Independent Learning defined:
“Independent learning is a process, a method and a philosophy of education whereby a
learner acquires knowledge by his or her own efforts and develops the ability for enquiry and
critical evaluation”
The aim within the Technology department is to encourage and enable our students to:
- become autonomous learners
- be self-directed in their learning experiences
- have control over their learning.
What this means for the students
During lessons students will be encouraged to:
- Find and collect information
- Analyse and present information on their own words
- Carryout tasks at their own pace using digital learning tools
- Carrying out projects
- Completing homework and coursework assignments.
In order to strive for students to be independent learners, it has meant a change in role for
teaching within the department. Due to the nature of the workshop environment and a need
to maintain safety there will always be the need for teachers to be in control and
demonstrate through, ‘chalk and talk’, the practical side of the projects. However with the
introduction of iPads and digital learning, both in and outside the classroom it has developed
the role of the teacher from an, ‘imparter of knowledge’ to a ‘facilitator of learning.
We have been able to do this in the department through the use the iPads for independent
research, planning and organisation, recording making processes; through the use of the
inbuilt the cameras and taking pictures of final products to illustrate evaluations. Students
also use them for presenting their work using apps that are user friendly for them and their
level of learning ability.
Students in year 10 Product Design are able to access course work via, ‘Google classroom’.
Within the classroom, shared documents have been set up so that multiple teaching groups
can share resources and information, this is helping to promote inter classroom
communication and sharing of ideas. The individual class teacher still holds ownership and
responsibly for their students in the classroom and by using google classroom, it means that
both teacher and student can access the work from home using either a PC or their iPads.
The teacher can also gain access to the students work at any time in the process allowing
for easy flow of communication between teacher and students. This promotes independent
working, allows feedback to be given in context to the work/ tasks, and allows students to act
on feedback and improve their work and resubmit for further feedback from the teacher at
any time in the process.
We have also started to trial this process at KS3 with promising results being made in the
level and quality of work being produced.
Year 7 iPad use in Design Technology
In order to develop their digital learning skills, students have been asked to create an
electronic work book for this terms project. The teaching resources, lesson objectives and
tasks; along with their individualised google docs, have been accessed through google
classroom with all work being stored on the google drive.
Students have used a combination of their iPads and department PC’s to create their work in
electronic format. This promotes independence in learning, organisation and presentation
skills. It also allows them to include pictures of their work to illustrate what they are learning
in lessons.
The images below shows an example of work carried out by a year 7 student in the textiles
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