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Designing for the future
By Kim Thomas |
Design & Technology (DT) didn't exist as a school subject before 1995. Before that, it had been part of a subject called 'technology'; and before that, secondary school pupils were taught separate subjects such as home economics, metalwork and technical drawing. The craft skills taught were often very basic - many of us still remember making a set of bookends in woodwork or an open sandwich in home economics.
The modern DT is a broad-based subject, encompassing many traditional craft subjects, but with an added emphasis on design and creativity. And, according to Tim Brotherhood, adviser for design and technology at Staffordshire LEA, "DT is the most effective user of ICT in schools."
There are good reasons for this. Like most other subjects, DT has benefited from the internet: research is an important part of design, and the availability of resources on the web has made research easier. In DT, says Tony Hodgson, head of design and technology at Loughborough University, the internet has had a liberating effect: "Online learning releases teachers to worry about issues to do with designing rather than the nitty-gritty detail of how to do something which students can get information on quite easily."
DT is also at the forefront of experiments in electronic assessment: a pilot study on the use of hand-held technologies e-portfolios, carried out by Professor Richard Kimbell at Goldsmiths College, has shown promising results.
Perhaps the most exciting development, however - and one that sets DT apart from most other school subjects - is the CAD/CAM in Schools initiative, which has introduced schools to technology of a sophistication that was once the preserve of industry. Pupils are now able to use software and equipment of a kind that they may one day be using in the workplace as designers or engineers.
CAD, which stands for Computer Aided Design, enables students to model their ideas first, to see what the finished version of a product might look like. "One thing CAD does is give you the opportunity to be a risk-taker," says Tony. "You're not sawing off a piece of wood and sawing off the wrong end."
CAM (Computer Aided Manufacture) deals with the output - the use, for example, of computer-controlled lathes, milling machines and sewing machines. Using CAM, the quality of the finished product is usually much higher than it would be if created by hand.
CAD/CAM in Schools was launched in 1999 by the DfES. The initiative has made CAD software packages of the kind used in industry (Pro/DESKTOP, ArtCAM, ProPainter and ProSketch) available to secondary schools throughout England and Wales. On the recommendation of the Design and Technology Association (DATA), schools are licensed to use the software - provided free-of-charge or for a nominal fee by vendors - only if teachers have been trained in its use. The CAD training, provided by Delcam, Goldsmiths College and the Warwick Manufacturing Group, is funded by the DfES.
The story with CAM is less straightforward. CAM equipment is expensive, and many schools still lack the necessary resources to enable pupils to realise their computer-created designs. As Tim puts it, "The children can design wonderful things on screen, and then they have to make them with hammers, hacksaws and chisels."
The marriage of the most sophisticated software with very traditional craft skills illustrates the greatest challenge facing DT: to enable students to use cutting-edge technology without losing what Martin Owen, director of learning at Futurelab, refers to as "the traditional skills of sketching and drawing and trying things out on paper and building models". As Martin points out, there is a tension at the heart of DT: "A lot of DT has come out of different traditions: a craft tradition, a design tradition, and a technology tradition." Welding the traditions together is not necessarily going to be a simple matter.
The most pragmatic reasons for using CAD/CAM are that it improves the quality of the finished products, and that it creates a much better fit between the skills children learn and the skills required by industry. People who have worked with the CAD/CAM initiative, however, tend to emphasise the more intrinsic benefits it offers in changing the way children learn about design. Rose Sinclair, a design lecturer at Goldsmiths and the lead trainer for the SpeedStep textiles software, ProPainter and ProSketch, has found that it has improved the motivation of students and teachers alike: "A teacher I spoke to in Jersey said she had Year 9 boys who were totally disaffected. She introduced them to this software and she couldn't get them out of the classroom."
The new-found enthusiasm among both students and staff is largely down to the greater opportunities CAD offers for creativity and innovation. Students are able to do things they simply couldn't do before: using ProPainter, for example, textiles students can design fabrics on screen, and then print those designs out onto real fabric. They can vary their designs on screen and see the differences in the finished output, enabling them to take far more risks than would otherwise be possible. "You can make changes much more rapidly," says Tim about the CAD software. "So if you haven't got a particular gear ratio in your kit of LEGO, there's no problem - you can do that within the software, and simulate those mechanisms."
CAD also gives students much greater freedom. The software is licensed for use at home, so children are able to learn independently if they wish. At the same time, there are more opportunities for collaborative learning: children can design in teams, or share their individual designs with other pupils and modify them after feedback. Some pupils, says Tim, engage with the software so well that they can become mentors to other children: "You do have to teach them basic skills, but in a short space of time you have some fairly enthusiastic children who take off and make it fly."
Most people will be glad to see the old model, in which a design teacher stands in front of a class instructing them all to make exactly the same thing, being replaced by a new one that emphasises collaboration and innovation. The initial success of the technology shouldn't blind us, however, to the need to stay focused on the educational possibilities it offers. Tony Hodgson is clear that the primary use of CAD should be about equipping pupils with the skills needed for lifelong learning: "It's not teaching people to be designers, it's teaching them through designing."
September 2005
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