Supporting Learning Environment Level 8

To support students to undertake planning for practice at level eight teachers could:

• ensure that there is a brief against which planning to develop an outcome can occur
• support students to critically analyse a range of planning tools and project management practices that have been used in past technological practice
• support students to select planning tools and project management practices that will ensure the efficient development of an outcome to completion. Efficient management of resources ensures that the use of time, material and people is optimized during the development and production of an outcome that successfully meets the brief.

Select appropriate planning tools and develops project management practices informed by the critical analysis of own and others’ planning practices

Strategies/techniques for undertaking feasibility studies to determine a suitable context and issue, and subsequently identify a need or opportunity.

Explore the use of strategies/techniques such as:

• mind mapping tools
• graphic organisers
• compare and contrast.

Focus on answering questions such as:

• is the issue likely to provide an opportunity to develop a technological outcome that has the potential to be fit for purpose for the physical and social environment in which it will be placed?
• what constraints (e.g. political, social, moral, ethics, economic) will likely impact on the technological practice undertaken to develop a technological outcome, and the outcomes themselves?
• is the issue selecetd providing opportunities for the student to engage in appropriate learning activities that increase their breadth, and depth of knowledge and skills?

Explore unsuccessful products and the project management practices (or lack of!!!) used to develop them

Focus on identifying the planning practice(s) that were missing
What project management practices were incomplete:

• Risk management
• Planning tools chosen
• Review points; When? How?
• When could they have identified that the outcome was becoming unfit for purpose?
• What constraints were identified/what were not identified?
• How could constraints have been considered?

www.baddesigns.com

www.youtube.com/
watch?v=3rOtS7wsZCo

Use planning tools and project management practices to plan for the efficient management of resources to ensure completion of an outcome

What is efficiency?

Define efficiency.
What does efficiency look like in technology?
How does it affect my project management?
Evaluate efficiency in a practicing technologists practice - compare and contrast the fitness for purpose of the technological outcome(s) they produced with the resources they use

Efficiency Competition -
model what efficiency is

Students in groups, each group has same resources, time and instructions etc to create a one-off product. Students plan before the task what they could do to ensure efficiency (e.g. use minimum resources/use mock-ups and patterns to ensure efficient use of materials)
Evaluate the success of planning practice against the quality of the one-off product they create (its fitness for purpose)

Students aware of the integrative nature of planning for practice and project management.

Students encouraged to critically evaluate their planning practices to determine their effectiveness in informing next steps. This evaluation should focus on answering questions such as:

• is the planning and management tools supporting informed projections as to where to next?
• what information is missing to allow informed projections?
• Is there a better means of/tool for planning and managing that would allow a more efficient use of resources and better projections to occur?

Use planning tools to record initial plans and ongoing revisions in ways which provide justification for project management practices employed.

Strategies for future projection – use of creative thinking strategies.

Examples include:

• What if questions
• De Bono
• Inquiry learning strategies
• Organisations of think tanks
• Secondary Futures resource.

Critically evaluate others (practicing technologist) project management practices through analysis of case studies and/or their actual practice undertaken as observed/presented.

Critically evaluate the practice of others focusing on such things as:

• management tools used
• the opportunities created and/or constraints that resulted due to specific practices having been undertaken
• management of resources and how/if this was undertaken in an ongoing manner through-out the technological practice which was undertaken
• justifications provided for the planning and management practices adopted in terms of the physical and social environment in which the practice took place
• how they ensured that their technological practice was always Focused on addressing the context and issue.