Meeting 29/3/12

Topics covered in the meeting on Thursday:




Data thats currently being collected:

• Module specifications from Design and Technology courses from selected Universities
• Structures and covered topics from relevant subjects from Further Education curriculums 

1) A proforma needs to be created that accommodates all this data so it can be effectively compared.

2) Current mind map should be put into a document

These two deliverables completed by the 16th April and sent to Richard Bibb, along with the current aims and objectives of the research.


Lit review/End of year report:

Add a section about applied teaching techniques within Electronics and Interface design education

Sections order:

1. Cognitive/Learning Theory (General)
2. Applied Teaching Techniques
3. Subject topics/required lesson content
4. Physical Resources

Teaching:

How does teaching school pupils (<19yrs old) compare to teaching university students?

How do their Intellectual Level & Learning Style differ?

How should the approach to learning differ?

What Further Education courses are equivalent in content and skill level to Electronics and Interface design modules in BA undergraduate Design and Technology?

                  - This can be found after the module and curriculum data is put into proformas

Current Final Year Design Projects (FYDP)

What is the scope for FYDP?

Is there a limit to the functionality that students can give to their products?

Therefore, is there a limit to what we teach them to do?

ie, Resources exist that allow for quite complex systems. Do we assume that some students will want to build them therefore teach them what is required? What is the limit?

Arrange a meeting with key lectures/students/ex students to discuss this.

Meeting with Thomas Jun, LEGO mindstorms used as a teaching tool:

How do we capture a accurate picture of students, skills/knowledge/understanding of Electronics, Interface Design, Mechatronics?

Questionnaires:

Use real-life, relatable examples? - this demonstrates skills and not understanding

Use scales of ability/understanding of key skill or subject area, Plot to a graph

What questions are we asking, how are we asking them?

The importance of doing stuff by yourself

In school, at work, in our social lives; we are constantly being encouraged to mingle and interact with other people. Even the learning methods that I read about and write about on here are focused on collaboration and team work. But its important not to forget about the importance on spending time with yourself, having time to think and reflect and work thing out by yourself.

In this TED Talk, Susan Cain makes the case for the introvert, and shows how important it is to encourage both the outgoing and the self-contained amongst us.

MIT launch a free electronics course

MIT are trialling a little thing; They are running an online version of their undergraduate analog electronics course, 6.002: Circuits and Electronics.

Its running from the 5th March (tomorrow) until June the 8th, free of charge to anyone who wants to do it.

I've signed up just so I can get a cool downloadable certificate from MIT and ya know, maybe learn something.

https://6002x.mitx.mit.edu/

Edward De Bono and his Headwear Collection

After watching that St. Christopher's video mention about Edward De Bono's Six Thinking Hats, I'm reading up on them a bit. It's interesting, what he describes is quite simple; it's just about a team thinking about a problem from 6 different standpoints in succession (actual hats not required - but it adds a sense of flamboyancy to the exercise).

Its kinda like a boiled-down Design Specification but reversed, and then discussed within a team. And sure, to maximise creativity, viewpoints such as caution (Black Hat) should be left until last. There's nothing worse than a meeting where ideas are shot down as soon as they are suggested - thats just counter productive.

I also see parallels with things like the 'Whiteboard' from PBL methods (Hmelo-Silver, 2004). Whiteboards encourage problem solvers to tackle a problem using 4 columns on a whiteboard: Facts, Ideas, Learning Issues and Action Plans. This is similar to De Bono's White Hat (known information, missing information), Green Hat (creativity, new ideas, possibilities) and Blue Hat (overview, direction). However De Bono adds other variants which force each team member to counter their feelings of a situation; its aim being to remove the effects of bias, ego or timidity.

Seems obvious when you're told it, and this guy is making a mint from it. Save your money from lining his pocket by watching 1 hour's worth of YouTube videos of him talking about it.

Boycott Elsevier

Some academics have put together a boycott against Elsevier Journals. They are against 3 things:

1. The high cost of the journals
2. The expensive 'bundles' that they force libraries to buy, even if they dont want them all
3. The fact they support SOPA, PIPA and the Research Works Act (RWA)

Now I'm always for anything that encourages the free-flow of information, and this is no exception. Not only am I against SOPA and PIPA, but the RWA tries to restrict free, open access to state funded journals - journals that the public has paid for anyway. 

Plus, I wholeheartedly believe that knowledge is power, but currently powerful only to the few who lock it away. Knowledge and ideas are what allows us as a civilisation to grow and develop, and restricting it to only those who are able or willing to pay for it is at a detriment to our progress.

I dont expect to have anything to do with Elsevier in my next 3 years, regardless of this list, but I'm adding my name to it to help the momentum and to (hopefully) show other journals that this issue is not taken lightly.

Read a little more about it here, and sign the thing here. Already over 2000 signatures.

Michael Gove Suggesting D&T Limits Progress

This is Michael Gove pretty broadly calling all Design and Technology purely vocational, and suggesting that it limits a students capacity to progress afterwards.

While I agree a GCSE in 'Nail Technology' is going to have limited applications when looking for jobs, broadly saying all D&T limits capacity compared to the core subjects is a huge generalisation. Completely overseeing the key skills which D&T (like Product Design and Resistant Materials) provides is frankly being blind.

Where in the core subjects do you learn the kind of contextualised problem solving that D&T provides? How about industrial processes and manufacturing techniques? All very applicable in a huge number of courses and jobs.

Along with them downgrading Engineering Diplomas, it shows that the government has a poor idea of the skills thats needed to get this country out of the state it in.

//Quote

"You can't think seriously about thinking without thinking about thinking about something"

- Seymour Papert