DV Summit: Kickstarter – 21st century Design and Technology teaching

The Design Ventura summit “Design: the problem and the solution” was held on 29 March 2017. Its purpose was to bring together educators, designers, cultural providers and policy makers to discuss how they can ensure that young people are developing creativity, design thinking and employability skills to prepare them for future success.

The following extract is by Jonny Edge, Subject Advisor for Design, Technology and Engineering at OCR, on his take on the issues discussed.

The Design Ventura Summit was a wonderful day with professionals from a variety of design, educational and industry interests all engaged with improving the perceptions of Design and Technology. This was not only for the greater good of design education, but also for the broader values, principles and life skills that it has to offer all learners with wide ranging aspirations not directly aligned to a future in design or manufacturing related industries. It was reassuring to hear a clear and consistent message from a variety of key note speakers about the potential and importance of the subject, from the perspective of research, opportunity and the reality of what good designing can contribute to a rapidly evolving future. As someone involved in developing qualifications, I have confidence that we have qualifications that are aligned to the real world and that offer real opportunity to support what 21st century Design and Technology teaching can and should be.

Accepting that we have lost many battles with Design and Technology education, but that we need to refocus on its unique attributes to offer a clear message to key stakeholders will ensure that we are still able to win the fight. This was a refreshing conclusion! Changing misguided perceptions and obtaining industry, higher education and senior management support within schools to do this is important.  But making sure that we are clear ourselves within the whole Design and Technology community what we stand for as a subject must in my mind be the primary consideration.