Design Technology PGCE
Dean Hackett runs a project module covering two areas:
- technical drawing skills and manual workshop skills,
- using technology such as computer aided design.
Students are introduced to these two areas and then given an entire semester to develop relevant skills and competencies. In both areas students are encouraged to take sustainability considerations into account, in terms of both the materials that they use and who the designs are going to be used by.
Rather than micro-managing the development of competencies as this module has done in the past, students are given the freedom to focus on areas that they know they need to cover. They are specifically encouraged to work outside the sphere of their own experience so that they choose a context that they are less familiar with, and it is up to them to cover the list of competencies outlined in the module. This freedom of choice generally serves to deepen their research, particularly with the further challenges of aiming to use sustainable materials, finding out how they are transported and ensuring that they follow the principles of inclusive design rather than just catering for a small section of the population.
To a large extent the students are left to themselves which Dean considers important for the development of self-directed learning skills and for their ability to look at things holistically rather than in reduced parts as the sub-modular system dictated in the past. Peer-to-peer learning is valued,
'students coming from very different experiences and very different backgrounds and areas of expertise...have always supported each other quite well, and now with this new course [format] students are having to rely on each other and talk to each other even more'
In place of the multi-modular teaching, the lecturers feed bits and pieces to the students throughout, in the form of lectures and also organised field trips. A trip to the Centre of Alternative Technology introduces students to sustainable design in the real world, and whilst there they deliver presentations on sustainability to each other. They also visit the Brighton Earth Ship, and receive a presentation from an Earth Ship guide about sustainability in Brighton, which gives them an opportunity to explore sustainable design and technology in the local context.