NCEA Level 3 Digital Technology

Computational Thinking for Digital Technologies enables students to express problems and formulate solutions in ways that mean a computer (an information processing agent) can be used to solve them. In this area, students develop:

• Students analyse concepts in digital technologies by explaining the relevant mechanisms that underpin them, how they are used in real world applications, and the key problems or issues related to them.
• Students discuss the purpose of a selection of data structures and evaluate their use in terms of trade-offs between performance and storage requirements and their suitability for different algorithms.
• They use an iterative process to design, develop, document and test advanced computer programs.

Designing and developing digital outcomes: In this area, students understand that digital applications and systems are created for humans by humans.

• students independently investigate a specialised digital technologies area and propose possible solutions to issues they identify.
• students work independently or within collaborative cross-functional teams to apply an iterative development process to plan, design, develop, test and create quality, fit-for-purpose digital outcomes that enable their solutions, synthesising relevant social, ethical and end-user considerations as they develop digital content.