Two years later…
Managing expectations
In reviewing the Bright Ideas unit two years later, in July 2008, Andrew is quick to emphasise that its success was the result of a confluence of a number of unique factors.
"I hope that people don't read through the Bright Ideas case study and think that this is what I do every day. It was an exceptional opportunity that produced exceptional results.
"There were a lot of things that played in my favour to let it happen as it did – the right place, right time, right people, right students, right resources – and that's a very rare thing. It was a matter of me picking up the challenge and seeing just how far I could take things. And I was very happy with what was achieved."
Andrew says the success of the unit was underpinned by the rapport he had with the students. "I'd worked with them for a couple of years and we got on very well together."
He also identifies an ideal client and topic, and the input of student mentors as being critical. "The client we had was very receptive to what we were doing and very keen to get onboard and play an active part in it. Also it was an exciting and sexy topic to work with, Sandwiches nightclub was a mature place to be and quite trendy. And having access to the Victoria Design School students was huge – they were an outstanding resource."
Andrew doubts that he would be able to easily repeat what proved to be a very demanding unit. "My Beacon goal was to produce an example of exemplary Technology teaching, so my main focus was to squeeze as much as I could, and the best I could, out of those students. I don't think I could have pushed them or myself any further.
Beyond Bright Ideas
When moving to Havelock North, Andrew had to adapt to a new infrastructure, a different resource set, and, of course, a new group of students. "You find yourself back at square one. With my students, I had to build up from the ground level again – understanding their individual needs as students and gaining their confidence in what I was trying to deliver. I also had to become familiar with the resources that were available to me and develop some of my own where I saw gaps."
When asked what in his planning and delivery of Bright Ideas has influenced his subsequent teaching, Andrew identified a number of aspects.
In planning projects, he learnt to make sure that there was a 'hook' to ensure student buy-in and good take-home value in whatever unit he taught. "This was important – students have to be sold on what they were doing, and take ownership of the project.
In classroom practice, Andrew is a strong believer in treating a group of students as a collective. "I suppose it's my commercial background coming through. In trying to give students a 'real world' experience, I try to work with them as if they were employees in my own little design/product development firm with a deadline to meet and that my job is to move them forward. This is a mind-set that I've used with classes since, and students respond to it well."
Andrew's design background has been crucial to other aspects of his teaching, including the application of industrial design practices – such as analysis of existing products to identify key features of design and manufacture – in the classroom. For example, he has adapted a unit of work where the outcome was a set of portable speakers for a laptop or an iPod. His students brought in a range of portable small speakers, and the class pulled them apart and evaluated them to develop the criteria for what they perceived as being a good speaker.
"That's something you'd do in industry. If you were designing a new vacuum cleaner you'd get all your competitors vacuum cleaners in and pull them to pieces to figure out what makes them tick – what's good and what's bad about them and what do we want to take from them."
In Bright Ideas, Andrew also discovered the value of the digital camera as a documentation tool. "It was quite a powerful and quick and useable tool to capture moments of technological practice – having it in your pocket and when something major is happening simply pulling it out and capturing it. Just three or four photos and a bit of annotation and it becomes powerful evidence of the practice that's gone on – very convenient and painless."
Andrew remains comprehensive and thorough in his planning – "If I know what I'm doing the next day then I can go to bed at night and sleep " – but warns of the inherent danger of burnout in teaching subjects that demand one-on-one attention.
"In the subjects of Graphics and Technology, you naturally become involved in what the students are doing individually. You do your overall preliminary planning, then you're planning on a day-by-day basis as well – who needs what and why they need it. And you're also doing behind-the-scenes research to supplement the ideas students come up with. And, as a teacher you take home a lot of stuff – in the evening and on the weekends you'll find yourself thinking about and gathering information for individual students.
And because you become emotionally and mentally involved in their work – that's where burnout can happen."
"But both Graphics and Technology demand this level of planning from the teacher, and I do enjoy the teaching, especially if you're involved with a group of students that meet you half-way – you can put a lot of effort there and it's all good. So as a teacher I feel that I want to go the extra mile for those students."
Andrew is currently Assistant HOD Technology and TIC Graphics.
