies to produce original creative work using word processing, presentation software, programming and web design. They reflect on the appropriate use of digital technologies, modifying their own use as required. They are able to plan, conduct and communicate rigorous research tasks using a range of digital technologies.

By the end of Class 9 the students should show self-motivated interest in the world around them and using digital technologies to acquire knowledge. The begin to understand and appreciate technology as the kingdom of culture, with its polarities.

History lessons have research aspects which are there to awaken interest in global contexts allowing the student to understand historical forces.

Digital Technology Class 10

Students in Class 10 emotions are still powerful, there is a marked development towards greater control and balance. Students are much more social at this age, and far better able to work in groups. There is a marked difference in their perception of the world and their ability to comprehend and understand basic underlying laws and structures, both in themselves and in the world in general. They begin to explore the technologies for influence and reasoning e.g. Spread sheeting, poster, logo design, programming applications.

The love of a certain dramatic sensationalism of the previous year begins to recede; they wish to understand the phenomena they meet, both on an inner and outer level. The richness of the inner life is more easily able to express itself, allowing for greater subtlety in their response to language and to the world in general.

They are abler to form deep and lasting relationships and friendships at this age, since the relationship of the self to others and to the outer world is more harmonious. There is now a striving towards the balance between polarities, whether in Chemistry (Acids, Bases, and Salts; with salt as the mediator between acids and bases), the English lessons (Homer's "Odyssey" and "The Art of Language" where words are seen as a balanced dynamic between the creative and the functional) or in History (the study of New Zealand’s history in forging a balanced, bi-cultural society).

In Class 10 the strands start to merge together into one unit of learning that complement each other.

Digital Technology Class 11

The intellect is no longer at the mercy of the inner feelings; students are able to employ a far greater objectivity with regard to themselves and the world. They are able to comprehend the laws of the outer world in minute detail – it is not for nothing that one of the key lessons of this year is Atomic Physics.

In language studies, the analytical and manipulative power now matches the creative power, and they are able to argue the finer points of any point of view with scholastic delight! It is precisely at this point that students may experience inner loneliness and questions as regards their worth as human beings within the general scheme of things; it is at this point that they have questions concerning their own destinies.

Digital Technology Class 12

This year is the culmination of an education which seeks to produce individuals who will work with a sound understanding of both themselves and the world.

It is in this last year that one hears all the “tones” of the preceding years sounding in harmony, where the young adults of this age are themselves as members of a greater world where the moral and the scientific, the inner and the outer, form a single whole.

The lessons in this year form the grand synthesis of the whole education, with material which gives a broad overview and understanding of the whole curriculum in such things as “The History of Architecture”, and “The History of Philosophy”. The content of the subjects directs itself to the current world view in relation to that field of endeavor.

The students stand firmly in the contemporary age, taking the best of the past into a future which is yet to unfold. It is here that one sees the fruits of a Waldorf education in young adults who stand courageously and with integrity as free individuals, secure within values which give meaning to life.