It's a technology lesson Jim, but not as we know it.

I watched a fantastic technology lesson today. The teacher wanted her students to understand how a design process develops, one where the participants are engaged and where they must communicate with each in other to progress an idea. The teacher also wanted the students to develop their understanding of two key concepts of a design process. This was based on the key design words, Switch and Adapt.

So instead of sitting at their desks pouring over design diagrams, it was out into the playground to play a game. The students were given a ball, shashes, hoops, cones, hockey sticks, told to stand in a circle and told to 'play ball!' Nonplussed, the students automatically started passing the ball around the circle. At various intervals, the students were asked to improve the quality of their basic game by adding rules. This was the Switch but students could also Adapt their rules by modifying each rule.

Eventually, the game evolved, until there was a rotation of three teams, cones, a points system and a set of penalties. For example, when a student dropped the ball that student was required to do a pushup. This worked well until one student exclaimed that there was no rule which enforced the push-up rule  -well done that man. The best comment and the point of the lesson came from a student on the way back to the classroom. "Ms," he asked, "what is the point of having a game if there are no rules?" This lesson embedded a design process which both the teacher and the students will be able to refer back to as they work on their design tasks. The lesson helps the students notice and it helps them care about a process that often only happens in their heads. Thanks, Karen