What next?
Peter looking over the brainstormed plan
In mid-2009 Peter said that he was 80% happy with how his programme was fitting with the Technology curriculum, noting that lack of time was a major factor. Film-making is very much a group activity, but he would like his students to be able to develop their own products as they do in other courses such as Materials Technology. Ideally he would like to use the film as a 'these are the skills' type exercise, so students could then use their three-column script to develop their own film – but without cameras and computers for each student, this isn't likely to happen soon.
The Year 8s do a different programme: they run the TV5 studio and do all the morning/afternoon broadcasts which go out to the school, they also work on developing a short three-minute film. Peter has been looking at what the Year 7s have done and the level they're at in terms of Media Technology, and how they could take on something more challenging next year based on the skills they have developed.
The Year 7 programme has been successful and although Peter notes that it's still early stages with him, he thinks other Media Studies teachers, especially those already linked with a Technology team, might also be interested in integrating their subject with Technology.
After observing how the Media Technology course worked so successfully, the Art teacher also came along to the planning workshops and is looking at integrating aspects of Technology into her programme, possibly 'rejigging' some of what she does and starting to use the Technology process and terminology.
The commitment to providing quality Technology education at the intermediate should start flowing on to secondary school. Peter says that the future looks exciting and promising as teachers equip students with the technological literacy, knowledge, and skills to progress through the achievement levels and which will allow for a seamless progression into Year 9 Technology at Havelock North High School.
