Delivering Design and Technology Education for the Future

Paul Woodward analyses the rapidly changing world of Design and Technology and explores ways that international schools can keep the subject relevant to the 21st century

For as long as I can remember, there has been a long running debate about what Design and Technology education really is…or rather what should be taught in the subject.

There are those who wish to see it as more of a skills-based subject where learners become competent in certain processes in the hope of one day mastering them. This approach often encourages the use of hand tools and engineering machinery to realise practical outcomes in resistant materials such as wood and metal.

On the other hand, there are those who believe it should focus on creativity and problem solving, teamwork and collaboration and to prepare students to enter the world of design. However, that doesn’t always involve ‘hands on’ experience in a range of what we might consider traditional skills and processes.

I realise this is very much generalizing the subject, but the difficulty of course, is trying to combine both approaches in the often-limited contact time available for teachers. So which approach is best for today’s students?

To put this into perspective, we need to look at where the need for traditional skills training originated and then consider how relevant these skills remain in the modern classroom. After all, this is a subject that evolves, changes and advances more than any other due to the technology reliant society that we live in. 

Formal technical instruction began in the early 19th century and still has connotations with labour, factories and workhouses. The more able boys went to grammar school, and, for girls, there were few options to undertake this type of training. Some students will have trained to be engineers but, while engineering may have had some ‘prestige’ from behind the drawing board, it is less likely that those operating engineering machinery saw it that way. As the subject evolved, it became more craft orientated and, before the advent of personal computing, it still relied on traditional tools and machinery. Not so many decades ago it was known as CDT (Craft, Design and Technology) although many will remember such skill focused lessons as metalwork, woodwork and needlework!

However, as technology evolved, so did the role of the designer. Once nameless but skilled engineers and craftspeople, the designer became famous, even took on celebrity status and, in turn, a name became synonymous with a product which then became a brand. As manufacturing became more complex and technology advanced, design was now a much more complicated process involving many different departments which, in turn, took the ‘designer’ further away from the machines and tools that made the products they dreamt up.

Today, the designer is just one part of a creative process and there may be many different designers in a company. Each will have a particular role to play but, increasingly, they will have less experience of using tools and machinery than the generation before. Rapid prototyping and remote manufacturing technologies mean they are more likely to operate a laptop or a 3D printer than a lathe. 

Regardless of the tools available to designers, there is a belief that ‘…the build dictates the design’ and that an understanding of materials and how they are shaped and formed is vital to designing quality products. That is why it remains so important to experience materials and processes first-hand.

So, which approach is correct? Well, that depends on the learning environment and the aims of the learning but, really, they both are to some extent. It’s just a case of approaching each in moderation with the focus on the design outcome and its purpose or the intended learning. For older engineering machinery and traditional hand tools, it is always useful to experience using them, if only to appreciate the speed and accuracy that a CNC machine or rapid prototyping can bring to the process. 3D printers and laser cutters are fantastic tools, but they often replace processes that took longer and, in some cases, were less accurate; they are no less important in understanding the manufacturing process now, or how they were generations ago.

This very much depends on your staff, your school, and your available resources. A new build with limited space and budget is unlikely to include investments in older, larger items of engineering machinery in the same way that a centre built upon a tradition of hand-crafted products will give up its budget and workspace to a room full of 3D printers. Somewhere in between are the schools trying to update their facilities with limited space and something must go. Very often it is the traditional machinery.

We also must ensure that teaching of Design and Technology is preparing students for their future, not building upon the traditions of our past. Keep what is relevant, be sure to acknowledge the importance of manufacturing in the past but bear in mind that today’s students are tomorrow’s designers, and they will aspire to what a designer does, or they think they do. An over reliance on hand skills may well send out the message to students that this is a subject preparing them for skilled (or unskilled labour) and production line work. 

The subject is already having something of an identity crisis, and it is important that we, as educators, define what the subject should teach and the most relevant and inspiring way of delivering it. Old fashioned values of manufacturing may remind us ‘older teachers’ of what we used to love about the subject, but if it is to appeal to a new generation it needs to focus on makerspaces, innovation, entrepreneurism and technologies that appeal to students and that are relevant to future careers in gaming, film, media and more.

Perhaps, the title remains the problem as many still see an invisible C for ‘craft’ in the title. It is now more about design itself and we need to ensure that we keep focused on that aspect of the subject while always keeping an eye on changing technologies that we use in the subject and design for in the future.