Design Technology in Distance Education : Preparing the Junior Phase of Secondary for General ATAR Subjects

Workshop Presentation
Victoria Muller  

I propose to showcase how Design Technologies, traditionally a cooking and/or manual arts subject, is implemented into the distance education curriculum using programs like Seesaw, Tinkercad and Trace sketch CAD. In Years 11 and 12 this is a General (formally OP) Subject. This year I attended PD on the implementation of the senior secondary level of Design Technologies by QCAA and learned there is a major push for students to design items rather than build. Working collaboratively, suggesting improvements and giving constructive feedback are a key focus in this subject area. Students in these grades (unlike years, 7, 8, 9 and 10) are constructing no physical items - only the design phase is integral. I propose to include a hands on session where participants will be added to my (specially created ADDES) Seesaw and Tinkercad classrooms. Participants will be taken through the assessment and shown how adjustments have been made to accommodate distance education setting. For example, a grade is applied to safe use of tools. In the distance education setting, this section is altered to include the safe use of computers including; ergonomics, eye strain etc. Much like work place health and safety in an office setting in a real world application. During the session, participants will engage in Tinkercad, learning how to create a simple 3D item. Participants will then post designs to Seesaw and provide feedback to each other based on the two positives and one improvement model.