4. Field Activity 02: Footprints to the future¶
This week I developed the lesson “Footprints into the Future” and ran it with one of my classes.
General information about the lesson¶
It is a lesson in the 11th grade technology class. The curriculum here covers the topic of “socio-technical systems”. This involves, among other things, the social effects of technology and how it changes the world of work and life. The interesting thing about the lesson is that it spans from the technology of the past (technology images of the future a hundred years ago) to the technology of the present (active use of digital fabrication) to the technology of the future (well-founded extrapolation of existing technology trends into the future and their critical reflection). The artistic design of the results as actual footprints into the future forms an interdisciplinary connection to the subject of art.
Relevant standards¶
These are the relevant standards or curriculum that this lesson supports:
1. Standards from the Curriculum Technology grade 11-13:
a) JUDGMENT COMPETENCE
The students
- discuss the opportunities and risks of simple technical systems economic and ecological aspects (UK3),
- make well-founded decisions in simple, technical situations and assess possible consequences (UK4).
b) ACTION COMPETENCE
The students
- operate simple technical devices in compliance with safety regulations Devices (HK1),
- develop solutions and solutions for simple technical problems (HK2),
- design and manufacture a simple technical system (HK3).
2. Standards from the Media literacy framework
- digital Tools: Various digital tools and their range of functions know, select and these use creatively, reflectively and purposefully
- Information evaluation: Filter, structure and convert topic-relevant information and data from media offerings
- Design means: Know the design means of media products, apply them in a reflective manner and assess them in terms of their quality, impact and message intention
- Identity formation: Recognize and analyze the opportunities and challenges of media for the perception of reality and use them to form one’s own identity
Learning Group and learning objectives¶
The learning group consists of 18 students aged 16-18. The students in this learning group have already gotten to know how to work on the Lasercutter and with the xTool program. It is a diverse group who have chosen technology as an elective subject.The students in this learning group have already gotten to know how to work on the LAsercutter and with the xTool program. The lesson serves to deepen this knowledge and skills. In terms of content, they dealt with milestones in technical development in the form of presentations. For example, you introduced the smartphone, the ballpoint pen or the microwave oven.
- At the end of the lessons, students will be able to…
- consider possible technological developments in the coming decades
- better assess the social and cultural consequences of technical development
- get to the heart of more complex issues in the form of headlines
- present the results of their work in the form of a work of art
- improve the use the laser cutter to cut out a shape that has been inscribed with area and line engraving
- improve to operate the laser cutter while observing safety regulations
Prototyping and testing the lesson plan¶
I designed and created a project example. It turned out that the wooden footprint had to be a certain size so that the text on it was still legible. As a uniform requirement, I added the school’s logo and the text “40 years of EBGS”. This is in connection with the 40th anniversary of our school, which is also the reason for this teaching idea. I realized that the footprints that will be completed in the end must consist of both left and right footprints. Therefore I need two templates. I then adjusted the size so that three footprints fit on a 20 by 30 centimeter board. I was very satisfied with the result of a test print with the laser cutter. The fact that there is little space for the text is actually helpful for students to make their headlines as short as possible. So that the students can easily recognize “their” footprints at the end, I decided that the date of the headline should be the birthday of the student who developed the headline.
After this preparation, I began the lesson with my test group. The implementation worked well, but I hadn’t taken into account that making the footprints would take some time. The waiting students were given the task of reading the finished footprints and placing them on the floor in the form of a trail. This worked well and resulted in an impressive footprint in the end. Together we thought about where we could present the footprints at school. A final decision has not been made yet, but either the traces could be glued to the wall or they could be hung on strings as kinetic art. I was pleasantly surprised by the different ideas the students developed for their visions of the future. They have extrapolated many technologies that exist today and developed ideas, for example, for an AI as a teacher, for defeating cancer or for optimizing the human body. At the end of the discussion it was important to talk about whether the headlines were really only positive news. The students quickly identified where possible dangers or abuses of their visions of the future could lie. The students were very satisfied with the results. They were impressed by how well the laser cutter created the footprints with its different operating modes. All students adhered to the safety regulations. One problem that unfortunately kept cropping up was spelling. Before processing with the laser cutter, I checked where there were still errors and asked the students to correct the errors.
The students were challenged with the following aspects: - Formulate the essence of the future visions in a short sentence - Formulate the visions of the future in such a way that they sound like a headline. - Design the texts using line breaks so that they fit on the footprint
Students build the following achievements: - The headlines were well worded - The texts have been arranged appropriately on the footprint - The safety regulations of the laser cutter were observed - The results were very diverse and looked impressive when arranged as footprints.
Questions students asked: The students mainly asked whether the visions for the future were formulated in an understandable way. They also had questions about which settings on the laser cutter should be used for the different surface and line engravings.
Reflecting questions¶
1.Student Engagement: How did your students respond to the use of digital fabrication technology? Did it increase their engagement or motivation? Why or why not?
Using the laser cutter was very motivating for the students. It was also extremely helpful for the production of the texts that the size of the footprint limits the possibility of using more text. Since the students usually don’t like to formulate texts and don’t pay particular attention to spelling, it was good that the products were then exhibited as an art project. This motivated the students to pay more attention to this problem. On the other hand, the waiting time during production was rather demotivating. However, this problem could only be solved if more laser cutters were available. In the future, it would have to be considered whether it could be organized differently. But I don’t have a really effective idea yet.
2.Student Learning Outcomes: How effectively did the digital fabrication component help students achieve the learning objectives? Were there any unexpected learning outcomes?
The learning objectives were achieved by most students. However, digital fabrication mainly had an impact on student motivation. However, the production and the technical learning objectives did not show a good interaction. It would have been conceivable, for example, for the students to address the future of digital manufacturing in their visions of the future. But none of the visions dealt with this topic. Here, the previously shown images of visions of the future 100 years ago were much more effective. But I don’t think it’s bad at all that the LAsercutter was mainly used as a means to an end. The students have nevertheless improved their skills in using the laser cutter and now have a more precise idea of how to use a laser cutter.
3.Instructional Challenges: What challenges did you face while teaching this lesson, and how did you address them? Were there any specific points where students struggled with the technology or content?
The biggest challenge is to simultaneously support the students in finding visions for the future and instruct them in the use of the laser cutter. It would have been better to either have more machines available or to find support for the technical part. This could be, for example, a student who has already had a lot of experience with the laser cutter. Fortunately, the students did not have any major problems with working on the laser cutter, with the exception of the waiting time. However, I could imagine that if there were technical problems, there would have been great difficulties in completing the lesson successfully. It would have been possible that there would have been problems with the WLAN or that the Macbooks used would not connect to the laser cutter. This would have made everything much more time-consuming and complicated. Nevertheless, I think that you should be prepared for such things and at least have an alternative available. In my case, the files could have been passed on via USB stick or the iPads could have been used to write the texts.
4.Teacher Growth: How has this experience changed your perspective on incorporating technology like digital fabrication into your teaching? What skills or strategies have you developed as a result?
Since the lesson worked without any major problems, I became more courageous to integrate digital fabrication into the lesson and not just teach it individually as a learning objective. In my opinion, it is very motivating to use digital fabrication in every lesson. The advantage is that the results are very impressive. After all, it was possible to summarize three essential areas in the lesson: dealing with the question of how future technology could change the world of life and work, the use of the laser cutter and the associated software, and the development of an art project. Personally, I’ve learned that students can accomplish a lot even if they don’t have step-by-step instructions for every step of the lesson. I also learned that I can easily bring other technical aspects into the FabLab in addition to pure technology. I have improved my ability to improvise and can now better appreciate the difficulties that may arise when conducting such a lesson. I need to continue to improve my ability to cope with stress when many students come to me with different questions and requests.