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Definitions

Accessibility - Accessibility also refers to the quality of being available when needed. You like the accessibility of the company's customer service because you don't have to wait endlessly on hold in hopes of reaching a human being.

App - a self-contained program or piece of software designed to fulfil a particular purpose; an application, especially as downloaded by a user to a mobile device.

 

Characteristics – a feature or quality belonging typically to a person, place, or thing and serving to identify them.

 

Data – facts and statistics collected together for reference or analysis.

The quantities, characters, or symbols on which operations are performed by a computer, which may be stored and transmitted in the form of electrical signals and recorded on magnetic, optical, or mechanical recording media.

 

Deconstructing – A process of dismantling or pulling a product or system apart to systematically identify and analyse components and their relationships

 

Design brief – A concise statement clarifying the project task and defining the need or opportunity to be resolved after some analysis, investigation and research. It usually identifies the users, criteria for success, constraints, available resources and timeframe for the project and may include possible consequences and impacts.

 

Deign processes – Design is the creation of a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system (as in architectural blueprints, engineering drawings, business processes, circuit diagrams and sewing patterns).

 

Design thinking – Use of strategies for understanding design problems and opportunities, visualising and generating creative and innovative ideas, and analysing and evaluating those ideas that best meet the criteria for success and planning.

 

Digital Technologies – Any technologies controlled using digital instructions, including computer hardware and software, digital media and media devices, digital toys and accessories, and contemporary and emerging communication technologies. These technologies are based on instructions given using binary (0 or 1) code that invariably mean one or more processors are present to respond to these instructions. Computers, smartphones, digital cameras, printers and robots are all examples of digital technologies.

 

Evaluating – Evaluating measures performance against established criteria. It estimates the nature, quality, ability, extent or significance to make a judgement determining the value.

 

Functionality – the quality of being suited to serve a purpose well; practicality.

 

Graphic Organisers - A communication tool that uses visual symbols to represent structured thinking. Graphic organisers make thinking processes visible by showing connections between ideas/data. Examples include concept maps, flowcharts and cause-and-effect patterns. Their use has become more popular with the availability of software to create, edit and display them.

 

Materials – Natural (e.g. animals, food, fibre, timber, mineral) and fabricated (e.g. metal alloys, plastics, textiles, composites) materials. Materials are used to create products or environments and their structure can be manipulated by applying knowledge of their origins, structure, characteristics, properties and uses.

 

Model – a three-dimensional representation of a person or thing or of a proposed structure, typically on a smaller scale than the original.

 

This can be either a physical model, such as in a scale model of a car or house to show the form of a final production design, and is made with tools, jigs and fixtures; or virtual, such as a simulator program that demonstrates the capabilities of a vending machine through interaction with a computer user.

 

Multimedia – The use of digital technologies to present combinations of text, graphics, video, animation and/or sound in an integrated way. Where there is facility for the user to interact with the multimedia the term ‘interactive multimedia’ may be used. Examples include interactive games, media-rich websites, electronic books (ebooks) and animated short films

 

Producing – Actively realising (making) designed solutions using appropriate resources and means of production.

 

Product – One of the outputs of technologies processes, the end result of processes and production. Products are the tangible end results of natural, human, mechanical, manufacturing, electronic or digital processes to meet a need or want.

 

Production processes – In Design and Technologies, the technologies context-specific processes used to transform technologies into products, services or environments, for example, the steps used for producing a product.

 

Project – an individual or collaborative enterprise that is carefully planned to achieve a particular aim.

 

 

Prototype – a first or preliminary version of a device or vehicle from which other forms are developed.

 

Resources – In Design and Technologies, this includes technologies, energy, time, finance and human input.

 

Risk management practises – The practice of identifying potential risks in advance, analysing them and taking precautionary steps to reduce/curb the risk. Risk management involves risk identification, analysis, response planning, monitoring, controlling and reporting.

 

Social network – a network of social interactions and personal relationships.

 

A dedicated website or other application which enables users to communicate with each other by posting information, comments, messages, images, etc.

 

Social protocols – Generally accepted 'rules' or behaviours for when people interact in online environments, for example, using language that is not rude or offensive to particular cultures, and not divulging personal details about people without their permission.

 

Systems – The structure, properties, behaviour and interactivity of people and components (inputs, processes and outputs) within and between natural, managed, constructed and digital environments.

 

Systems thinking – Systems thinking is the process of understanding how things, regarded as systems, influence one another within a whole. In nature, systems thinking examples include ecosystems in which various elements such as air, water, movement, plants, and animals work together to survive or perish.

 

Technologies – The materials, data, systems, components, tools and equipment used to create solutions for identified needs and opportunities, and the knowledge, understanding and skills used by people involved in the selection and use of these.

 

Technologies contexts – The focus and opportunities for students in Design and Technologies to use processes and production skills to design and produce products, services and environments. The prescribed technologies contexts for Foundation to Year 8 are: engineering principles and systems; food and fibre production; food specialisations; and materials and technologies specialisations

 

 

 

 

 

Technologies processes – The processes that allow the creation of a solution for an audience (end user, client or consumer). The processes involve the purposeful use of technologies and other resources and appropriate consideration of impact when creating and using solutions. The processes typically require critical and creative thinking such as: computational, design or systems thinking. For Design and Technologies, the processes involve: investigating; generating; producing; evaluating; and collaborating and managing (design processes) and technologies-specific production processes. For Digital Technologies, the processes involve: defining; designing; implementing; evaluating; and collaborating and managing.

 

Tools – a device or implement, especially one held in the hand, used to carry out a particular function.

Implements and machines to carry out specific processes when working with materials. For example, a saw is an example of a tool used to cut timber; scissors are used to cut fabric, paper and cardboard; a tape measure is used to measure lengths and widths of wood and fabric; a blender is used to mix and blend food ingredients; secateurs are used to prune plants.

 

Visualisation software tools – Software to help in the recording of ideas as visual representations. Examples in Design and Technologies are computer-aided drawing (or computer-assisted design) (CAD) and computer simulation. Graphic organiser software are visualisation tools as are software that display graphs of data.

 

Working Models – Engineering simulation software product which when run can be used to test how virtual components interact. The program can simulate various interactions of the parts (components) and graph the movement and force on any element in a system. These working models are also known as prototypes and can be used to evaluate performance and to make alterations and improvements if necessary.