Design and Technologies - Assessment Task 1 Part A

Reflections on Practical and Pedagogical Issues with the Technology Design Cycle

The design and technologies curriculum rationale identifies a type of thinking required of students during their learning - 'design thinking', as opposed to the 'computational thinking 'of the digital technologies curriculum. For me, this is the essence of the design and technologies curriculum aims and rationale. So I have approached the technology design cycle as a resource to scaffold the thinking habits of students in this direction.
 
The following quote is a standout one for me from the technologies curriculum overview: 

"Australia needs enterprising individuals who can make discerning decisions about the development and use of technologies and who can independently and collaboratively develop solutions to complex challenges and contribute to sustainable patterns of living." (ACARA, 2015). 

 

The futures thinking emphasis is obvious and I, personally am excited about the opportunity to be able to participate and witness this part of  the curriculum as it grows and develops. Throughout the first half of EDCU12039 I have experienced an introduction to the teaching-learning process of design and technologies by employing the technology design cycle (http://mypdesign.weebly.com/). Initially I found the templates disjointed (http://designchallengesolution.wikispaces.com/Allison%27s+Page) in that I was looking for a logical flow of events that was obvious to learners. I felt that the thinking flow was somewhat interrupted and bogged down in red tape, especially for younger learners. The templates provided to us involved 'needs analysis', 'design specifications' and  'risk assessment'. And they were just the 'investigate' phase of the design process. In hindsight, I see that I needed to view the templates as completely adaptable tools for promoting the concepts that need to be considered. 
My initial misgivings were influenced by the fact that my final year practicuum placement is with a year 1 cohort where I am negotiating the fine line between mandated curriculum and prescribed lessons,  and futures thinking adaptability. I see so much potential for the technologies curriculum to be applied across the board, rather than as a separate subject, given the resources. This would solve the problem of negative connotations that technology earns as an extra subject in an already overcrowded curriculum (Jones, Bunting, de Vries, 2011). The design challenge I adopted for the purpose of introduction to the technology design cycle was a website format for recipes that use local seasonal produce. This context offers students authenticity and opportunity for genuine participation. Local produce abounds in this area and seasonal surplus in the form of over ripe offerings at markets (or at home in the fruit bowl) is a likely shared experience for students. A dedicated teacher could model this fact with a photographic journal of local market trips shown to the class for learners without such exposure at home. From this perspective, I really engaged with the Mawson article, Beyond the design Process: An Alternative Pedagogy for Technology Education (2003). Mawson highlighted the importance of immersion in context prior to consideration of a problem or issue. This seems an obvious thing to do yet we fail to find the time for such luxuries in learning. How can students fully understand a concept as a problem or issue and be able to consider possible solutions without knowledge of its origins and impacts? Immersion is entirely possible and easy when the subject is utilised as a cross curricular one. This situation holds potential links to science (cooking processes), SOSE (sustainability and local environments/economics), english (recipe writing, procedures, digital literacies).
The recipe website offers opportunities for immersion, or context building with excursions, research, school garden potential. Following this, the design cycle can be utilised:

Image retrieved from  http://mypdesign.weebly.com/

 

The context building allows for problem identification, planning, creation and evaluation in a more authentic way because learners understand the objective and goal properly.

As I explored the design cycle, peer feedback played an important role just as it would for students in the classroom as they collaborate in a design process. Peers offered valuable suggestions through our group wiki space ( http://designchallengesolution.wikispaces.com/) acknowledging the value of this learning experience and the directions it could take on cross-curricular paths (e.g. Indigenous perspectives). In turn, this feedback process offered me insight into others' interpretations for implementation of the process. The potential for online peer collaboration in a safe, secure forum offered by wikispaces needs to be acknowledged here also. I did consider individual contributions of recipes through wikispaces for the design challenge. The website option was chosen for ease of access and protection of content integrity.

 

References

Jones, A., Buntting, c. and de Vries, M.J. (2011). The developing field of technology education: a review to look forward. Int J Technol Des Educ 2013) 23:191-212.

Mawson, B. (2003). Beyond 'The Design Process': An Alternative Pedagogy for Technology Education. International Journal of Technology and Design Education 13. 117-128, 2003. Kluwer Academic Publishers.