e. Planning the Work of Learners

We need here to give a range of scenarios for all teachers in the five areas of Design and Technology. The descriptions will be basic, but you should consider them with your mentor and see how they can build on the grid you have just done on where you are and what you would like to do with ICT. I have chosen two aspects of course specific hardware and software from our range on the previous page. Look at the description of the scenarios and consider how you might apply them in your school.

Food
Software providing menu-structuring features
This kind of software is not difficult to find, and some examples of it exist live on nutrition sites on the Internet. You would need to determine what it was about menu-setting you wished to convey before putting the software into operation, and whether you and your pupils could gain sufficient programmed access to the software to undertake a project that met more than one learning outcome from your programme.

Hardware and software for sensing and data-collection
This type of hardware and software can be used to identify the composition of food or other composite materials, but is often too expensive for schools. If you want to give pupils second-hand access to it, some web sites exist to explain how it works. Of course, first-hand access could be arranged through an educational trip or even a demonstration from an education-minded vendor.

Graphic Products
Information graphics programmes, for translating data to graphical expressions
A number of Microsoft and other products exist to convert statistical and number data into graphical forms. The data might not be terribly important in your area of work, though of course it would be useful to integrate gathering of data with inputting, presentation and analysis where possible.

Digital image capture - scanning and photography - and image manipulation hardware and software
This is an area of work where a lot can be achieved with basic digital equipment. A scanner, camera, Mac or PC and image manipulation software can be strung together to provide pupils with insights not only into images and the way they work but also into digital data and the way it can be handled.

Resistant Materials
2D and 3D modelling/manipulation/printing/cutting hardware and software
I have very little experience of this area beyond observation of the kit at work, but I am struck by two things. Firstly, the PC controlled hardware for printing and cutting that can be acquired at reasonable cost and which I am informed is close enough to industry standards. Secondly, the demands of proper use of this equipment in terms of health and safety and expense in consumable materials. It is clear that your own skills as a teacher and technical user of this equipment need to be such that you can instruct pupils in complex multi-phase processes.

Process control hardware and software
This type of ICT is to an extent covered in the modelling and manufacturing ICT hinted at above. However, it is also possible to give pupils a good sense of the power of process control with simulated models and limited forms of hardware.

Systems and Control
Probes and sensors, with PC and other device interfaces
With the movement of certain aspects of the curriculum between Science, IT and Design and Technology over the years, the hardware and software that can be used in this area might be in any one of a number of places in the school, and practice surrounding it could belong to one or more of a number of departments. The sensible thing here is to establish continuity in the school, so that you don't have to spend forever reinventing the wheel. Similarly, if you are not able to spend a lot of time on real sensor and probe activity, there are again web sites and bespoke CD-ROM based products where you can have pupils manipulate virtual sensor experiments.

Software for generating descriptions of process control - flowcharts etc
MS Office, Corel and Lotus produce software that generates flowcharts, process diagrams, path analyses and so on. These can be used on real or simulated processes of any nature or extent. At the more detailed end, the determinants of a process can be managed by bespoke software that is made for the purpose and often fairly curriculum specific. If you are feeling especially creative, you can even use quite simple forms of html programming - the code that runs the screens of the web sites you see - to simulate process control.

Textiles
Hardware for automated machine embroidery
I have put this in as a case study possibility because it gets a very specific mention in the orders and the syllabus. Rather like using CAM hardware, this demands a particular form of project-planning and governance in the classroom - as far as this project is concerned, though, it might be worth looking at what learner-support is offered by the programmes running on the hardware, to see if it provides new ICT based learning opportunities.

Software for automating briefing and decision-making processes
Rather like the Office software that provides pre-sets for flowcharts and critical paths, this can be adapted to provide the elements of a brief for a product, descriptions of the briefing process and descriptions of other manufacture/people based processes such as Gantt charts. The software could be as simple as a word processor with a flowchart generator, or as complex as a process-design tool - the point is that pupils learn about the stages of briefing and about the decisions that go into complex manufactured products, whether textile or any other material.

Part 2: Teaching with ICT