Brian - I get the other three strands but isn't creativity something that will be encouraged in all of them? I'm not sure I see how this is a standalone option - I think I'd see the art part as digital literacy (as a wordprocessor is to a creative piece of writing, so e.g. Photoshop is to a new piece of Art)

I see where you are coming from on this one - but I think as I still see some value in it by turning my attention to working on a full multimedia portfolio unit for year 7's for a year this may show enough to justify the strand. It is a good opportunity to teach not only creative skills which would serve app development in the future but it picks up on other digital literacy issues such as word and slideshows etc. It may be light on computational thinking but there may be opportunity to bring it in. I certainly hope to have quite a bit done by the next meeting.

I'm not saying there's no value in it, just that it seems to be being driven by the portfolio rather than informing the portfolio. I've probably misunderstood, but I thought the portfolio idea was to pick from the different strands in different ways. So yes, a Multimedia portfolio could have minimal comp thinking, the bulk of it ICT & Applications driven, and maybe some Digital Citizenship. But that's different from Multimedia being a strand in itself isn't it?

Anyway, not a big issue - just me trying to get my head straight on this :)

p.s. if you stick with the strand, can you change the name? It's a little pejorative (as in it makes it sound as if there's no creativity in any of the other strands)

I like Gary's idea of Digital Authoring. I see what you mean by the portfolios drawing from the strands and the Multimedia portfolio being almost from one strand. What I am hoping to show though with what we work on is that although it seems drawn from the one strand it does draw from all the others. EG to being with the Head of Art and I are considering getting the pupils to write a decent script for their animations (which are going to be on Beowulf) using word processing which covers Digital Literacy. We would be looking at copyright law for gathering resources (Digital Society) and would be learning about and using higher specced machines (basic Digital Technology). Hopefully it will come together nicely! Besides if I can pull off a request to Double Negative I am hoping to get a visual effects person involved which would meet the careers aspect.

Creating an agreed taxonomy and meaning of terms is always going to be a challenge. For me I want a strand that focuses on using ICT to create effective art, animations, presentations, letters and web sites; applications, etc. So I am Digital Authoring works for me. But all strands interact.

Hi Richard,

You are defnitely right - very difficult to create a taxonomy for the subject. I think the easiest way to get around that is to acknowledge that yes some structure is required but understand that not everyone will agree with you and that other definitions may also be right as well. You are right about the strands interacting as well - take websites for example as you will be designing the multimedia front end but having to code the back end as well.

thanks
brian